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If you are not associated with the Critical Role team I think you shouldn’t call a D&D related site Critical anything. I’m not saying this on a legal level. I d

If you are not associated with the Critical Role team I think you shouldn’t call a D&D related site Critical anything. I’m not saying this on a legal level. I don’t know enough to say if you are legally allowed or not. What I know is that it feels inappropriate. Best case it will cause confusion, worst case it feels cheap and scammish.

nohat 6y ago
The name of the show is a play on the DnD feature of rolling a critical. Seems a bit unfair to criticize someone else borrowing a classic DnD term just because Critical Role got so popular.
- krisoft 6y ago
  That’s right on the origin of the term. Similary one can say that a face book is a kind of student registery with photos. It is still a bad idea to call a social network which is not related to Facebook face-something. It is an already estabilished and recognizeable brand your new thing might get confused with. If you did it unintentionally then you just caused unintentional confusion to your users. If you did it intentionally because you want to ride on the popularity of the already existing thing then you are a shyster. Again, this is not a legal analysis. This is a decency analysis. I might be more simpathetic with their naming choice if it would have been an accidental thing. It could be that the makers of critical-notes never heard of the brand Critical Role, they just settled on the same word because of the game term. This is unlikely to be the case. Critical notes mention on their frontpage that they support the Exandrian calendar for note taking. Exandria, and thus the exandrian calendar, is the invention of Critical Role’s Dungeon Master. The chance that they heard about Exandria but haven’t heard about Critical Role is basically zero.
  - stolenmerch 6y ago
    This is a note taking app for D&D. Exandria is an officially published world by Wizards of the Coast. Makes sense to support it.
    - phlakaton 6y ago
      Yes, but to support it _and_ name your app “Critical Notes”... danger danger.
dunnevens 6y ago
"Critical" is a key part of anyone's gaming vocabulary. Not just D&D, but almost every RPG with combat implements crits in some ways. That's not a word that belongs to any one person. I know someone already responded to you, and I don't mean to pile on, but commonly used words like "Critical" should never be privately owned. Not now. Not ever.
- phlakaton 6y ago
  If the name were “Critical” or “Crit” I should have no objections (though it would probably fail other SEO tests, and I might ask what that has to do with notetaking). “Critical Notes,” however, is close enough in domain and sound to “Critical Role” for legitimate questions to be raised. There is already a cottage industry of puns on the “Critical Role” name in the D&D fanbase. This would seem quite likely to be another one of them.
Macha 6y ago
Critical role is itself a pun on critical roll, a common tabletop mechanic. They didn't invent the term and don't have a monopoly on it

nohat 6y ago

The name of the show is a play on the DnD feature of rolling a critical. Seems a bit unfair to criticize someone else borrowing a classic DnD term just because Critical Role got so popular.

krisoft 6y ago
That’s right on the origin of the term. Similary one can say that a face book is a kind of student registery with photos. It is still a bad idea to call a social network which is not related to Facebook face-something. It is an already estabilished and recognizeable brand your new thing might get confused with. If you did it unintentionally then you just caused unintentional confusion to your users. If you did it intentionally because you want to ride on the popularity of the already existing thing then you are a shyster. Again, this is not a legal analysis. This is a decency analysis. I might be more simpathetic with their naming choice if it would have been an accidental thing. It could be that the makers of critical-notes never heard of the brand Critical Role, they just settled on the same word because of the game term. This is unlikely to be the case. Critical notes mention on their frontpage that they support the Exandrian calendar for note taking. Exandria, and thus the exandrian calendar, is the invention of Critical Role’s Dungeon Master. The chance that they heard about Exandria but haven’t heard about Critical Role is basically zero.
- stolenmerch 6y ago
  This is a note taking app for D&D. Exandria is an officially published world by Wizards of the Coast. Makes sense to support it.
  - phlakaton 6y ago
    Yes, but to support it _and_ name your app “Critical Notes”... danger danger.

dunnevens 6y ago

"Critical" is a key part of anyone's gaming vocabulary. Not just D&D, but almost every RPG with combat implements crits in some ways. That's not a word that belongs to any one person. I know someone already responded to you, and I don't mean to pile on, but commonly used words like "Critical" should never be privately owned. Not now. Not ever.

phlakaton 6y ago
If the name were “Critical” or “Crit” I should have no objections (though it would probably fail other SEO tests, and I might ask what that has to do with notetaking). “Critical Notes,” however, is close enough in domain and sound to “Critical Role” for legitimate questions to be raised. There is already a cottage industry of puns on the “Critical Role” name in the D&D fanbase. This would seem quite likely to be another one of them.

Macha 6y ago

Critical role is itself a pun on critical roll, a common tabletop mechanic. They didn't invent the term and don't have a monopoly on it