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About Critical Hit Soda
My husband Beau, our three children and myself, are your regular, lovingly called, nerdy family living in Utah. We love classic fantasy novels, role playing games, board games, war games and hanging out at our local game store with friends.
My husband Beau is a forever DM (Dungeon Master), and runs D&D games for our children and our friends weekly. Together, we travel to the biggest gaming conventions. We all regularly attend conventions such as Gamehole Con and of course, Gen Con among others. As a mother of a nerd family, it’s truly special to see my children’s eyes light up as they play the games, see the beautiful cosplay and become immersed in stories of fantasy.
While I was only introduced to role playing games when I met my husband, he has been playing them since he was a 12, year old boy living in nowhere California. Dungeons and Dragons has always been a huge part of his life and I can appreciate how it’s taken its place in our lives, together. Much like classical literature teaches us character, morals, heroics, life lessons and exposure to true evil and how to overcome through examples of our favorite heroes…Dungeons and Dragons has done this very same thing, though allowing us to experience all this as if we are the heroes ourselves. My children learn this way and I think it’s wonderful!
Beau and I are entrepreneurs at heart as we love to travel and spend time with our family. Last year, while at a convention, we admired the work of all the delicious food trucks serving convention patrons. An idea hit us to start our own food truck, only we wouldn’t sell food…we would sell drinks! Living in Utah, we are fortunate to have delicious soda shops all over, like Starbucks for soda.
We thought it would be a great idea to share this experience on a mobile platform we could take to our favorite conventions. So, when we were coming up with what to theme the business and what to call it, it was only natural to us that it should be Dungeons and Dragons inspired! Critical Hit Soda, as the name, was immediately agreed upon and we were naming our drink combinations with quick, enthusiasm. It was so much fun coming up with drinks and matching them with a name. A bright green, sour, Mountain Dew drink was obviously, a Goblin.
We felt it was important to bring an experience, not just yummy drinks, to our friends and patrons. Obviously, fellow gamers, such as us, are going to get the most out of the experience we offer. In a fun way, we are a reminder of their favorite RPG, with recognizable names of monsters, spells, and magic items and even large Die, 20s one can roll at a chance of a discount!
Roll a 20, that’s a critical hit! You get 20% off your drink! It is so much fun watching someone roll a critical hit and getting so excited! Even those who aren’t totally familiar with role playing games, get into the experience. Who doesn’t love winning???
Not only were the names and fun dice rolling important to our vision, but the actual art as well. Beau, being a fan of 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons, is also a huge fan of the art of that time and of the artists themselves. Beau was able to contact the artist of one of the original TSR Logos, Darlene. Darlene, was enthusiastic and even flattered when we asked her to design our logo and especially when we asked for her signature on it, as she is a part of Dungeons and Dragons history.
We think the idea terribly romantic to carry on a piece of that history in our logo. After a few ideas back and forth, our dragon came to life in a fun way, surrounded by soda bubbles and a full set of dice that one would use to play any role-playing game.
Hence, Critical Hit Soda is here! Huzzah! We are still just starting out in our endeavor and are still mostly local while we build relationships with our favorite conventions out of state. Even still, while we are not at our conventions every weekend, it is incredibly encouraging and rewarding every time someone comes up to us at a small local event and proclaims they love our soda truck!
They are truly excited! They are the gamers we built this for…our people. With this, we have a new way of connecting with our friends. I often find Beau caught in an enthusiastic conversation about some specific D&D topic with a customer. That’s Beau though, such a social butterfly…must have rolled high for his Charisma at birth (zing!) I said it, I don’t apologize.
That’s us, bunch of awesome, ambitious nerds.