Kingbeast's Lair

-== What is it? ==-

RAWR!: The Monstrous Adventure Game is a role-playing game geared for families. The players take on the roles of humorous monsters who are fighting to save the Land Of Dreams from Nightmare and his evil minions. RAWR! was written by David G Martin and published by Protagonist Games. The artwork was done by Dan Houser, Matthew Dolan, and Sarah Hill. It was released in January 2012.

The PDF is colored from start to finish. The book is 6.3” x 9.5” and is 130 pages in length. The first 45 pages of RAWR! are the rules and the rest is a sample campaign. That means you are paying for 85 pages of sample campaign material. I am reviewing a PDF copy that I bought then printed out in 8.5″ x 11″ size and had spiral bound. I have not played the game I have only read the book.

-== What I Like ==-

The system presented in the first 45 pages of the PDF uses a simple 2d6 plus modifier system. Math is kept very simple for younger players. Monsters are built with Attributes, Skills, figured Stats, Gear, and Abilities. The system presented by RAWR! should be VERY easy for people to pickup.

RAWR! contains several sample PC that are each given their own page and artwork. Having a large sampling of example PCs is great for folks who are new to role-playing games.

I’m not sure it is needed but the rules could very easily be hacked to get a different feel. It would be easy to make the monsters tougher, weaker, etc based on what the GM wants to do.

I really love the artwork in RAWR!. It has a childlike flair and bright vivid colors. It would be really cool to get a color copy if I decide to run this with my kids.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

The RAWR! rules include something called Fright Factor. Fright Factor is essentially a morale check that players must make whenever they meet a Nightmare minion. These rules feel to me like they would be stifling for most younger kids. Why should the good guy brave monsters get scared so much that they have mechanical penalties?!? Not sure I would use these rules with my boys.

The campaign section is WAY too long. As I mentioned earlier 85 pages of the book is dedicated to the sample campaign. That means 2/3 of the cost for RAWR! is for the campaign material. I really think a much shorter section with 1 or 2 really well done adventures and a page of hooks would have been plenty. By shortening this section the publisher could have reduced the cost of purchase and made it smaller and easier to digest for newbies.

One of my biggest complaints with the campaign presented in RAWR! is that in more than one sample adventures NPCs jump in and either act as the heroes or steal their thunder. This is a really poor practice. Stealing thunder from the heroes is not fun for older players and would really stink for a younger crowd.

Adventures in the presented RAWR! campaign also include fights the PC are not supposed to win. For example, their goal might be to only delay their foes. From my experience this is a hard concept for younger crowd to grasp especially if they are not told outright that this is their goal.

I would have really liked to have a section on advice for writing adventures for kids. Most folks who would pickup RAWR! have experience writing adventures for adults but they may not have any experience writing adventures for kids or in the RAWR! style.

The maps in the campaign section are very simplistic. For the most part they are completely useless and should be removed or made smaller so that they do not take up so much space.

I found several minor typos and formatting inconsistencies in the product. RAWR! could use an editing pass.

More can be done with the RAWR! character sheet to make the product even more accessible to newbie role-players. One helpful addition would be to have the simple stat formula on the character sheet. For example, Defense = 7 + Speed + Monstrous Ability Modifiers.

-== Summary ==-

This was a really difficult review for me to write because I really wanted to like this product. I am a big fan of the monster hunting genre and I thought my boys would get a kick out of playing silly monsters who are after other bad guy monsters. By dropping some the fear rules and coming up with my own adventures I could make RAWR! work but I was hoping for a better base product. Right now the product is on sale for only $9.99 at DriveThruRPG and I think that price point is great.

You can get copies on DriveThruRPG at this URL for $9.99.

I give it 6 out of 10 paws.