Frugal GM Review: Murderhobos

I was planning on reviewing a particular product when I discovered it isn't publicly available, so I didn't see the point. When I was searching DriveThruRPG for something new I almost just went ahead and grabbed an item off of my wishlist, but I wanted something new.....

....and that is when Murderhobos caught my eye. As some of you know I play HackMaster predominately (almost exclusively) and this isn't HackMaster, but it is peripherally related only to a few folks in a nonsensical way. One of HackMaster's game designers joking refers to PCs as "MurderHobos", which always made me laugh.

This completely non-related book from  Brent P Newhall also made me laugh and the title got me hooked. There isn't a lot to this entire game system.....a whopping 6 pages. After reading the rules I had a couple of questions, enough to warrant a one-star downgrade usually, but this isn't your typical game. This is a total beer & pretzels game and if you cannot play quick and easy, or come up with a rule interpretation or rule fix in one chug of your beer, then you really shouldn't be playing Murderhobos.

Since it is only 8 in the morning when I'm typing this, I had to settle for a sip or to of my morning soda (I know it is beer-thirty somewhere, but I need the caffeine). My rule fix took all of 10 seconds.

Murderhobos is an adult game where your players don't really need a full-sheet character record. I'd like to see a 3x5 or 4x6 character record sheet suitable for printing on notecards (I might just have to make one!). The GM doesn't have to do a lot of prep...grab a handful of monster minis, some dice and go nuts. There is some adult language in these rules, but nothing I don't hear at my table during a normal game or any table when there is beer involved. In some other reviews people have been offended, but the game is called Murderhobos, not Fluffy Bunny Loves to Give Hugs, You Are Special Edition (Don't use this name...it's covered under my license now!).

You'll notice that I'm not really posting about specific game elements in this review. The game itself is a decent read and I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I do want to mention, however, that the digital download of Murderhobos (I can't help myself, I like typing Murderhobos...Murderhobos....I might have a problem) contains not only the PDF, but the game system in Mobi, Epub, and even the Azw3 format for the Kindle.

If you want something you can play fast and slightly inebriated, in a true KTATTS fashion, then pick up Murderhobos. If the name itself doesn't sell you I'll leave you with a few words from the credits that sums up the attitude, and fun, of this game:

"This is the second edition of the game. The first edition included contradictory rules about healing. The first edition sucks. This edition is vastly superior."