31 Days / 31 Characters - GOSSIP SMURF

I am constantly amazed that the most fun I've had with a Tabletop Roleplaying Game in 2025 was with The Smurfs RPG by Maestro Media. 

First announced in 2024 and followed by a highly successful Kickstarter, the upcoming RPG about three apples tall blue people is way better than it had any right to be. Better than it had any need to be. I mean, if this game was a simple, silly game fit for 5 year olds and their Generation X grandparents, that would've been fine. I'd tip my hat to the creators for a job well enough done and that would be it. 

Instead, the people at Maestro Media created a cool game with clever mechanics, an excellent reflection of the subject matter, and a few surprises I definitely didn't see coming. There are base-building rules for making your own Mushroom Cottage and that is as awesome as it was unnecessary. 

Not surprisingly, I really like making Smurf characters. It was a real effort holding off on making one before this.

Character: Gossip Smurf

AKA: None

Player: Possibly me. Possibly an NPC. I hope me.

System: The Smurfs Roleplaying Game
 
Nature: Created for this Challenge

Gamemaster: Not yet. Possibly me.

Circa: January 11th, 2025

Origins: It was a given that I'd be making a Smurfs character for this year's 31 Day Character Challenge (in fact I might make two). The real mystery, even for me, was 'what character should I make?' 

I decided I wanted to make an 'imperfect Smurf', one that is defined as much by his flaw as his advantage. I figured something more along to Clumsy or Vanity might be interesting. It was the letter I was up to, 'G', that gave me the final form of my newest little blue friend. 

 
Backstory: Not too long ago Gossip Smurf was just another Smurf, one of the many identifcal Smurfs who live and work in Smurf Village. That was until he overheard Papa Smurf telling Brainy Smurf that Gargamel was up to something and he passed on that information to his friend Reporter Smurf. Reporter ended up printing it in the Smurf Tattler. Papa Smurf was very angry at first as he didn't want to panic the Village before he had more information. 

As it turned out, the Smurfs did panic and the Smurf who would become Gossip felt responsible. He decided to use his 'talent' of picking up and dishing out rumors to make Gargamel think the magical relic he was searching for was over by the Sarsaparilla Fields - where Handy and Hefty had set up a trap! Gargamel fell for it and while he was trying to escape, Brainy, Smurfette, and Grouchy moved the item from where it really was and brought it to Papa Smurf's house. 

Gargamel eventually got out of the trap but was so disoriented he got lost in the nearby Western Woods and eventually gave up. He would later learn that the Smurfs got to the artifact first. 

Reporter Smurf decided to hire the rumor spreading Smurf, giving him the name Gossip Smurf. 

Overview: Gossip Smurf has got something to tell you. Now to be perfectly smurfy, its just a rumor but he's smurfed it through several sources and it seems legit. Now before he tells you, and you know he'll smurf it to straight, he was wondering if you'd heard anything about what that new contraption is that Handy's building. Really? You don't say? Oh no, I won't tell a Smurf. My smurfs are sealed. 

The Highlights: I decided to give Gossip Smurf a different sort of Advantage than I usually go with. Instead of using the type that lowers an Action's Difficulty Level, the type that adds a +2 to an Attribute, or the kind that awards you a Smurfberry, I went with the kind that Clumsy Smurf has:

When obtaining or spreading rumors, a roll that fails or succeeds by no more than 1 becomes a Partial Success instead.

This allows Gossip to persuade people to give him information or to convince someone of information he has, though with partials the information may not be wholely accurate or wholely believed.

His item, a Quill Pen and Paper, helps him remember what he's heard by writing it down. It can be used in other ways as well of course but I feel like that's its main purpose. 

Game Info: 

Notes: I like this guy! A lot! I haven't made a Smurf character yet I haven't liked but I can totally see having fun with this fellow by getting really creative. Heheh. 

 
Legacy: None yet - the ongoing drawback of this Challenge - but I hope he gets one. I can definitely see using him as an NPC with those friends I have who play Smurfs. 

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