Steve Jackson on Toon's Return to TTRPGs after 40 Years

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This is a short one! Steve Jackson Games surprised us with its decision to update TOON, a 40-year-old TTRPG about cartoon characters. The game is crowdfunding next week, but we got a chance to ask game designer (and Steve Jackson Games owner) Steve Jackson about the decision to update the game, its return after 40 years and more!

What's the story behind Toon 2nd Edition? Why reboot or update the game now, after 40 years?

Steve Jackson: We started talking about updating Toon at least four years ago. But we updated it because I like the game very much and, tbh, when we got this rolling, I would not have guessed it had been 40 years since the initial release. Time flies. So the straight answer is "No excuse for not doing it earlier, and doing it later would have meant more of a wait."
2. Game design has evolved quite a bit between now and its initial release. What sorts of mechanical or philosophical changes have you or the people involved added to the game?

Steve Jackson: Simplification of character creation (Jay Dragon did the heavy lifting on that) and adding some mnemonics (mostly me, with the help of Irene Zielinski)

What does the 'streamlining' of gameplay entail? What will character creation look like?

Steve Jackson: The most dramatic streamlining change, I think, was a seemingly tiny one. If you Fall Down you now come back after missing three ACTIONS, not three calendar minutes. Not only does that get you back faster, but it eliminates clockwatching and potential clockwatching arguments. We are also more freeform about Plot Points and what they are good for.

The "words and pictures" part of character creation involves the look and Wants of your character and the Shtick(s) they can use. There are tables to help with this, but if you know what you want, you need not touch a die.

What role will the other supplements for the game play in this version? Will they be added, or kept as separate books? Could we see them adapted in crowdfunding expansion goals?

Steve Jackson: They won't be added to this book; we don't want to make it unwieldy. And I don't want to give the team a moving target in terms of book length, so any stretch goals we set will leave the text untouched. That leaves "separate books," doesn't it?

What changes should fans expect from Toon 2nd Edition?

Steve Jackson: There are a few more silly tables, and I think the adventure generator is now streamlined a bit. We added one whole section - a review of some of the most influential animations, from the very beginning up to the present - as a "suggested viewing" list that might help Animators find some new inspiration.

Are there any changes in what sorts of stories or adventures you hope players will run with this, especially with how cartoons have evolved in the last 40 years? Or do you believe it holds pretty solidly to the vision presented by the original book?

Steve Jackson: My own hope is that the broadened scope of animation will lead to a wider variety of adventures. Several years ago, for an Australian convention's "after dark" program, I ran a Toon session which was advertised as "in the manner of Ralph Bakshi." The players were five or six twentysomethings, of varying species and with varying political affiliations, gender orientations, and wants, sharing a big house. The players got into the spirit beautifully.

What role, if any, did Quinns Quest's recent decision to play Toon in an AP play in the decision to re-launch this game?

Steve Jackson: This is news to me! I'll go watch . . . 

Why should old-school fans of Toon pick up the new version of this game? Why should new players who might never have heard of Toon try it?

Steve Jackson: . . . and apparently there are a LOT of old fans. [project manager Daryll Silva] tells me he had to turn off his notifications for a while after the announcement because there were hundreds of immediate responses on Bluesky and other social media. At any rate, I expect some people who really enjoyed it decades ago would like to see what we've done with it (it's definitely still Toon, just a bit faster), and some of them may (gasp) no longer have their copies. There are a lot of fine newer RPGs out there, and some of them are silly, and some of them are fast, but none of them are Greg Costikyan's Toon.

We're also going with the modern flow in terms of production values. The art is still by Kyle Miller, but most of it is new and all will be colored. And the book will be available in both hard and softcover.

New players should try it if the game's basic scheme appeals! If you like cartoons - whether your heart is with Steamboat Willie and Gertie the Dinosaur, or Phineas and Ferb and Rick and Morty, and if you like roleplaying, you owe it to yourself to watch from the inside.

What should we expect from Toon regarding crowdfunding goals? Anything unique or exciting?

Steve Jackson: Nothing unique, nothing exciting, maybe nothing at all! Stretch goals are a game, and sometimes that game is really appropriate for the project, and sometimes it's just tacked on in hopes of manipulating the backers. Right now, this feels like a tack-on, and I don't want to do that. We might set a level at which we promise to do the first big supplement within the year; that, to me, feels more like recognizing and thanking support than manipulation.

Correction: SJG’s project manager is Darryll Silva, not Steve.

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