[Cynthia Celeste Miller]

Thanks for the very fair and insightful review, Patrick. I do, however, want to address a few things written in the review.

Nor did my copy have the series guide, which I think will have a sample setting.

Actually, the appendix contains three full, ready-to-run series: Warriors of the Cosmos, Strikeforce Freedom and Transbots. Each series features a backstory, character creation guidelines, setting history, interesting locales, sample episodes to run and, of course, loads of characters.

In the realm of anime, CAH:S2 would work well for Slayers, Pokemon, or other lighthearted or "kids" shows.

The first sourcebook, After These Messages... will have a section that deals with adapting/running anime and kiddie shows with CAH:S2 (along with live-action 1970s kid-vid shows).

The first edition used broad, present Traits like Athletics or Stealth. Personally, I liked this approach and was sad to see it go. As the GM, you are always forced to make a judgment call whether or not a Trait is appropriate or not, which was something I did not enjoy when I ran Truth & Justice. Also, player-defined Traits are very hard to balance and differentiate. What is the difference between Con Artist and Fast Talker? Isn't Crack Shot (which might only apply to guns) more restrictive than Soldier (which could cover all weapons and other out-of-combat uses)?

I understand where you're coming fom. However, one of the reasons I switched to a more freeform Trait system was because having a definitive Trait list seemed too confining for the genre, no matter how exhaustive it was. Furthermore, it defeats the freewheeeling nature of the game and genre if you have to pour over a long list of pre-made Traits. Sure, questions may arise about the difference between "Con Artist" and "Fast Talker", but common sense sorts it out easy enough. They are essentially the same, in this case, the differences lie only in the color they provide.

For The Dragon Warriors of Xim, I created eight pregenerated characters (6 PCs and 2 NPCs that could be run as PCs if needed). This proved harder than I thought it should be. With 30 build points, you can give a PC 7 Traits at rank 4 (World-Class) and still have points left over. To me, this seemed far more than I needed or wanted.

Please keep in mind that the 30 PoPPs allotment is just a default, a guideline. Each series will have its own PoPP total and I would certainly suggest less than 30 for creating teenagers. The Series Guide always tells exactly how many PoPPs characters receive.

Ick. I'm sorry, but I really dislike random advancement, especially when there is no randomness in character creation.

Generally, I'm not a fan of randomness in character advancement either. However, for a genre as whimsical as the retro-toon genre, I feel it's appropriate. If you don't like it, I might suggest simply adding 6 to the Experience gained.

Cynthia not only mentions that, but also gives suggestions on how to integrate those kinds of details into the game; it's in the section titled "Cheese and How to Use It."

Not that it's important or anything, but the "Cheese" section was by far the most fun section to write.

Too often when I read a roleplaying game, I have no idea what to do with it. Even a good game may leave me without the inspiration or motivation to run a scenario. Some of the most detailed and rich settings can leave me thinking, "yeah, but what are the PCs supposed to do?" After reading CAH:S2, I wanted to run something. Ideas were popping into my head with every page and I couldn't wait to get started.

I cannot stress enough how happy this makes me. When I write a game, I try to ensure that there's an immediate sense of "Okay, this is what I can do with it". I never try to limit what can be done, but I like to give a strong direction that can be used out of the box, so to speak.

At any rate, I really do appreciate the review.