Critical Role’s Till the Last Gasp straddles the line between board game and RPG

polygon.com:

Darrington Press, the publishing imprint of Critical Role’s media empire, began with a tumultuous start. Its debut board game, Uk’otoa, floundered and failed to impress. I approached this new release with a reasonable amount of skepticism, fearing the worst. Come to find that this approach was unfounded: Till the Last Gasp is no uninspired board game with a coat of Mighty Nein-branded paint. Rather, it’s a story-infused tabletop design that crosses genres and hangs together extraordinarily well. It’s a design that speaks to the publisher’s strengths, and more effectively appeals to the brand’s target demographic — fans of improvised storytelling. In short, it’s a rousing success.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch .

Till the Last Gasp straddles the line between board and role-playing game. There is a central map of a location with point-to-point spaces representing interactive opportunities, such as a throne room or animal pen. Players don’t move individual pawns, instead shuffling about a token that highlights where both combatants are currently fighting. Each character is represented by an individual player board that hosts dice pools and organizes information to ease play. All of this is in service to structured combat as the foundation for freeform storytelling.

The duel is evoked through a clever action point system. It feels