A Bolt From The Blue

As you can all plainly see, I am running pretty far behind on the RPGaDay 2024 Challenge. The main reason for this is I've been distracted by RPG ideas I am currently finding much more inspiring and engaging.

One of these is the upcoming Smurfs Tabletop RPG by Maestro Media. I've received the Quick-Start Guide which contains the basic rules and an adventure. 

My initial thoughts...

Smurfberry Crunch

My first impression of the rules were that they seemed a little too crunchy for a Smurfs game.

There are Difficulty Level dice pools used in an attempt to roll under Attributes, something called Effort that can be spent to improve your chances of success by lowering the Difficulty, a Smurf's Advantage, Smurf Equipment, Smurf Power, Smurfberries, Safety Rolls, and YIKES! That's a lot of components to Smurf! All this for a game about little blue people living in a Mushroom Village? Yet...it all works.

It kind of reminds me of the Cypher System if you changed all the things I despise about Cypher into things I really like. 

Obstacles and opponents have a Difficulty Level, which is how many D6s you roll. The objective is to get a total number under your Attribute. What's cool is that rolling  In Cypher, and I'm going to explain this badly as I can never remember this exactly not matter how many times I play that game, to hit a Level 3 opponent you need to roll a 9 or better. Yes, a 3 means 9, a 4 means 12, and so on because you multiply the level of things by 3 on account of needing things to be more complicated and less intuitive than they should be. In Smurfs, a Difficulty Level 3 challenge or enemy means you roll 3 six-sided dice. A level 4 Difficulty means you roll 4D6. The number means the number. Novel right?

With an average Attribute of 6 things can get really tough really quick if you're trying to roll under that after adding up a roll of even 3D6. It seems all the sample Smurfs Attributes total up to 24 each, so while you could have everything at 6 you could also have something like Quick: 6, Brawn: 4, Mind: 9, and Heart: 5. The clever Smurf with these stats is going to have an easier time succeeding at intelligence related challenges. 

In Cyphe your Attributes are really pools from which you not only subtract points to improve your chances of success but are also spend to activate certain abilities. Additionally, the Might pool is your Hit Points. So everything is dependent on these three, usually not too beefy pools of points. This makes one reluctant to spend them but you have to, especially early on, as your PC often sucks. Next thing you know you are either unable to use your cool powers and/or unconscious.

Here you spend Effort similarly but its separate from your Attribute and have nothing to do with using your Equipment or special Advantage. The Smurf stated above has Quick: 6 and therefore a Quick Effort of 6 points. Likewise they have 4 points of Brawn Effort, 9 points of Mind Effort, and 5 point of Heart Effort. These can be spent, up to 3 at a time, to lower the number of Difficulty dice in a challenge. An all but impossible task of 5 or 6D6 can be brought down to 2 or 3D6 by spending 3 Effort.

Damage, Fatigue, and the like are subtracted from the appropriate Effort related to the situation. If you go to Zero Effort in one area all your following challenges are at +1D6 Difficulty but you still have the related Attribute! Hefty is still Strong when he's injury, Brainy is still smart when he's tired, etc. Things are just harder. If you go to Zero in two Effort categories you are Smurfed! You are knocked out and can't do anything other than make a Safety Roll. More on that below. 

Smurf Advantages often add a +2 to your Attribute for the purpose of rolling under for an appropriately related challenge. Let's say Hefty has a Brawn of 12. He also gets a +2 to all tests of strength, so his roll under number to pull Handy out of a river or lift a log trapping Smurfette would be 14. Some Advantages reduce the Difficulty level instead. Clumsy has an Advantage that is really cool and does a completely different thing. The full rules will list which Advantages do what I assume.

Equipment also lends a hand, adding a +2 when applied to a related task. For example, Jokey has an Exploding Present that adds +2 if the player can figure out how that would help in a given situation. Hmm. How's this...?

According to Jokey's Character Sheet, if he can use an Exploding Present to accomplish a goal that requires an Action Roll he lowers the Difficulty by 1D6 (that's his Advantage). The Exploding Present itself is a +2 piece of Equipment. Gargamel goes to grab Jokey. Gargamel is a Difficulty Level 3 opponent, so Jokey's player will roll 3D6 and try to get under Jokey's Quick of 8. Hold on! Gargamel is using a large net to catch Jokey, not his hand, so the Storyteller adds +2D6 to the Difficulty. Oh my Smurf! 5D6!

Thinking fast, Jokey tosses a Present Box up and over his shoulder, hoping it will explode as the net comes down. This will make a hole in the net that Jokey can easily escape through. He lowers the Difficulty to 4D6, spends a Quick Effort point to make it 3D6 and gets a +2 for the Exploding Present added to his Quick of 8. Now it's a 3D6 roll and he needs to get under a 10. He makes it with a 2, 3, and 4! Total of 9. Boom! Gargamel swings up his net to find a burnt and smoking whole and Jokey running away laughing. 

I like this because I really don't like the Cypher equivalent where it feels a little counterintuitive. You're always lowering the Difficulty there. Here you can lower the Difficulty and/or add to your Attribute. Getting a Plus to something just feels better than lowering the Difficulty for some reason. 

There's more with Smurfberries and Smurf Power but that's enough for now. 

Oh wait, one last thing, Safety Rolls! I like this because it feels very Saturday Morning Cartoon or 'Funny Pages' Comics and ties into one really interesting aspect of the game I didn't expect. There's a Base Building element! Seriously!

When a Smurf is rendered unconscious and unable to continue on due to reaching Zero in two of their Effort scores, and no other Smurf can render aid, the injured Smurf's player makes a 2D6 Safety Roll. If the player gets under the target number, their Smurf awakens in their own bed safe and sound back in the Smurf Village. The Storyteller and player come up with a narrative to explain how the PC got home. Saved by friendly Squirrels? Rescued by a team of nameless background Smurfs? You decide! 

Best part is that the target number is determined by your Smurf's Mushroom House! That's right Smurfettes and Gentlesmurfs, you get to build your own personal Smurf Cottage that can give you bonuses such as extra Equipment, a Work Bench to create new Equipment, a way to regain spent Smurf Power, and ways of lowering task Difficulty - For example: If you need to bake some Smurfberry Tarts, go to the house of Smurf in the party who added a Kitchen! Love this!

OK, that's it. I have more to discuss and so many Smurfy game ideas.

Smurf you later!

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Barking Smurf

Sorry for the Cypher bashing everybody. By that I mean you shouldn't have to sit through my dislike of Cypher so I apologize to you. I do not apologize to Cypher however. It knows what it did and it should be ashamed!