Rarely am I prodded into reviewing a product by an overzealous spammer in a mIRC chatroom, but in this case, I’ll hold true to my word and actually review this.

GOOFBALLS! Is Wicked Basement’s debut product into the d20 market. It is 64 pages long, divided into 7 chapters, and comes with illustrated color cover. It is written by Gerry Perez, and apparently illustrated by peZer (same guy going under two different names).

First Sight: I must say that the artwork is nice. It’s very comic-book like. Interesting font that’s been used, and the author even gives credit to blambot.com for it.

Chapter 1: Howdy!

The introduction is basically a how-to guide on what a Goofball is, and what being a Goofball is about. It also sets the tone immediately about what the product is for. It is meant not to be serious, and to be totally, well, goofy.

Essentially, you have to have a sense of humor. However, in this case, that particular sense of humor is sophomoric toilet humor. This chapter includes a table for random “gimmicks” with which to give your Goofball character, with one of the quirks being that “your character eats feces.”

I couldn't bear the "humor" too much, and tried to skip ahead...

After that, you are given ideas on how to act like a Goof, with ideas ranging from the Three Stooges, to klutzes, to clowns. Jar-Jar Binks is given as an example of what NOT to be.

The subchapter “Be A Dork And Do Voices” includes a very cute picture of what I THINK is an Orc in a polkadot dress. He could be a half-orc, but I wouldn’t know, and I don’t very much care! Heheh.

Verdict: You can throw this out, unless you really NEED to know what a Goofball is, and if you can really stomach the poo jokes.

Chapter 2: Goofball! Feats Five very minor feats, including one that uses a player’s- er, I mean the player’s character’s Tourette’s Syndrome to his advantage.

I’m serious when I say that. Really…

WHY WON’T YOU BELIEVE ME???

Verdict: Throwaway.

Chapter 3: Goofball! Prestige Classes

There are 12 Goofball! Prestige Classes. This is, by far, the best of the chapters in this product. These would make an excellent supplement to game like… say, Munchkin d20. As a matter of fact, unless you’ve got some homebrewed Hackmaster d20 variant at home, I’d say the Munchkin’s the ONLY game you should use this stuff with!

The “Cold Mage, A.K.A. The Chilly Silly” is a snowball-oriented wizard, who comes complete with various freezing powers and spells, including the ability to make Ice Cream. He appears to be useful on Hot Summer Days, Christmas, and when you really need a Snowman Guardian.

The “Fuppet Master” is a Puppeteer with magic. Yeah, he makes Pinnochios and Kermits and Big Birds come to life. Like Gepetto… only with “Fuppets.”

The Rock Star is just what it sounds like: an Angry, Power Chord striking, Power Ballad Singing… Bard. Some of the abilities are either overpowered, or underpowered for the effective level of the character.

The Diva is a female bard that just uses what God gave her to her advantage. With special abilities like “Wiggle and Jiggle” and “Manipulative B*!@?” you can see this class was based on those teenage pop singers.

Da Lyrical Gangsta be dat P-r-C dat lay down the ill rhymes, yo… *cough* Ahem. Let me try that again.

The Lyrical Gangsta is an Arcane Prestige Class that limits the player to “freestyling” in a spontaneous manner in order to gain the appropriate ill, er… magical effects.

The Soosssonian Poet is a tribute to Dr. Seuss (as the accompanying artwork implies) and the Cat-in-the-Hat. It is an Arcane Prestige Class not unlike the Lyrical Gangsta in that it must improvise spell incantations, but must use nonsense words in order to do so.

Gy-Non’s Disciple is a divine PrC that basically makes the character a divine trickster of the Ultimate Slapstick sense. Divine Anvils of Smiting fall from the sky, while Cream Pies fly towards one’s opponent.

Festivus Maximus is the Lord of the Dance. The Elephant Lord of the Dance. A cleric of a dancing Elephant god.

Pocket Priest is a throwaway PrC. It’s just a party healer who shrinks to a nigh invisible size, hides in his friends’ pocket, then returns to his normal size after combat. Who would want to be one of those?

Warrior of the Goo. Warrior like oozes. Warrior blend with Goo, make Warrior of Goo. Kinda neat, actually.

The Butcher is violent. Very violent. NOW we’re getting somewhere. This isn’t very Goofy at all… Hey! This doesn’t belong here!

The Lord of the Loopholes. Munchkin dream class. Every level, gain a special ability of another Prestige Class of the same level. They also gain spellcaster levels. What’s not to love about them?

Verdict: Keeper. Except for that Dancing stuff. That’s for ninnies.

Chapter 4: Goofball! Deities There’s two Gods here. Bhangrusyus and Gy-Non. Neither are really special, aside from the fact that Bhangrusyus is a dancing elephant, and is way too happy.

Gy-Non? Absolutely insane. Is this a God, or an excuse for all your little pranks?

Verdict: Throwaway, unless you actually WANT these Gods in your pantheon.

Chapter 5: Goofball! Magic Items Magic Ball of Lint to a Pocket Protector. Usual stuff. Actually useful in some cases, ludicrous in others. Sixteen Magic Items Total. The most useful? Either the Stuffed Animal of Wondrous Power or the Instant Monster (Just Add Water) mix.

Keeper.

Chapter 6: Goofball! Spells This chapter adds 3 clerical domains and 16 spells. Everything’s silly. Nothing really spectacular, and “Gas Blast” is illustrated. I’m sure you can figure out what it depicts. Lots of Ice-related spells.

Verdict: Throwaway, mostly.

Chapter 7: The Goofball! Adventure Not an adventure at all, but what it would be like if you a group of players played as Goofballs. I’d seen this before in Steve Jackson’s Munchkin supplements, and they were funnier there.

Verdict: Definitely throwaway.

Puppy.

The Good

The Artwork is the really the best part of this product, even in spite of some of the more… immature references. There’s actually some useful stuff in here like a few of the Prestige Classes and one or two of the magic items. It’s up to individual readers and DMs to find and select which ones are best.

A lot of the writing is very cute. Too cute.

The Bad

Those of you expecting Munchkin Redux won’t find it. Goofballs! Is very geared towards a more mainstream crowd of gamer, those who grew up watching Sesame Street and reading the Cat in the Hat, but now watch movies like “Dumb and Dumberer” and “American Pie” looking for campaign ideas, instead of “Monty Python” and reading “Discworld.”

For me, the Sophomoric Toilet Humor is a big turn off. The rest of the public can probably revel in the number of ass-related jokes throughout the product for all I care.

Otherwise, there’s too much stuff that you can’t use in a balanced game, even a humorous game like Munchkin. It’s for jokes, really. And then the jokes aren’t always funny.

The Ugly

The Diva art. The knock-knock joke. The Lyrical Gangsta’s example flow. The muppets are very scary, but somehow funny. The puppy. Okay, so I lied. The muppets are just frightening.

I am no lawyer, but the product also has some very glaring OGL problems that involve another company’s IP that should be resolved. I think the SRD says it’s “Mage’s Disjunction.”

Final Notes: That about sums it up, really. It’s fun. It’s somewhat funny. There’s nothing really outlandish here that isn’t a build off of pre-existing ideas and such.

Final Verdict: All in all? 7/10, or a 3 out of 5. I can say it’s a solid effort.

It's just not my cup of poo- I mean, pee- GAH!