Eric Ugland's Scamps & Scoundrels: The Bad Guys, Book One

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's too many hours spent playing World of Warcraft and Everquest. Maybe it's being a tabletop RPG player. Maybe it's just a general geekishness. But, whatever the reason, I sure do love me a good Lit RPG story. And Eric Ugland's Scamps & Scoundrels, The Bad Guys: Book One fits the bill. It's got the action. It's got the drama. It's got the clueless protagonist who doesn't seem to get the fact that the girl wants him. Okay, that last one isn't necessarily a requirement for good LitRPG but, if you're a geeky guy, you've probably been him at some point so it's easy to relate to. I love characters I can understand.

I did have to read the first chapter or so to get to the actual GameLit part of the story. At the beginning of the story, our hero (known in the game world as Clyde Hatchet but at the beginning as Ben) is burgling a house with its owners home. Someone tries to burn the house down while he is in it (God help the people who live there) and next thing you know, he's waking up in the hospital and can't move. Then he's offered a chance at another life...

Enter the game. This is when it gets fun. And maybe a little weird. See, in most LitRPG the main character immediately turns to hardcore leveling/acquistion/etc. It's like playing an MMORPG in the real world. Not so much with our buddy Clyde. He has a tendency to kind of loaf and just try to survive. He makes a friend, helps her out, gets a nice reward and...

Doesn't level much at all. Scamps and Scoundrels may be the first LitRPG I've read where the protagonist gets a job and just tries to function in society, at least for most of the story. I like it. I mean, he does a bit of fighting in his job and has a tendency to n00b it up (Seriously, who doesn't know that you can only fight a gargoyle with a magic weapon?) but it feels familiar in a way that some LitRPG just can't. 

And it's also weirdly awesome that Clyde takes a class (actually, makes a Choice. Apparently this game doesn't have Classes) that reflect what he did in the real world. It makes sense. He was a thief in the real world and now he's a Rogue, but gaming is usually about escaping what we do in the real world. He wants to continue with what he always has been. It's oddly satisfying. 

Another oddly satisfying thing about Scamps and Scoundrels is that the main character is a good dude in a lot of ways and that's key. Michael Corleone was a thief, a murderer and a racketeer but the man will do literally anything to protect his family. Tony Soprano is just as bad but, not only is he a dad and a husband, but he gives to charity and we he is going to counselling and trying to make himself a better person. 

Clyde is a similar type of guy. He gets hurt in the fire that kills him trying to rescue the family trapped inside. I won't say he does it in the most intelligent manner possible and it's entirely possible that he took risks that an actual fireman would not have, but he does it. He goes out of his way to help others through the whole story and yet he wants to make his living by stealing things. 

Clyde is also smart enough to know how dumb he is, and that's key. He finds help wherever he can. He gets training to be a thief. He gets training to use magic. (And yes, it's a bit weird that he's a magic casting rogue. So what? It's fun. I'd play that character.) He finds help in every form he knows that he needs to. I like that. If you've ever played an MMORPG, you've probably needed help starting out. (Thanks Persifinee, Myronath and Iinien!) Clyde needs help. Clyde gets help. And yes, Clyde blunders, but hey, who doesn't?

I cannot remember the name of the planet on which Scamps and Scoundrels takes place but it takes place in the city of Glatun, capital of the country of Glatun. Glatun is a weird place. In some ways, it's a typical medieval European town. But in other ways, it almost feels like the Coalition from Rifts. Magic is outlawed.  Elves (and Clyde is an elf) don't seem to be very popular. Danger abounds, and not all of it is human. 

On the other hand, Glatun does not equal the entire planet. There are a multitude of other nations and places. Clyde gets a peek at all of them when he's choosing his initial spawn point. I'm not convinced that he picked the right place. Don't get me wrong. It's a good story. But I'm hoping that at some point in the series (and this is book one of ten) I'm hoping we get to see more of it. Then again, worldbuilding is best done when starting small. So maybe, just possibly, Ugland knows what he is doing.

I’m not saying I’m in a big hurry to read the rest of this series. I’m just saying that when I got to the end of the book and left my tiny little “I’m too lazy to write a big review on Amazon using my phone keyboard, so I’ll do like thirty words” review (You guys all do that, right? It’s important!) that I dropped my phone trying to get the second one and it slid under my pillow (what, you don't read in bed?) and I panicked thinking my phone was about to get swallowed by, like the Sarlacc or the Jaberwocky or sumfin' that it took me a whole thirty seconds to fish the phone out (narrowly avoiding having it end up between the bed and the wall. THE TERROR!!!) and get the next one on Kindle Unlimited. It was a panic inducing experience. I survived it though, and the next book is already on my phone just waiting for me to get off of this computer and go read it. So that's what I'm going to do. In the words of the great philosopher Foley, "Have a Nice Day!"

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Bronze Short Swords

Scamps & Scoundrels: The Bad Guys, Book One
Eric Ugland
All Quote Publishing, 2019

Scamps & Scoundrels: The Bad Guys, Book One is available at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.