Challenge for settings:GURPS TOON

[gruundehn]

Somewhere I have the game Toon but I cannot find it now. If you can get any edition it might make a good guideline for running a GURPS Toon game. Basically, IIRC, the skill set should be extremely limited and each skill should be close to a wildcard skill, if not a wildcard skill. Thus you would never have Throw Weapon, merely Throw Something; you wouldn't have Drive Car but Drive Anything; Guns! would also cover artillery perhaps. Gadgets should be common. The Laws of Physics must take second place to the story line and the gags. (Thus gravity never works until you notice that you are walking on air, etc.) Explosions do no damage unless required by the plot, and never hurt any character - merely put soot on their face or whatever. Everything is right next door unless it is funnier to have it someplace else.
The game Toon had a provision where if your character was in a fight with anything, another character or a car or whatever, and you ran out of hit points then your character "fell down" and was out of the game for a set period of time in RL. It was three minutes I think.
If you can pull off the silliness it should be a blast. Looney Toons, Woodie Woodpecker, Deputy Dawg, Huckleberry Hound, Droopy, all of the classics and even some of the more modern stuff such as Dexter's Lab, can be an inspireation. Where are you at? Maybe I can join in?

[Refplace]

I think the metatrait helps bundle some of the advantages together for simplicity. So it has value even if not in a setting where your mixing normals and toons.
OK what about the various Toon worlds and such do we want to try to implement and can we separate them into various traits and rules?
Roadrunner and Wylie Coyote
Tom and Jerry
Daffy Duck
Darkwing Duck
Bugs Bunny

I dont think Scooby Doo really fits.
Animae is a whole different thing and has several types as well.
What are some of the core features and which are just optional?

Not dying is core. Able to take a licking and come right back.
Movement also pretty common.
Flesh Wounds are a good way to handle Stars vs. Extras.
Success also.
Odd skills.. Wildcard skills and the rules on them from MH could be attractive.
That can cover a lot of Schticks right there.
Wish I had a copy of Toon, or Goblins as was suggested but those long gone.

Edit: Ninjaed on the Wild Card :)

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by starslayer

I think it also comes down to WHICH cartoons. Disney toons are much less resilient then WB toons. The Hanna-Barbara toons, while every bit as classic, are only about a resilient as any comedy protagonists would be. Popeye gets a lot of weird flailing about but things as mundane as bricks and punches are a serious threat to all individuals within (unless they've eaten there spinach). Wile-E-Coyote on the other hand seems to be completely unkillable. Tom of Tom & Jerry seems unkillable, but I am not sure if the same invulnerability extends to Jerry who we never see seriously hurt. Potentially it's a situation of 'villainous verisimilitude'- The bad guy is invincible because we want to show bad things happening to the bad guy.

Don't forget Itchy & Scratchy!

And on Family Guy, sometimes the main characters get their faces torn off (at least one time Peter did this to Chris in a cut-away), or get shot in the head (at least one time, Peter to Meg), or even decapitated or have their heads explode. Of course, a lot of that happens in the cut-away gags. Also, non-main characters can die and don't seem especially resilient. But then you have guys like recurring cameo character James Woods that can even come back from the dead using super-science that sucks the life force out of young people.

On Futurama, it can take minutes to die from decapitation, all the while the head can talk and everything, even jump and attack, as per IT:Independent Body Parts, which many toons seem to have.

And for some of these settings (actually, many toons), you basically have to build them as nigh-sociopaths... possibly with Callous, Bloodlust, Bad Temper, etc. Toons generally get written as highly emotionally reactive yet mostly self-absorbed creatures with little concern for long-term consequences, which, if you think about it, makes complete sense for creatures that for all intents and purposes can't die or get permanently harmed.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by gruundehn

If you can pull off the silliness it should be a blast. Looney Toons, Woodie Woodpecker, Deputy Dawg, Huckleberry Hound, Droopy, all of the classics and even some of the more modern stuff such as Dexter's Lab, can be an inspireation. Where are you at? Maybe I can join in?

The thread is just getting started. I am not planning on a game just an exercise. And I have no intention of trying to write this up for publication. I have other things I might try again that are more important to me.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by starslayer

I think it also comes down to WHICH cartoons.

TOON was very much a WB game from everything I've seen of it.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I think the metatrait helps bundle some of the advantages together for simplicity. So it has value even if not in a setting where your mixing normals and toons.
OK what about the various Toon worlds and such do we want to try to implement and can we separate them into various traits and rules?
Roadrunner and Wylie Coyote
Tom and Jerry
Daffy Duck
Darkwing Duck
Bugs Bunny

I dont think Scooby Doo really fits.
Animae is a whole different thing and has several types as well.

This is part of why I'm suggesting a slapstick combat system: by applying it judiciously, you could end up handling any or all of the above.

Originally Posted by Refplace

What are some of the core features and which are just optional?

Not dying is core. Able to take a licking and come right back.

I'm not so sure about that. I recall at least on short featuring a guy who was so desperate to get into a vaudeville show that he mixed up a bunch of explosive chemicals, drank them, and swallowed a match. After the resulting explosion, the crowd went wild and the host asked for a repeat performance, to which the performer's ghost said that the only problem with the trick is that you can only do it once.

Originally Posted by Refplace

Movement also pretty common.
Flesh Wounds are a good way to handle Stars vs. Extras.
Success also.
Odd skills.. Wildcard skills and the rules on them from MH could be attractive.
That can cover a lot of Schticks right there.
Wish I had a copy of Toon, or Goblins as was suggested but those long gone.

Edit: Ninjaed on the Wild Card :)

The core ability of the Toon is the ability to ignore the limitations imposed by reality if it's funny.

[dataweaver]

I'd also suggest implementing some sort of "comedy point" currency that can be earned by injecting humor into the game (or by playing the straight-man for someone else's humor) and can be used to let you ignore rules that would get in the way of being funny (such as the one that says that being blasted by a cannon, falling a thousand feet off a cliff, and having a house-sized boulder land on top of you will kill you; but also things like ending up somewhere where you have no business being).

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

This is part of why I'm suggesting a slapstick combat system: by applying it judiciously, you could end up handling any or all of the above.

Yeah a list of combat options is needed.

Originally Posted by dataweaver

I'm not so sure about that. I recall at least on short featuring a guy who was so desperate to get into a vaudeville show that he mixed up a bunch of explosive chemicals, drank them, and swallowed a match. After the resulting explosion, the crowd went wild and the host asked for a repeat performance, to which the performer's ghost said that the only problem with the trick is that you can only do it once.

Sure we seen a few of those but I think that could be handled with Unkillable 3 and letting him speak as a ghost.

Originally Posted by dataweaver

The core ability of the Toon is the ability to ignore the limitations imposed by reality if it's funny.

Yeah though not reliabily and its vulnerable to plot.
Speaking of which..
PM: Toon -10%
Your powers stop working whenever the plot calls for it or when it would just be funny.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

I'd also suggest implementing some sort of "comedy point" currency that can be earned by injecting humor into the game (or by playing the straight-man for someone else's humor) and can be used to let you ignore rules that would get in the way of being funny (such as the one that says that being blasted by a cannon, falling a thousand feet off a cliff, and having a house-sized boulder land on top of you will kill you; but also things like ending up somewhere where you have no business being).

Good one also. Daredevil but for Funny instead of dangerous?
Serendipity also with a funny enhancement.
In fact maybe we should have a Funny Enhancement for powers that is kind of like Glamour or Cosmic. It often has no real measurable effect, it just looks cool.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

I'd also suggest implementing some sort of "comedy point" currency that can be earned by injecting humor into the game (or by playing the straight-man for someone else's humor) and can be used to let you ignore rules that would get in the way of being funny (such as the one that says that being blasted by a cannon, falling a thousand feet off a cliff, and having a house-sized boulder land on top of you will kill you; but also things like ending up somewhere where you have no business being).

Maybe this could work using the same mechanic as the modified Destiny advantage from MH, but Destiny for funniness / silliness rather than something heroic... :-)