Mechanics

Mechanics in That's All Folks! help define a character's general abilities, as well as serving to establish aspects of their personality.

Mechanics for your character come in three main categories: Abilities, Cartoon Logics, and Writing Conventions.

• Abilities represent the physical attributes and skills of a character, establishing what practical things they are good or bad at.
• Cartoon Logics come from the character's interaction with Cartoon Physics, being abilities that are not possible or are nonsensical in the real world.
• Writing Conventions provide additional effects that don't come from innate abilities, but from how the character is generally portrayed in The Show. These tend to be more narrative in nature, and can help a character lean into the bittersweet elements of the game. The effects of these are most obvious when assessing the feasibility of your future plans, but may arise naturally in Uptime.

As well as these, Playstyle Quirks help establish what experience you want out of the game instead of describing your character.

A completed character will have:

• 3 positive Ability Effects
• 2 negative Ability Effects
• 0 or 2 Cartoon Logics
• 0-3 Writing Conventions
• Any number of Playstyle Quirks

One the game begins, any mechanics that are relevant to other characters, such as if a character will automatically lose a conflict, will be listed publicly in the player pages.

Abilities establish what a character is good at, and what areas they are lacking in. Some characters are strong, sneaky, crafty, observant, resilient, smart, or renowned, but they can't be good at everything. Across each Ability, there are multiple different Effects, which describe specific things that a character can or cannot do. A character must take three positive (+) Effects and two negative (-) Effects in total, which can come from any combination of Abilities.

Cartoon Logics go against our reality and define the rules that that particular cartoon character is beholden to. Perhaps they can draw things into the Scene, have a habit for spontaneously combusting, or really just don't like obeying the laws of physics. You may take either zero or two cartoon logics, which cancel to net zero (i.e. a positive and a negative).

Writing Conventions are more abstract, but can have a very real impact. In any given narrative, a particular character will be subject to particular trends. Perhaps they usually find their way out of tight spots, or they have a base of operations that they use, or perhaps they are just really quite unlucky. The effects of these may be felt during uptime, but will most strongly be observed when trying to enact the plans you made for the next episode. You may take zero, one, two, or three writing conventions, but the total score must add up to zero. This can be achieved in multiple ways, such as by taking three neutrals (0), or a positive (+) and a negative (-).

You may take any number of playstyle quirks, although you cannot take conflicting ones (such as Child and Teen). Unlike other quirks, many of these can be changed at any point in the game, although some can not (underlined below).

Child: Your character represents a child in the fiction. They will not under any circumstances be involved in romance or adult humour. The GMs will give you the Child role to let other players know.

Teen: Your character represents a teenager in the fiction. They will not under any circumstances be involved in romance except with other teens and will not under any circumstances be involved in adult humour. The GMs will give you the Teen role to let other players know.

Firework: You want to experience That’s All Folks! as a One Shot. By taking this quirk you are opting to have a Curtain Call in the first session.

Mayfly: You want a game that is extremely fast paced and chaotic. By taking this you are opting to have a Curtain call in session two or three.

Twice as Bright: You want a game that is faster and more chaotic. By taking this quirk you are opting to have a Curtain Call in session three or four.

[DEFAULT] Just Right: You want to experience That’s All Folks! at the expected pace, with plenty of time to develop your character, and enough time to get involved in crewing. By taking this quirk you are opting to have a Curtain Call close to the average time, between early in session five and the end of session seven. It is very possible with this to be assigned a Curtain Call right at the end of the final session.

Slow Burn: You want to play a slower paced, more reflective game. By taking this quirk you are expressing a preference for a Curtain Call between the last part of session six and end of session seven. We may not be able to accommodate this.

Make Me Cry: You want to lean into the more bittersweet elements of That’s All Folks! By taking this quirk the GMs will not shy away from putting more emphasis on sadness, loss and regret if it seems appropriate for your character.

Romance Me: You are happy for your character to be romanced by NPCs. By taking this quirk, GMs and Crew will not avoid having NPCs romance your character. You should check OC with another player on a case-by-case basis if they are comfortable with ballgowning.

Heeeeeeey, Nurse!: You are comfortable with more adult-oriented humour. By taking this quirk you are happy for your character to be involved in romantic plotlines and their associated (strictly acceptable in a U to PG rated program) innuendo based comedy. Incompatible with your character being a child or teenager.

Like our source material, sexual references are not appropriate unless they are so oblique as to be safe for children. By taking this you are not opting into anything that you would not see in Loony Tunes, Animaniacs or Steven Universe.

Lose Control: You are happy for your character to act in ways you do not control, or otherwise experience IC and/or OC loss of agency. Not taking this does not act as an opt-out of psychological Injuries or other mind altering effects, just those that would result in a loss of agency.

Expect The Unexpected: You are happy to sacrifice your plans on the altar of narrative spiciness. By taking this, GMs and Crew will prefer to make interesting things happen as a result of your actions, even if this differs significantly from what you and your character are trying to achieve. This could result in things going much better or worse than you might have thought.