Post originally by Eddy Webb at 2004-06-21 11:37:57
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Thank you very much for the very detailed review! I'd like to address a few of your comments, if I may.

<i>I would have to add the 1990s comic book Wetworks (published by Wildstorm) to the list, as it is possibly closer to the Dark Brigade concept than any of those listed, even G.I. Joe!</i>

I've only recently been informed of the existance of this comic, or I certainly would have added it to the list. I would like to actually locate some issues to read at some point, but overall the concept sounds dead-on with DU.

<i>My biggest criticism of the book is that the channel order is completely backwards. First they give you the solution to the problem (the Dark Brigade), then they tell you how to tweak the problem to your own tastes (the Gamemaster channel), and only then do they state the problem.</i>

I'm not sure what "problem" you refer to here. The intention was to present the book in two halves - the player's half (background, character rules, and ready-made PCs) and the GM's half (GM suggestions and rules, NPC antagonists, and story ideas). In my experience, players who don't want to read the whole book will usually stop reading at the point they see "GM's chapter". :-)

<i>For example, the cover art clearly shows some nameless grunt soldiers fighting on the side of the Dark Brigade, but they are never mentioned inside the book. I wanted to know who they were, how to handle them (good guy Goon Factor?), and so on.</i>

You're correct - that's left open. They could be PC heroes, they could be another nation's army coordinating with the Dark Brigade, or they could be DB grunts. Again, it's an homage to the genre - the G.I.Joe organization is staffed exclusively by the main characters... until the writers need a lot of grunts for a big scene.

<i>Also, the book states that the Brotherhood of Death has taken over the fictional South American nation of Santa Cisco, but this conflicts with the fact that most of the world’s population has no idea that these supernatural creatures even exist. So it’s not clear if the Brotherhood is the actual government of Santa Cisco, which would seem to bring them into the public eye, or if they control it from the shadows using human puppets to hide their presence.</i>

I had envisioned that they had control over the country's President, not acting as the actual governmental structure itself.

<i>The “not enough” criticism also extends to the vehicles. In the 80s, I watched the GI Joe cartoon, read the comic book, and played with the toys. Both G.I. Joe and their enemy, Cobra, are largely defined by all the cool vehicles at their disposal. However, the Darkness Unleashed book only gives a small sampling for each faction. I was hoping to see a lot more vehicles for varied terrain types and situations (i.e., a swamp buggy, an arctic snow tank, and so on).</i>

I would love to have them as well, but space only allowed so much material. However, since the vehicle rules are fairly easy in CAH, filling these gaps should be no problem. If time permits, at some point I would like to do an article for our CAH e-magazine <i>After These Messages...</i> with more vehicles for both sides.

<i>Overall, my complaint with the art would be the same that I have with the core Cartoon Action Hour book – not much of it feels like it was actually peeled off my TV screen during a Saturday morning cartoon marathon. A lot of it is just fine as far as RPG art goes, but I’d like to see the artists strive more for the look and feel of the cartoons that are the game’s inspiration. When a piece of art does capture this feel, I think it goes a long way toward envisioning the way the game should be played, with the proper 1980s action cartoon mindset.</i>

Art is always a tricky choice, but we've opted for a more comicbook/80s revival feel, because... well, let's face it, most 80s animation was pretty bad. We wanted to go for "cool" over "authentic" - it's one of the few places in our books that we didn't go for pure 80s feel.

<i>My only complaint would be a personal pet peeve – I hate when a character writeup begins in the middle of a page because it’s harder to locate it on the fly.</i>

Agreed. I had originally wanted each character to have a one page writeup. However, various technical problems prevented that. :-(

<i>By making it a bit grittier, maybe using the increased horror suggestions in the Gamemaster section, it could easily be played as a more serious campaign setting without any of the 1980s cartoon trappings.</i>

I actually briefly ran an online game called Dark Brigade: Shadow War which was intended as a modern revivial of the Dark Brigade cartoon set in 2004. It didn't last very long, but the website is still up with the background and my optional rules, if people are interested.

Again, thank you for the very comprehensive review!