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Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 rulebook $14.95
Average Rating:4.3 / 5
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Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 rulebook
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Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 rulebook
Publisher: Spectrum Games
by Lee S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/19/2022 16:27:33

Still one of the best genre emulator games for one of the best genres ever.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 rulebook
Publisher: Spectrum Games
by Tim M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/23/2021 01:39:35

First, this game is fun and imaginative. And I wish that was where I could leave this.

But, business practices matter. Spectrum produced this game using a kickstarter, where with the help of 474 backers, they raised $18,654. About 300 of those backers were owed physical rewards. At my best calculations, less than half received those rewards. The Kickstarter was over 7 years ago, the last update was in 2019. Yet, this book is a best platinum seller. They are still producing and selling new games. But the hundreds of people who paid into the kickstarter and never got their rewards? Forgotten.

I personally pledged $110 for this book in pdf and print, some add-ons, and cause I loved the project. Everything I actually got would cost you $29.95 in their current bundle sale, and $65 normally.

How a business handles itself and its finances matters. And a company that betrays the fans who helped them make their product is not a company that deserves your support.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 rulebook
Publisher: Spectrum Games
by Jeff C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/26/2015 10:58:38

I can't say enough about how much I love this game! As a child of the 80's, I so relate to everything the author says. As a tabletop gamer, the d12 is my favorite die. As a writer and GM, the way this whole game is laid out appeals to me on every level! It's full of awesome!

The first thing that stands out to me is the knowledge and amazing adherence to the genre. It is obvious the authors have amazing amounts of both gaming experience and countless hours watching all the awesomeness that was 80's cartoons. I love the preface by Flint Dille. It really stood out because we had heard rumors for years that Gygax and various cartoon production folk had built some kind of game around GI Joe and Transformers. Sure enough... It just took a while for someone to emulate it in rpg form. I mean, who hasn't built a home-brew game based on the old school Transformers stat blocks or statted up GI Joe characters based on the old file cards from the back of the figures.

The system itself is simple, easy to follow, and extremely player friendly. I would have no problem teaching this game to my kids and I will as soon as they're old enough. Character creation is fast and very reasonable. It's much like FATE or ICONS in terms of simplicity. If you can dream it, or did during the 1980's, you can probably cook up the character to go with it. The system has just enough gamer crunch to enhance the total immersion experience of 80's retro-toons.

My absolutely favorite part of this book is the Series Creation rules. I have already cooked up a half dozen different ideas for tv series I would have loved to have seen and recreated a few that came along too late as 80's retro-toons. I've even done up a couple of defunct rpg's as retro-toons. The dial system, playset creation, and villain assembly are a breeze for veteran gm's and probably pretty easy to roll out as a novice, too. I dare say I'm having too much fun with this game.

The art in this game is nigh-onto perfect for it. The artists have managed to capture the look of various popular old cartoon series which we are all familiar with, yet kept it distinct enough to avoid getting in trouble with Hasbro or Marvel. Some of the art brings back so many memories of good times had watching cartoons back then, right before Saturday afternoon D&D or Marvel Supers gaming. Not to mention making me want to go back and watch entire series again.

I would suggest again, that Spectrum please, please, please put out a print version of this pdf OR at least strongly consider it for the next edition of the game. (Yeah, I'm willing to bet Season 4 will happen, unlike most cartoons from that era.) I'm just old fashioned in that I like the feel of an old fashioned print product in my hands and on my gaming table. It's too bad boxed sets are so ridiculously expensive to put out, or I'd say it would be most awesome to have an old D&D style boxed set, or one that emulated a vhs cassette case or possibly done as a dvd case.

Also, as we know Saturday morning cartoons are officially a thing of the past, I think it would be cool for someone to do a modern kids' toon version of this game with an eye toward emulating many of the popular cartoons currently on the air. As a parent of small children, one of four channels is constantly on our tv. I can recite almost word-for-word many Disney Jr toons, Paw Patrol, Rescue Bots, and the now defunct Super Hero Squad show episodes. I would also find it interesting, since the authors are so adept at simulating an era of cartoons, to turn an eye toward something like a certain Japanese Sentai live action martial arts/giant robot series that has "morphed" into a might decade-spanning phenomenon. Unfortunately, as we've seen recently on the internet, Saban Entertainment is extremely aggressive about protecting their intellectual property, so Spectrum would have to be careful, as they are with CAH, not to be too distinct with the likenesses to the actual series.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 rulebook
Publisher: Spectrum Games
by Jay S. A. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/11/2013 07:55:49

Cartoon Action Hour takes all my Nostalgia and condenses it into a single book. What's better is that they do it with style. I've heard of CAH before, but it's only now that I've had a chance to go over the book. The systems are clever and genre-appropriate, and there's plenty of room to get creative while retaining the feel of a good 80's cartoon. While the art could still have been improved, I feel that the pieces that were commissioned for the book convey the mood and tone of the era well enough, and I found the formatting of the character sheets to be a nice touch.

If you've ever had an urge to run an 80's cartoon game, then this is definitely on your must-buy list.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 rulebook
Publisher: Spectrum Games
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/09/2013 20:20:09

I just got my pdf of Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 thanks to pledging in their Kickstarter.

This one was a no-brainer for me. I loved CAH:S2 and have really enjoyed all of Spectrum Games products to date.

How does CAH:S3 stack up? In an 80's word, Awesome!

CAH:S3 takes us back to the 80s Saturday morning (and week day afternoon) cartoons AND the toys that were so linked to them. But I am getting ahead of myself.

And while I am still ahead of myself this game has the most awesome character sheet EVER!

Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3 (CAH:S3) is a game about cartoon and toy emulation. Specially 80s cartoons and toy emulation. So there are some things that a given out of the box. You won't see any deaths. Violence happens in terms of gun fire, explosions and maybe a fist fight, but you won't see people getting hurt. There is a moral or message to every "episode" and the bad guy is going to get away in the end only to be back next time like nothing happened.

The book, like Season 2, is divided into "Channels". Channel 1 is the intro material, Channel 2 is the game system, Channel 3 is series creation (potentially more important than the characters themselves), Channel 4 is all about the Players, Channel 5 is the Game Master's section and finally we have an Appendix.

Channel 1 is the simple introductory material, but more over there is a great overview of how these cartoons (and this game) worked. There is a logic at work here in these and to get the most out of this game it is one you should follow. The best feature of this Channel is of course the overview of the 80s cartoons. It's not a laundry list of every toon, but a selective "bibliography" and must see TV.

Channel 2 covers the game system itself. In many games this is the Character creation chapter, but since character creation and series creation are so closely tied together we will discuss the system first. The game is made up of a Series (the game), Seasons (a campaign), Episodes and Scenes. Characters are PCs and GMC (Game Master Characters). A Season for example is made up of 6 Episodes. I might stick with my more familiar 12 and allow a mid-season break. Why is this important? At season breaks is when you can improve your character or change it all together.

Characters are made up of Traits and Qualities. Traits are something definitive about the character like "Strongest Man in World" or "Sneaky Thief" or "Leader of the Decipti-bots". Stuff like that. Qualities are more quantifiable and are measured based on how powerful your series is. Characters can also be ranked in terms of their Star Power. Stars (and PCs) have the highest at 3, your nameless, faceless goon has 1. If there is only one star, then they are Star Power 4.

Oomph is the power-, hero- or drama point mechanic. Collect "Proofs of Purchase" to get more Oomph! It is equal to your Star Power but changes through out the game.

The basic mechanic of the game is the Check. Traits and Qualities (and Oomph) add to the dice rolls on a Check.

Characters may not die, but they can loose an important scene. For that there are Setback Tokens. These Crucial Checks are usually the ones right before a commercial break or even worse, the ones at the end of an episode and continued next time (granted there were not a lot of those, but GI Joe first season comes to mind). Gain more Setbacks than your Star Power and you are out of the scene.

Season 3 has something new in it, or at least something I don't recall from Season 2. Gestalts. This allows you to combine powers, bodies or whatever into something greater. Think Voltron or some Transformers.

I think one of the rules I like the most here is "The Movie" which allows you, within the game, to throw out some of conceits of the game. So in this characters can die! Bad guys hit their targets! Mechanically you get more Oomph and damage and Setback tokens are not removed as often (no commercials after all) the risks are higher but characters that make it out gain experience and can be changed. Think "The Transformers Movie" from 1986.

Channel 3 covers Series Creation. Wait, where is Character creation you ask? Well it's here too. Series and Characters are created together. You can't have GI Joe without the Joes or Transformers without the Autobots. First this is create a Series guideline. First figure out what your series in named and it's tagline. So the example I used last time was The Hex Girls with the tagline "We'll put a spell on you!". Next up figure out the details of the series. Tech level, twists, genre. What is your elevator pitch on this. "Modern Earth, magic is real, but no one believes in it. Characters are supernaturals and try to lead normal lives." Something like that, only more detail. The newest feature of the series creation is the Dial. Dials tell you the levels of the game. How comedic is it? How realistic? What's the violence?

Now we get into character creation. Characters are ranked as either human, superhuman or cosmic. The GM will decide, based on the series, on what traits can't be used, or limits on the traits and other details before the characters are made. So as an example a series about wizard kids must all have a trait "Wizard" at 3 or better, but no technology-based traits. After that character creation is a breeze. There are some special abilities and then we discuss GMC (Game Master Characters). They are created much the same way, only less details. Some templates such as goons and Master Villains are presented. Playsets are where the action takes place and they are created in a similar way.

http://www.spectrum-games.com/uploads/1/2/3/7/12374018/cah_bio-file.pdf How cool is this sheet? Character advancement is handled next. Among the obvious places for advancement you can also put in points to the playset to upgrade your base. So something like in Season 2 getting a new super smart computer in the base or a new book of spells.

We end with 8 series ideas.

Channel 4 covers advice to the Players. A game like CAH requires a lot of buy in from the players. You can't go into it like you do other games. This is not "Dungeons & Dragons" this is the "Dungeons & Dragons cartoon". So the players have to go in with the right frame of mind. You want your game to be like the first season of G.I. Joe where everyone worked together, not the seasons that featured (and were dominated by) Sgt. Slaughter.

Channel 5 has similar advice for the Game Master. Again emphasis here is placed on cartoon logic, and creating a fun series and episode. Don't forget the "And Now You Know" messages at the end! That's not a bug, it's a feature of the game.

In the end what we have is a crazy fun game again. If you were a kid in the 80s and watched any cartoons then there is something here for you. It is also a great change of pace from all the other games I play. This game focuses on having fun as well as being fun.

There are no conversions for CAH:S2 here. But the conversions look simple to be honest. Enough that I feel fine moving characters from one to the next with little to no effort.

Character Creation is much improved in this edition and much more streamlined. Series creation is about the same, but it was just right in the last version.

Looking forward to doing a lot more with this one!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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