[Review] "Crit Or Myth" RPG Musical Comedy CD By Fugli

Although I don't typically review music CDs here at The Savage AfterWorld, I stumbled across a request on Facebook for folks to review an upcoming music CD focusing on old school role-playing gaming. Now, I'm a fan of filk and musical parodys, so I wanted to find out what this was all about. Sent away and in a few days, I got a preview copy of the CD illustrated above.

"Crit or Myth" is an upcoming music CD by "Fugli" (AKA Jeremy Fowler-Lindemulder) who typically performs in the Renaissance Faire community, but this new offering is a divergence from his normal Faire material, and focuses on his AD&D 1e days.

There's good stuff here for the OSR enthusiast with a variety of styles vary from medieval fantasy, to calypso, to rock, to folk parodies of  classic tunes. I enjoyed the variety of musical styles amongst the songs on this fully loaded CD (I'll explain more in a second). There are 12 songs that will have all role-players nodding along with the melodies as well as in agreement with the pithy situations mentioned in the melodious tales. Some of my favorites include...

"Epic Myth" - The odds are against you, and a TPK is imminent. The party is counting on you to pull their fat out of the fire with a Roll For The Ages. You throw the dice and, well, as the song refrain says, "I rolled a one..." A very funny song that I've come to call The Gamer's Lament. One of my favorites on the CD.

"Conga Line of Doom" - Those narrow dungeon corridors don't allow for much shoulder-to-shoulder combat, so line up for the slaughter! The problems with marching orders versus tight underground quarters feature in this calypso parody of pinch points and kill zones.

"Flavor Text" - Those descriptive paragraphs that paint a vivid picture in the minds of your players -- and how they then run berserk through the scene when you stop to take a breath. The creative lyrical prose of the DM versus the breathless impulsive actions of the PCs meet in this funny adventure summary.

Other songs on the CD include: "The Wild Roller" (How much dice you got? It's not enough.); "The Deck of Many Don'ts" (That deck you found in a locked chest? Leave it alone.); "Random Tables" (Almost everything you find and do will be eventually left to chance.); "Baba Yaga's Hut" (Chicken-footed house a-comin'!); "The Demon Prince" (The dance craze...from the Seven Hells!); "Parts is Parts" (You never know what monster part might come in handy later.); "The Hoard" (There's always one player who hoards EVERYTHING - encumbrance be damned.); "Alignment Blues" (Chaotic Evil is so much easier than Lawful Good, you know?); and "Eye of the Beholder" (Monsters, go figure.)

Remember when I said this was "fully loaded"? There are numerous other special features lurking within, such as video clips of live performances, web links to numerous sites of the band's other offerings, and -- most keen for the gamers out there -- "Striek Hollus: The Tomb of the Eighth Blue Wizard", an adventure written by Jeremy back in December 1980 for The Dungeoneer's Journal and is now re-released here! (Which WILL see table use in one of my upcoming home games!) There is a lot to like on this CD for the gamer as well as those who appreciate clever music parodys.

"Crit or Myth" will be released January 2020 through Amazon and fugli.bandcamp.com. You can follow the group at http://phi.povera.com/ or  https://www.facebook.com/fugli as well!