I love this game

This absolutely rules. The idea of an endless urban sprawl of displaced people is something I want to chew on endlessly, like bubblegum, and I do wish it was slightly expanded on. However, the snappy and succinct way everything is described is also a masterstroke that I can't really argue with. When reading through a rule book gives me a solid foundation of what the world is, how to play and what it'll feel like to run the game after a single read-through, I know the game's good. For clarification, this game's fuckin great. As someone who's a sucker for magic systems, particularly more freeform ones, the system here is genuinely masterful. So full of style, and my brain is abuzz with ideas for cool characters and ways to do magic. Maybe someone who loves rare birds and so only collects cards of them, flighty and nervous who might release a flock to defend themselves...maybe someone with one card, of someone near and dear to them, using it just to hear their voice...someone with cards filled with rocks, simple and hard to beat but will Cain your ass. The vibes here are something so unique, snappy, popping and brilliant as well, slamming into your bones with such great art. I can get a sense of this world. It feels familiar. It feels otherworldly. It feels magical. It feels unique. It feels like home. If I'm fully honest, the biggest feeling I got from this game was "I am so so excited for when or if the maker of this releases Bubblegum Cultists". But that's just because I am always enchanted by the ideas presented by the sections touching on cultists. If I had one nitpicky complaint, it would be about the Vampire Lord, who must be ensnared in an "alchemical circle made of sunlight" to be Carded. Nowhere else in the book is this sort of thing brought up, and my reaction was "Oh, wait what? I guess alchemy is a thing now...? How does that work? Eh, maybe I can make it buyable or just as something in the Store, or from some NPC." It felt a bit unclear and sudden. But when my only complaint(albeit before running the game, which I certainly plan to do. Funnily enough it made me more excited to GM that to play, just cause I wanna sink my teeth into this whole world so bad.) is a single line on monster entry, I'd say that's the mark of a pretty amazing game. Thanks for making this.

I can't stop looking at the illustration of the fucko missing a glasses lens getting a gun an knife shoved in their face. The vibes of this game are immaculate.

Bubblegum Wizards is a vibrant and surreal urban fantasy that I think might be closest in genre to something like Earthbound or Yakuza Like A Dragon or maybe Seinfeld---although it clearly walks its own path.

The PDF is 23 pages, rad, dipped in colors that work in perfect counterpoint, a lite brite of rules text and gorgeous vibesy illustrations.

Lore-wise, you are a wizard and you live in the city that all cities became. You get your mana and spells from a lingering piece of the non-city world called the Corner Store, which sells them as bubble gum and trading cards. You use them to fight vampires.

It's rare to see a game concept swing this wildly, and it's beautiful when the bat makes contact with the pitch. The setting WORKS. It taps into some sort of primal nostalgia while also giving you creative room to freewheel and get weird---as long as you can do it with a straight face.

Imagine, like, a citypop version of Tsutomu Nihei's Blame! or Daniel Polansky's A City Dreaming. That's what this is.

Mechanically, Bubblegum Wizards is on the cusp between lightweight and medium weight. Think Blades In The Dark.

You have Vibes, which are skills you roll, and you also have Thresholds, which determine how much sweat (damage) you can take phyiscally, mentally, or socially before you start rolling to see if you take serious consequences. You also have Luck, which you can use to soak damage and manipulate dice, and which you gain by gambling hp on difficult rolls.

In addition to these stats, you have gumballs and foil cards, which you can take social damage to purchase from the Corner Store. Cards can be tapped against objects or creatures to permanently take on their power. Bubblegum is spent to trigger card effects.

The costs and effects of cards are loosely handled by the GM, so this is definitely a design-while-you-play-it kind of game---but in an engaging and fun way, similar to the Jojo's ttrpg.

Character creation involves picking a class, which comes with a starting package of items, but a lot of what you *do* as a character involves what you choose to card and how you manage your luck levels, so your class choice doesn't really lock you into a playstyle. Advancement is minimal, and only boosts your stats and thresholds by small amounts at the end of major arcs.

For GMs, advice is given on running the game, and there's a bestiary, but a lot of what you're doing is introducing plot beats, ticking clocks, and giving the players lots of fires to put out. If you prefer simulationist style play, Bubblegum Wizards might not click with you---it's a narratives and currencies game all the way through.

Overall, this is one of the best rpgs I've read lately. I say that a lot, about a lot of games, but that's because a lot of games are good. Bubblegum Wizards in particular is good at presenting a wonderful, intuitive setting, mechanics that perfectly match its style, and a neat little engine that rewards freewheeling and design-on-the-fly. If anything I've said here sounds good, absolutely get it. 

Minor Issues:

-By raw, I think you can cheese Luck, using it to reroll dice on wagers and negate the sweat gain from failed wagers. The GM can immediately put a stop to this, but if they don't clock the issue in time it could be disruptive.

Beautifully written and designed. The rules are easily understood and catch the eye!! Perfect for ADHD freaks like me. I love the aesthetic of it all. I highly suggest you check this and Psychhopunk out. Gormengeist is an awesome game designer.