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Before I continue this conversation, I'm going to turn on appropriate music.
*puts on "Final Countdown" by Europe*
Let's take a magical journey back to that time when the two most powerful nations to ever exist (you know, minus China) seemed poised to destroy one another in that far distant time of the years of 1945 to 1991. Yes, the Cold War.
As stated, this isn't a Cold War sourcebook, it's a pair of super hero teams with recommendations on how to play them along with new members in a time of paranoid world destruction being potentially imminent. I didn't expect a Cold War sourcebook but I'm kind of sad that it isn't one because I believe it could have been a very enjoyable one since Mike Lafferty's style is breezy and enjoyable to read.
The best use for this by M&M game masters is to position the two super hero teams inside the book as existing in Freedom City or their own home brewed lands during the Cold War as the government's official super heroes. The characters are certainly flawed and jingoistic (or falsely so) enough to be the product of government selection. They're also given excellent advice on how to be role-played in order to fully realize them.
The first part of the book gives the options for RPGing the characters during the Cold War and post it. Honestly, I'm going to say that Mike tried a little too hard here and probably should have stuck this sourcebook squarely in the 1980s. The options for doing a Post-Soviet Union fall team are nice and all but really the meat is all from the fact these two nations hate each other.
I want to state that I am very pleased with Mike's decision to have a running theme for this book and a take on the Cold War that he keeps consistent. This is is a very "80s" take on the Cold War with the emphasis on the characters not being so different (almost all parallelling one or the other). While he cites "Red Heat" as an example, a better one would be G.I. Joe and the October Guard. Two damn near identical teams (each one equipped with "the Chick" no less) fighting against Cobra.
The Soviets are not villified nor are the Americans lionized or the reverse. The two groups of heroes are essentially a group of people brought together by uncaring governments for the greater good and performing a job. It's an unsentimental portrayal but it has an honesty that works out fairly well for the supplement.
A large portion of the book essentially is taken up by role-playing suggestions for how to get players into the feel of being Cold War stereotypes. They're all here with the "Rivals who turn into friends", "Romeo and Juliet", "Old vs. New" heroes, and "Political vs. Apolitical." It's a neat little narrative tool for people who want a little less free-form and some more unpredictability in their RPGing. Not much help for those crazies who write 10 page backgrounds but not everything is written for everybody.
The actual characters themselves are divided into the Freedom Alliance and People's Revolution. Essentially, each character gets a Cold War history and also how they interact with everyone else. In a nutshell, the only thing these people dislike as much as the opposite side is each other. It's a nicely dysfunctional pair of families and it's easy to understand why both sides will have members who like the other side much better than their teammates.
Pleasantly, they're so analogue characters though some of the backgrounds a bit weak ("I was given my armor by the government" Really? That easy?) I'm especially fond of John Bull and Iron Ghost (weird that I love the unrepentant unlikable ****). John Bull has the Thing style deformities mixed with a British upper class stiff upper lip while he's essentially tormented by the hurtful antics of a Texas Jonny Storm (Lone Star).
Iron Ghost is just a hardline communist **** and its strange that such a one dimensional character makes me like her. I think I just like it how Mike bluntly states she's not so much the perfect communist (A Krushchev/Breshnev loyalist who loves Stalin *AND* Lenin clearly knows nothing about the idealogy). In actuality, Mike coolly states she's just a kiss *** that's trying too hard to get a promotion. There's one in every office.
The adventures exist to throw the Russians and Americans together in a variety of Silver Age scenarios that don't so much fit the theme of East vs. West as merely exist to show they're both more similar than different. It helps prevent the party from working against one another, which is the exact opposite of the book's theme. This, of course, culminates in the obligatory showdown with SPECTRE....I mean the Nazis on the verge of nuclear Armageddon.
The adventure is really the best part of the storyline with the rating of this supplement going up a whole point SOLELY because Mike was intelligent enough to realize that Defcon 1 goes DOWN not UP, a mistake that people have been making since the movie Wargames. The paranoia is only lightly touched because You Only Live Twice had all Hell breaking loose in the world when Defcon 1 hit (one of the best parts of the book was the RL reminder the closest the USA ever came to war wasn't the Cuban Missile Crisis but 1983). Here, it's mostly just a backdrop that exerts itself as much on the story as Spies like Us with Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray.
Ice Palace base in Antarctica is a wonderful creation though because you can pick out all the wonderful nods. Nachtjagger isn't Overshadow nor is his home Nifelheim but there's some (probably deliberate) similarities that this adventure could be dramatically beefed up to do a invasion of SHADOW headquarters grand finale. Let's face it; there's nothing wrong with any story that has Nazi Supermen (literally), Nazi Werewolves, Nazi Clones, and Nazi Robots in Antarctica.
It even has the described Defcon board that's a must in these scenarios with a countdown since The Spy Who Loved Me.
Specifically, this board. Clearly, the players rolled poorly in this adventure.
http://hackreport.net/images/defcon5.jpg
While I would have loved some Warsaw Pact vs. Adventures, this is against that theme. It's a book about reconciliation rather than division. So I give the book a very nice 6 for excellent art and a great theme plus a good outline for an adventure plus interesting characters. I also raise it to 7 for good art, technical accuracy, real Russian, and propaganda posters that make a great theme. Also, a willingness to portray the Americans and Soviets as jackasses.
Bravo.
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