SnarfQuest D20 Worldbook

The Snarfquest RPG Worldbook for the d20 system claims to have three goals in mind.

1.To give advice on adding humor to the game.
2.To provide a summary of Snarquest stories.
3.To provide insider information on the Snarfquest series.

In those three things, it does a good job. It even managed to provide game stats for a lot of the different elements of the Snarfquest series along the way in d20 terms.

It starts off with some information and a full Snarquest comic, including the map of Snarf's world. It then goes into the summary of the stories. This is broken up in an episode by episode style with Larry throwing his personal comments into the mix. This allows the reader, without having the Snarquest book in front of him, to get a good idea of what the comic series was like and what the author was thinking at the same time. It summarizes the first 42 episodes and provides the reader with further information on where to turn if they want to continue Snarf's quest.

The second chapter provides ideas on using humor in the game. This includes Snarquest Maxims like The Silliest Possible Thing that Can Happen, Will! These snippets use scenes from the comic to illustrate their point. Those looking for something more in the mecahnic aspect, will enjoy the variable rules. For example, Bragging Experience Awards or the Everything Blows up rule where all structures and objects take double damage as they blow up.

Now I mentioned game mechanics and I know, who wants to play a Zeetvah or one of the other weird races? Well, when they were first though of, who wanted to play a gully dwarf, tinker gnome or kender? Stats are provided for the all of the major character races in the book so we get Snarf's, the Zeetvah, as well as the Pelfric, portrayed by the good old blues musician, B.B. Bird.

Strangely enough, there is even a Nobel core class here. They get d8 hit dice, secondary base attack, good will save, funds, leadership, and lots of skills but the skill points by level isn't in it's right place and I don't see it in any nearby area. Those who've read the books may be amused by the Robot PrC where the motto is, “I never sleep, I never Eat, I Go Bleep.” based off one of the characters, Aveeare, from the series.

In a similar vein of humor, we get rules for actual Bikini Armor, Motorcycles and other modern appliances. These come from another wizard's jumping through time and taking things from modern day times and bringing them back, or in Aveeare's case, coming from a different place where technology is the norm.

On the not quite so funny side, we get the creatures of Snarfquest fully stated out for 3.0 rules. These are low level opponents like the cavebiter and fast locomotion via gagglezoomer. To wrap it up, we get the cast of characters including the hero, Snarf (fighter level 4 of all things), as well as many minor characters who made a humorous splash in the comic.

In the end, this small tome does what it sets out to. It's definitely not for every player and it's not going to win any awards for graphic presentation as it uses a simple one column layout with little in the way of layout modifications or new art, but it's going to be a good companion to the Snarquest graphic novel and might make for some interesting and unusual characters.