That’s All Folks! is a game about embracing life. Given the looming end of their part in the world, and possibly even the world itself, the characters must move urgently to ensure that they make the most of their time left and can be happy with the conclusion of their story.
The most important theme in That’s All Folks! is making the most of living. A good thing is coming to an end, but that is all the more reason to enjoy it while it lasts, and to make sure the finale is a triumphant epitaph.
As such, there is no space in the game for characters to wallow in misery, self-pity or fear. That’s All Folks! is about taking the approaching end as motivation and living courageously in the face of it. It is sad that a good thing is coming to an end, but that means the last moments of it should be cherished. Place a big slobbery kiss on your will-they-won't-they; crack open that bottle you've been saving of fizzy drink that we can't call champagne because it's a kids' show; splash out on that spency alembic to do those last few experiments in style!
It will be for players to decide for themselves what it means for their character to go out with a bang: the game aims to explore contrasting interpretations of this idea. Indeed, the process of both characters and their players figuring out what ending they will be happy with is a vitally important part of this game!
As characters have their Curtain Calls throughout the game, there will be many goodbyes. While That’s All Folks! is generally intended to be frantic and joyous, it is ok for these in particular to be sad and reflective. That is not to say all goodbyes need to be sad: if a character wants to go out riding a rocket into a volcano, that is ok too!
Ultimately That’s All Folks! will strive to give characters dignified ends that honour their lives, and place the power over what that end looks like in the hands of the character and their player, even if they do not get to choose when that end comes.
There will be space in That’s All Folks! for characters to not find happy endings, for characters who never managed to do everything they wanted to. However, even characters who have not found happiness should at least have found some form of contentedness with the ending of their story: they should feel ready to go when the time comes.
In addition to saying goodbye to the world, saying goodbye to each other is also an important part of the game. Again it is for players to explore how they want their character’s relationships to end, given that their end is coming one way or another.
While there are many valid things to want, feel, or experience playing That’s All Folks!, special attention is paid to just having fun. Like the cartoons that inspired it, the world of That’s All Folks! is joyful and colourful and really very, very silly. It is made to be enjoyed.
This is not intended to undercut the more serious themes of the game: on the contrary, it should be the very fact that the world is delightful that makes leaving it sad. The converse, however, is also true: while it may be sad that it is ending, this fact does not make the world of That’s All Folks! any less joyous. It may be the last season but that doesn't mean The Writers are any less serious about shenanigans.
We hope to explore a variety of conceptions of what it means for players, crew, GMs and characters to have fun. Like our source material, humour will probably be the most prominent part of this, but as a roleplaying game we are also interested in the fun to be found in the social, mechanical, role playing, gamerunning and creative aspects of That’s All Folks!.
That’s All Folks! is intended to be a highly personal game, driven by what the characters want and their relationship to each other. There is no BBEG 1) to beat, no externally imposed goal to achieve and if there is an ultimate truth then it isn’t one the characters can learn.
That doesn’t mean the characters don’t have shared interests, or that important and wide reaching events don’t occur, only that the emphasis will be on how these matter to each individual character, rather than what they might mean for the world or society as a whole.
Like cartoons, the world of That’s All Folks! is frequently contradictory, with plot holes, fourth wall breaks and retcons: continuity is grounded not in the world but in the personalities of its characters and how they and their relationships to one another develop. No one cares if elections used to be first-past-that-post in the first season, but if Penny gets tired of politics one week then The Audience won't like her running for re-election next episode without an explanation!
The characters in That’s All Folks! are well aware that their reality is a construct, but so what? It is real to them, and that is what matters. That’s All Folks! aims to explore the relationship between the player, the character and the GM, with particular emphasis on internal reality.
As O'Donnell's law of cartoon physics states, a character in mid-air remains suspended until they become aware of their situation. Although in the real world, things are often not what they are perceived or expected to be, in the artificial world of That’s All Folks! it is only the way things are perceived, either by the characters or The Audience, that matters!
And when multiple perspectives differ in a way that has to be resolved? Well, go with what's funny! The world of That’s All Folks! is ultimately one that makes sense to the viewer, and if the perspectives of multiple viewers lead to contradictory expectations for what will happen then this is resolved by going with the perspective that has the funniest predicted consequences.
As in all roleplaying games, differing information, expectations or understandings of rules can all lead to contradictions in play. Fortunately, just like a real cartoon, this is a game where it is ok to “Yes, And” backstory into existence, where inconvenient facts can be conveniently forgotten or retconned to make the gag work, and the characters can joke about the fact that the Writers can’t tell a coherent story before rolling with the “new” reality!
We do not aim to dwell on the existential implications of the fact that the characters are aware that their world was created by and is perceived by another. Characters ultimately have a short amount of time left and a life to live: why waste it pondering or bemoaning the nature of reality when they live in a world that is very real to them?
The following media have been influential in the development of That's All Folks!: