Like the other games that I mentioned from Spectrum Games that work to emulate a very niche style of television storytelling, BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! works to emulate the superhero TV shows of the 60's.
This "genre" specifically encompasses the works of producer William Dozier. These include the Batman and Green Hornet TV series as well as never aired Batgirl and Dick Tracy pilots. I would also include Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (1976) by Sid and Marty Krofft, as well as classic Doctor Who into the mix of TV shows that I believe would fit BIF! BAM! KAPOW! very well.
Unlike other games by Spectrum that I mentioned (for me) BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! seems to finally get the mix of storytelling emulation and RPG crunch just right. I've read Cartoon Action Hour many times. I really want to like it. It's an awesome game to read, but all the rules about series creation and genre emulation drag it down.
Maybe this is because Cartoon Action Hour tries to cover too wide a cross section of television? All the dials and tropes rules just get in my way every time that I try to imagine what it would be like at my table.
BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! is much more focused. It really only wants to tell one kind of story, and that is to it's benefit. I would much rather have a game that gives me a solid foundation that I can work with (including changing it to whatever I might want) than a game with a soft foundation that's trying to cover too much ground.
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| Art by Christopher Martinez |
The book is beautifully illustrated and the third page is a tribute to artist Christopher Martinez who passed away while BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! was still in production. His artwork here is stunning. The pages of the book are all square which feels like a weird choice to me. I guess the intent is for the book to be shaped like the old TV sets on which the shows used to air?
The book jumps straight into explaining the basics and what it's trying to do. They can't actually claim to be Batman '66 (or the Green Hornet) TV show RPG. So, we get an original TV show, "The Adventures of Hoot Owl." Everything is concise and easy to grok. There are a few typos here and there that caused me momentary confusion, but I figured everything out.
Character creation is straight forward with characters having four attributes:
- Action (A character’s overall physicality.)
- Thought (A character’s general brainpower.)
- Drama (A character’s ability to interact with others.)
- Pluck (A character’s heart and willpower.)
These range from -1 to 3, but most will fall between 0-2.
Characters can have skills which provide bonuses and gadgets which provide powers. In these shows the characters were all normal people with advanced training and technology. (There is an optional rule for including actual "super powers" in the game, and I'll use that when I get a chance to play this.)
Use of "powers" in these shows required costly special effects. To reflect this, players have budget tokens that they must spend when they want to perform a stunt or use a power. It's a mechanical limiter that's good for game balance, but also thematic. I also like the idea of keeping the use of powers and big explosions and dangerous stunts as "high points" in a game rather than common place.
The Intention System
Task resolution is based on an "intention" system. I remember this system from Retrostar, and I really liked it there. It's made even better here. Basically, the player frames an intended outcome from a course of action. Note that I say, "course of action" here and not just "action." This is a game where broad strokes are going to be so much better than micro managing every little detail.
A number of dice are rolled based on your attributes and skills, but only two of the dice are added together. High totals are better. A result of 2-6 is a BIFF! A result of 7-9 is a BAM! And a result of 10 or more is a KAPOW!
BIFF! is a negative result. The showrunner (what BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! calls its GM) always narrates these results, and it means something not good for the heroes.
BAM! is a neutral result. It means that something good AND something bad happens. The player can choose to either succeed at what they are doing at the cost of gaining some new troublesome complication, or fail at what they are doing, but gain some other unexpected benefit.
BAM! results are normally narrated by the showrunner, but the player can take control of this narrative if they wish by spending a script token. (See KAPOW! below.)
KAPOW! results are unconditional successes. The player gets to narrrate the results, and they gain a script token to use later.
The Combat System
Perhaps the best way that BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! captures the spirit of the shows that it's designed to emulate is in its combat rules. Combats in BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! are called, "Climatic Fight Scenes."
I have gone on record many times saying how tired I am of typical RPG combat, but this isn't typical RPG combat.
BIFF! BAM! KAPOW!'s Climatic Fight Scene mechanics are a game changer! They're brilliant. They make the combats a narrative part of the story, and I love that.
Climatic Fight Scenes are the big fights at the end of each episode. Initially, the heroes are going to lose this fight. That's okay. They're supposed to. In this world, the heroes will get knocked out and then deposited into somekind of death trap only to escape at the start of the next episode.
BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! sets this up perfectly, and the thing is, I don't understand why no one has done this kind of thing before. Comics always end with the seeming demise of the hero. The combat rules should support this idea.
It's a "cliffhanger" mechanism, and it's a mainstay of so many forms of adventure fiction. It's the reason that I said BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! would be perfect for emulating classic Doctor Who. It's just such a good idea.
BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! accomplishes this by adding two decks of cards to help facilitate the combat process. One deck is the "Climactic Fight Scene A" deck, and the other is the "Climatic Fight Scene B" deck. The A deck is weighted against the heroes and the B deck is weighted against the villains.
Characters don't have hit points. This isn't a tactical battle of attrition or elimination. It's a story. It's Jackie Chan. When the heroes succeed, they gain momentum. When the heroes fail, they lose momentum. Heroes and villains both bounce back and keep fighting until five rounds have passed, then the heroes win or lose together.
It's the clubhouse fight in Rumble In The Bronx when Jackie fights an endless hoard of thugs to a standstill ending in a moral scolding. It's the duel between Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts that's as much about the banter as it is the fencing, and yes, it's the battle between Batman and Robin and the Penguin and his henchmen.
The heroes must conclude the combat at the end of the fifth round with four momentum in order to win. As mentioned, the fight decks are weighted. Combat outcomes aren't guaranteed, but they are designed to follow an arch.
If the heroes win the really tough Fight-A when the odds are against them, that's cool. Maybe this episode is a one-shot? If they lose after surviving the villain's death trap at the end of Fight-B when they were supposed to save the day, that's okay too. Maybe this story is a three parter?
Too Campy?
The campy nature of BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! might be a major turn off to some, but I think it's brilliant, and probably a lot more versatile than it might appear at first glance. There are so many levels of camp.
Doctor Who is camp. Rumble In The Bronx is camp. The Princess Bride, Galaxy Quest ... the list goes on. Yes, the rules of BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! encourage you to play it for the "cheese" but if that's going to get in your way, then forget 60's Batman and just play it.
BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! follows a strict story structure that assumes that the heroes will go after a villain, be defeated and left at the brink of death and then recover to defeat the villain in the end. Follow that. Use it. That's good stuff. That feels like most of the comics that I read growing up. There's a reason all the Batman TV series was structured that way.
Don't let the campy keep you away from this game.
Players who really don't like the Dozier formula can shuffle the A & B Climactic Combat decks together and get all the benefits of BIFF! BAM! KAPOW!'s narrative combat system without the predictability. At that point, you're playing a different game, but I think these rules still work.
And if you like the Dozier formula? If you embrace the campy? You'll not find a better game for you than BIFF! BAM! KAPOW!
I love the campy.
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