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Cynthia and Eddy did, that much is obvious. And these two know cartoons. 1980's action cartoons, that is. Advertised as 2 books in one, CAH includes complete rules for playing games based on those nostalgic cartoon shows we all love, and a complete "campaign setting" book for the Warriors of the Cosmos: Iconia series, inspired by He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
After hearing a bit of hype on the forums about this game, I went out and picked up a copy out of sheer curiousity. From the moment I read the opening lines of the foreward, I was hooked. And it only got better as I went along. See, what Cynthia and Eddy have done in this game is not to concentrate on any specific genre. Rather, they set out to prove that "1980's Action Cartoons" are a genre unto themselves, which spans, combines, and mixes all different subgenres. I was skeptical at first whether or not this could be done well. I mean, how do you design a game that handles giant transformable robots just as well as one who handles power swords and battle cats? Well, let's look at the specifics, as they appear in the book, and examine how this is done. Settle in, cuz I've got a lot to say and a lot of praise to heap.
Oh, did I mention that this book doesn't have chapters? It has Channels. A bit more flavor-based charm that brought a grin to my face.
Channel 1: Introduction This section is your standard introductory fare. What is a role playing game, what do you need to play, what's the genre we're dealing with, and what are some of the conventions. Hard to screw up this section, but I've seen it done in the past. Fortunately, the authors breeze through here no problem, and even introduce us to Kargorr, their powermad tyrant mascot, who pops up every so often throughout the text to insult the authors and throw snide jabs at the system. More on Kargorr later, but suffice it to say, it's nice to see that the authors don't take themselves too seriously right off. Too many games try to be completely "academic" in writing style these days, forgetting that the rules for an RPG must be entertaining to read as well as the setting. There's no problem with that, here.
Channel 2: Characters Here's where the meat of it comes in. With a project as ambitious as this, character creation has to be just so, or it won't work. I read this over a couple times, and was thoroughly impressed with the work here.
On the forums, Cynthia has referred to CAH as somewhere between rules lite and crunchy. I suppose I can sort of agree with that, though I must say that all of the crunch is located in the character creation section. One of the more innovative parts about character creation in CAH is that there are NO ABILITY SCORES. That's right, boys and girls. Your character has no strength, intelligence, constitution, or wisdom scores here to worry about. Presumably like many old-school gamers, at first I found this a bit awkward. However, it grows on you pretty fast, and saves some time by presuming that characters start out average in all areas. Since few gamers want to play below-average characters, this is quite a time saver.
But, you ask, what if a player does want a character who is, say, weak as a 90-lb high school dork? What if a player wants a character who is as dumb as a rock or timid as a mouse? Well, the answer is there in the form of Traits. Traits cover everything from skills to natural talents to physical attributes. Players use character points to purchase traits that represent their character's aptitudes, and can take negative traits to represent areas that are sub-par for the hero. As expected, negative traits give points back that can be spent elsewhere. Any Trait that has a score of zero is considered to be average; common sense rules, as always. There's little chance that even Superman could perform open heart surgery, for example, but that doesn't mean he has to take negative levels in the Trait. It just means that without ranks, he doesn't know how to do it at all. Some rules lawyers might scream, cry, and think they've found loopholes in the system ("Well then, I'll just take -1 in everything, even after I max out my negative ranks; then I can still TRY stuff") but the game is careful to remind the GM to adjudicate common sense with these issues.
Now we get to the fun part: powers. In order to cover all the vastly different types of action cartoon series, CAH needs a power system that is flexible, broad, and adaptable. To this end, it uses a custom Special Ability (SA) design system, similar to that found in games like Tri Stat or Hero System, though far more straightforward and simplified in its approach. I've never been a fan of power construction systems like this, but must confess that CAH went a long way towards winning me over, because the implementation is so intuitive and straightforward.
Special abilities are divided into categories like Offensive (OSA), Defensive (DSA), Transformation (TSA), and Miscellaneous (MSA). These categories are mostly just for quick reference and classification, and for those purposes it helps to have the classifications there. After determining which type of SA is needed, the player decides what the hero should be able to do with it, selects the appropriate elements to define the power, and these elements when combined give effects, limitations, usefulness, and point cost for the power. I was impressed to see that there are sections covering robots, vehicles, gadgets, animal companions, and an appendix at the end even gives optional tweaks for things like groups of spells and giant transformable robots.
Perhaps the most amusing part of this section is where Kargorr pops up to show you just how exactly you can munchkin the system to create cheap, world-breaking powers and items, an example of something that the GM should "just say no" to, in Eddy's words. It's refreshing to see an author who not only acknowledges that their system can be munched...but shows you how to do it, just to get it out of the way.
Other bits and bobs are covered here, including the Oomph Score, representing that little something extra that heroes have, Stunt Points which allow you to do extraordinary things, Hurt Points (Hit Points for all you claccicists out there), and etc. Most of these are fairly common fare, and are implemented well.
The end of Channel 2 provides a bunch of sample characters to show how the construction system comes together. Just as charming, many of these characters are obviously inspired by some classic tunes which I'm certain readers will recognize.
Channel 3: Using the Rules and Channel 4: Combat This is where the crunch fades away, almost into nothingness. I've combined these two chapters, because they both deal with practical application of the rules, and the system stays the same for the most part through out. Play should be smooth and efficient, working off of a number of D12's (and that in and of itself is a reason to buy the game), plus Trait, vs. a Target number decided upon by the GM. Combat is resolved by contested rolls, and is pretty standard: initiative, hit, dodge, take damage, lather, rinse, repeat. Special attacks like charging are covered, as is vehicular combat (a highlight and one of the better vehicular combat rules sets I've seen, just based on simplicity and functionality).
The two most interesting, innovative, and true-to-form (for the genre) elements are the Goon Factor rules, and what I like to call the "Not Really Dead" rules. Goon Factor represents how difficult it is for a hero to overcome a standard sized group of "goon" soldiers. Remember those clone-like Cobra Troopers that would assault the Joes en masse, and always get clobbered? Well, rather than having to play out a long combat against 5, 10, or 15 scrub bad guys, the entire group is assigned a difficulty level based on various factors. The player rolls a combat test against that difficulty level, then describes what his character is doing to mop the floor with all those goons. Nice, quick, and well in spirit with the game. If he fails the roll, the hero's Hurt Points are reduced to zero and he is considered "captured," unless another Hero is free to attempt a rescue (overcome the goons).
The "Not Really Dead" rule governs what happens when your character runs out of Hurt Points. Remember, nobody ever dies in those old cartoons (except in "The Movie," but believe it or not, there are also guidelines for running the movie episode). Thus, whenever Hurt Points hit zero, something happens that removes the character from play temporarily. A structure falls on him, burying him beneath rubble. He is captured. He takes a club to the head and is knocked unconscious. All possibilities that will allow the character to be back by the next episode.
The last few Channels are geared towards helping the GM run the system, and providing sample settings for play, all inspired by various classic cartoons such as G.I. Joe, the Transformers, He-Man, and Josie and the Pussycats (In Space, of course). These sections are as well-written as the rest of the book, and provide a wealth of information that can help get the game going and keeping the spirit of the genre intact...including a lexicon of 1980's slang (a very nice touch. Brought a tear to my eye).
All of this takes up roughly half the book, 108 pages plus character sheet.
The second half is an expanded series guide for the Iconia world setting. Fortunately, I won't need to extend this review by half again to provide an overview of that. It's just as well-written and constructed as the rest of the book, including an overview, a "real world" history of the fictional cartoon series, characters, villains led by the skull-headed sorcerer Nekrottus, and places of note in Iconia, and story seeds for an 11 episode season. Everything you need to get up and running with the game right off the bat, and more examples of how all the rules in the first half of the book come together. Sadly, Kargorr disappears in this section, as he's the product of another fictional series, but I thought it would've been nice to see him inserted as a lesser evil overlord, a sort of Hordak to Nekrottus' Skeletor. Or perhaps more appropriately a former overlord who was inept and overthrown by Nekrottus, and now plots the restoration of his power.
I had very few problems with the book overall. Typos are at a minimum and better than many first-time indie publishers do. In some places the art is inconsistent, either too amateurish or too mature to represent 1980's cartoons, but overall it's enjoyable and easy on the eyes. My biggest issue (and this is just a pet peeve of mine) was the jagged columns of text. I'm a big fan of justified text in neat columns. But this didn't detract nearly enough from the game to make it not worth buying. Truth be told, the biggest problem I had was which of my favorite classic series to take on with this game! It says a lot that this game would be better suited to the old D&D cartoon than, well, D&D ever was.
Overall, this game is one of the best values for my cash that I've seen in a very long time as far as RPG's go. I'm very much looking forward to picking up the Dark Brigade and Transbots series books when they come out, and if the upcoming Prime Time Action Hour rpg from these guys is half as good as CAH, it will be a must-buy.
So now you know...and knowing is half the battle.
