CAH series idea

[Slant]

Okay, having mulled it over for a few days I finally know what sort of series I want to put together.  I am going to combine two 80's genres: fantasy and anthropomorphic.  Which is to say, I want a sword & sorcery world where there are no humans, but instead humanoid animals.  The viking types would be polar bears, etc.  

My query is, HOW anthropomorphic should I make it?  Should they be animals who stand on their back legs and talk, but STILL look very much like animals (like the ninja turtles, Usagi, etc), or should they be more human in appearance but still with very recognizable animal traits (like Thundercats)?

And how should I set up the fantasy world?  Well, specifically, how should I set up the fantasy races?  Would all wolves live in one city  and all pigs in another, for example?  Or would a large city contain a mishmash of all types of animals living together?  

The important thing is that it has a definite 80's attitude (swords slice through metal, but heroes always attack their foes with the flat of the blade; all slightly shady heroes learn a moral lesson and become better for it; bad guys always escape and return with another world-shattering plot, etc).

If anybody has any ideas, let me know.  I will keep you all posted as my campaign takes shape.  Right now I am running a LotR campaign that is simply incredible and will probably go for a good year yet, but I want to have something lighter to throw into the mix when LotR becomes too intense.  CAH is perfect!

[Wulf]

Your idea bears a certain similarity to mine (as detailed in the thread "Getting Anxious") as mine will also have to cope with a fair number of 'bestial' humanoids. Mine is based on a combat-oriented LARP I play in, which includes a lot of Beastmen, who include lots of different 'types' (really, they all use the same rules, you just make up your own costume) - including Polar Bears. Frost "Frosty" McGurhigle was a great favourite for a few years, until his untimely death (after which we discovered he may have been a huge behemoth of a beatman, but had no more hit points than a normal human...).

Now, clearly as it's a LARP, those were of the distinctly humanoid variety. The more animal sort reminds me of the old RPG and comic, Albedo Anthropomorphics. Were it a cartoon, I think I'd prefer more human-like faces. As a RPG, I'm undecided.

As to cities, I'd go for a real-world look - as in, races will mix when friendly, but in another country you'll always look like a foreigner. More cosmopolitan cities on trade routes and major ports will have a greater mix. The REAL question is, will you allow cross-species romance... and that one I leave to you and Charles Darwin.

Wulf

[Goose]

check out http://www.sanguine.com/Ironclaw/.  Ironclaw is a good background with a not so great system.  Good place for ideas though.

[Evan Waters]

There's also a game called WORLD TREE dealing in anthropomorphic fantasy.

I can definitely see this working for CAH, though.

[Slant]

I vaguely remember Ironclaw.  A friend of mine was really hot to get us all to play it a couple of years ago.  Then, the same week we were supposed to generate characters for it, D&D 3rd Edition came out.  Like every other gamer in the world, we stopped everything we were playing and jumped right on the d20 bandwagon.  Yeah, Ironclaw looks cool, but it looks a bit "advanced" for an 80's cartoon.  I want to keep things vague.  You never saw a map of Eternia in MotU.

Another fun little animal-type game is a small-press rpg called Supermegatopia which is about anthropomorphic superheroes that is heavily into Marvel/DC parodies.  It is fun to pull out and play every now and then, but there isn't enough to it to provide a full-fledged campaign.  I created a scenario where the hero group The Offenders (they got their name because sooner or later they piss off EVERYBODY) went up against the milk-curdling evil of Apocalypse Cow (three guesses on what villain SHE was a parody of).  Fun, but not enough to build a campaign on.

My CAH game (tentatively called "Beastlands" is going to be very sword & sorcery oriented.  No guns, democracies, or long-standing civilizations.  This is a world where wizards are feared and the bad guys can create huge armies to wipe out (or enslave) individual kingdoms in the blink of an eye if the kingdoms don't forge alliances fast.  Large portions are "off the map" so if a character wants to be mysterious they can just claim to be from a far-off land and leave it at that, and like most 80's cartoons it lets you play fast and loose with geography.  (Just how far away IS Cat's Lair from Mumm-Ra's pyramid anyway?)

I have run the idea past a few of my players, telling them they can be a little silly if they want to.  One wants to be an enormous brute of a warrior, all muscle and attitude, who is actually a bundle of neurosis beneath his barbaric exterior and is terrified of the water, even though he comes from a viking-style culture.  Another wants to be a teenaged feline princess who wants to run away and find a life of adventure.

More as it develops.

[Wulf]

Then, the same week we were supposed to generate characters for it, D&D 3rd Edition came out.  Like every other gamer in the world, we stopped everything we were playing and jumped right on the d20 bandwagon.  

I've rolled precicely two dice for a D20 game so far... and I have no great desire to add to the total. I will be trying out Mutants & Masterminds though (OGL, but not the full D20).

Wulf

[Eddy Fate]

Try The Questing Beast at http://www.randomordercreations.com/tqb.html.  That might give you a few ideas.

That being said, I'm a fan of "animals that act just like humans" - there was a very obscure anime called "The Adventure of Sherlock Hound" that I loved (only because I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan).  If you can dig it up, it might help you as well.

[Goose]

I've rolled precicely two dice for a D20 game so far... and I have no great desire to add to the total. I will be trying out Mutants & Masterminds though (OGL, but not the full D20).

MnM is a good game.  I currently run a Friday night game.  If I ever have to do a d20 game again, I will adapt from MnM and use the Damage Save with no Hit Points or Classes system.

[Slant]

Thanxx Eddy; I'll check it out 2nite.

I personally enjoy M&M (the game, not the snack.  Well, the snack too) and I have to say that the just-released Freedom City Sourcebook is truly a great read (if a bit on the pricey side).  In addition, a new d20 superhero game just came out and from what I hear, it is very well done (and only 20 bucks, just like games were back in my grandpappy's time). I think it is called "Vigilance."

Here are some ideas for my Beastlands CAH game:

*  The races are evolved animals: mostly humanoid but with some  traits that make it obvious that they were once animals of a certain type (very short fur, pointed and tufted ears, scales, tails, claws, fangs, tusks, horns, etc).  There are tales coming that "far to the East" people have been slowly regressing to animal form, as thousands of years of evolution are being undone.  A rag-tag crew is gathered to discover the cause of this regression and to put an end to it before it reaches civilization and all of the Beastlands becomes a wilderness of simple animals.

*  The world's single good wizard gathers together the people who will undertake the quest, all of whom he saw in a vision.  He gives them this cryptic news: In the future, one of them will become the greatest King (or Queen) that the Beastlands will ever know, but one of them will also become the most dangerous threat the world has ever known.

That's all I have right now.  We have two people who want to be cat-types, a fox, a rabbit, and a rhino (!)

Let me know what you think, or if you have any ideas.

Ciao

[Eddy Fate]

*  The world's single good wizard gathers together the people who will undertake the quest, all of whom he saw in a vision.  He gives them this cryptic news: In the future, one of them will become the greatest King (or Queen) that the Beastlands will ever know, but one of them will also become the most dangerous threat the world has ever known.

Now you really should read that link.  ;-)

[Shadeling]

check out http://www.sanguine.com/Ironclaw/.  Ironclaw is a good background with a not so great system.  Good place for ideas though.

Now, now, lets not slam other systems here. Ironclaw's system is perfectly decent for some people. Different strokes for different folks.

[Goose]

check out http://www.sanguine.com/Ironclaw/.  Ironclaw is a good background with a not so great system.  Good place for ideas though.

Now, now, lets not slam other systems here. Ironclaw's system is perfectly decent for some people. Different strokes for different folks.

You are quite right.  It is not a horrable system and I did not intend to sound down on it.  I like the background, the system is just not to my taste.

[Shadeling]

check out http://www.sanguine.com/Ironclaw/.  Ironclaw is a good background with a not so great system.  Good place for ideas though.

Now, now, lets not slam other systems here. Ironclaw's system is perfectly decent for some people. Different strokes for different folks.

You are quite right.  It is not a horrable system and I did not intend to sound down on it.  I like the background, the system is just not to my taste.

Cool.