A sincere LARP about silly people. Set at an animation studio in 1938: play as animators, writers, and long-suffering producers.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to ToonTown is a sincere LARP about silly people. Set at an animation studio in 1938, the players play animators, writers, and long-suffering executives who have been locked in a studio as they try to finish their next big cartoon. It will largely be light-hearted and funny, with moments of genuine poignancy. Come prepared to laugh and have feelings.
Your characters are making a cartoon, but that does not mean you have to be an artist! You're welcome to draw, or not, as you prefer. Game time will be divided between a gamified making of cartoon, office politics, and goofing off.
Synopsis:
The year is 1938 and times are tough, even here at Caper Cartoons. We were just starting to establish ourselves before the Great Depression hit. Funds are tight and there’s rumors circulating that the boss might have to cut staff... again. We haven’t been paid in weeks.
A big theater has bought one of our animations, and the deadline to turn it in is tomorrow. The team has been slaving away: the ink and paint girls up to their elbows in ink and paint, the artists drawing ‘til their hands went numb, and the writers pulling out their hair to make the jokes come together. Even with all that effort we knew, deep down, that the cartoon was a dud.
The Caper Brothers, whose names are on the building and our paychecks (if we’d ever get paid), took one look at that sad piece of animation and burned it on the spot. One of the Brothers, Art Caper, has locked us in the studio with a padlock and chains and he’s not letting us out until we’ve got something completely new finished. The clock is ticking and nothing is harder than comedy on a deadline.
Content warnings include period-appropriate sexism and homophobia, illness, mention of Nazis & war, and financial troubles typical to the Great Depression. The sexism and homophobia will be background radiation more than play.