Thus, by popular demand (or the demand of some popular people) MACHO WOMEN WITH GUNS has been revived by the D20/OGL company Mongoose. I wish they'd just retained the original system, a bare-bones point-based rules set that bore perhaps too much resemblance to GURPS. As is, I'm not so much sad that the new game is D20, as I am that it's actually based on D20 Modern. Because, except for the Massive Damage Threshold rule, I don't think D20 Modern works as well as D&D 3rd Edition, STAR WARS d20 or even Dragonstar (which is something of both). On the other hand, Mongoose has done a pretty good job with both the rules system and the game setting as given.
Physical Quality MACHO WOMEN WITH GUNS is a 192-page hardcover on high-quality paper, costing about 35 bucks US. Simply in terms of materials, it's worth it, and within the current industry price range. The layout, using white pages and (nice touch) neon-colored headers, is clean and easy to read. On the down side, there are several typos (the 'Zap' spell on page 84 comes in two versions, but the text only shows half of each). The cover and interior art (by Nathan Webb and Andrew Dobell) is serviceable but way too cartoony. This is one case where the book is clearly inferior to the old version- in the BTRC game, Darrell Midgette's art was kinda cartoony too, but not as much, and he could make women look hot and macho at the same time.
Character Creation Character generation is based on D20 Modern rules, with PCs classes organized into generic categories like Tough, Fast or Smart. What makes it work? Two Words: CUP SIZE. In addition to basic stats and beginning class, the game uses an arcane and deeply unrealistic formula for female measurements (pp. 26-27). Modifiers are applied to a base that is determined by your character's starting class. Naturally, the Charismatic Heroine has a base cup size of D, which kinda points up the fact that D&D has identified female Charisma with bust size all along. I actually think this makes the D20 Modern setup work better- if your class system is based on a set of archetypes that barely works for recasting Scooby-Doo, it seems to fit when used for a setting one intellectual level below that.
The game also uses the D20 Modern rules for Occupations. In addition to actual occupations like Dominatrix and Police Chick, this category is used for original MWWG 'classes' like Batwinged Bimbo or Renegade Nun. There are also a few other appropriate types like Naughty Schoolgirl or Witch (more on her later). Then you have the rules for determining measurements. After that, they go over unique Feats, a category which is used for some of the powers/advantages from the old game, such as Hotline to Satan and Run in High Heels. The game also includes a version of the old game's disadvantage system (here called 'Heinous Drawbacks'), including self-explanatory flaws like Top Heavy or Used to be a Man, along with my personal favorite, Balancing Priorities ('1d10 rounds into each combat, you recieve a call in regard to your other commitments' to a child, SO, etc. and have to leave the game until the scene ends. I just like this cause I know some gamers who have this Drawback in real life). Drawbacks, depending on category, may or may not be 'bought off' (as detailed under each) and each is worth a certain number of points that can be used as detailed on page 27, allowing for bonus points for skills, Abilities, and of course, bust size.
Equipment After the chargen section, the book lists game stats for weapons and armor that are generally consistent with D20 rules, with average prices listed in US dollars. In this game, armor and clothes also have a Charisma Penalty depending on how unflattering they are. Of course, this penalty is voided if you have the feat Look Good in Armour. Miscellaneous items are listed, depending on their availability in the area. And then, they have stats for guns, without which the title of this game would look a little odd. This section includes firearms of various nations and maintains the time-honored English-speaking tradition of bashing the French ('FAMAS G2: The assault rifle used by the French. Its lightweight and aesthetic design mean they are less likely to discard it while running away, saving the French military millions on replacements').
Mucho Macho Magic The old version of MWWG didn't have rules for player character magic-users, probably because it also didn't have an Intelligence stat. But with the game's cheesy Lovecraft references updated with cheesy Buffy the Vampire Slayer references (pp. 100-1) they now allow you to play a Witch as your starting Occupation. In this game, all characters have reserves of mana that can theoretically be used to power spells (in addition to the Witch's spells, mana is also used for the supernatural powers of Nuns and Demons/Bimbos). Thus, each class rolls a Mana Die in addition to the standard Hit Die. Note that if you choose to be a Witch at 1st level, you WANT your first bonus feat to be Mana Battery, which gives you maximum "hit points" on Mana, in addition to the +1 point/level you get for being a Witch.
Basic spells use the feat system, and since you'd have to use your generic feats from every third level to get these spells, a Witch's repertoire is going to be rather limited. However, the spells themselves are not only very broad (with Zap being used as the base of all attacks) but usable with multiple applications. For instance, a Protect spell can be used to a) give the recipient a bonus to Defense, b) give the recipient a resistance rating vs. a certain element (cold, fire, etc.) or c) be used to cast a ward over an area, requiring the designated target (e.g. dragons, Republicans) to make a Will save to enter. In addition, there are various lost grimoires (including the 'Delvings & Dingos Players' Guide') that could be used to cast miscellaneous spells outside the feat system. However, in the tradition of both Lovecraft and Charmed, you need to be reading the book in order to use its spells.
Fighting Like a Girl Combat is based on D20 Modern, but deliberately modified. ('Macho Women with Guns requires a change in thought, something more akin to its characters, fast and loose.') In particular, no one is considered flat-footed unless caught by surprise or unable to move. Other neat innovations encourage you to pull outlandish combat stunts for extra Action Points, and include a pretty good D20 system for called shots. And to convey the right flavor, detailed rules are included for catfighting, in which the manuevers do Charisma damage as the combatants are bedraggled. They also mention that in the game setting, wrestling is considered the only honorable way to resolve a feud, and this is always done in public, in a pit of mud or other goo. This is an interesting bit of flavor text, but begs the question of why a supposedly female-dominant society would retain cultural traditions based on white-trash male chauvinism. This is the problem with adding too much setting flavor to MACHO WOMEN WITH GUNS; it causes you to think too much about the subject. Like, at all.
Gamemastering/The Setting After presenting a list of Advanced Classes (many of which, as in D20 Modern, are logical extensions of the basic hero classes), the book has a short section on properly game mastering MWWG, pointing out two things that ought to be obvious: The rules aren't that important, and you're supposed to have fun. One point they make (and which I'll address later) is: "Humorous games are not the easiest ones to run or to play. Apart from horror, a good and humorous atmosphere is the most difficult mood to sustain. It really helps if you establish a formula to the game and if everyone is actually in the mood to have fun and a laugh." As the game uses/rips off almost every popular game genre, the book does brief overviews of how each genre works for a MWWG game.
Next, they present the official game setting, logically extended from the sorta-Apocalypse/Road Warrior feel of the BTRC game. To sum up, a moronic President with a Southern accent ends up starting World War III on the pretext of flimsy evidence. (Yes, the book was released during the US invasion of Iraq, and in his Afterword, the author does ask himself if people would be sensitive to the issue.) But the gender imbalance of the post-war world was, unbeknownst to humans, caused by a virus that space aliens used to remove the male opposition and make it that much easier for them to score Earth chicks. However, the plan backfired, as even the new breeds of mutants and alien hybrids were mostly born female. In addition to the post-nuclear landscape (which naturally is so hot that bikinis are typical gear), enclaves of civilization include San Francisco (whose gay population was immune to the virus), Los Angeles/Los Diablos (ruled by Satan himself, building an empire of luxury from his deluded customers) and the state of Texas, controlled by sexist, homicidal maniacs with a fixation on firearms. As they say, good to see that some things never change.
Afterwards, they present a list of monsters, i.e. "Cannon Fodder." This was one of my favorite parts of the old game, with its Dadaist monster list like Crow with a Machine Gun, Isaac Azathoth, and Three Adjectives and an Animal. There are all the old standbys, and a few new ones, like the Texas-made hunter-impregnator robot and the human-looking Sperminator, both of which are designed to subjugate women and get them pregnant. Actual rules for such are not included, meaning that you actually have an excuse to use this game with the Book of Erotic Fantasy. (Oh, come on. I KNOW you have one.)
OVERVIEW Macho Women with Guns is, like most of Mongoose's product, pretty high quality D20 material. There are at least two reasons why you might not want it, though. MWWG, in both its original and D20 versions, seems like one of those games (such as HoL or even Hackmaster) that would be a lot more fun to read than to actually play. That is, there's enough of a rules system there to actually play it seriously, but the game setting is so played-for-laughs that it can't be played seriously.
Which would not be a problem if people were in the right spirit. But even the designers point out that humor is hard to pull off consistently in a game, and this setting is supposed to be humorous by definition. And I've found that with the amount of time and mental effort players spend in making a PC and getting in character, they have a very brittle sense of humor where said characters are concerned (as I found when our Hackmaster game disintegrated over one PC giving a Barbarian PC the 'wuss-slap'). And when the whole premise of the game involves playing beautiful girls and having them threatened with molestation by Texans and other slimy monsters, not to mention the even greater likelihood of getting killed in a gruesome and embarassing manner, I don't think the typical (as in male) gamer is likely to accept the possibility of being so humiliated. Well, put it another way: Some gamers have come to accept the idea of getting killed or driven insane by the minions of Nyarlyhotep. It's something else to get killed by J. Edgar Hoover in a frilly dress.
That's the other problem with the D20 Macho Women: It's almost too good for its subject. Again, the original BTRC game was essentially GURPS Lite before the term was devised, and packaged in basic, coverless paper volumes. They were the closest thing that role-playing has had to Cheapass Games- along with stuff like Kobolds Ate My Baby!. The fact that the D20 version costs 35 frickin' bucks not only underscores the NEED for a 'cheapass' RPG line, it kind of defeats the purpose. I think that BTRC (which went on to produce several 'real' games, none of which I recall right now) produced MWWG cheaply not just because of budget but because it was supposed to be a very bare-bones, silly combat game that only tangentially resembled an RPG. Thus, it didn't matter so much that you couldn't take it seriously. The fact that it *worked* was a bonus. (As Greg Porter says in the Introduction, 'I playtested it once, which resulted in the changing of one rule. It is still a better game system than some I've seen...') By design, Mongoose took the opposite tack and used these ideas as the base of a full-fleged D20 game. Overall, giving the setting not only a D20 revision but a high-quality $35 hardcover book seems to be a bit much. It's like Peter Jackson making an epic film trilogy out of Six-String Samurai or Bubba Ho-Tep.
On the other hand, that might be right up Jackson's alley. And I'm sure Bruce Campbell could always use work.
Overall- Style: 3 High physical quality and clear layout marred by typos and mediocre art. Substance: 3 Mongoose takes the D20 Modern system and makes it fit the older game's setting.
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