Chubby Monster Games, Frugal GM
2014
Complexity: 2
I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m specifically targeting games for review that I think will be bad. So here’s what I did: went to DriveThruRPG, searched for free core rule books, generated a random number within the range of total results, selected that number product, and reviewed it.
And fortunately for me, this first foray into randomly-selected content returned Lunch Box Heroes, a mildly delightful, rules-lite, kinda portable RPG.
Now if you’re confused by the concept of a “portable RPG” that’s okay, it’s a stupid term that I made up right now. But what I mean is the game is designed to be played with minimal dedicated resources. Aside from the rules—which can be printed in a 2.75×4.25-inch booklet—is a pencil and coins for randomization—however, I will be referring to the coins as d2s from this point on because it’s my blog and I can do whatever I want.
Setting: N/A
As is common for a “superlite” system, there is no established setting, with only some implication of a fantasy world. But the rules do suggest that magic system could just be rebranded “technology” or “essentially anything outside of the basic physical and mental attributes of a character” to move the game to any setting.
Character Creation: 3/5
Character creation is a simple affair of rolling 4d2 7 times and assigning those values to one’s three primary attributes, two secondary attributes, skills, and gear. Skills and gear are interesting as each point in that category grants one skill or piece of gear, which are essentially something made up by the player that logically grants a +1 bonus to an attribute in a specific situation. For example: you could give a character a Breakdancing skill that gave +1 to Agility when evading, and Magic Nunchaku that grant a +1 to Brawn on melee attacks.
Mechanics: 3/5
The basic mechanic involved in LBH involves rolling a number of d2s equal to a relevant attribute plus skill and gear modifiers, counting results, and comparing to a difficulty on a range of 1–6. So basically a d2 dice pool—which I probably could have just said instead of describing it. Magic follows the “just kinda does whatever” model that I’m notably fond of, and can be used by any character who’s devoted a skill to it. Characters gain XP which can be spent to increase attributes or to learn new skills. The skill learning system is interesting in that a character who wants to learn an new skill needs to invest their next 100 XP into it. This is a surprisingly deep mechanic as it reflects deciding to gain a new skill and then actively having to work towards it. However, gaining XP is not as great. XP is awarded on any successful “active” test based on the test’s difficulty. For a game that’s so focused on being simple and quick, this seems like something that would be a constant interruption for awarding and/or noting XP rewards.
Writing and Presentation: 2/5
The writing in this game is, let's just say “not great.” It definitely seems like they’re trying to convey the maximum about of information in the fewest amount of words—as mentioned the complete rules fit on a single page folded into a 2.75×4.25-inch booklet—and there is some odd word and phrasing choices. None of this makes the rules incomprehensible, but some sections do require multiple readings to get the idea. Layout is nothing special or egregious, it’s pretty clear that they were focused on writing and formatting for the pocket rulebook, and I can’t help but feel that the game would have been better served by having an abridged pocket version and more thoroughly-written rules in the main book.
Final Remarks
Lunch Box Heroes is a game that aims to be simple and succeeds. Once you sort out the rules they’re very easy to learn and use—aside from the questionable time investment of using coin flips in place of rolls. It’s definitely something you could pull out for a quick game, and reasonably something you could keep on hand for such an eventuality.
Base Points: 8
Character Creation: 3/5, Mechanics: 3/5, Presentation: 2/5
Adjustments: +0
Setting: N/A, Writing: +0, Content: N/A
Overall Score 53% (8/15 Points)
A game that fits in your pocket and uses other stuff in your pocket.
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