lasko@regina.DEC (09/30/84)
how notice them, picking up Plot Points for being silly, or following their Beliefs and Goals. Plot Points can then be used to improve on Skills or Shticks. The mechanics are simple also: To use a Skill or a Shtick, make the level of the skill on two six-sided dice. The rules state that two always succeeds, and give lots of special cases for twelves (If you roll a twelve when using your Break Down Door skill, the door disappears, or wasn't locked anyway, etc.) Fighting is a little more complex: both characters roll their Fight skill, and if only one succeeds, the other takes a die of damage. If both succeed, or fail, the fight goes on, until you drop from exhaustion. And what happens when you lose all your Hit Points? You Fall Down. That's it. TOON characters never really die, they just Fall Down, and have little stars dance around their heads. Three minutes later, the character can get up, and keep going. The rules are written in a tutorial style: it starts with a few simple rules, then a short adventure, then give you the rest of the rules (with lots of examples along the way), with more complicated rules set off by stars. All that takes the first 36 pages. The next section of the book talks about being an Animator, and how one can set up a TOON adventure, plus guidelines for handling typical cartoon plot devices, such as Illogical Logic, Boggling, Sawing through Branches, Coincidences, Independent Shadows, Instant Fine Print, Sound Effects, Portable Holes, and lots more. All of it is highly entertaining reading. This section, combined with the four adventures at the end of the book, give you a good idea on how the game should be played: SILLY. In the beginning of the book, there is a message for "Experienced Roleplay- ers", and I quote from it here. "TOON isn't like any other roleplaying game you've ever known. In most RPGs, the idea is to plot and plan--to think before you act--and to make sure your character survives... Forget All That. Survival? Who cares? You can't ever really die, so you've got nothing to lose by jumping right into the thick of things...Think before you act? No chance...the action in a TOON game should be fast--insanely fast. Remember, you're supposed to be a cartoon character. When was the last time you saw a cartoon character do something logical? ACT before you THINK" There are some inherent problems with the game: the Fighting rules may be a little too abstract for some players, timing and sequencing of character actions can get to be a burden, and the nature of the game limits you to twenty to thirty minute sessions. The latter is probably it's biggest fault: I can't see spending an entire evening playing cartoon after cartoon--but it is great for a short break in a longer role-playing session! When you get down to playing it, it's insane. The Animator should be someone with a devilish talent for the silly, and the players should have a taste for the unusual. But where else can you get a bunny rabbit, a Little Green Man from Mars, a dim-witted detective, and a dachsund together for a bit of role-playing fun? I highly recommend this game. Tim Lasko {decvax, allegra, ihnp4, et. al.}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-regina!lasko
toml@oliveb.UUCP (Dave Long) (10/03/84)
[Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!] TOON is great, however, don't buy the rulebook unless you are planning to have it for the silliness of it. The rulebook is great reading on rainy days, but con a friend into buying it, or borrow it and copy down the skill list. TOON is just cartoon impromptu, and not much more. All the special cases for skills are straightforward enough, and all items work as they should. The best thing to do is to copy down or memorize the skills, then watch the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show one Saturday to get some scenario ideas, and start playing. What we have found that works is: Get everybody that is playing together to watch the BB/RR Show, then play at the end. The Animator will have plenty of fresh ideas of what to do, and the player-characters will have a better idea of what they can do in TOON. The average SQ (Sanity Quotient) goes *way* down after this. The best thing to do, I feel though, is to just play whenever enough people feel silly enough. You may play in the wierdest places, but it helps the game, and we've never yet been taken up to the local mental health institute. -- -- Dave Long -- {fortune,idi,ios,hplabs,tymix}!oliveb!toml {allegra,ihnp4,msoft,tty3b,uvacs}!oliveb!toml
steven@qubix.UUCP (Steven Maurer) (10/05/84)
[+] I too, like TOON. It is the best you can do with an essentially unsimulatable genre. Why is it unsimulatable? Because almost all cartoons have two classes of character types, "Heros", and "Dupes". A "Hero" is like Bugs Bunny. He is not looking for trouble, but somehow it comes for him. He always wins. He is always impervious to all attacks. A "Dupe" is like Wile E. Coyote. He trys to get the hero, but looses either because of the hero's cleverness, or because he has terrible luck. The problem with TOON, is that few people want to play a Dupe. Heros Dupes ----- ----- Bugs Bunny The Coyote (Caneous Hungryus) Tweety Bird Yosemite Sam Micky Mouse Sylvester Road Runner Elmer Fudd Daffy Duck (early version) Daffy Duck (later versions) The baby Chickenhawk The Martian Popeye The Big Ape The Sheepdog Wile E. Coyote ("my card") Jerry Brutis Tom Non Heros/Non Dupes Foghorn Leghorn The Dog The turtle(s) Bugs Bunny (rarely) Granny Shorty Whimpy Olive Oyl Tom (occasionally) Jerry (occasionally) The Bull Dog
toml@oliveb.UUCP (Dave Long) (10/06/84)
[Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!] Dupes are sometimes more fun to play than Heros. TOON is perfect in the sense that it doesn't matter what happpens. My favorite character,Herr Doktor Verrueckter, is a Mad Scientist (DUPE). He may fail in his efforts all the time, but when he gets gronking, he *outperforms* all the Heros. It isn't what happens, but *how* it happens that matters in TOON. Everybody has to admit that Wile E. Coyote is easier to be totally silly and hammed up with than the Road Runner. (Although Tweety Bird is a good Hero) -- -- Dave Long -- {fortune,idi,ios,hplabs,tymix}!oliveb!toml {allegra,ihnp4,msoft,tty3b,uvacs}!oliveb!toml