| Arcnus Magicus, Sitcom Wars, Deuxterra, Rathaspar and all materials herein are Copyright Arcnus Magicus 1990;2006. All Rights Reserved. |
I received an invitation to beta-test a new RPG last October. I am a Star Wars fan from way back,
and an old school gamer. I looked at the title and assumed the game was a parody on Star Wars.
The Force was with me when I started looking over this new system.
Sitcom Wars: the Alien Menace Role-playing Game is intended to ‘allow players to create and
portray personalities similar to any classic TV genre.’ Happy Days, Bewitched, Mork and Mindy,
Kung Fu, I Dream of Jeanie, My Favorite Martian, Mission Impossible, the A-Team and even
Parker Lewis Can't Lose are credited as the many inspirations for the game system. I can imagine
that several other uncredited programs also served as inspiration. I was thinking ‘this is from
Buffy’, ‘this is so X-Files’, and ‘this is what? Dukes of Hazzard?’ as I studied the rules.
I can honestly say that I have never played a game like this before!
The Sitcom Wars system is designed to be fast paced and funny, though the rules indicate that
the game can be played gritty, campy, wacky, magical or something in between. Once I got
started reading, I assumed Sitcom Wars would be a humorous sci-fi game, with a vaguely Star
Wars feel. Well, to be honest, we got that, sort of, and more!
The rules are laid out in a way that allows gamers to create and use what they want from the
source material, and there are loads of options! Those expecting a Star Wars parody will be
disappointed. Someone expecting TV Land goodness will geek out! Let me explain.
Sitcom Wars: the Alien Menace is the first of game system’s three core rule books. Obviously, the
game's primary mechanics are explained here, but it is the little extras that grabbed me. First, two
character types, Humans and Orkans are detailed at different portions of the book. I could not
initially understand why the Human Characters are introduced early on, and the Orkans so much
later, but it is a good strategy as the two introduce the various game mechanics without bogging
you down with rules.
Humans have the potential to become ‘Cool’ and use Cool Effects, ala the ‘Fonz’ from Happy
Days. Or, they can do just about anything else the game system offers. An alien race, the Orkans,
are much like ‘Mork’ from Mork and Mindy. These guys age in reverse, and have a riotous list of
various ‘Orkan Maladies’ that mess with Orkan characters almost as much as everyone else. From
the look of them, it seems that the designers combed through tons of episodes when researching
the game.
The Alien Menace also includes a campaign setting intended to be a launching pad for new
players. I really liked that the designers opted to include a campaign setting, as I found myself
scratching my head on how to put together a game session to test the system with. Although the
game can be played during virtually any era or location, the provided campaign setting is placed
during the 1950's in a fictional Illinois location called Harker County or Hillsdale. The
designers even included some guidelines for building a unique setting outside of the meta-plot
introduced in the various rule books.
A few short adventures, referred to as ‘Episodes,’ continuing the Star Wars themed presentation,
are also provided as tools for teaching the basics of the game system. I combined the short
adventures, and played through them in a few hours. We laughed our asses off over some of the
dryly presented material, "Theoretical Lobotomy," "Our Friend the Mucous Membrane,"and
"Funkenschweiller's Guide to the Human Nose,” sound like good reading to anyone? To be
honest, we cracked ourselves up as much as the system did. The designers really knew how to
provoke some slapstick if that is your bag! On the flip side, Sitcom Wars can be played as
deadpan as any Dragnet or X-files episode I have ever seen.
Fans of the short lived ‘Eerie Indiana’ will get a kick out of the many quirky NPCs in the Episode
Modules. I have to admit, I was expecting typical High School shenanigans such as plots ripped
from the movie Porky’s or Revenge of the Nerds, though I was pleasantly surprised with the
provided story arcs.
The GM (referred to as the DJ) portrays most of the NPCs as usual, though the players are
encouraged to spontaneously play other bit parts when their characters are engaged elsewhere.
The object of the controlled chaos this type of play creates is to keep the DJ on his toes. A good
DJ with a group of spontaneous players will never know when or if the game might deviate from his
storyline.
The DJ's Playlist is the second book for the Sitcom Wars system, introducing the bulk of the other
character types, new and expanded rules, and tries to shake things up from suburbia USA. The
Playlist builds on the Harker County Illinois campaign setting introduced in the Alien Menace,
though most of it is back story and meta-plot suitable for a campaign in any setting.
New character choices include Witches and Warlocks, Genies, Spies from a secret FBI division
called Bureau 37, Martial Artists, and several alien races are introduced. All of these options gives
theSitcom Wars game a plethora of options for players to explore almost any television concept.
Space travel and combat is governed using and an admittedly weak space combat system, that is
surprisingly elegant and flexible. The designers claimed to want to put the emphasis on role-
playing, and not tack on a full fledged space sim into the game, though I found their simplified
engine to be about as good as early editions of other space combat sims. Fans of FASA’s Star
Wars or Battletech will catch on in a hurry. One weakness, the starship and Starcraft creation
process is a little quirky and sometimes vague. The provided ships however, are fully detailed.
For those DJs not wanting to become bogged down with 3-D dogfights in space, a series of Skill
Tests can resolve most encounters in a hurry.
The real treats in the DJ's Playlist are the rules governing Witches, Martial Artists and Psychics,
known as Mentalists in the game. All of these classes can be imagined in campy or serious
incarnations. Think of Scooby Doo’s Shaggy imploding his enemies heads ala Scanners! Or
maybe an old school Kung Fu beat down is your cup of tea? You want to torment the nosy
neighbor lady across the street with random magical hi-jinks? Done and Done!
Our other offerings for the system include the newly released Sitcom Wars: Attack of the Nielsens,
the system's third core rule book that takes the game through the 80’s and early 90’s, a DJ's
Screen with charts that actually are used commonly during play, and dozens of Episode Modules.
The designers nicely walk you through the entire process of character creation step by step. Very
cool! The addition of Qualities and Quirks, a weird little power called the Shtick Trait, many other
options defies me the ability to really explain it all, but it is chock full of geeky goodness! Now for a
nit…I found the character Trait generation process to be a little
vexing. It is all very well explained, though stats are intentionally very random. Some Traits even
have you randomly reduce your initial roll if you have the misfortune of rolling poorly! The creation
process leads to very weak or very potent characters. I can understand wanting players to
sometimes create flawed characters in order to better milk out role-play opportunities but here, it
can get a little extreme.
Another few nits… Characters are given the opportunity to belong to Cliques. Cognitive, the smart
guys, Physical, the jocks of the world, and Independent, the jacks of all trades. Each Click has
strengths and weaknesses as far as Skill allocations and Experience Point Awards go.
So far, it is all fine and good. There are two things I do not like about Cliques. First; if a character
does not make time to hang out with his group of select friends (those outside of the ‘gang’ of PCs
he gets into adventures with) he can lose Popularity Points.
This stinks because Popularity Points are figured as a fraction of Experience Points. Experience
Points go for buying up Skills and Popularity Points go toward the ‘Cool Stuff.’ Imagine your D&D
Bard losing his charm just because he has been too busy adventuring and not performing in the
local tavern. Ouch!
Second; The DJ’s Playlist builds on the Clique concept by adding Specialized and Sub-Cliques.
Think of a Specialized Clique as the difference between a common Jock and a Prize Fighter or a
Greaser. Sub-Cliques are like a melting pot of common friends who enjoy a specific similar
interest. Once again, using the Scooby Doo analogy, the reason why Fred and Daphne hangout
with Velma and Shaggy. Specialized and Sub-Cliques grant bonus Skills and a few other extras,
but in my opinion they add to the complexity of Character Creation, already a laborious
endeavor.
The fiction pieces in the various books are average if compared to something out of White Wolf
Studios, though they do make sense when applied to the meta-plot or used as an example of a
short gaming session. While entertaining, the fiction in the first book is a little weird, and I think
that was the intent! The story relating the origin of Witches and Genies is something of a romance
between humanity and greater powers. The author could use a little Piers Anthony in his diet, but
it does get the job done well enough.
Something lacking from the various books are jokes! I had anticipated funny lines thrown here and
there, or maybe something that read like a comic book cover to cover. What the designers
designed is full of funny stuff, though they did not opt to capitalize on it. My guess is that they
thought the readers would decide what is funny all on their own, rather than forcing a laugh track
down their throats. Some of the charts and tables are full of side splitting material, though it is all
presented in a very serious, ‘here are the rules; do with them as you will,’ kind of format.
The artwork in each of the books is very simple, not on par with say White Wolf or Wizards of the
Coast, though it is not over powering either. It looks like most of the art was produced in house as
page breaks to give the reader a break from seas of text and tables. The images vary from
cartoony figures of Fonzy look-a-likes and witches, to actual photos of equipment and vehicles.
Where the game’s art stands out is Starship and Spacecraft designs, Covers, and other little
unexpected odds and ends. Whoever designed the spaceships had a lot of love for the concept
and some imagination, though needs better tools. Clearly, the designers did not have much of an
art budget but overall each book looks pretty sharp and most importantly, the graphics fit.
All in all, Sitcom Wars is one heck of a system! For an indie game or a startup company the
designers really put out a good product! I have to say it is one of the most original concepts in
gaming. I can honestly say that my regular D&D game has been canceled for three weeks
because of this little game.
Oh! I shouldn’t call it a little game. Sitcom Wars: the Alien Menace weighs in at a meaty 234
pages. Sitcom Wars: the DJ’s Playlist has 245 pages. I have not got my hands on the Nielson
Wars book yet, though I suspect that is hefty as well. The Toupee from Beyond, a freebie Episode
Module that I downloaded from the Arcnus Magicus website has almost 60 pages. Clearly, you will
have something to read when nothing is on cable.
The game is fully supported with free downloads, rules clarification and Errata Releases, a news
letter, online forum, and my favorite, free Episode Modules at www.arcnusmagicus.com.
Sitcom Wars is competitively priced at $16.00 per printed book and $5.00 for a PDF and a CD-
ROM with everything on it (what I received for evaluation) for only $8.99. By everything, I mean
EVERYTHING. Character Sheets, SDIs, NPCs, DJ’s Screen, Music, Episode Modules, and all sorts
of other stuff to enhance the game. I wish Wizards of the Coast would bundle that much into one
CD! At their current pricing structure Sitcom Wars it is more than worth checking out!
I give Sitcom Wars 6 out of 7 Lightsabers.
and an old school gamer. I looked at the title and assumed the game was a parody on Star Wars.
The Force was with me when I started looking over this new system.
Sitcom Wars: the Alien Menace Role-playing Game is intended to ‘allow players to create and
portray personalities similar to any classic TV genre.’ Happy Days, Bewitched, Mork and Mindy,
Kung Fu, I Dream of Jeanie, My Favorite Martian, Mission Impossible, the A-Team and even
Parker Lewis Can't Lose are credited as the many inspirations for the game system. I can imagine
that several other uncredited programs also served as inspiration. I was thinking ‘this is from
Buffy’, ‘this is so X-Files’, and ‘this is what? Dukes of Hazzard?’ as I studied the rules.
I can honestly say that I have never played a game like this before!
The Sitcom Wars system is designed to be fast paced and funny, though the rules indicate that
the game can be played gritty, campy, wacky, magical or something in between. Once I got
started reading, I assumed Sitcom Wars would be a humorous sci-fi game, with a vaguely Star
Wars feel. Well, to be honest, we got that, sort of, and more!
The rules are laid out in a way that allows gamers to create and use what they want from the
source material, and there are loads of options! Those expecting a Star Wars parody will be
disappointed. Someone expecting TV Land goodness will geek out! Let me explain.
Sitcom Wars: the Alien Menace is the first of game system’s three core rule books. Obviously, the
game's primary mechanics are explained here, but it is the little extras that grabbed me. First, two
character types, Humans and Orkans are detailed at different portions of the book. I could not
initially understand why the Human Characters are introduced early on, and the Orkans so much
later, but it is a good strategy as the two introduce the various game mechanics without bogging
you down with rules.
Humans have the potential to become ‘Cool’ and use Cool Effects, ala the ‘Fonz’ from Happy
Days. Or, they can do just about anything else the game system offers. An alien race, the Orkans,
are much like ‘Mork’ from Mork and Mindy. These guys age in reverse, and have a riotous list of
various ‘Orkan Maladies’ that mess with Orkan characters almost as much as everyone else. From
the look of them, it seems that the designers combed through tons of episodes when researching
the game.
The Alien Menace also includes a campaign setting intended to be a launching pad for new
players. I really liked that the designers opted to include a campaign setting, as I found myself
scratching my head on how to put together a game session to test the system with. Although the
game can be played during virtually any era or location, the provided campaign setting is placed
during the 1950's in a fictional Illinois location called Harker County or Hillsdale. The
designers even included some guidelines for building a unique setting outside of the meta-plot
introduced in the various rule books.
A few short adventures, referred to as ‘Episodes,’ continuing the Star Wars themed presentation,
are also provided as tools for teaching the basics of the game system. I combined the short
adventures, and played through them in a few hours. We laughed our asses off over some of the
dryly presented material, "Theoretical Lobotomy," "Our Friend the Mucous Membrane,"and
"Funkenschweiller's Guide to the Human Nose,” sound like good reading to anyone? To be
honest, we cracked ourselves up as much as the system did. The designers really knew how to
provoke some slapstick if that is your bag! On the flip side, Sitcom Wars can be played as
deadpan as any Dragnet or X-files episode I have ever seen.
Fans of the short lived ‘Eerie Indiana’ will get a kick out of the many quirky NPCs in the Episode
Modules. I have to admit, I was expecting typical High School shenanigans such as plots ripped
from the movie Porky’s or Revenge of the Nerds, though I was pleasantly surprised with the
provided story arcs.
The GM (referred to as the DJ) portrays most of the NPCs as usual, though the players are
encouraged to spontaneously play other bit parts when their characters are engaged elsewhere.
The object of the controlled chaos this type of play creates is to keep the DJ on his toes. A good
DJ with a group of spontaneous players will never know when or if the game might deviate from his
storyline.
The DJ's Playlist is the second book for the Sitcom Wars system, introducing the bulk of the other
character types, new and expanded rules, and tries to shake things up from suburbia USA. The
Playlist builds on the Harker County Illinois campaign setting introduced in the Alien Menace,
though most of it is back story and meta-plot suitable for a campaign in any setting.
New character choices include Witches and Warlocks, Genies, Spies from a secret FBI division
called Bureau 37, Martial Artists, and several alien races are introduced. All of these options gives
theSitcom Wars game a plethora of options for players to explore almost any television concept.
Space travel and combat is governed using and an admittedly weak space combat system, that is
surprisingly elegant and flexible. The designers claimed to want to put the emphasis on role-
playing, and not tack on a full fledged space sim into the game, though I found their simplified
engine to be about as good as early editions of other space combat sims. Fans of FASA’s Star
Wars or Battletech will catch on in a hurry. One weakness, the starship and Starcraft creation
process is a little quirky and sometimes vague. The provided ships however, are fully detailed.
For those DJs not wanting to become bogged down with 3-D dogfights in space, a series of Skill
Tests can resolve most encounters in a hurry.
The real treats in the DJ's Playlist are the rules governing Witches, Martial Artists and Psychics,
known as Mentalists in the game. All of these classes can be imagined in campy or serious
incarnations. Think of Scooby Doo’s Shaggy imploding his enemies heads ala Scanners! Or
maybe an old school Kung Fu beat down is your cup of tea? You want to torment the nosy
neighbor lady across the street with random magical hi-jinks? Done and Done!
Our other offerings for the system include the newly released Sitcom Wars: Attack of the Nielsens,
the system's third core rule book that takes the game through the 80’s and early 90’s, a DJ's
Screen with charts that actually are used commonly during play, and dozens of Episode Modules.
The designers nicely walk you through the entire process of character creation step by step. Very
cool! The addition of Qualities and Quirks, a weird little power called the Shtick Trait, many other
options defies me the ability to really explain it all, but it is chock full of geeky goodness! Now for a
nit…I found the character Trait generation process to be a little
vexing. It is all very well explained, though stats are intentionally very random. Some Traits even
have you randomly reduce your initial roll if you have the misfortune of rolling poorly! The creation
process leads to very weak or very potent characters. I can understand wanting players to
sometimes create flawed characters in order to better milk out role-play opportunities but here, it
can get a little extreme.
Another few nits… Characters are given the opportunity to belong to Cliques. Cognitive, the smart
guys, Physical, the jocks of the world, and Independent, the jacks of all trades. Each Click has
strengths and weaknesses as far as Skill allocations and Experience Point Awards go.
So far, it is all fine and good. There are two things I do not like about Cliques. First; if a character
does not make time to hang out with his group of select friends (those outside of the ‘gang’ of PCs
he gets into adventures with) he can lose Popularity Points.
This stinks because Popularity Points are figured as a fraction of Experience Points. Experience
Points go for buying up Skills and Popularity Points go toward the ‘Cool Stuff.’ Imagine your D&D
Bard losing his charm just because he has been too busy adventuring and not performing in the
local tavern. Ouch!
Second; The DJ’s Playlist builds on the Clique concept by adding Specialized and Sub-Cliques.
Think of a Specialized Clique as the difference between a common Jock and a Prize Fighter or a
Greaser. Sub-Cliques are like a melting pot of common friends who enjoy a specific similar
interest. Once again, using the Scooby Doo analogy, the reason why Fred and Daphne hangout
with Velma and Shaggy. Specialized and Sub-Cliques grant bonus Skills and a few other extras,
but in my opinion they add to the complexity of Character Creation, already a laborious
endeavor.
The fiction pieces in the various books are average if compared to something out of White Wolf
Studios, though they do make sense when applied to the meta-plot or used as an example of a
short gaming session. While entertaining, the fiction in the first book is a little weird, and I think
that was the intent! The story relating the origin of Witches and Genies is something of a romance
between humanity and greater powers. The author could use a little Piers Anthony in his diet, but
it does get the job done well enough.
Something lacking from the various books are jokes! I had anticipated funny lines thrown here and
there, or maybe something that read like a comic book cover to cover. What the designers
designed is full of funny stuff, though they did not opt to capitalize on it. My guess is that they
thought the readers would decide what is funny all on their own, rather than forcing a laugh track
down their throats. Some of the charts and tables are full of side splitting material, though it is all
presented in a very serious, ‘here are the rules; do with them as you will,’ kind of format.
The artwork in each of the books is very simple, not on par with say White Wolf or Wizards of the
Coast, though it is not over powering either. It looks like most of the art was produced in house as
page breaks to give the reader a break from seas of text and tables. The images vary from
cartoony figures of Fonzy look-a-likes and witches, to actual photos of equipment and vehicles.
Where the game’s art stands out is Starship and Spacecraft designs, Covers, and other little
unexpected odds and ends. Whoever designed the spaceships had a lot of love for the concept
and some imagination, though needs better tools. Clearly, the designers did not have much of an
art budget but overall each book looks pretty sharp and most importantly, the graphics fit.
All in all, Sitcom Wars is one heck of a system! For an indie game or a startup company the
designers really put out a good product! I have to say it is one of the most original concepts in
gaming. I can honestly say that my regular D&D game has been canceled for three weeks
because of this little game.
Oh! I shouldn’t call it a little game. Sitcom Wars: the Alien Menace weighs in at a meaty 234
pages. Sitcom Wars: the DJ’s Playlist has 245 pages. I have not got my hands on the Nielson
Wars book yet, though I suspect that is hefty as well. The Toupee from Beyond, a freebie Episode
Module that I downloaded from the Arcnus Magicus website has almost 60 pages. Clearly, you will
have something to read when nothing is on cable.
The game is fully supported with free downloads, rules clarification and Errata Releases, a news
letter, online forum, and my favorite, free Episode Modules at www.arcnusmagicus.com.
Sitcom Wars is competitively priced at $16.00 per printed book and $5.00 for a PDF and a CD-
ROM with everything on it (what I received for evaluation) for only $8.99. By everything, I mean
EVERYTHING. Character Sheets, SDIs, NPCs, DJ’s Screen, Music, Episode Modules, and all sorts
of other stuff to enhance the game. I wish Wizards of the Coast would bundle that much into one
CD! At their current pricing structure Sitcom Wars it is more than worth checking out!
I give Sitcom Wars 6 out of 7 Lightsabers.
Nov. 2005 Review of the Sitcom Wars
game system by Josh Wallis;
Indie Game Design Forum.
game system by Josh Wallis;
Indie Game Design Forum.
Backstab Magazine gave
Sitcom Wars 5 out of 6 Stars!
Thanks Backstab!
Sitcom Wars 5 out of 6 Stars!
Thanks Backstab!
