A Familiar Problem (game)

→This page is about the tabletop game. For the special episode of Critical Role, see A Familiar Problem: Sprinkle's Incredible Journey.

A Familiar Problem
Attribution Information
Developer	Darrington Press LLC
Designers	Grant Howitt (designer) Marisha Ray (creator)
Artist	De La Rosa Design LLC
Release date	June 25, 2022
Mechanical Information
Number of players	2 or more

A Familiar Problem is a free one-page RPG in which players take on the roles of D&D familiars attempting to prove their worth to their spellcasting summoners. It utilizes a very simplified dice-rolling system, and was released on June 25, 2022 as part of Free RPG Day 2022.

Publisher's summary

“

A Familiar Problem is a one-page RPG of magical familiars on a mission! Created by Marisha Ray (Critical Role) and designed by Grant Howitt (Honey Heist), this game puts you in the role of animal familiars, who take on a quest while their adventuring party is away. Can these scrappy and stressed out familiars make a difference, in their own small way, and prove they’re up for adventure? Only your chaotic gameplay will tell.

”

– 

Publisher's summary

[!h]

Gameplay

Players create an animal familiar character with four statistics and three randomly-determined spells available to cast. Success or failure of their actions is determined by a d10 roll. Stress points accumulate for failures until the familiar reaches their breaking point, when they can be aided by their fellow familiars/players to calm down.

Development

The game was announced on June 2, 2022, and utilized in "A Familiar Problem: Sprinkle's Incredible Journey" (Sx68) on June 23, 2022. It was released in written form as part of Free RPG Day on June 25, 2022, and is available as a free download through both the Darrington Press website and on DriveThruRPG.

Creative team

• Creator — Marisha Ray
• Designers — Grant Howitt
• Artist — De La Rosa Design LLC

Trivia

• Grant Howitt designed the Honey Heist game system used in "Trinket's Honey Heist" (Sx27), "Honey Heist 2: Electric Beargaloo" (Sx35), and "Honey Heist 3: Tova’s Honeys" (Sx39). He's also the designer of the Crash Pandas game system used in "Crash Pandas: Too Trashed, Too Curious" (Sx37).

References

Art: