If you stop and think about it, every Dungeons and Dragons player has had that one game in their life that felt like a cartoon. Slapstick is, perhaps unfortunately for many DMs, a common trope among goofier parties. This is extra hilarious on days where you get particularly bad rolls against relatively harmless situations. Of course, the consequences to these silly detours could prove fatal.
If you want a TTRPG where slapstick violence and hijinks are encouraged, the upcoming Toon: Second Edition is for you.
Toon: Second Edition – The Cartoon Roleplaying Game is a revival of the quintessential cartoon TTRPG from 1984. Game designers Greg Costikyan and Warren Spector created the game to challenge themselves with genres nobody made game systems for. One of the biggest hurdles was the fact that kids’ cartoon characters rarely ever died. This made Toon very different from the tabletop RPGs of the era.
Toons could get hit by anvils, drink poison, blasted by cannon fire, and be right as rain a cutaway later. When designing the game, the prime directives were “forget everything you know” and “act before you think.” It’s the perfect game for those who just want to do the stupidest plan possible, because win or lose, it’s guaranteed to be hilarious. The actual mechanics are simplified to encourage easy and enjoyable gameplay
Classic stats are replaced with Muscle, Zip, Smarts and Chutzpah. They replace exactly what you think they replace. In lieu of Feats, you get Schticks, such as Bugs Bunny’s uncanny ability to disguise himself and become unrecognizable. Toon: Second Edition promises more adventures, silly tables, new character creation, and updated art for the 2020s. As for me, I’m just excited to run my long-anticipated Space Jam 3 campaign.
You can back Toon: Second Edition on Backerkit on December 17, 2025.Join the Wargamer Discord for updates and discussions on these unique TTRPGs. For other fun DnD times, check out the best DnD one shots.