What kind of fantasy genre is the Smurfs? Is it doable in D&D or another system?

[newbDM]

As someone who still loves this show I occasionally wonder what kind of genre of fantasy it falls under, and if such a style could be worked into a D&D (or other RPG system) campaign. I imagine you would need a very light-hearted group for such a thing, but it's just such a warm and feel good feeling this show gives you.

[Thane of Fife]

You could probably run the Smurfs very easily as D&D, if you didn't mind adding extra violence. Really, it's all about smurfs going on adventures to rescue people from Gargamel, which is easily handled. You'd probably want a band of mostly rogues and experts, and you'd need all the monsters to be tough enough that they can't kill them straight up.

And make everything but the PCs much, much bigger.

That seems like it would pretty much be the Smurfs.

[Tsotha-lanti]

What genre? Comic/cartoon fantasy? Fantasy is a genre, pretty much, and not exactly divided into specific sub-genres. Use Toon or something, I guess.

[Another_Poet]

Genre is pretty much fable/faery tale style with a cartoony spin and a moral in every show.

I've used smurfs as enemies in D&D. The first time was the very first encounter I ever DM'd that wasn't straight out of the Monster Manual. I had intended for it to be winnable... and I had intended for the smurfs to be netural beings. The local humans hated them because they stole food, but the smurfs needed it to survive. I expected the PCs to go and investigate the smurfs and then find out they weren't evil. Instead they tracked down their village and got ready to wreck it. This forever changed our view of the smurfs.

Their confidence was their hubris, for woe to them who injure a Smurf.

According to the cartoon intro the smurfs stand 3 apples high, which I believe would make their size Diminutive. But if you look at their actual size it is quite consistently smaller than that - compare them to the cat, or to the mushrooms, and you see they are size Fine. This means all their weapons deal only a single point of damage, but they almost always hit and they themselves are virtually impossible to hit. Huge attack and AC bonuses, and great stealth. So I gave them tactics to match their strengths.

The village included about 40 unarmed villagers who fled into their mushroom huts to get weapons and ropes. I made a map of the village on paper and put it over a piece of cardboard and I used pins with coloured pinheads to track the smurfs' movement on the map. They only move 1 square per round. The PCs wasted several rounds trying to wipe out these unarmed smurfs, while just 3 archers pegged away at them from a toadstool on the side of a tree.

The archers' arrows were tipped with poison. I was a new DM so I did something silly - the poison has an initial save DC of 1 but every additional dose you were hit with raised the DC by 1. In retrospect this was silly and unfair. If I ran it again they would have a fixed save DC of 6 (since the dose is so small). In any case on a failed save the poison deals 1 point of Str damage, no secondary damage. Don't worry, those points add up quick.

During the three rounds of villager-stomping and the 2-3 additional rounds of whiffing at the archers, the village alarum was sounded. Hefty Smurf used the time to rally his phalanx of 15 Smurven Defenders. The PCs finally took out 2 of the 3 archers (and the third one ran away) so they round a corner on the village main street and see this phalanx marching at them. The smurves have 2 rows of 8 crossbowmen with tower shields. One row would fire in unison, all of them at a single target called by Hefty, and the other row would hold action and then use the tower shields to provide cover right after firing. Next round the back row would move up and ready an action to provide cover, while the back row load and fire. Cycle and repeat.

I think I jangled their nerves a bit because every round I would do my very best smurf voice crying, "PRE-SENT! FIRE! *twang* *roll 8d20* FORWARD!!"

Of course the smurfs had a full-scale human-sized treasure chest at the end of the street behind the phalanx. It had been captured long ago and now it served as great bait to keep the PCs in Crossbow Alley.

As the PCs closed in for melee against the phalanx, the Climbing Crew came out of hiding. These smurfs were specially trained to climb "giants" (i.e. normal sized creatures) and do unarmed or knifing damage. Only 1 point per round, but if they reached the groin it was 2 points. And if they reached the eye it could blind the PC. Nasty stuff. (Now that I think of it I believe they had the option of doing 0 damage at the knee but forcing the victim to lose its movement for that round.) The PCs panicked and tried to pull off the climbers while still standing in range of the phalanx of crossbows. I laughed and laughed.

Eventually the strength poison took its toll. The first to go down, ironically, was the ogre PC. With 0 Str he was paralysed. The other PCs left him for dead and fled the village. The smurfs brought out their ropes and tied him down gulliver-style in the middle of town. As far as the PCs could tell they planned on eating him (they used a familiar or something to scout the situation).

At that point, the PCs wanted to try to rescue him. Had they tried they would likely have been successful, but making a getaway would've been a problem as Papa Smurf (Druid8 with a combat-trained riding puppy animal companion) heard the village alarum and was on his way. He would've showed up right about on time to intercept the departing PCs.

One thing I never got to use was Smurfette. The PCs succeeded on the spot check to notice the one blond-haired smurf running amongst the unarmed villagers. She also came out later to rope the ogre. None of them killed her, mostly by chance, but if they had all the other smurfs would've had a 5 round Rage effect because their only female was killed.

Well anyway, because that was a one-shot we never did see if they could rescue the ogre.

I can tell you though that anytime I even hint that smurfs might be among the enemy minions it sends a chill down my players' spines. I once had a smurf in a tiny cage in an evil wizard's laboratory, obviously taken prisoner for experimentation, and 4 out of 5 players wanted to kill it on sight. It actually peed out the side of the cage into one of their faces when they picked it up. The only way the LG char could convince them not to kill it was by releasing it on the far side of a fortress wall that was 500 feet thick (no typo). Even then they were nervous.

Actual quote from a campaign setup discussion:

"The ony way to reach that fabled city is to cross the borders of the Woods of Wounding, enter the Bloodcry Mountains and pick your way through the laval fields of Elda-Rhum. There, in the poison marsh, you will find the the castle you seek."

"There's got to be a way to go around that stuff."

"There was - an old imperial highway that led right to it. But alas, that highway has been blocked by a small settlement of the blue-hued."

"Smurfs?"

"Yes."

"So what gear do we need to cross these lava fields and poison marshes?"

Mwahahahahahahahaha.

Ironically, most of the smurfs were 1 HD creatures with no actual levels. I gave some the Smurven Defender template, not too different from a Warrior1 with good tactics, and some got the Climbing Crew (~Monk1?) or Rope Crew (~Expert1?) templates. These are all homebrewed. Hefty had fighter levels and Papa had those druid levels. And they were all proficient with a ranged weapon. Still, individually they're barely worth a CR 1/4. They're just nasty as heck.

[Oslecamo]

One thing I never got to use was Smurfette. The PCs succeeded on the spot check to notice the one blond-haired smurf running amongst the unarmed villagers. She also came out later to rope the ogre. None of them killed her, mostly by chance, but if they had all the other smurfs would've had a 5 round Rage effect because their only female was killed.

I still wonder how could the smurfs survive with only one breeding member.

Also, didn't the party had some area nuker or alchemist's fire? I think it would've been pretty effective against the massed smurfs.

[Shpadoinkle]

... That is awesome.

I REALLY want to do something like that now. I may have to do that before I start the campaign I have in mind.

[newbDM]

Spoiler

Show

Genre is pretty much fable/faery tale style with a cartoony spin and a moral in every show.

I've used smurfs as enemies in D&D. The first time was the very first encounter I ever DM'd that wasn't straight out of the Monster Manual. I had intended for it to be winnable... and I had intended for the smurfs to be netural beings. The local humans hated them because they stole food, but the smurfs needed it to survive. I expected the PCs to go and investigate the smurfs and then find out they weren't evil. Instead they tracked down their village and got ready to wreck it. This forever changed our view of the smurfs.

Their confidence was their hubris, for woe to them who injure a Smurf.

According to the cartoon intro the smurfs stand 3 apples high, which I believe would make their size Diminutive. But if you look at their actual size it is quite consistently smaller than that - compare them to the cat, or to the mushrooms, and you see they are size Fine. This means all their weapons deal only a single point of damage, but they almost always hit and they themselves are virtually impossible to hit. Huge attack and AC bonuses, and great stealth. So I gave them tactics to match their strengths.

The village included about 40 unarmed villagers who fled into their mushroom huts to get weapons and ropes. I made a map of the village on paper and put it over a piece of cardboard and I used pins with coloured pinheads to track the smurfs' movement on the map. They only move 1 square per round. The PCs wasted several rounds trying to wipe out these unarmed smurfs, while just 3 archers pegged away at them from a toadstool on the side of a tree.

The archers' arrows were tipped with poison. I was a new DM so I did something silly - the poison has an initial save DC of 1 but every additional dose you were hit with raised the DC by 1. In retrospect this was silly and unfair. If I ran it again they would have a fixed save DC of 6 (since the dose is so small). In any case on a failed save the poison deals 1 point of Str damage, no secondary damage. Don't worry, those points add up quick.

During the three rounds of villager-stomping and the 2-3 additional rounds of whiffing at the archers, the village alarum was sounded. Hefty Smurf used the time to rally his phalanx of 15 Smurven Defenders. The PCs finally took out 2 of the 3 archers (and the third one ran away) so they round a corner on the village main street and see this phalanx marching at them. The smurves have 2 rows of 8 crossbowmen with tower shields. One row would fire in unison, all of them at a single target called by Hefty, and the other row would hold action and then use the tower shields to provide cover right after firing. Next round the back row would move up and ready an action to provide cover, while the back row load and fire. Cycle and repeat.

I think I jangled their nerves a bit because every round I would do my very best smurf voice crying, "PRE-SENT! FIRE! *twang* *roll 8d20* FORWARD!!"

Of course the smurfs had a full-scale human-sized treasure chest at the end of the street behind the phalanx. It had been captured long ago and now it served as great bait to keep the PCs in Crossbow Alley.

As the PCs closed in for melee against the phalanx, the Climbing Crew came out of hiding. These smurfs were specially trained to climb "giants" (i.e. normal sized creatures) and do unarmed or knifing damage. Only 1 point per round, but if they reached the groin it was 2 points. And if they reached the eye it could blind the PC. Nasty stuff. (Now that I think of it I believe they had the option of doing 0 damage at the knee but forcing the victim to lose its movement for that round.) The PCs panicked and tried to pull off the climbers while still standing in range of the phalanx of crossbows. I laughed and laughed.

Eventually the strength poison took its toll. The first to go down, ironically, was the ogre PC. With 0 Str he was paralysed. The other PCs left him for dead and fled the village. The smurfs brought out their ropes and tied him down gulliver-style in the middle of town. As far as the PCs could tell they planned on eating him (they used a familiar or something to scout the situation).

At that point, the PCs wanted to try to rescue him. Had they tried they would likely have been successful, but making a getaway would've been a problem as Papa Smurf (Druid8 with a combat-trained riding puppy animal companion) heard the village alarum and was on his way. He would've showed up right about on time to intercept the departing PCs.

One thing I never got to use was Smurfette. The PCs succeeded on the spot check to notice the one blond-haired smurf running amongst the unarmed villagers. She also came out later to rope the ogre. None of them killed her, mostly by chance, but if they had all the other smurfs would've had a 5 round Rage effect because their only female was killed.

Well anyway, because that was a one-shot we never did see if they could rescue the ogre.

I can tell you though that anytime I even hint that smurfs might be among the enemy minions it sends a chill down my players' spines. I once had a smurf in a tiny cage in an evil wizard's laboratory, obviously taken prisoner for experimentation, and 4 out of 5 players wanted to kill it on sight. It actually peed out the side of the cage into one of their faces when they picked it up. The only way the LG char could convince them not to kill it was by releasing it on the far side of a fortress wall that was 500 feet thick (no typo). Even then they were nervous.

Actual quote from a campaign setup discussion:

"The ony way to reach that fabled city is to cross the borders of the Woods of Wounding, enter the Bloodcry Mountains and pick your way through the laval fields of Elda-Rhum. There, in the poison marsh, you will find the the castle you seek."

"There's got to be a way to go around that stuff."

"There was - an old imperial highway that led right to it. But alas, that highway has been blocked by a small settlement of the blue-hued."

"Smurfs?"

"Yes."

"So what gear do we need to cross these lava fields and poison marshes?"

Mwahahahahahahahaha.

Ironically, most of the smurfs were 1 HD creatures with no actual levels. I gave some the Smurven Defender template, not too different from a Warrior1 with good tactics, and some got the Climbing Crew (~Monk1?) or Rope Crew (~Expert1?) templates. These are all homebrewed. Hefty had fighter levels and Papa had those druid levels. And they were all proficient with a ranged weapon. Still, individually they're barely worth a CR 1/4. They're just nasty as heck.

Dude, this is so unbelievably awesome! I, I so wish I was in said game. Freaking awesome.

Do you happen to have more detailed adventure/campaign notes? Or was that it? I'd love to know how to properly set this up and run it.

And can you please tell me of how you led into this?

And why did they need to steal food to survive. Didn't they have their smurfberry bushes, and Hunter Smurf?

You did say it was a one-off?

And some more info on those templates would also be great.

I also love your map on a cardboard backing with colored tacks idea. Freaking brilliant!


Oh, and I believe you made a small error, though. If need be, they did have another female smurf to fallback on:

Spoiler

Show

p.s. And thanks, I guess fable/fairy tale fit this quite well.

[newbDM]

I still wonder how could the smurfs survive with only one breeding member.

They have centuries to live I guess. Plus, they eventually gained a total of three females.

If I remember correctly, though, only one was a naturally occurring female smurf. The other two were do-it-yourself kits.

[snoopy13a]

I still wonder how could the smurfs survive with only one breeding member.

Didn't the stork bring Baby Smurf?

[Darrin]

As someone who still loves this show I occasionally wonder what kind of genre of fantasy it falls under, and if such a style could be worked into a D&D (or other RPG system) campaign. I imagine you would need a very light-hearted group for such a thing, but it's just such a warm and feel good feeling this show gives you.

Fantasy is a genre, although I think you may mean, what sub-genre? The Smurfs first appeared in a Belgian medieval fantasy cartoon called "Johan et Pirlouit" (Johan and Peewit in English). Looks like the sub-genre would be a fairly generic fairy-tale or light-heared medieval fantasy.

You could do a Smurfs campaign with D&D, but I'd be inclined to think of the exercise as an example of trying to fix a leaky pipe with a sledgehammer. You'd probably have much better luck with an RPG system that lends itself a little easier to storytelling and humor, such as:

Toon (SJGames)
Faery's Tale RPG (Firefly Games)
RISUS (available free online, I think)
Some variation of FUDGE
A somewhat simplified BESM (hopefully to avoid: "Wait... so this Catgirl Smurf turned into a giant flying motorcycle and hit me with 300 long-range laser-homing tentacle missiles?!?!")

However, I now have this urge to see if Phoenix Command could be adapted to a Smurfs Campaign... seriously, haven't you ever wanted to calculate the penetration rating of a piece of fragmentation grenade going through a smurf's left kneecap?

[DarknessLord]

EPIC STORY

You sir, have clearly beaten my first custom monster, a poop elemental, by a long shot, and that has to be the best role-playing story I've read in a while.

Thank you.

[Muad'dib]

You sir, have clearly beaten my first custom monster, a poop elemental, by a long shot, and that has to be the best role-playing story I've read in a while.

Thank you.

Are you suggesting there is an elemental plane of feces? Is that where *$#! demons really come from?

[FoE]

I still wonder how could the smurfs survive with only one breeding member.

Come on! They have one female servicing a large group of males. That implies a species that lays eggs.

[Oslecamo]

Come on! They have one female servicing a large group of males. That implies a species that lays eggs.

Perhaps they're even a hive species, where the master male mates with the female and then there's dozens of drones wich do all the worck but will never get laid!

[Starscream]

You could do this as D&D. Of course, every character just gets one class feature and has to be named after it... Hi, I'm Sneak Attack Smurf!

As for smurf-sexuality (I have actually had this conversation multiple times, go me, I'm so cool...) I always assumed that they were asexual.

Smurfette was created by Gargamel in order to sow jealousy among the Smurfs. Sassette was created by the Smurflings using Gargamel's magic so they'd have a sister. The only other female Smurf is Granny, and we don't know where she came from.

So I just assumed that all female smurfs are unnatural in origin. We have seen smurfs delivered by the stork, so why would they need males and females anyway?

To me the big question is this: Gargamel first wanted to catch smurfs so he could turn them into gold. Then he apparently wanted to eat them. If he can create his own smurfs from scratch, why does he need to catch them? Do the artificial "female" ones not taste as good? Do they turn into pyrite instead of gold?

Edit:
Thanks, Poet, now I totally want to start a band so I can call it the Smurven Defenders.

[Zenos]

Funny, I just read about that. Possibly because he is evil, and/or hates them?

EDIT: Or maybe "counterfeit" smurfs decrease the value of smurfs as a whole?

[Winthur]

Play a xvart.

[Pronounceable]

I'd say smurfs don't breed, seeing stork brought Baby Smurf. And they're children's cartoon creatures, they aren't supposed to do that kind of thing. Plus, the difference between males and females is only having hair. And what's under a smurf's pants or Smurfette's skirt is never shown (I hope), so far as we can tell there's no biological difference.

Where storks get new smurfs from, that's a big question mark.

To me the big question is this: Gargamel first wanted to catch smurfs so he could turn them into gold. Then he apparently wanted to eat them. If he can create his own smurfs from scratch, why does he need to catch them? Do the artificial "female" ones not taste as good? Do they turn into pyrite instead of gold?

Do we now what Smurfette is made of? There could be all sorts of gross and disgusting ingredients in her.

[raitalin]

Me and a friend actually came up with a theory that involved the Smurfs being a form of sentient fungus, and hence did not reproduce sexually.

And of course you realize that the smurfs are a bunch of commies, hence their dislike of Brainy and his dangerous ideas. Vanity's idleness is also constantly derided.

[Darrin]

To me the big question is this: Gargamel first wanted to catch smurfs so he could turn them into gold. Then he apparently wanted to eat them. If he can create his own smurfs from scratch, why does he need to catch them? Do the artificial "female" ones not taste as good? Do they turn into pyrite instead of gold?

Gargamel needs at least six smurfs before he can turn them into gold. As you said, Smurfette was originally created to lure the smurfs back to Gargamel where he could catch enough of them to... make a potion? I don't remember the exact specifics, but I think it involved boiling the smurfs in a pot. She was a frumpy skankish brunette until Papa Smurf took her into his "workshop", performed some "mysterious ritual", and she came out as a fun-loving bombshell blonde with high-heels.

Obviously, the cost of materials that goes into making six smurfs from scratch would be more than the amount of gold they could create (perhaps this is the First Law of Smurf Ecomonics and/or Thermodynamics?)

It could also be that the manufactured or "faux" smurfs wouldn't work with Gargamel's formula. As far as I know, the whole six smurfs = gold thing has never been successfully completed.

[Tengu_temp]

Me and a friend actually came up with a theory that involved the Smurfs being a form of sentient fungus, and hence did not reproduce sexually.

So Smurfs are Orks? Awesome.

[Ghal Marak]

So Smurfs are Orks? Awesome.

I've actualy seen a short comic of something almost exactly like this. Smorks or something like that. Though... well it's difficult to describe.

Huh, a brief google search dosen't turn it up. Wierd. Oh well, I'll post it whenever I get home.


EDIT: Oh, I did find this. Link Enjoy.

[The Rose Dragon]

It could also be that the manufactured or "faux" smurfs wouldn't work with Gargamel's formula. As far as I know, the whole six smurfs = gold thing has never been successfully completed.

Actually, Gargamel had 99 of the Smurfs captured several times. It's just that the remaining two always managed to rescue them.

Which means Gargamel needs all of the Smurfs to do whatever he wants to do with them, because he never attempted anything with the 99.

[Oslecamo]

So Smurfs are Orks? Awesome.

Believe it or not, you aren't the first one to come up with that theory:

Spoiler

Show

Censored for language.

[cdrcjsn]

To me the big question is this: Gargamel first wanted to catch smurfs so he could turn them into gold. Then he apparently wanted to eat them. If he can create his own smurfs from scratch, why does he need to catch them?

This is like Wile E. Cayote ordering expensive equipment from ACME corporation in setting up elaborate traps to capture Roadrunner in order to eat him.

If he has the money to order that stuff, why doesn't he just get some take-out or something?

[Ghal Marak]

Believe it or not, you aren't the first one to come up with that theory:

Spoiler

Show

Censored for language.

Ah, this is exactly the one I mentioned in my post. Awesome.

[Cubey]

This is like Wile E. Cayote ordering expensive equipment from ACME corporation in setting up elaborate traps to capture Roadrunner in order to eat him.

If he has the money to order that stuff, why doesn't he just get some take-out or something?

Come on, the bird is so annoying that anyone would plan overcomplicated death traps to take it down!

And I guess Gargamel might have pbsessive compulsive disorder. He needs all the smurfs and doesn't feel capable of turning them into gold if there's any less, even if he might technically be able to.

[Telonius]

Story of Awesomeness

Your last name wouldn't happen to be Tucker, would it?

[Shpadoinkle]

To me the big question is this: Gargamel first wanted to catch smurfs so he could turn them into gold. Then he apparently wanted to eat them. If he can create his own smurfs from scratch, why does he need to catch them? Do the artificial "female" ones not taste as good? Do they turn into pyrite instead of gold?

Smurfette wasn't a real smurf as Gargamel created her, she was essentially a golem that looked like a female smurf. After some initial trouble, Papa Smurf cast a spell or something on her (Reincarnate? I dunno...) that turned her into a real (more or less) smurf.

[Thurbane]

Play a xvart.

Good point. Actually, it would probably be quite easy to re-fluff a Jermlaine as a Smurf...

Come on! They have one female servicing a large group of males. That implies a species that lays eggs.

I now have this mental image of an Alien-queen-like Smurfette, with a bloated ovipositor plopping out egg after egg in a breeding chamber!