Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Stuck In An Old Cartoon, An Animated Environment

I've done a few characters that are literally living cartoons, and heroes wind up in the weirdest situations sometime, so here's an environment set inside a cartoon.

The Basics

This environment represents the kind of twists your heroes might encounter while caught inside a 1930s theatrical cartoon, the kind of thing coming out of Fleischer Studios, Warner Brothers or Walt Disney (among others) during the era.  They're often a bit surreal, always wacky, and feature quite a lot of slapstick humor and comedically absurd violence.  Many also have impressive soundtracks backing up the animation, with entire series of musical animations being made in this era.

The twists below are necessarily fairly generic and can be skinned many ways.  You could leave the plot of the cartoon playing out similarly loose, but it might be more effective to actually watch a few old shorts and pick one to loosely define the action, picking and tailoring twists to suit.  The heroes and other intruders from outside the film aren't bound to stick to the script and may be left behind by the plot to brawl between themselves "off-camera" but there will still be intrusions from the animation in the form of twists, and as the scene tracker advances the end of the cartoon comes nearer and nearer.

I keeping with the zany tone of these cartoons, many of the twists below blatantly break the guidelines in the rulebook.  There are also a lot of Boosts on this menu, many of which affect both heroes and villains (but not lieutenants or minions), which will tend to ramp up the action for both sides.  Overall it's more hero friendly than many environments (or at least more neutral about whether villains are at risk as well) but it's still far from safe.  The GM has a lot of leeway on picking targets here, and should consider what would be the funniest result in the long run as often as not. 

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Stuck In An Old Cartoon environment

Cartoon Violence d12, Slapstick Humor d8, Fun For All d6

Special:  Going Out in this environment never, ever results in death or permanent injury.  When you get out of the cartoon - if you get out - your Health remains the same as it was, but you won't be bleeding or battered, just confused and dizzy from the experience.

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Animation Glitch: It's just a minor glitch.  Roll the environment dice.  Hinder one target using the Mid die.

Victim In the Making: Might want to keep an eye on this one, heroes.  Add one Hapless Chump environment minion to the scene.

(Major Twist)

Theme Song:  Everybody sing along!  All heroes and villains Boost themselves by rolling their Creativity die (use the default d4 if they don't have Creativity). Alternately, you may use your unique  roleplaying Quality if the GM feels it fits the situation.   

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

A Plague of Pests:  Where'd they come from?   Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Nuisance environment minions equal to the Mid die to the scene.

Big Heavy Thing:  That looks useful.  Roll the environment dice.  Boost one target using the Max die.

Improbable Peril:  Look out, you dope!  Start a timed Improbable Peril challenge.  Successes: 0  Timer: 0  Triggered: Remove one Hapless Chump environment minion from the scene.  If there are none in play, roll the environment dice and deal one hero damage equal to the Max die. 

(Major Twist)

Speed Up the Projector:  Pick up the pace!  Roll the environment dice.  Boost all heroes and villains using the Mid die.  These bonuses are persistent but not exclusive.  Ooh, special.

(Minor Twist)

Stop Lying Around:  Rub those X's out of your eyes and get back in there!  Roll the environment dice.  One hero who was Out returns to action with Health equal to the total of the Max+ Mid + Min dice.  They take their turn next in the initiative sequence.

What Are We, Chopped Liver?:  No, we're Nuisances, and proud of it!  Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Nuisance environment minions equal to the Mid die to the scene.  Then each Nuisance in the scene takes a turn even if they've already taken a turn this round.    

(Major Twist)

That's All, Folks!:  Whoa, are those the end credits?  Roll the environment dice.  Attack all targets using the Max die.  Then, Boost any heroes who haven't gone Out using the Mid + Min dice.

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Hapless Chump d6 environment minion

Description: These are the poor schmucks the heroes are supposed to keep safe from danger.  They're usually cute and harmless and attract baddies like a magnet, so good luck with that.  Sometimes they're insufferably obnoxious as well.  They're friendly to the heroes, but actually helpful?  Not very often.

Don't You Dare!: Whenever you are dealt damage, a nearby hero may use a reaction to take that damage instead.  You cannot take Attack actions.

Wilhelm Scream:  If you would be defeated or otherwise removed from the scene, first roll your die.  Deal every hero target that much guilt damage.


Nuisance d6 environment minion

Description: These pests come in a variety of forms, from angry bees to barking dogs to oblivious nitwits or sapient furniture who just get in the way, but they're a stumbling block for heroes (and occasionally villains) regardless of specifics.  They're not really on anyone's side, but enjoy targeting any Hapless Chump minions in the scene.

Just Plain Annoying: You may only take Attack or Hinder actions.

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Possible Ways To Use This

A few possible plots leading to the environment, with scene-building suggestions:

Aw, Lighten Up!:  A powerful reality-twister decides the heroes need to lighten up and intervenes in a confrontation with one or more villains, unceremoniously dumping all of them into its favorite cartoon while offering prizes for those who play along best.  The scene acts as a gauntlet of sorts, built up out of whatever villains were dragged in with the PCs and filled in with somewhat anachronistic challenges appropriate to superhero types:  Rescue Old Lady Warner's cat from a suspiciously animate tree, put out a house fire where both the building and the flames are alive, keep a piano from squashing some poor sap, etc.  Depending on their personalities the villain(s) may play along by trying to rob a cartoon bank or steal candy from babies, or they may just take advantage of the opening to pound on the heroes.  If the heroes manage to finish all their challenges before the scene ends the entity that trapped them here will reward them afterward (narratively, mechanically or both) and they can take any villains that were defeated into custody without further difficulty.  Villains who aren't beaten will escape for now, and might earn rewards themselves if they played along and the heroes didn't stop them.  Defeated heroes wake up aching and confused but physically intact, although they may get a lecture about being disappointments if they didn't entertain the reality-twister sufficiently.

Kidnapped!:  A mad scientist has found a way to send real-world objects and people into celluloid film.  He used his invention to effectively kidnap one or more VIPs and trapped them within an old cartoon, and when the heroes attempted to stop him they were caught in the effect and trapped as well.  Now they need to find the kidnap victim(s) and find a way out before the cartoon plays through to the end - but there are guards stationed within the short to prevent just that kind of meddling.  The scene includes one or more challenges to find the VIP(s) and another, more difficult challenge to effect an escape from within which can't be Overcome until the guards (a mix of lieutenants and minions with a mad science theme - perhaps robots, or characters spliced into the cartoon from other films) are gotten out of the way.  If the heroes are all defeated or the scene tracker runs out before the escape challenge is completed, everything goes dark and the heroes awake to discover they've been spliced into another, much less humorous film.  The mastermind behind this is a fan of 80s horror movies...

Mindscape:  A powerful psychic or mystic ally of the heroes has lapsed into a coma, and they must venture into his mindscape save his sanity by soothing his subconscious mind (and possibly ejecting some mysterious intruder responsible for his condition in the first place).  The first layer of his mental architecture is a childhood memory of his favorite cartoon, but as the heroes traverse the memory they find it filled with foreign elements - personifications of adult traumas or complete outsiders from something else's mind.  The scene budget is spent on dangerous but fragile foes that strike a jarring discord with the cartoony environment, which is more hostile to the villains than usual.  The PCs win by either defeating all their enemies or staying in action until the tracker runs out and the next layer of the mindscape rises to the surface, with any remaining foes fading away and a montage scene beginning.  Heroes who went Out will have the chance to heal, but they suffer a minor twist that carries forward into the next action scene.  If the whole team was defeated, the scene still moves to a recovery montage but they suffer major twists instead.


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