Cartoon Action Hour

Last updated
Cartoon Action Hour
CAH Cover.gif
Cartoon Action Hour cover
Designers Cynthia Celeste Miller, Eddy Webb
Publishers Spectrum Games
Publication2002
GenresSuper Heroes, Cartoon
SystemsCustom

Cartoon Action Hour is a role-playing game (RPG) designed to emulate classic action-adventure cartoons, such as ThunderCats , He-Man , Transformers , G.I. Joe , Visionaries , Inhumanoids , Centurions , Thundarr the Barbarian , M.A.S.K. , and Bravestarr . [1]

Contents

It was e-published by Spectrum Games as a PDF role-playing game in early 2002, [1] where it garnered a sizable cult following. This prompted Z-Man Games to offer to publish the game as a hardcopy edition. The material from the PDF was revised and expanded upon for the 2003 print version.

Season 1

Cartoon Action Hour implements a relatively simple ruleset. The core resolution system revolves around rolling a d12, adding a number to it, and comparing it to a Difficulty Number. If the result equals or exceeds that Difficulty Number, the character succeeds in the task at hand.

Traits

Whereas most RPGs give all characters an identical list of attributes (such as Strength, Agility, Intelligence, etc.) and a variable collection of skills, Cartoon Action Hour rolls them all into one type of statistic known as Traits. Each character will have a different list of Traits, with ratings ranging from −4 (nearly non-existent) to 4 (maximum human capability), with 0 being average. [1]

Super-Ratings

To represent Traits with superhuman or supernatural levels of ability, the designers use super-ratings. Characters with a Trait rating of 4 may have another number in parentheses, ranging from 2 to 5. This super-rating allows the player to roll more than one d12 when testing that Trait, taking the best result.

Special Abilities

Superpowers, magic spells, vehicles, weapons, armor, racial abilities, animal companions, psionic abilities, and magic artifacts—They can all be created using the Special Ability creation rules. Each Special Ability is designed by picking and choosing appropriate "components" that define it. For example, an energy blast would need the following components: Damage Rating and Range. This can easily be customized further by adding other components and modifiers, thus making the Special Ability truly unique.

Reflecting the Genre

Every facet of Cartoon Action Hour was created with an eye toward faithfully depicting the subject matter, using what the authors refer to as "cartoon logic". A few examples of this are as follows:

Reception

Reviewer Matthew Pook noted that "the look of Cartoon Action Hour belies its origins as an amateur publication. Its layout is overly cluttered and fussy, with its desktop publishing style readily apparent" and "there should be something to please anyone who is a fan of the genre within the pages of this book. Plus the rules and mechanics are nicely simple, making it easy to get into and play up to the epic heroism of Cartoon Action Hour". [1]

Reviews

Season two

Season Two of Cartoon Action Hour was released on Oct 31, 2008 as a PDF on RPGNow.com. On December 16, 2008, the print version of the book was placed on Lulu. The rule book feature three series, Warriors of Cosmos (a science-fiction fantasy in the style of He-Man), Strikeforce Freedom (a G.I. Joe with Cobra being replaced by a spider-theme terrorist group) and Transbots (a "Transforming Robots" series in which the robots are built and work for rival companies.)

Changes between Season 1 and Season 2

Season Three

Season Three of Cartoon Action Hour was released on Nov. 8, 2013.

Related Research Articles

<i>GURPS</i> Tabletop role-playing game system

The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system published by Steve Jackson Games. The system is designed to run any genre using the same core mechanics. The core rules were first written by Steve Jackson and published in 1986, at a time when most such systems were story- or genre-specific. Since then, four editions have been published. The current line editor is Sean Punch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cobra (G.I. Joe)</span> Fictional terrorist organization in the G.I. Joe franchise

COBRA is a fictional terrorist organization and the nemesis of the G.I. Joe Team in the Hasbro action figure toyline G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, as well as in related media.

Action Force is a brand of European action figures released in the 1980s that was based on the Action Man toyline. It was also used to introduce G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toys to European markets. Several publishing companies have produced comic books based on the figures.

<i>G.I. Joe</i> (NES video game) 1991 video game

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a 1991 run and gun game published by Taxan for the Nintendo Entertainment System based on the toyline of the same name. The game was produced by Ken Lobb and developed by the same Japanese team that later formed KID. A sequel developed by the same team, titled G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor, was released the following year, but was published by Capcom after Taxan went out of business.

<i>Savage Worlds</i> American generic role-playing game

Savage Worlds is a role-playing game written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. The game emphasizes speed of play and reduced preparation over realism or detail. The game received the 2003 Origin Gamers' Choice Award for best role-playing game.

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a military-themed line of action figures and toys in Hasbro's G.I. Joe franchise. The toyline lasted from 1982 to 1994, producing well over 500 figures and 250 vehicles and playsets. The line reappeared in 1997 and has continued in one form or another to the present day. It was supported by two animated series as well as a major comic series published by Marvel Comics.

<i>G.I. Joe: Sigma 6</i> Line of toy action figures; animated series

G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 is a line of military-themed action figures and toys produced by Hasbro, re-imagining the characters of the 1980s toyline, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.

<i>G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero</i> (1983 TV series) 1983-1986 American animated TV series

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a half-hour American animated television series created by Ron Friedman. Based on the toyline from Hasbro, the cartoon ran in syndication from 1983 to 1986. 95 episodes were produced.

General Flagg is the code name as well as the rank and surname of two fictional characters from the toyline, cartoon and comic series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.

Clutch (<i>G.I. Joe</i>) Fictional character

Clutch is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, comic books and animated series. He is one of the G.I. Joe Team's motor vehicle drivers and debuted in 1982.

<i>G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor</i> 1992 video game

G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor is an action-platform video game developed by KID and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released only in North America in 1992. It is the sequel to KID's previous NES G.I. Joe game, G.I. Joe, which was published by Taxan the previous year.

<i>Conspiracy X</i>

Conspiracy X is a role-playing game (RPG) originally released by New Millennium Entertainment in 1996, and since revised and released by several publishers including Steve Jackson Games and Eden Studios, Inc. In all versions, the setting posits that aliens are insiduously taking over the world, reminiscent of The X-Files.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EABA</span>

The End All Be All game system, commonly known as EABA and pronounced "ee-buh", is a role-playing game system from Blacksburg Tactical Research Center (BTRC). It is a generic gaming system designed to adapt to any imaginary gaming environment. It was created by Greg Porter in 2003. The game cites the Hero System, GURPS and Call of Cthulhu as influences in its development.

<i>G.I. Joe: Resolute</i> American animated television series

G.I. Joe: Resolute is an American anime-influenced adult animated web series based on the G.I. Joe franchise. It was written by Warren Ellis, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, and produced by Sam Register, creator of Cartoon Network's Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and The Looney Tunes Show. It debuted on the web at Adult Swim Video on April 17, 2009, as a series of ten 5-minute episodes and a final 10-minute episode, with a content rating of TV-14-V, and later premiered as a movie on Adult Swim on April 25, 2009. The show has a darker and more realistic tone compared to other installments in the franchise, and also uses elements from both the cartoons and the comics, and is described by Warren Ellis as a "fusion".

Bazooka (<i>G.I. Joe</i>) Character from the G.I. Joe franchise

Bazooka is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, comic books and animated series. He is the G.I. Joe Team's missile specialist and debuted in 1985.

<i>G.I. Joe</i> (arcade game) 1992 video game

G.I. Joe is a third-person rail shooter video game produced by Konami and released in 1992 for video arcades. It is based on the cartoon series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and stars four characters from the show: Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, and Roadblock.

G.I. Joe is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier, Action Sailor, Action Pilot, Action Marine and later on, the Action Nurse. The name is derived from the usage of "G.I. Joe" for the generic U.S. soldier, itself derived from the more general term "G.I.". The development of G.I. Joe led to the coining of the term "action figure". G.I. Joe's appeal to children has made it an American icon among toys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capes, Cowls & Villains Foul</span> Tabletop role-playing game

Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul is a pen and paper roleplaying game about comic book style superheroes and their adventures, developed and published by Parsons, Kansas-based Spectrum Games. It officially debuted in the form of an illustrated 13-page PDF document released for free, called the Quickstart Preview in 2010. A full rulebook was released in 2012. It was written by Barak Blackburn, and uses a significantly modified version of a rules system that was first introduced in Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2 in late 2008.

The Star Wars Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe, first published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2012. It consists of different standalone cross-compatible games where each one is a separate themed experience. The sourcebooks support games set from the Clone Wars era to the original Star Wars trilogy era; there is limited support for the Star Wars sequel trilogy era. Since 2020, the game line has been maintained by Asmodee's subsidiary Edge Studio.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Pook, Matthew (2003-04-18). "Pyramid Review: Cartoon Action Hour: The 1980s Action Cartoon RPG". Pyramid (Online). Retrieved 2008-02-16.
  2. "Backstab #049". 2004.