Konosuba TRPG Review – I Guess I’m Playing Table Top Games Now

What have I gotten myself into? When picking up Konosuba TRPG for review, I could have never guessed that I was about to be transported back to a time of playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends. In many ways, Konosuba TRPG is an excellent way for fans to feel like they’re a part of this world while also getting everyone who plays acquainted with the TRPG genre.

Upon opening this book, I would suggest reading through the written replay of the game. This is a transcribed adventure where you can learn the rules of the game while also simply enjoying an adventure. There are also a few tips shared that may be useful in normal play. Further, when I first received the game, I couldn’t get any of my friends together, so reading through the replay held me off and made explaining the game more manageable since I didn’t have to waste hours reading while answering questions. I’m sure every fan of board games has been in that situation.

There are a few ways to quickly start playing with pre-created characters available. I would strongly suggest this method for first-time play. The character creation is extensive and requires a lot of back and for between pages. It can be a little tedious as you construct your character, but if you plan on playing multiple times and going on more adventures, consider putting the time into this aspect.

Skills and equipment can be chosen, which become more necessary throughout the adventure. However, I will say that a lot of the fun is determined by a good Dungeon Master, which I am not. This overseer has control of the difficulty, and chance aspects of the game, while crafting the narrative based on player input. Players will make skill checks during normal play and respond to any events.

There are multiple scenarios available as you progress through the game. These are shown with maps as well to visually see what is going on. I will say that the text is tiny, which caused me to get lost in the pages. Looking at the digital version, it seems like that problem exists there as well. Still, the scenario section is much more organized than the character creation, so I had a decent time getting through scenarios with everyone using pre-made characters. Just know that the first you create a character, it could take upwards of an hour depending on how much depth you want to get into.

Although the GM holds the keys, the scenarios are incredibly straightforward to make that job as easy as possible. In fact, I’d say this is the perfect way to introduce the genre to players. There’s a nice variety of imaginative situations, but with the added structure of the scenarios. I should add that the comedic tone is heavily present, which gives the adventures a nice layer of zaniness that allows players to get creative.

Konosuba TRPG offered me a few fun evenings with my friends. Many of them aren’t fans of the source material, but seeing them do weeb shit and enjoying it brought a smile to my face. The character creation system takes a good understanding of the base game, and the text is kind of small (Even worse through the digital release which has low-res assets), but this is a well-constructed RPG adventure.