About Critsmith

Critsmith is a campaign manager for Game Masters running 5E compatible games. It's for the Game Master who has done the work: the maps, the factions, the NPC whose real motive is still a secret, and the door whose key is three sessions away.

Why it exists

Many groups only meet once or twice a month, and that gap is where campaigns quietly come apart.

A hook planted in session 3 comes back in session 9, and by then nobody remembers why it mattered. The NPC who was going to betray the party gets played as a friend, because the note was written for an older version of the plan. A fight that was meant to be tense either flattens the newest player or is over in two rounds, because the monster's numbers weren't to hand when they were needed.

None of that is a lack of imagination. It's a lack of memory. Critsmith won't write your campaign or run it for you. It makes sure that what you built in March is still there, still connected and still easy to find in September.

What it does

Plot threads that know what unlocks them, so a locked door knows which key opens it. A combat tracker that sorts initiative, tracks hit points and conditions, and remembers whose ability is still recharging. Session notes you take while you play, which become a recap for your players. And the DM-atabase, a moderated library of material shared by other Game Masters, so you're not building every tavern from nothing.

Your players get a door too: their own character sheet, the map as far as they've explored it, and the parts of the story you've shared with them.

What it isn't

Critsmith is independent. It isn't an official product and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast. It uses material from the System Reference Document 5.2 under the Creative Commons licence.

It doesn't use AI. Its generators pick from built-in tables, and the story is always yours.

Who makes it

Hi, I'm the creator of Critsmith. I'm a huge fan of 5E games, and I often end up running the game and writing my own homebrew stories. I love creating worlds for my players, but I have a terrible memory. When I make up a character on the fly and my players want to revisit them three sessions later, I've forgotten exactly how I built them. We use the rule of cool a lot, which means we often end up somewhere I haven't scripted yet and I have to create something on the spot. I couldn't find anything that helped me do everything I wanted in one place, so Critsmith was born. I love it, it helps me immensely, and I hope you love it too!

Made in Manchester, UK. Critsmith is run by Critsmith Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17527303).

Getting in touch

There's a contact form, and a person reads everything that comes through it. If something isn't working, or you want to ask about your data, that's the fastest way to reach us.