You all remember that wonderful game for kids and families with various ages — No Thank You, Evil!? I am delighted to tell you now the newest set of accompanying resources is currently on preorder from Monte Cook Games. Full disclosure: they sent me a PDF to review for this article, which of course I was thrilled to get because this game is great for my own small person.

If you haven’t encountered No Thank You, Evil! before, it’s a kid oriented RPG with multiple levels of play difficulty for accommodating families and growing children. There is a d6 system with pools of points that you can use to adjust the difficulty of a problem you’re encountering by “trying harder,” and it plays fast and loose and light for short games (and short attention spans) – most games target play time of 30-60 minutes. The game is themed with candy, adventure, intelligent backpacks, and places in a child’s room.

The Monster Museum

Everything you actually need to play is in the original book, of course, but this supplement can help keep things easy and low prep. Uh Oh! Monsters! is essentially the Storia version of a monster manual, but this book reads as the adorable monster museum run by Bill Zubbub and his dragon friend. Don’t pet the critters without asking first! There’s also the museum gift shop, filled with cool monster related magical items (the Froggle Goggles are my favorite).

Each monster comes with the appropriate No Thank You, Evil! stats and information as you would expect from a book of monsters: Health, Damage, Skills, Quirk, and Stuff. It’s well laid out and quick to sift through, making it a perfect GMing companion even if that GM is your ten year old. And of course, on theme for Storia, the illustrations are fun and engaging: check out the Bunnyfu ninja bunnies, or the Furry Toothed Fairy Penguins. And don’t miss the Purple People Eater – it’s a bit of a misnomer since his favorite food is spaghetti. The monsters are measured for scale at the end of the book in how many children tall they are, which I thought was a great touch.

Making More Monstery Fun

Uh Oh! Monsters! is more than just a monster manual in the classic sense of the idea though – it also includes new Nouns for creating monstery type PCs, Alien and Stormbringer.

 Your heroes can earn coins to spend at the museum gift shop by helping Bill Zubbub out with little problems here or there. It’s basically a zoo and it’s a big job to keep it running smoothly! 
And of course when we talk monsters, there are also new adorable companion ideas, because what’s a Storia companion except your own little weird critter? There are also some ideas for using the monster museum as your setting for an adventure. Your heroes can earn coins to spend at the museum gift shop by helping Bill Zubbub out with little problems here or there. It’s basically a zoo and it’s a big job to keep it running smoothly! For randomizing, like the Story, Please! deck, Uh Oh! Monsters! also comes with the monsters as a card deck for easy reference or random drawing. As a GM I love these randomizers. Why should players have all the fun thinking on their feet? Creatively composing a story is where a large part of my enjoyment comes from, so I love that Monte Cook Games continues to cater to this style with their No Thank You, Evil! expansions.

Lairs and Scares

Lairs and Scares is the second part of the current release and it’s a set of four adventure modules for No Thank You, Evil! using many of the monsters in Uh Oh! Monsters!. ntye-uh-oh-monsters-5-tiffany-turrill-300x200-1I’m not really a module running GM in general although I like using them for ideas. There’s one beginning level adventure with a holiday theme that would actually work brilliantly for a child’s birthday party (can I say that I’m planning a bit for next year?) and three that are for players more familiar with gaming. They’re all meant to run in about 30-60 minutes, although there’s one you can flesh out in to a campaign if that’s your jam. Each adventure has handouts pre-made and ready for you to throw on the table like the well planned GM we all want to be.

All in all if you’re playing and enjoying No Thank You, Evil! this expansion is handy and fun, and it’s always neat to add more fuel to a child’s imagination. It’s not a real requirement for game play, but if you’re playing a lot it’s a great way to broaden your game a bit more without much effort. My favorite part is the deck of monster cards, of course – because it just suits my style so well. Hooray for randomizers!

Find more No Thank You, Evil! fun and information at nothankyouevil.com.