From Adventure Gaming Society

Once upon a time there was a somewhat novice RPGer who realised he couldn't hack all this super-serious gaming and yearned for a true creative release. He scoured the lands for something that might give him some semblance of the sheer idiocy that he knew was possible if the minds of he and his comrades were truly allowed to unfurl. Then one fateful night he stumbled across something in a wiki article on Hammerspace. It was a long lost game from a bygone era. It used a system that was long since obsolete. It was made by people who thought that saying things in Yiddish made them funny. It was Toon.

Contents 1 Toon 1.1 Toon Physics 1.1.1 The Tunnel 1.1.2 The Precipice 1.2 Character Creation 1.2.1 The Character Sheet 1.2.2 Attributes 1.2.3 Skills 1.2.3.1 Some Less Obvious Skills 1.2.4 Schticks 1.2.4.1 Some Less Obvious Schticks 1.2.5 Hit Points 1.2.6 Plot Points 1.2.7 Possessions 1.2.8 Species 1.2.9 Natural Enemies 1.2.10 Beliefs & Goals/Description 1.2.11 Customisation 1.3 How To Play 1.3.1 Things You Need 1.3.2 Playing 1.4 Saturday Morning Toon & How To Join In 1.4.1 Characters 1.4.2 Episode List 1.4.3 Errata

Toon

Toon is an RPG based on GURPS circa 1984. The basic premise is that you are Looney Tunes style cartoons and you act accordingly. Assuming it's being played right then you should be able to reenact pretty much any cartoon you care to mention, though we're here to have fantastic new adventures which would never get onto Boomerang for fear of melting children's minds.

The most important thing of all in Toon is fun. This is legitimately the most important rule in the game and if any other rule is prohibiting the fun then it is to be disregarded immediately. The arbiter of your fun is the GM, which in Toon is called the Animator. The Animator's job is to make sure that when his players break the game (and they will, frequently) that he can keep it on track (and then smack that track into a painted tunnel).

Toon Physics

One of the biggest draws of Toon is the ability to toy with Toon Physics and Toon Logic. If you watched plenty of cartons as a kid then you already know how this works. The game's more fun if you discover the rules as you go along by testing out what's possible, but we'll give you some examples of standard cartoon behaviours and how they work in Toon.

The Tunnel

So, you're a ne'erdowell canine and you want to slam the brakes on a poor defenseless superspeed landbird. You decide to take advantage of natural avian idiocy and trick it into thinking there is a convenient tunnel to escape through. So you reach into your pocket (which you have despite being naked) and pull out your paint brush (you did bring a paintbrush, right?). You paint a very convincing hole in the side of the cliff and await your nemesis's approach. He spots it and goes straight for it. Unfortunately, he's so stupid that he doesn't realise he should be smacking into a painted wall and goes straight through. Of course, when you go to check that the tunnel is indeed solid, you see a dirty great headlamp staring at you (which your fowl foe was happy to Cosmic Shift into existence) and you have just enough time to reach into your pocket full of signs (don't worry, it's always full) and pull out a sign that reads "YIPES!".

Congratulations, you're now a furry pizza.

The Precipice

A few minutes later you're depizzafied and ready for another go. You notice that the desert environment in which you're in provides you with a very convenient outcrop off of a cliff and you have a cunning plan. You go to the nearest mailbox (which happens to be on the outcrop) and send off for a pile of birdseed and a pneumatic drill. No sooner have you dropped the application in than the drill pops out of the mailbox. As soon as you realise that's only half your order a dumptruck turns up and drowns you in birdseed. Not one to be stayed by being crushed to death you stick a "FREE SEED!!!1!" sign in the mullet mountain and wait in one of those convenient hiding places that deserts are famous for and your feathered foe appears, attracted by the birdseed banquet. You take the chance to drill through the outcrop, making sure to jump back onto the safe side of the land. The safe side then drops down. Luckily, you survive! You notice a shadow and hear a whistling sound getting louder. You have just enough time to whip out a sign reading "Not again..."

Congratulations, you're now a furry pizza.

Hopefully you have the idea by now.

Character Creation

One of the great things about Toon is that character creation is legitimately quick and easy. Let's see just how quick and easy it is.

The Character Sheet

Click here for the character sheet. You can print it off, copy it onto a napkin or edit it directly so as to keep it conveniently in digital form (rarely as convenient as you'd hope).

Attributes

The attributes are your four main stats. Muscle, Zip, Smarts and Chutzpah. They're all pretty much what they look like and, if you're wondering what Chutzpah is, it means moxie, gumption or general cut of jib.

There are two ways to assign points to them. You can either share 14 points between them or roll 1D6 for each (though die rolling should always be done in front of everybody else). No single attribute may get more than 6 points. The higher the better, though keep in mind that you play with two dice, which means you'll never roll a one.

Skills

Your skills are everything contained as part of the attributes and will have the same value as the attribute. So, if your Muscle is 4 then your Break Down Door and Fight are both 4 too.

You get 30 skill points with which you can change those stats. No individual stat may ever go over 9. So, if your Muscle is 4 then you can spend 3 of your skill points to get your Break Down Door skill up to 7. You might not want to spend all your skill points on skills though since you can also spend them on...

Some Less Obvious Skills

• Break Down Door
  • Not just for doors. Useful for any time you need to leave a you-shaped hole in something
• Drive Vehicle
  • If it isn't your feet, it's probably a vehicle
• Set/Disarm Trap
  • This is a general craft/engineering skill

Schticks

Schticks are your super-powers. These are the qualities that make your toon more than the average toon. To get a Schtick at character creation you have to spend the skill-points indicated next to that Schtick on the character-sheet. If you want a second Schtick you have to spend the price and 5 extra for being greedy. Think your Schticks through carefully and handle Cosmic Shift with extreme care.

Some Less Obvious Schticks

• Coat Of Arms
  • Essentially, a never-ending Gizmo. cf. Inspector Gadget
• Cosmic Shift
  • Make crazy things happen. Used very much at Animator's discretion. cf. Droopy

Hit Points

HP is calculated by rolling 1D6 and adding 6. You may think that's not many hit points. You'd be right. When you suffer damage you lose HP. When you lose all your HP you Fall Down. Don't worry, you'll be getting back up again soon enough, how else will you Fall Down again?

Plot Points

These you get for playing well and lose for playing badly, which means you start with 0 since you haven't played yet.

You can invest one plot point into upgrading a skill (but not an attribute) You can invest two plot points into upgrading a schtick You can invest three plot points into a one off schtick which may be instant or last the entire episode, depending how the animator feels

Possessions

You get up to 8 posessions. 4 of them must be "normal" though what's normal for one character may be abnormal for another. For instance, a pen would be normal for just about anything with thumbs or anything else opposable. A shotgun would be abnormal, unless your character happens to be a hunter, then your shotgun is normal as your hat. The other 4 possessions can be unusual. Why a mouse is carrying a bear-trap we may never know, the more important question is whether you really want to set that mouse-trap. One of your unusual items gets to be a Gizmo. The rest could also be Gizmoes but they'd cost a plot point each. Gizmoes are Schrödinger's item, they become whatever you need them to be when you pull them out of your pocket and then stay like that for the rest of the episode. Whether they work is an entirely different matter.

Species

What is your toon? The source book has a list of species which you can roll on if you're having trouble deciding. It also has a list of silly species in case you didn't like that list. It also has a list of really silly species in case you feel like testing your abilities as a role-player. It also has an unbelievably silly species table in case you think your Animator's sanity needs testing. Or you can just make something up yourself, I hear sentient oranges get to go on really juicy adventures.

Natural Enemies

Dogs hate cats, rangers hate bears, vampires hate sparkles. The world has various natural orders and your character may well find itself within that order.Whether it's an order anybody else recognises that order is up to you (everybody knows toasters hate ironing boards, right?)

Beliefs & Goals/Description

These two intertwine somewhat. All good characters in any game should have a defined personality. In Toon definition doesn't hack it. They need ridiculously overblown personalities. This is to help you know how to act in any situation and to help the Animator work out what to put in each episode.

Customisation

Remember, the key rule is fun. If there's something you want to do and you don't see how to do it, ask and we'll work out how it would work or we'll just invent a new Schtick or come up with some new rules to accommodate.

How To Play

Things You Need

• At least two six-sided dice
  • In fairness you can pretty much guarantee there'll be dozens of spare D6s floating about, so this isn't strictly necessary
• Pen or Pencil
  • Once again, there should be a whole load of spares floating about, though really, your hit points will fly up and down so fast you're probably better off just keeping track of it in your head
• Imagination
  • Strictly speaking, you don't even need that. You can let the dice decide pretty much everything if you really want to.
• A sense of humour
  • Don't worry, we can lend you one if you leave it at home.

Playing

Everything you do that isn't completely trivial involves rolling 2D6. You roll against a skill and have to score under that skill to succeed. So, if you want to get into a person's house you could knock on the door, which wouldn't need a roll. Alternatively, you could break down the door, at which point you'd need to roll against your Break Down Doors skill. So, if your Break Down Doors skill has a value of 7 and you rolled a 3 and a 2 you would succeed. If you rolled a 4 and a 5 you would just smack into the door. If you roll two sixes you miss the door, crash through the window and land in the fireplace.

If you want to do something to somebody and they're not up for it then you have to roll against them. So, let's say you want to beat somebody up. You roll against your Fight skill. If successful, your target rolls against their Fight skill. If the opponent fails the roll they get clobbered, if they succeed you both end up in a swirling cloud of limbs and expletives until one of you fails and the other succeeds a fight roll or you both collapse from exhaustion.

There is far more, but it's more fun if you work it out on the fly.

Saturday Morning Toon & How To Join In

Our game is run in the Keynes teaching area (possibly KS16, possibly Louise/60Silver's house if Keynes is unavailable for whatever reason) on Saturday mornings between 10am and 1pm (if you think 1 pm isn't morning then you clearly haven't been a student long enough). This gives us time to have lunch or overrun before the AGS meeting.

We know Saturday morning is a horrible time to commit to and that's why you don't have to. Toon doesn't work in campaigns. Did you ever wonder why Daffy Duck was in a forest one day and working in the big city the next? Of course you didn't, you just watch it and have fun. So it is with Toon. No two sessions should ever have anything to do with each other and they don't even have to have the same characters. As such, if you wake up a bit too early one Saturday and decide you need something to do to take your mind off that pesky essay, come along and your hangover will hate you forever.

The idea is that we should end up with a big ol' rotating cast of fan favourites who get dumped into bizarre new situations for no apparent reason. This is the way your proper good ol' fashioned cartoons worked and that's what we're after here. To this end, you don't even have to limit yourself to one character. If you've got lots of ideas for characters, draw them all up and pick which to use when you hear what the episode's going to be that session. In the end, there's as much a risk that we'll end up with far too many people as that we'll end up with nobody at all. That's a gamble we'll just have to take and hope it all turns out just right.

As ever, if you do want to play in an individual game there is no problem with you just turning up having prepared a character or not. That said, if you let us know in the forum before the day then we might be able to tweak things to take your character into account.

Characters

• Roastie the Toaster
  • Roastie has but one goal in life. To ensure the world has all the toast it may ever need and to guard that toast from sogginess with all his might. Two goals...

• Angel the Rabbit
  • Angel is a conflicted little bunny. She'll conflict with anybody and everything and she has the firepower to back it up.

• Melvin the Martian
  • Melvin is a simple soul with simple pleasures, like destroying earth, everybody on it and any meddling space faring 24th century ducks that might come from it.

• Kakko Darner
  • Cute little puppy he ain't. Though he'll still make a mess of your house and anything else you let him near.

• Jessica Hare
  • Men want her, women... want her. She's doing it for herself and her rabbit-man.

• Pegasus
  • He's not clever, but he is very fast and very airborne. Unfortunately, he's not clever enough to know where to go at speed.

• Morty the Tortoise
  • He's a tortoise, he is tortoisy.

• Ian Vercell, Halfling Adventurer
  • Ian thinks everybody should die at least once and intends to make sure that they fulfill their duty. Except goblins, they need to die a bit more.

• Salvatore Pratchett the Bookish Bookworm
  • Salvatore would so very much enjoy just sitting back and enjoying a good book but life never seems to let him be.

• Gigantor the Midget Elephant
  • Gigantor loves nothing more than cuddling up to a good peanut and gorging himself, free from the torment of of those wretched midget mice.

• Ember the Anthropomorphic Ball of Fire
  • Ember is the least person to have in any situation. He could use his powers to help you, but instead he'll generally cause mayhem, which is impressive considering he tends to be running on his hands.

• Loki the Lion
  • Gourmet adventurer extraordinaire. If there's food to be had, he'll find it and eat it.

• Agent Chain
  • Suave is his middle name, sophisticated is his mother's maiden name. He'll do who and what he must for queen and country.

• Zack the Bull
  • He is big, he's not clever. Zack has an unnatural aversion to red capes but he's found an ingenious way to deal with them. He just needs to chalk up his horns...

• The Weighted Companion Cube
  • The Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. In the event that the Companion Cube does speak, the Animator urges you to disregard its advice.

Episode List

Episode Number	Air Date	Location	Title	Source
0	N/A	KLSR4	Pilot (Toon Olympics)	Ultimate Toon
Summary:	Since time immemorial Summer has meant athletics and when toons like Melvin, Kakko, Jessica, Pegasus, Morty and an all too familiar bunny get in on the act hilarity ensues.
1	03-10-2009	KS16	Fangs for the Memories	Ultimate Toon
Summary:	Angel, Gigantor, Ian and Salvatore are tasked with securing the services of Count Gotchula so as to save their network's dwindling ratings. Hilarity ensues.
2	10-10-2009	Louise's House	The Better Parenting Guide	Random
Summary:	Gigantor and Ember, ex-civil partners, reunite to meet up with their erstwhile adopted skeleton dinosaur son. Hilarity ensues.
3	17-10-2009	KS14	Chucking Out Time	Random
Summary:	Angel and Loki go for a bite to eat. Hilarity ensues.
4a	17-10-2009	KS15	The Better Housetrap	Ultimate Toon
Summary:	Loki, Agent Chain, Zack, The Weighted Companion Cube and a few others all decide upon the same show house to escape the harsh winter. They're not the sharing types though so they have to get rid of each other if they're going to live in what turns out to be a somewhat different kind of house. Hilarity ensues.
4b	17-10-2009	KS15	Spaced Out Saps	Ultimate Toon
Summary:	Our heroes find themselves hurtling towards the moon to investigate a strange energy source that scientists have detected, but first they must deal with the locals whose town they've crashed into. Hilarity ensues.
5a	31-10-2009	KS14	This Town Is So Dead	Original
Summary:	Ian and Angel are contracted to visit a town where a horrible virus has unwittingly been unleashed from a research lab. They must find the antidote before they and the rest of the world succumb to the virus. Hilarity ensues.
5b	31-10-2009	KS14	To Serve Toons	Original
Summary:	Pegasus and Angel are having a pleasant evening drive when they are happened upon by a flying saucer. The friendly alien inside wants to take them home so that they might negotiate dealing between their two planets. Hilarity ensues.

Errata

The sourcebook has only one bit of errata and it may come up one day so everybody should keep it in mind, just in case.

If anybody ever rolls 22 on the Unbelievably Silly Species Table, it's a Zombie Gerbil.