All The Tropes

Cartoon Action Hour

Revision as of 12:29, 10 October 2014 by Nerdanel (talk | contribs)

Somewhere between the silliness of "Toon" and the serious of "Prime Time Adventures", there sits a book. This book is Cartoon Action Hour, a tabletop RPG that invokes the spirit of the Merchandise-Driven action cartoons of The Eighties.

Cartoon Action Hour has a lot of a shout-outs to 1980s cartoons, including Transformers (Transbots), Thundercats (Action Cats), and G.I. Joe (the Inhumanoids-like Dark Brigade and the regular version as Strikeforce Freedom, replacing snake-themed villains with spider-themed villains), for example.

"Cartoon Action Hour: Season Two" was released on Oct 30, 2008. Season Three is currently in development.

Tropes used in Cartoon Action Hour include:
  • And Knowing Is Half the Battle: You earn extra experience by playing your characters in the After-the-Show Message.
  • Experience Point: Guilty as charged.
  • Expy: More then its fair share.
  • Critical Failure: Called a "Flub".
  • Greek Chorus: Kargorr, a fictional villain from a fictional series, shows you how not to play the game. For CAH: Season 2, John Bravesteel, a fictional hero from the same fictional series as Kargorr, keeps Kargorr in check.
  • Hit Points: Called Hurt Points in CAH:S1. Avoided in CAH: Season 2, replaced with "Set Back Tokens". Even more cartoon logical!
  • Mana: Avoided with Spell Clusters.
  • Merchandise-Driven: At least in the first version, players were encouraged to think of creating their character as coming up with that character's action figure.
  • Mooks: called Goons. Rules are provided to handle those who get their hides kicked time and time again.
  • Never Say "Die": Completely embraced. Characters don't die, they're only knocked out or captured. Unless you're gaming out The Movie.
  • Noodle Incident: Kargorr, the failed villain complains about a comic relief character, Ziggle. John Bravesteel, Kargorr's heroic counterpart, says that Kargorr is just upset that Ziggle defeated him once--and tries to tell it to the audience, Kargorr shuts Bravesteel up by saying no one wants to hear from him.
  • Point Build System: Uses Character Points (First season) and Proof of Purchase Points (Second season).
  • Retraux: The rule book even includes a glossary of 80's slang, but only in the first edition.
  • Shout-Out: The whole RPG and 'Cartoon Logic' is a Shout-Out to cartoons of the 1980s.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Kargorr, so very much. His whole shtick is that he's an incompetent Harmless Villain (bordering on a Dastardly Whiplash) who thinks of himself as a fearsome Big Bad.
  • Word of God: Cynthia Celeste Miller, creator of Cartoon Action Hour.

Warriors of the Cosmos

The fictional series, Warriors of the Cosmos, deals with Iconia, a once peaceful planet, now under the attack of Nekkrottus's Blackskull Empire. The Big Good, King Rastor of Haven, bringso together a group of heroes called Guardians of Iconia to defeat Nekkrottus' forces once and for all.

The fictional series, "Warriors of the Cosmos", has the following tropes:

Strikeforce Freedom

The fictional series Strikeforce Freedom deals with the titular military force fighting SPIDER, a terrorist organization that wants take over the world.

Strikeforce Freedom has the following tropes:

Transbots

The fictional series, Transbots deals with Trevor Hastings' Transbots as they battle against Maximillian Mercy's Warbots.

Transbots has the following tropes:
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Cartoon_Action_Hour?oldid=1179312"