“INFIVADERS” MINI-BOOK REVIEW

At this time of writing – April 5, 20104 – the first mini-book have been released from Spectrum Games's giant fist – John Wick's “Infivaders”.

The cover has the main big bad – Dr. Zen holding the world in his hand. After credits and short table of contents. The first person is “Hero of the World” with give us a short summary of the series and a short background behind the fictional cartoon series.

You know how cartoon animation version of “G.I. Joe: The Real American Hero” opens with G.I. Joes arriving at a scene and saying “YO JOE!” to start the theme song for that cartoon. Well – “This series” series does the reverse introducing the big bad and his minions before revealing heroes which look great nice as as they say on “TV Tropes” – an action hogging opening theme.

The heroes are special man and woman choose by the spirit of their countries and give a item related to that country.

Most episode of “Infivaders” began with the characters arguing – and with that arguing allowing Dr. Zen to have a change to do a new attack. Zen's world is the world of Arthe (pronounced

arth-ay) where magic and technology are one and the same. Zen's Arthe is the source of his power and have had squashed other versions of Earth before adding to it to his own fuel his own magic and technology. His forces use magic to slowly transform Earth into his homeland – and every success his forces have transform the area into his homeland.

The heroes of the series have find a way to stop the latest plan and restoring Earth's historical monuments and natural wonders to their normal stats. As the mini-book stated, “Of course, this gives the writers an opportunity to talk about the historical importance of these places, giving the children brief lessons in history, architecture, anthropology and archeology. For example, when Doctor Zen tried transforming the historical Israeli fortress of Masada into a “Beacon of Darkness,” the heroes not only stopped his plot, but talked about the historical importance of the site. It was just that importance that drove Zen to seek it out in the first place: with each site he transformed, the people of Earth would lose both hope and their own personal identities.”

“The Heroes” lists all the heroes that had appeared in the series by country and aslo mention the item they have. The list of countries are as followed: China, North American (With four heroes), Japan, Africa, South America (unfinished & rejected script), England, Scotland, Ireland (rejected script), France, Spain, Russia, Egypt, Norway, & Mongolia

After that comes the PC Guidelines reveal the four following canon heroes:

• Brendan Truehope, a Native America man who is given a mystic cloak that allows him to turn into any person or animal. The spirit of Coyote is his benefactor.
• Eloise Glastonbury, a young British woman who is granted possession of Excalibur by Merlin himself
• An unnamed African man who is presented with Anansi’s “story web”.
• An unnamed Russian woman who is given Baba Yaga’s mortar and pestle.

As the mini-book stated: “None of this, however, is set in stone and should be considered as guidelines or suggestions for players. The players can devise their own character concepts if they would rather. Alternatively, they can select one of the characters that appeared simply as one-shot guests (see the listings elsewhere in this section) and promote them to main character status.”

After that we get the usual things: Star Power, Tier and Traits Points, Other Rules. They are two other rules in action here: Theme Adherence & Required Traits.

The big bad may be Dr. Zin, but they have few minions that make semi-regular appearances which had to be remarked on.

As the mini-book said, “In each episode, there are also the 'converted.' These are people who have become transformed by Doctor Zen’s science-sorcery. Once citizens of Earth, they are now citizens of Arthe: dark reflections of their previous forms. Otherwise heroic folk become twisted and evil, serving the Doctor without question. The most common form they take are his “Monstrous Marmorkrebs”, which resemble giant, armored sand crabs. (Interviews reveal that the head writer of the project had a son who was interested in the critters which is why they appeared so often on the show.)”

Prof. Demesne is the Starcream to Dr. Zen's Megatron. He is aslo the inventor of the technology that allows Zen's forces to travel between worlds.

Count Null is not on Dr. Zen's command, but his mercenaries. Zen uses Count Null as troubleshooter . Count Null's specialist is capturing captures cultural weapons. He and his Nullists forces looks for items: both real and fantastic. The heroes often run into Count Null durning their adventures allowing them to have side plot while stopping Dr. Zen's plans.

The Blue Lady is a mystery ancient monster older then Arthe itself – according to the mini-book, she only appeared in one episode as a kind of deus ex machina (a.k.a “The God in Machine”). She is scare if they is no answer.

Here is how the Rulebook explains “Grabbers”: “Doctor Zen employs huge machines that look like

mechanical marmorkrebs (one of the producer’s

sons was a fan of them) he calls “the Grabbers.” The machines are the size of dirigibles, floating slowly through the sky, shining many eyes like search lights through the cities. When they find people, they grab them up and transform them into the inhabitants of Zen’s world.

In the show, Grabbers are the “Big Bad.” If a Grabber shows up, heroes generally run away. Fighting a Grabber is like trying to fight an aircraft carrier; there’s just no way for a small group of heroes to do it. In only one episode, “November Science”, do the heroes actually try to fight a Grabber: they sneak inside of it and destroy it from the inside.

As powerful as Grabbers may be, they cannot

transform the Heroes of Earth. If they try, the

attempt fails. Thus, Grabbers are more concerned

with capturing heroes and bringing them back to

Doctor Zen.

Using a Grabber in an episode is a way of

showing the power Doctor Zen has in the world.

Heroes should run and hide from Grabbers, not

try to fight them.”

The next one is the common good squad for Dr. Zen: The Orchalcum Men, terrifying robot goons that carrying mercurial rifles that can fire ice beams, fire beams and storm beams. They can use architecture to cause physical risk.

Next up are two “Hero of Arthe”. The first one is: Mr. Never is a heroic sorcerer of Arthe that tries to overthrow Dr. Zen but his supplies are limited. He is master of the science-sorcery of Arthe and often help the heroes. The second one is Lady Fate: She is a mole inside the evil forces – opening working for Dr. Zen but secretly working against him. Dr. Zen is attracted to Lady Fate's beautify appearance to believe the lies that Prof. Demesne tells Dr. Zen. She is aslo a skill thief and spy. Three episodes have her tell the heroes about Dr. Zen's plans – and one episode have them the heroes save her when Prof. Demesne expose her to Dr. Zen.

Next, they are three episodes seeds for you to get your minds attached to. Following the episode seeds, are the GMPC states for the enemy GMPCS – Dr. Zen, Prof. Demesne, Count Null, Grabbers, Monstrous Marmorkrebs, Orchalcum Men – and the allies GMPCs – Mr. Never and Lady Fate.

It's good read – so I'm going give a B+ for it.


Get it here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128179/CAHS3--Infinivaders