The Complete Caveman’s Club Book is a supplement for Wingnut Games’ RPG of Stone Age savagery and stupidity,
Land of Og. In the game, our Neanderthal friends attempt to survive in a decidedly hostile world -- dinosaurs, fire, rain, rocks and other cavemen are trying to bump them off. That is, if their own limitations don’t do the job first. Of course, their chances of survival would be greatly enhanced by proper, efficient communication. Unfortunately, cavemen only have access to a vocabulary of eighteen words -- and the word vocabulary isn’t in it. Even more unfortunately, not every caveman knows all of these words, so communication takes place through these few words, gesture, pictures upon the walls and grunting. Lots of grunting.
The Complete Caveman’s Club Book is laid out and illustrated in the same style as the Land of Og core book. The first part of this supplement provides a range of cavemen speciality kits for each of the classes in the basic game. Thus you have ‘The Complete Strong Caveman’s Club Book’, ‘The Complete Fast Caveman’s Club Book’, ‘The Complete Healthy Caveman’s Club Book’, and so on. Each describes the typical day for a member of that class and also how they view the world. For the Land of Og player, this gives them a useful handle upon which to hang their roleplaying of the various classes. Every class has three kits -- thus the ‘The Complete Fast Caveman’s Club Book’ has ‘Running To’ Fast caveman, as well as ‘Running From…’ and ‘Too Fast…’ Fast Caveman. Likewise, the Banging Caveman has the Barehanded, Whacking and Standoffish kits, and the Smart Caveman has the Qualitative, Quantitative and Philosophical kits.
Every kit boils down to a bi-polar advantage and disadvantage. Thus an Impressively Strong Caveman has the advantage of Distraction, which enables him to perform an impressive feat of strength and distract all those around him. Unfortunately, it also has the disadvantage of temporarily weakening him. Doctor Healthy Caveman can heal others, but for some strange reason has vowed not to harm others until they attack. Standoffish Banging Caveman is great at throwing things, but less so at direct armed attacks.
The second section of The Complete Caveman’s Club Book presents a guide to how each of the various types of cavemen view cavemen of the various classes. Unfortunately, this is written in a slightly awkward and askew fashion. It takes a single class and describes how all of the other classes view it, before going onto the next. It would have been easier to have presented this information the other way around, that is, listing how a single class views all of the others, before moving onto the next. In this way, players could gain an insight into how each class of caveman think and interact with the others in a far quicker manner…
The Complete Caveman’s Club Book also introduces the concept of cities to the Land of Og. This is probably the most amusing section of this supplement as it describes the metropolises of Ogopolis -- a Neolithic parody of New York, the fishing town of Fish Head and the rather dangerous Fire Town. All three are sketched in enough detail for the referee to use as given, or add a little more as their game and imagination needs.
Finally, the book is rounded off with a sample adventure, amusingly titled ‘Etching L1 Smelly cave, Small Thing’. It is a pity that the author did not choose to make use of the section on cities around which to base the scenario, and really this is just a rather simple affair.
To be honest, The Complete Caveman’s Club Book reads as a sort of Land of Og ‘splat book’. You have to be a dyed in the wool Land of Og devotee to get the most out of this supplement and even then, I am not sure that it really represents decent value for your $10. The best part of The Complete Caveman’s Club Book has to be the section on the three settings, each is an amusing and useful addition to the setting, but the rest seems overwritten and merely adequate.
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