On A Blue Note

My recent lackluster excursion into Medieval Fantasy Solo RPGaming had me really down; moreso than I would have expected. It was made worse by a poor purchase I made specifically for this experiment, hoping the product I bought would be useful for my endeavor*. It was not and in fact it is so lame I can't see myself ever using it but more on that later.

I really dislike wasting time and money. Grr. Sigh.

Luckily, there is light at the end of this dark tunnel and that light my friends, is blue...

I'll be running The Smurfs RPG this week! Woohoo!

With some of our regulars out we'll be skipping the next session of the normal campaign and playing a Smurfs one-shot instead. I am officially cheered-up as I haven't gotten the chance to run The Smurfs in what feels like a long while and, as you probably know by now, I absolutely love this game! 

It looks like Nick will be return to play Sir Smurfsalot - The Questing Smurf, Ray will reprise Spelly Smurf, and Will will be coming in with a brand new Smurf Girl from Smurfy Grove by the name of Smurfevergreen! 

I'm genuinely looking forward to this and will be spending today working up my adventure (as much as Adam works up adventures that is). Later in the week I'll give you all the aftersmurf report. 

Until then, smurf you later my fellow Smurfs!

AD

Barking Alien

*A Mini-Review of Roll & Play Press's 'No Place Like Homebrew':

I don't normally do product reviews of this sort but I was not happy with this purchase and I wanted everyone out there to be aware of what the book was all about. If you are new to tabletop roleplaying games in general and Dungeons and Dragons 5E specifically, this product might be of interest and use to you. 

If you have been playing for 10 years or more, have played games other than D&D, and have what I have to assume is a modest amount of creativity, you can probably skip this book. It has 252 pages of stuff, ranging from deities and locations to creatures and more locations that you've already come up with or read before on a blog, in a magazine, or any number of other places a dozen times already. Nothing in it, as far as I can tell, is of particular noteworthiness. 

The book is oddly organized, at least to me, though perhaps Fantasy gamers are more accustomed to the thinking process that went into this. For example, it starts with REALMS, a whole section on sample worlds and settings which certainly makes sense but its then filled with things like Deities, Celestials, and other otherworldly entities. Is that where most people start their world-building? With the Gods? Is that the first thing I need when trying to put together an adventure for my party of players and their PCs? Felt a little strange to me. 

Their idea of cool and interesting monsters are Bulettes but their gold-colored, Corgis with extra legs, and Pink Hounds that don't tire. Wow. Breathtaking. Also, thank goodness for an Index at the end of the book because its not like all the creatures are in one creature section. Instead they're scattered throughout the book (as are NPCs and other elements) based on terrain type. That makes sense, can't fault them for that, but I found it hard to know where to look to find something I'd previously read without use of the index. 

At $54.99 for the physical book (not including shipping) and $29.99 for the PDF, I can't recommend this for your money. I've far more exciting and innovative ideas to plug into your campaign for free or at a much lower cost from blogs, forums, magazine articles, and the like.

This product gets a 5 or maybe 5.5 out of 10 from me.