The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Bob, Lord of Evil sits in a gray area between supplement and companion game to the comedy RPG Murphy's World. Now, I'll tell you up front that I don't own Murphy's World, but the game claims to contain everything you need to play -- a claim I'll address shortly. And besides, with a name like that, how could I not buy it?

THE SETTING

To understand Bob, you must first know a bit about the planet on which it is set: Faerie, known by Sean Murphy -- the intrepid space explorer who "discovered" it and was subsequently stranded upon it -- as Murphy's World.

Murphy's World is a fantasy setting with a deliciously nasty twist: due to the influence of a sentient sun by the name of Ludo, Murphy's Laws are in full effect. If something can go wrong, it probably will, and at the worst possible time. Furthermore, consensual reality rules the planet and its inhabitants, meaning not only that things are routinely believed into existence, but also that the geography of the place is constantly in flux -- especially in areas with low populations. Now, throw in a network of unreliable gates to every place in the multiverse, and you have a place in which, as the saying goes, anything can happen, and it usually does. Multigenre nuttiness at its finest.

Now, if you think that's chaotic enough, Bob covers the Dark Lands -- a place which mixes all of this lunacy with horror movie sensibilities. It's always night in the Dark Lands (hence the name) due to the presence of Ben, a passing moon that Ludo plonked into geosynchronous orbit in order to teach Bob a lesson.

Oh, who is Bob, you say? Well, Bob is exactly what he claims to be: the Lord of Evil. What does he look like? I honestly can't do it justice. Here, see for yourself. What is Bob like? He's the ultimate bully: big, mean, and dumb. Oh, and he's also insane, and paranoid as all get-out. And he hates cats.

The description Bob's personality is definitely one of the hilarious highpoints of the book, from his tastes in music (Elvis, twangy C&W, and polka are among his favorites) to his habit of sticking the word "Bob" in every possible word (i.e., "Gimme a pizza with extra boberoni!"). There's even a list of nicknames Bob might give people whose names are too long for him to remember. Which is to say, most people.

Unfortunately, his personality also seems inconsistent in several places. In the sidebar comments from Bob, he sounds a bit like a stereotypical mob boss: "Dis is da way things is gonna be, youse got dat?" But in the color text describing his encounters with Sean Murphy, he seems more like an only marginally coherent mental patient. And in the introductory adventure, he's more like a parody of an evil warlord: "A real man would relish having his spleen impaled!" Of course, given the screwy nature of Murphy's World, this, too, could be explained...

I also got a kick out of the descriptions of the various personalities, races, and locales of the Dark Lands, most all of which are more rich in detail than one might expect in a comedy game. The races, in particular, are extremely well done, each description detailing everything from powers to customs to religions and superstitions. All of it is humorous, naturally, but the attention to detail would put many "serious" fantasy RPGs to shame. The book only lost me when the parody got a bit too heavy-handed in places; for example, the self-proclaimed leader of all vampires is "Marcus Reign*Haagen-Dazs". Oh, and there are clans of vampires, too, loosely organized into the coalitions of the "Caramels" and the "Sorbets". Yeah, that's pretty much how I reacted, too.

For the most part, however, the author remembered a key to writing a comedy game: it has to be funny to the players as well as to the GM. A great example of this approach is the fact that characters who perform misdeeds in the Dark Lands may end up slowly transforming in hideously hilarious ways.

Now, as great as the setting is, is it, as the hype text claims, complete in and of itself? In a sense, yes, if your characters never venture out of the Dark Lands, and if they have no interested in playing character types not horror-related. However, the setting is far more self-contained than are the rules.

THE RULES

Once again, please keep in mind that Bob claims to be a complete game on its own, and I am reviewing it as such. I can only comment indirectly on its usefulness as a supplement, since I don't own Murphy's World. Maybe that's a good thing, since I can only judge it by itself.

That having been said, the basic mechanics of Bob are quirky but mostly sound. The scale of human attributes ranges from 1-20. To use them, the numbers are cross-referenced on a table to get a percentage value; for example, an attribute of 10 equals a percentage chance of 30. GMs can increase or decrease the difficulty of a task by assigning it a rating of -7 to +7; each increment doesn't directly change the difficulty, but rather indicates a different column on the table to reference. Each column away from the base chance increases or decreases the difficulty by 2-3 points. (I know this sounds complicated, but it's not, really.) Skills work the same way but simply start with the base percentage chance.

Interestingly, the mechanics feature some tricks that have recently been heralded as revolutionary in Unknown Armies. For example, rolling a number lower than the target number that ends in zero means a superior success has occurred, while rolling such a number higher than the target number is a fumble. Results of "01" and "00" are spectacular successes and failures, respectively.

So far, so good... but things go downhill from there. The damage system is simple and effective, for example, but there's no mechanic for strength damage bonuses included with the abbreviated table of weapon damages, nor is there any guide to unarmed combat damage.

There's also no magic system given. From the great reviews I've read of the Murphy's Law magic system, that's truly a shame. As it stands, it's pretty much totally up to the GM to adjudicate the effects of many of the powers listed for creatures and individuals. This isn't a disaster, but it certainly is not a characteristic of a game "great for players new to the hobby", as the cover text claims.

On the bright side, the book features some simply wonderful mechanics for simulating the hazards of life in the Dark Lands. Included are the tables for transformations resulting from naughty behavior I mentioned earlier, as are rules for "Brain Blight", a kind of madness brought on by spending too much time in the Dark Lands.

Better still, rather than a fear mechanic, the game features a sensibility mechanic: characters in a stressful situation must make a successful Intelligence roll or else do one of a number of stupid things we've all seen horror characters do -- yell "Who's there??" at a mysterious sound, suggest that everyone "split up to cover more territory", or convince themselves that they're "just imagining things".

Finally, the book includes a huge list of "Dark Laws", the Murphy's Laws unique to the Dark Lands; these are to be used pretty much however the GM sees fit, although they may be rolled for randomly at the beginning of an adventure as well.

THE BOOK

The cover is a wonderfully garish image of Bob's "court". The interior seems, at first glance, to be a terribly busy mix of fonts, images, sidebars, and blurbs; however, it reads surprisingly well, and the chaotic look ends up simply contributing to the feel of the book. The art had me laughing out loud in several places, from the images of Bob taking it easy to the cityscapes that look like something out of Dr. Seuss's nightmares. The writing is, for the most part, consistently funny as well as informative -- a nice balance for a comedy RPG book.

The book features an introductory adventure, "On a Mission from Bob", that also hits the right balance between playability and comedy material -- some great puzzles, interactions, and good old-fashioned slugfests await intrepid adventurers as well as plenty of laughs. (It does, however, include some races found only in the main Murphy's World rulebook.)

Finally, like all truly well designed game books, it features an index.

SUMMARY

Bob just didn't sell me on its merits as a stand-alone game -- there are just too many gaps in both the rules and the setting for my tastes. Yes, these could be filled in by an experienced GM, but I feel very strongly that a truly complete game shouldn't require such extra work. On the other hand, it does contain many wonderful ideas and is a great deal of fun to read, making it a wonderful supplement. So, please keep in mind that the "four" I'm giving it is for its Substance as a supplement alone; as a stand-alone game, it gets a "three".

In other words, if youse like Murphy's World, den Bob sez dis is da book fer youse. Got dat, wimp?

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Bob, Lord of Evil
Author: Kevin Davies with David Brown Category: game Company/Publisher: Peregrine Line: Murphy's World Cost: 19.95 Page count: 154 ISBN: 0-021821-30-1 Capsule Review by Dan Davenport on 05/03/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Horror Space Comedy Vampire Gothic	Bob, Lord of Evil sits in a gray area between supplement and companion game to the comedy RPG Murphy's World. Now, I'll tell you up front that I don't own Murphy's World, but the game claims to contain everything you need to play -- a claim I'll address shortly. And besides, with a name like that, how could I not buy it? THE SETTING To understand Bob, you must first know a bit about the planet on which it is set: Faerie, known by Sean Murphy -- the intrepid space explorer who "discovered" it and was subsequently stranded upon it -- as Murphy's World. Murphy's World is a fantasy setting with a deliciously nasty twist: due to the influence of a sentient sun by the name of Ludo, Murphy's Laws are in full effect. If something can go wrong, it probably will, and at the worst possible time. Furthermore, consensual reality rules the planet and its inhabitants, meaning not only that things are routinely believed into existence, but also that the geography of the place is constantly in flux -- especially in areas with low populations. Now, throw in a network of unreliable gates to every place in the multiverse, and you have a place in which, as the saying goes, anything can happen, and it usually does. Multigenre nuttiness at its finest. Now, if you think that's chaotic enough, Bob covers the Dark Lands -- a place which mixes all of this lunacy with horror movie sensibilities. It's always night in the Dark Lands (hence the name) due to the presence of Ben, a passing moon that Ludo plonked into geosynchronous orbit in order to teach Bob a lesson. Oh, who is Bob, you say? Well, Bob is exactly what he claims to be: the Lord of Evil. What does he look like? I honestly can't do it justice. Here, see for yourself. What is Bob like? He's the ultimate bully: big, mean, and dumb. Oh, and he's also insane, and paranoid as all get-out. And he hates cats. The description Bob's personality is definitely one of the hilarious highpoints of the book, from his tastes in music (Elvis, twangy C&W, and polka are among his favorites) to his habit of sticking the word "Bob" in every possible word (i.e., "Gimme a pizza with extra boberoni!"). There's even a list of nicknames Bob might give people whose names are too long for him to remember. Which is to say, most people. Unfortunately, his personality also seems inconsistent in several places. In the sidebar comments from Bob, he sounds a bit like a stereotypical mob boss: "Dis is da way things is gonna be, youse got dat?" But in the color text describing his encounters with Sean Murphy, he seems more like an only marginally coherent mental patient. And in the introductory adventure, he's more like a parody of an evil warlord: "A real man would relish having his spleen impaled!" Of course, given the screwy nature of Murphy's World, this, too, could be explained... I also got a kick out of the descriptions of the various personalities, races, and locales of the Dark Lands, most all of which are more rich in detail than one might expect in a comedy game. The races, in particular, are extremely well done, each description detailing everything from powers to customs to religions and superstitions. All of it is humorous, naturally, but the attention to detail would put many "serious" fantasy RPGs to shame. The book only lost me when the parody got a bit too heavy-handed in places; for example, the self-proclaimed leader of all vampires is "Marcus ReignHaagen-Dazs". Oh, and there are clans of vampires, too, loosely organized into the coalitions of the "Caramels" and the "Sorbets". Yeah, that's pretty much how I reacted, too. For the most part, however, the author remembered a key to writing a comedy game: it has to be funny to the players as well as to the GM. A great example of this approach is the fact that characters who perform misdeeds in the Dark Lands may end up slowly transforming in hideously hilarious ways. Now, as great as the setting is, is it, as the hype text claims, complete in and of itself? In a sense, yes, if your characters never venture out of the Dark Lands, and if they have no interested in playing character types not horror-related. However, the setting is far more self-contained than are the rules. THE RULES* Once again, please keep in mind that Bob claims to be a complete game on its own, and I am reviewing it as such. I can only comment indirectly on its usefulness as a supplement, since I don't own Murphy's World. Maybe that's a good thing, since I can only judge it by itself. That having been said, the basic mechanics of Bob are quirky but mostly sound. The scale of human attributes ranges from 1-20. To use them, the numbers are cross-referenced on a table to get a percentage value; for example, an attribute of 10 equals a percentage chance of 30. GMs can increase or decrease the difficulty of a task by assigning it a rating of -7 to +7; each increment doesn't directly change the difficulty, but rather indicates a different column on the table to reference. Each column away from the base chance increases or decreases the difficulty by 2-3 points. (I know this sounds complicated, but it's not, really.) Skills work the same way but simply start with the base percentage chance. Interestingly, the mechanics feature some tricks that have recently been heralded as revolutionary in Unknown Armies. For example, rolling a number lower than the target number that ends in zero means a superior success has occurred, while rolling such a number higher than the target number is a fumble. Results of "01" and "00" are spectacular successes and failures, respectively. So far, so good... but things go downhill from there. The damage system is simple and effective, for example, but there's no mechanic for strength damage bonuses included with the abbreviated table of weapon damages, nor is there any guide to unarmed combat damage. There's also no magic system given. From the great reviews I've read of the Murphy's Law magic system, that's truly a shame. As it stands, it's pretty much totally up to the GM to adjudicate the effects of many of the powers listed for creatures and individuals. This isn't a disaster, but it certainly is not a characteristic of a game "great for players new to the hobby", as the cover text claims. On the bright side, the book features some simply wonderful mechanics for simulating the hazards of life in the Dark Lands. Included are the tables for transformations resulting from naughty behavior I mentioned earlier, as are rules for "Brain Blight", a kind of madness brought on by spending too much time in the Dark Lands. Better still, rather than a fear mechanic, the game features a sensibility mechanic: characters in a stressful situation must make a successful Intelligence roll or else do one of a number of stupid things we've all seen horror characters do -- yell "Who's there??" at a mysterious sound, suggest that everyone "split up to cover more territory", or convince themselves that they're "just imagining things". Finally, the book includes a huge list of "Dark Laws", the Murphy's Laws unique to the Dark Lands; these are to be used pretty much however the GM sees fit, although they may be rolled for randomly at the beginning of an adventure as well. THE BOOK The cover is a wonderfully garish image of Bob's "court". The interior seems, at first glance, to be a terribly busy mix of fonts, images, sidebars, and blurbs; however, it reads surprisingly well, and the chaotic look ends up simply contributing to the feel of the book. The art had me laughing out loud in several places, from the images of Bob taking it easy to the cityscapes that look like something out of Dr. Seuss's nightmares. The writing is, for the most part, consistently funny as well as informative -- a nice balance for a comedy RPG book. The book features an introductory adventure, "On a Mission from Bob", that also hits the right balance between playability and comedy material -- some great puzzles, interactions, and good old-fashioned slugfests await intrepid adventurers as well as plenty of laughs. (It does, however, include some races found only in the main Murphy's World rulebook.) Finally, like all truly well designed game books, it features an index. SUMMARY Bob just didn't sell me on its merits as a stand-alone game -- there are just too many gaps in both the rules and the setting for my tastes. Yes, these could be filled in by an experienced GM, but I feel very strongly that a truly complete game shouldn't require such extra work. On the other hand, it does contain many wonderful ideas and is a great deal of fun to read, making it a wonderful supplement. So, please keep in mind that the "four" I'm giving it is for its Substance as a supplement alone; as a stand-alone game, it gets a "three". In other words, if youse like Murphy's World, den Bob sez dis is da book fer youse. Got dat, wimp? Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)