One Bad Card: Murf's First Law

Murf's Laws: A Card-based LitRPG #1

by Kyle Johnson

All it takes is one bad card to screw the whole game...and Murf just pulled one hell of a bad card!Murf is a professional gambler, a confessed liar and thief. He's a coward who's known to be overly friendly to other men's wives and daughters, and he's fled more than one town just a step ahead of people who want his head on a pole--or something much more painful. Cards are his life and livelihood, but he's never taken one of the Unity's magic cards into his soul to become a Holder because honestly, it seems like a horrible way to live to him.

At least, he hadn't until that choice was taken from him, and the Mother of the damn Deck planted herself inside him.

All Murf wanted was to play some cards, win some money, and maybe enjoy the company of some women with fairly loose morals. Instead, he's got bounty hunters after him, Holders who want to kill him, and some shadowy villain who wants the card that he's got stuck inside him. And all because he drew one bad card...

Murf's Laws is a card-based LitRPG series. It's got mild profanity, a fair bit of violence, non-explicit amorous encounters, and an MC with a dirty mind and matching sense of humor. And, as Millie keeps insisting, "No harems!"

Genres: Fantasy

545 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 18, 2024

About the author

Kyle Johnson is a kids gymnastics and martial arts instructor who teaches outside of Chicago. He's worked on cruise ships, traveled the world, climbed glaciers, ziplined between mountains, and even danced in the end of a rainbow.

Currently, his main hobbies include helping his wife raise their two kids, because after that, who's got time for hobbies?

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book one

Anyone that has followed my reviews for any length of time would know that a book with this many mistakes in it would normally get about three stars...... Except I laughed a good bit through this one.
I also enjoyed all of the characters. Even the side characters came through to me as individuals.
Give this a shot. It's a damn fun read.

9/10 Laughter is good for the soul.

[NOMAD · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is good, but even though it says no Harem there is a lot of sex discussion and innuendo. Normally it is a fade to black type thing, with only one explicit scene.

The MC is very promiscuous. So if the sex talk and innuendo is not your thing this book may be a bit rough for you.

Other than that, the book starts off kinda slow but then really picks up as the MC moves through his arc. We learn a lot about the world and how the cards work through other characters education the clueless MC. The good thing is he doesn’t stay clueless and it doesn’t turn into the not very bright MC trope. Though he doesn’t stay clueless, he does stay a womanizer throughout. Maybe that will tone down in the next book as the constant horniness takes away from the story with its frequency.

[Cmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murf is a totally likeable protagonist and if he wasn’t such a womanizer I'd like him even better. In actuality his womanizing turned out to be a non-issue and soon it became a bit of a joke. This is the story of a professional gambler and what happens when he plays at the wrong table. How he's left for dead, but instead of dying he gets his first soul-card! Poor Murf all he wanted to do was take it easy, gamble, win the top prize in the city's trianual tournament, and then leave. And of course you know that's not gonna happen now. Not in this action-packed litRPG, it's just not in the Cards! But Murf's all in...
If you've bumped into any of my reviews before you're prolly aware that I love beast companions, and wow Charlie the ferret takes the cake! Born from a seed found as loot from a dungeon dive. After sprouting(?)/hatching(?), yeah sprouting sounds about right! And Charlie for his part keeps growing in power from each card he steals and eats. I expect Murf will start feeding him cards too! Ohhhh yes I need the Next book, like yesterday 😆!
Thank you author gods for answering my prayers and releasing another absodamnlutely FannnTastic deck-building book into the wilds of the www! So get the book or be square! Start building your deck one card at a time.

I found a plethora of quotes that might amuse you:

"Nobody gets out of life alive, after all."

"About the only good thing about that was that the two impacts sort of held me up instead of knocking me sprawling. The bad part was that I got a personal introduction to how grapes feel in a wine press, and that definitely outweighed that tiny positive."

“I’m not happy right now!” “Well, there’s a whole bunch of things to vent on.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “Go to town.” “I will. And I’m pretending they each have your face when I stab them.”

“It’s not a bunny,” I shouted back. “It’s a bunzelle!”

"Murf’s thirty-third law: If you’re the best player at the table, you’re playing solitaire.”

"... felt__foul. That really is the best way to describe it. It felt like the inside of your mouth after a night of way too much drinking, far too much spicy halfling food, and maybe a couple attempts to rinse it all out by gargling sewer water."

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now THAT was a good read! I could hardly put it down. A, I wouldn't say "good" character, but a super interesting one. He called himself a thief, coward and lady's man. But I never saw him steal anything of importance. He used to be a coward, definitely, but not in this time frame. A lady's man? Oh, yeah. But no harems! (which even became a meme within the story; I loved it.) Harems are so misogynistic, but two people knowingly having fun together; that's the way it should be.

Interesting magic system. This is the first card-based LitRPG I've read. I'm not into any story involving the Tarot deck, and I've never played any card-based games, so I've been avoiding them. Now, I'm no longer going to. The rules were explained, they are consistent. It all made sense (in a magical world of course). It was super interesting learning about it all.

I loved the witticisms. I laughed out loud no less than two different times, and I can't even remember the last time I've done that. When the MC and his friend just rip apart (with words, not blades) a hapless bureaucrat; hilarious.

I'm literally going to start the second in the series after I post this. I know book 3 is not out. I SO wish it was!

[Thomas Kung · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for more of a CCG based LitRPG, but that really wasn't what this was. This was far more a Tarot / Poker card based LitRPG. That said, it was still a pretty good story and certainly hooked me for the length of the book. I may even go back and read more of the series at a later date. Still has a lot of the usual tropes that I almost expect to find in a LitRPG novel, the MC has gotten the most powerful card almost completely by accident. A far more luck based, gambler sort of story, but enjoyable.

[Trey richardson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Childish

The obsession with womanizing is annoying and the character reads as if from a 15 year old imagination. It ruined the book and made it hard to get into. This is now the second series from this author that has riven to be horrible. I loved the sorcerer series. It was mature and captivating , I’m not sure why the author has gone down this childish route of writing.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antagonist makes weird decisions

It was an enjoyable story, but i found the antagonists making strange decisions that just so happened to move the plot along and permits the protagonist to survive.

Eh, fine. I wish we could have had something more clever than dumb decisions, but its a common thing in stories so that they don't end prematurely.

Fun story overall.

[Scott Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun ride, with the breaks on?

Can’t express how enjoyable this book was to read. Between ridiculous situations and Murf’s … ribald sense of humor, and his lack of … respect for authority. And of course, he would never be anyone’s choice for a hero.
A little bit of romance, but definitely no harems. At least not by the end of this book.
Hoping we get more adventures with Murf and his “crew”.

[Jonathan Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended

A great read and I very much look forward to the next. I read a lot and this was definitely one of the best I have recently read.

[Robin Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very fun read. I've always liked bad boys and Murf plays the part perfectly. Add in the majic and it makes for a very entertaining read. I just bought the sequel and I love series books so I hope he decides to do a trilogy.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining read, but all the non main characters are unbelievably bad, which spoils the immersion.

[Allan MCcormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun book, Super fun protagonist

Murph the MC is an asshole in extremely enjoyable ways, The power system is fun and gambling being plot centric is a blast.

[Vader · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish