Critical Mass Crit Mass Oddities Week 3: Cartoon Action Hour

So the holidays can get pretty busy y’all, and in the hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose sight
of the reason for the festivities this time of year, and that’s kind of sad. The reason, of course,
is with the extra time off from work and school, we get more time to watch cartoons, and I
for one love cartoons. I may have mentioned in an earlier article that I enjoy watching the
original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I’m home sick. It just cheers me up, and helps
me laugh when I feel otherwise miserable. However, I tend to act like a child much of the
time and as such, I also enjoy watching other old cartoons from my childhood, as well as
newer cartoons that I find here and there because man-child. But seriously, cartoons help
me to take a step back into the innocence of youth and relish in those times when life was
simpler, and the toughest decision I had to make was whether I was going to eat Lucky
Charms or Count Chocula for breakfast. I think that’s why so many people have jumped on
the nostalgia train in recent years.

Keeping it all kind of tied to the holidays though, I find that revisiting innocent years gone by
helps, if only a little to curb some of the cynicism that I’ve developed over the years. Cartoons
have just always been a part of my life, and especially around the holidays, I had a chance as
a child to really indulge myself in the zany worlds that animated television had to offer, and
believe me, there were many. You had G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Thundercats, The Real
Ghostbusters, Inspector Gadget, and so many more. The 80s and 90s were a veritable
cornucopia of animated awesomeness jam packed into a three hour block that aired without
fail every morning of the week. It was glorious. Saturdays were the best because I could
watch a bunch of cartoons during breakfast, and then go out with my friends and reenact what
I had just watched via the power of imagination. It’s no small wonder then, that I took up playing
pencil and paper role playing games in adulthood. They’re a great outlet for stress and anxiety,
and they’re a great way to keep my imagination sharp. Also, they’re a lot of fun.

That really roundabout segue brings us to the focus of my review today, a little RPG system
called Cartoon Action Hour, or CAH for short. Keep in mind the feelings that you used to have
whilst watching those amazing Saturday morning cartoons as I review as it will really help
you to see the charm in this overlooked, but fantastic system, especially if you grew up in the
80s as that’s the main focus of this system. Cartoon Action Hour was developed and is
produced by Spectrum Games. As far as I’ve been able to find, they’re not a terribly large
company, but they do have a lot of drive behind them and this has allowed them to create
several RPG lines that all run along the same vein. They’re all based around a particular
genre of film, or television, and they’re all designed to run RPG games within those genres.
To that end, we’re finally going to look at Cartoon Action Hour.

CAH, as I said, is designed to play games in the wonderful sandbox of 80s Saturday morning
cartoons. I personally stumbled across it at a local used book store, and luckily, I jumped on
buying it because I love it! The game spends, some might say, an inordinate amount of time
helping the player to better understand what 80s cartoons were all about. That part is pretty
important because whether we were aware of it or not as kids, there were some rules that
governed what could and could not be done in a children's cartoon in the 80s, and those rules
served to shape the feel of the cartoons that we all enjoyed so understanding just how those
rules factored in to the TV that we used to watch really helps whoever is running the sessions
to in turn capture the feel of those cartoons during gameplay. The rules are pretty clear and
although there are probably more, a couple of sample rules are that no one actually ever dies
during combat. That person will simply be knocked out or something. Also, men never hit
women because it never happened in 80s cartoons.

The next area that the book focuses a lot on is the setting aspects of the game. Cartoons in
the 80s were as varied in setting as they were silly, and unless one grew up a connoisseur
of them, a person picking this game up for the first time may not actually be familiar with the
scope of settings available to play within. There are a few key genres that are discussed, and
cornerstone points are discussed to help a person get a handle on the tone and style behind
each genre type. Then the book goes a little more into detail about what sets each genre apart
from all of the others. Next a list of actual cartoons that fit into each genre is discussed, and
then towards the end, non-player characters and sample adventures are given so that the
person running the game can feel confident in their understanding of the game.

Now, I have run and played in some pretty freeform games in my days, but I have to say that
one area where players are going to find this system lacking is in concrete rules. The rules
set only gives just enough to actually play the game, no more. You’re not weighed down by
damage tables, or skill check tables, or even lists of skills. Instead, you’re given some broad
guidelines, and a few concrete directions to help you create characters, and then you’re let
loose to design a character that is appropriately silly to your desires. That’s not to say that
a group couldn’t do a more serious campaign with this system, but the good folks that I play
these games with, much like myself, have a very difficult time taking anything seriously and
so our CAH games tend to be particularly silly.

Just because there aren’t a ton of rules doesn’t mean that they don’t exist at all. There are a
few highlights that I think are worth pointing out. First, there’s the PSA rule. I really enjoy this
one as it’s a great way to keep everyone’s mind in the game even when people need a break.
The gist is that when folks decide that they need to take a short break, everyone can go and
do their thing, but the players who aren’t running the game can take that time to develop an
80s cartoon style PSA to present to game runner. They do their speil and the game runner
grades them according to how well they enjoyed it. The score then translates into letting the
players make a change within the game itself to their favor.

The PSA kind of plays into another really fun rule that I like, but that isn’t exclusive to this
system, and that is Oomph. Oomph is earned, lost and trade between players and the game
runner throughout sessions. It gives them certain well-laid out capabilities within the game
to keep things interesting and as an in game currency, Oomph provides incentive to really
engage in what’s happening in a game. I like it because as a person who usually runs games,
I think it’s a lot of fun knowing what’s going to be happening, but I also thoroughly enjoy not
knowing everything so I appreciate that Oomph and similar mechanics in other games provides
a way to really shake things up for the game runner as well as the players.

The last stand out rule I want to explain is the commercial break. This is similar to the PSA in
that the players get a chance to earn Oomph and turn the tide in their favor, but it’s more
tailored to groups like my own where we never actually take full blown breaks from playing.
Players just kind of come and go as they need during game play and I just make sure to not
do anything terribly world shattering while someone is absent. In the case of commercial breaks,
whenever the game runner  wishes to shake things up, a die is rolled. The result on the die
corresponds to a table that explains how the result will effect the game. The great thing about
commercial breaks is that it presents a chance for things to work against the players’
favor, and it’s completely random so there won’t be charges of cheating. Again, it’s a really
fun way to liven up the gameplay during a session, and it really adds to illusion that the game
as a whole is trying to create.

Cartoon Action Hour is a simple enough game that beginners could probably pick up running it pretty quickly, and yet it offers just enough options to make it an interesting game for everyone involved. It takes very little time to prepare to play which means a group can get together to discuss series parameters, and build characters in a relatively short period of time. I have found that it’s a really good system for running one week and then putting away for a while until I need to run it again. If you’re an 80s kid, this system is going to take you back to wonderful times! You’re going to get a chance to relive those carefree Saturday mornings spent playing with your friends, and portraying your cartoon heroes. If you’re not an 80s kid, you’re going to get hours of fun out of the open-ended, ridiculous nature of the game. Either way, it’s definitely worth giving a try! It’s in its third iteration at this point and unfortunately, third edition is exclusively PDF, but for those who are curious, you can find it here for a pretty reasonable price. There are also tons of adventure modules to use in order keep the fun going. It’s a little slice of the heaven of youth in adulthood and I couldn’t recommend trying it enough! Have a great time reliving those bygone days of yore and stick around to see what oddities I find to look at next week!