About Kyle Critcher

I am originally from Asheville, North Carolina, where I grew up through the 90s and 00s. That little artsy mountain town exposed me to a wide variety of cultures and ideas, and my parents, unsurprisingly, land on the nerdier side too. I always had access to the classic stuff: Star Wars, Star Trek (TNG and DS9 specifically), and The Lord of the Rings. I still have our VHS copies of the original Star Wars trilogy in the Vader helmet box somewhere, along with some older editions of LOTR.

It is a little wild, looking back, how well Peter Jackson's film adaptation has held up even 25 years later. The animated Hobbit is still a much better representation of the book, though. That is my not so hot take.

The satanic panic of the 80s was still well remembered, especially in the Bible Belt, so Dungeons and Dragons, casting spells, witchcraft, and anything like that simply never came up. Even Harry Potter was off limits at my elementary school for a while.

I also loved the newer stuff, like Toonami bringing anime such as Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Wing, and, most importantly, DBZ. Dragon Ball Z in the late 90s and early 00s was incredible. Waiting for the next saga to reach the US felt like an eternity when you were a kid. I had no idea how far ahead the series was in Japan until we rented an English copy of the Dragon Ball GT fighting game for the PS1 from our local Blockbuster. I did not know there were levels beyond super super saiyan, much less an SSJ4. We tried to find another English copy and could not, because the internet was still in its infancy. Heck, there were still AOL CDs with free minutes you could use.

Fast forward to my college days. I was still a nerd at my core, but I had picked up new interests like modified cars and video games. I took an intro to film course to cover an English elective, and it reignited my interest in writing and storytelling as an art form. I got more involved in the writing, film, and acting scene on campus, and I helped out with the second year film festival alongside my favorite professor, Rodney Stringfellow. He actually wrote for an old Nickelodeon show my sister used to love, which was pretty cool. The Gold Reel Film Festival wrapped its 13th year this year, and I am really glad it is still going strong. I ended up with a minor in film just from taking classes for fun, and I met a bunch of genuinely talented, creative people along the way.

While I was in school, I also helped a friend and neighbor start his YouTube channel, which grew quickly since his brother already had a following. That was a great learning experience. From the foundations of cinematography to lighting to writing and video editing, I found that the best way to learn how to do something is to get hands-on with it.

In retrospect, I would have loved to play D&D with the friends I made in the theatre department. They would have been incredible at roleplay, character creation, voices, and improv, which are arguably my favorite parts of the game. On the flip side, I get to take all the joy I have found in those things and share it with my post-college friends, as well as all the friendly folks here on the world wide web.

After college I got busy with real life and ended up in a job where I spent a lot of time with headphones on, listening to all kinds of things. I started with music, but after playing Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. for the thousandth time (not an exaggeration, Kendrick is one of, if not the best, artist of my generation), I figured I would give a podcast a try, since that was a thing now. I was browsing topics like news, politics, travel, lifestyle, and entertainment, and somehow stumbled onto Not Another D&D Podcast. One of the cast, Jake, had never played, so I figured it was a good entry point into something I thought I might enjoy. There was not a massive backlog to catch up on and the episodes were not four hours long, so it was a low barrier to entry if it turned out I did not like it.

Before the end of the year I had started playing online every week, and the rest, as they say, is history. I have played in roughly ten campaigns, dozens of one-shots, and have a hundred-some character ideas sitting on the shelf that may or may not ever see the light of day. I run modules and homebrew settings. It is a great creative outlet, an amazing thing to plan, and one of the best reasons I can think of to get a group of friends together.