Andy Lingua
I want to thank Acheron Games for providing us with a copy of the Helluva Town quickstart so we could talk to you about this roleplaying game in this preview. If you love old cartoons, crazy and dirty settings and guns that shoot “bang” flags, I wish you a good read.
This quickstart is available for free in digital format on the dedicated DriveThruRPG page.
Helluva Town Aesthetic Preview
It is undeniable that the first element that catches the eye in a similar project is aesthetics. And it is equally unquestionable that the choice of the artist who created it was simply perfect. Shawn Dickinson has unmistakable trait strongly recalls the old Looney Tunes animated shorts from the 1930s. We have already admired his art in the incredible Cuphead, a successful video game animation and comics project. His technique (applied to animation) is defined as rubber hose animation due to the unmistakable character design. Like in the cartoons that wrote the history of animation, Shawn manages to create extremely expressive faces, inserting them into scenes full of details. This aspect alone made me decide to approach this roleplaying game.
The two-column layout and the simple (but not banal) font also help to create a readable manual. To make it even more captivating, we also find some coloured pages, which once again recall the world of comics. Here too, however, we are not talking about bright colours, but dirty shades that immediately transport us into the mood of the game.
The Setting: the Ghost Quarter
Starting from these assumptions, the setting is defined in a few effective pages. Helluva Town is a neighbourhood in 1930s New York, but it’s a secret neighbourhood. No one knows how to enter or exit it easily, but within it resides living cartoons. And don’t think of anything peaceful, but a multitude of madmen without any moral value living in a climate of total anarchy. There are prominent figures and law enforcement officials, but they are only the outline to enhance the gangster tones that the manual proposes. Also winking at other works such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, this neighborhood proves to be the perfect stage for stories featuring little beings as delicious as they are depraved.
The neighbourhood, however, takes on the name “city” since it has evolved into an autonomous micro-world with its own non-laws. And so absurd places like the Grin Gardens are born, an area full of devils and other decidedly over-the-top characters, totally abandoned to the perdition of the place; shows, gambling and temptations of all kinds reign supreme. But there are also much greyer areas, such as Shocktopia with its factories; the Science Fair is held here, where decidedly unreliable scholars test lasers, robots, drones and so on.
Each area has profoundly different tones; to present as many as possible, there is also an introductory adventure, Fly Me to the Moon. In its simplicity it is perfect for understanding which sessions this TTRPG can give life to; for this reason (and for its short duration) I recommend all undecided people to try it.
The Protagonists: the Toons
In a game this crazy, it can be difficult to even figure out what type of character you can play. The quickstart reveals to us in preview which Toons we will be able to play in Helluva Town:
- Beasties: anthropomorphic animals.
- Boogeys: characters related to the supernatural, such as skeletons and devils.
- Folks: inhabitants with humanoid features.
- Stuff: animated objects.
Each is outlined by a few (but significant) characteristics, which make character creation very quick.
Name and Image are narrative elements. The Tricks outline the wacky powers that distinguish them. The Pocket contains everything they carry with them, including the Bucks (and no one is surprised when the crazy rabbit takes a piano out of the Pocket). Then the Rap Sheet presents the background of the Toon. The Debts can be a great story hook and why they form a gang. Then we find four important Stats:
- Touchy: set of physical abilities, ranging from strength to agility.
- Feely: empathy and influence on other Toons.
- Handy: manual dexterity, use of various gadgets and practical skills.
- Loony: madness, often seen as creativity or stupidity.
They are each linked to a suit of the cards and the reason is simple; this TTRPG does not involve the use of dice but of a deck of poker cards (for each player). I don’t want to dwell on the mechanics as they are extremely light and leave a lot of space for other aspects of the game. Suffice it to say that for all the tests, the player draws the first two cards, adds the value of the suitable Stat and compares it with a value established by the Animator (the narrator). If the value is reached, they will be successful.
Helluva Town Preview Conclusions
The contents of this manual intrigued me, and quite a bit. I admit that the aesthetics are what pushed me to open it but, once I started reading, I found various other interesting elements. First of all, I appreciated the fact that ink also plays an important role within the narrative (given the nature of the protagonists), practically becoming an addiction capable of generating even more chaos.
The game system is original and very light and (rightly) leaves a lot of space for the setting and to a strong characterization of the characters. These elements currently make it already excellent for playing crazy and engaging one-shots. I just have to wait to read the complete manual to understand if this tabletop roleplaying game will prove equally valid for longer campaigns.
If the uniqueness of this crazy American neighbourhood maintain the same quality as those analyzed in this preview, Helluva Town risks turning out to be a blast!
