Do you remember those magical days of the 1980s, when Saturday morning and weekday afternoon cartoons offered kids heaping doses of excitement, action, and fun? There were huge sentient robots, paramilitary forces, science fantasy barbarians, and everything in between! Well, guess what? Those days have returned! With Cartoon Action Hour, you can re-live it all... but this time, you're the star!
This is not just a generic RPG decorated with cartoon art. It was designed from the ground up to recreate every aspect of the action cartoons of the Big '80s by using what we call "cartoon logic" rather than the more mundane brand of logic found in the real world -- from fast-paced action in which nobody actually dies to the PSAs that appeared at the end of each episode. If it was in the retro-toons, it's in Cartoon Action Hour! The game has garnered an extremely loyal fan base since the first edition (or Season 1) was released in 2002 and was even nominated for "Best RPG" at the 2003 Origins Awards. It is currently in its second edition with the third edition slated for release in 2013. |
"The author understands genre emulation, and she starts the book off right, showing that she knows the important parts of Saturday morning cartoons." --- Tommy Brownell (RPG.net)
"Who wouldnt want to be a kid again and play out thier favorite Go-bots or Thundercats adventures? So pour yourself some sugary cereal and wear your favorite hero's underoos while playing this game and remember what it was like to be a kid... for an hour or so at least." --- Andrew B. (DriveThruRPG)
"I'll be honest, I didn't watch many of those cartoons as a kid. I know of them, yes, and I watched episodes here and there, but my preferences were running much more to fantasy and slowly into horror and cartoons were not a good source for that then. But I wanted to get this game to see what the big deal was and to see if it could in fact do all these different kinds of stories. So I bought it. Well. It lived up to the hype." --- Timothy Brannan (The Other Side)
"Most of the game mastering advice comes from Cynthia watching (I'm guessing) hundreds of hours of retro-toons and writing down everything that makes them stand out from other cartoons. She then incorporated them into the CAH:S2 to make it stand out from other roleplaying games." --- Patrick Riley (RPG.net)
"Who wouldnt want to be a kid again and play out thier favorite Go-bots or Thundercats adventures? So pour yourself some sugary cereal and wear your favorite hero's underoos while playing this game and remember what it was like to be a kid... for an hour or so at least." --- Andrew B. (DriveThruRPG)
"I'll be honest, I didn't watch many of those cartoons as a kid. I know of them, yes, and I watched episodes here and there, but my preferences were running much more to fantasy and slowly into horror and cartoons were not a good source for that then. But I wanted to get this game to see what the big deal was and to see if it could in fact do all these different kinds of stories. So I bought it. Well. It lived up to the hype." --- Timothy Brannan (The Other Side)
"Most of the game mastering advice comes from Cynthia watching (I'm guessing) hundreds of hours of retro-toons and writing down everything that makes them stand out from other cartoons. She then incorporated them into the CAH:S2 to make it stand out from other roleplaying games." --- Patrick Riley (RPG.net)