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| - 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.
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| abstract
| - 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.
* 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.
* Captain Ersatz: All over the dang place.
* 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.
* Ted Baxter: 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.
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