WotC: "Why We Aren’t Funny"

Jesse Decker (editor-in-chief Dragon Magazine) and David Noonan (who is now part of Sasquatch Game Studios - if that name rings a bell, it's because I've been talking about their Primeval Thule setting a bit recently) wrote an article back in 2005 about humour in Dungeons & Dragons - or rather, the lack of it. It's especially relevant right now, with the whimsical NPCs found in the upcoming Out of the Abyss adventure for 5E, so I figured I'd resurrect it. As they said at the time, "Humor is pretty rare in D&D products these days—or at least intentional humor. We play it straight in our rulebooks, but many people play D&D as a series of running gags. So why are D&D books so serious when the game can get so goofy?"

​

Obviously that's not the current stance, but it's an interesting look at the past. As the article goes on to say, "it wasn't always this way. The earliest editions of D&D are full of oddball monsters, bad puns, inside jokes, and encounters designed not to challenge the PCs but to amuse or embarrass them."

Anyway, here's the article. I've already asked in another post what you think of whimsy in your grimdark, so head here to vote in that poll.

 

[amerigoV]

"We at WoTC do not have a sense of humor that we're aware of."

 

[Hand of Evil]

Always remember "staff infection" and "whipping out the wand" jokes.

Or the Cleric doing the scene from a move, I forget the movie, where the character goes to get a shot to get rid of an STD and the doc tells him to drop his pant and starts heats a long metal rod and says something like "you got it the old fashion way, we cure it the old fashion way..."

I miss the humor of the cartoons from the early editions of D&D.

 

[machineelf]

D&D used to have adventures full of weird and sometimes non-logical situations. It was funny and goofy at times, and you never knew what was going to be behind the door but you always knew it was going to be weird. I am glad that current D&D adventures and resources aren't quite that goofy anymore, and there is a lot more verisimilitude. But at the same time, some adventures can get too serious and too boring. Now sometimes what's behind that door is just a clothes closet with nothing of interest whatsoever. I don't want my games to be too serious and completely lack a sense of humor. I think there is a nice balance to be had. My hopes are high Out of the Abyss; I hope I'm not let down.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Where I think Decker & Noonan diverge from what I would consider a great experience is when they point this out:

Take a second to revisit the tale of the falling iron golem. Now imagine the same situation with a DM who'd labored long and hard to make the iron golem fight a climatic encounter full of action, suspense, and danger. Imagine one player at the table whose character is eager to get into the Undying Temple and avenge his dead brother.
...
The entire table isn't cooperating in the humor, so it's not nearly as funny.

....so in their imaginations circa 2005, there would be possible players who would be upset about the table degenerating into howls of laughter. This is basically why they weren't funny.

I've never met such a player. I've never met anyone so invested in their own personal encounter/character arc that they couldn't laugh about a falling golem for a few minutes. I'll have to take their word that such a player exists. I could see it in the realm of plausible.

Such a player, however, doesn't seem to be on board with the basic play agenda that I have when I play D&D - to have fun playing make-believe with other people. D&D is easy, social fun. I am not here to prove that my character build is the uberest by taking down your enemy in an empty 20-by-20 battlefield. I am not here to listen quietly to everyone's detailed backstory. Degenerating into laughter for 5 minutes sounds like a great use of game-time to me. If that doesn't sound like a great time to you, I don't think we're using D&D for the same purposes. And honestly, I think you could be doing other things that realize your goals much better than D&D ever will - D&D cannot provide a balanced challenge like a competitive sport. D&D cannot entertain a broad audience like a written novel. Use the media for what it's best at. A bunch of dorks in a room pretending to be magical elves is a good environment for laughter.

 

[jodyjohnson]

"Another group of adventurers uses a Y-shaped battering ram to entrap a giant snake."

Um, boy am I slow on the uptake. Is that a sexual reference? 35 years late to the party.

 

[Talmek]

I prefer to have my products not try to inject humor into the game as my group does enough of that without adding to it. I like dark and gritty adventures, plot twists and turns, surprise NPCs that show up in the game that have something to do with the PCs backgrounds, etc. However, my group loves to find and make jokes out of just about everything that comes up (and of course, I laugh hysterically with them). But to add more into the products that I buy (for me personally) would be over the top.

To each their own, I suppose.

 

[Mallus]

I think WotC's decision to remove humor, idiosyncrasy, and, ahem, any identifiable traces of voice from the official books was disastrous. Reading their books is like watching ink dry. Slowly. I can only do it in small doses. They read like YA edutainment meant to instruct dull adolescents on the dangers of "reading pleasure".

OK... I'll stop... I really disagree w/the article, though.

 

[billd91]

I think the article zigs when it should be zagging. I understand that the humor of the golem falling through the bridge is pretty situational. You had to be there to really laugh at it. But that's not at all what the cartoons in the rulebooks, the weird suggestions for tricks, or the funny art you might see by Jim Holloway in a module are about. They aren't making a humorous adventure full of jokes that may fall flat when actually played. They're absurdist takes on more serious situations common in games. The adventurers with the mouse disguises are clearly trying to infiltrate a mousey version of the temple on the cover of the 1e PH. It's the game company making a joke about its own product. Jim Holloway art often showed characters humorously failing or suffering consequences of accidents due to situations described seriously in the adventure. In all of these cases, you had the company embracing the idea that players will find humor in these situations even when originally presented in a serious manner... Just like the players in the Spider Queen playtest found humor in the iron golem's fall.

That's the lack of humor the article should have addressed when it was written. Why doesn't WotC include some amusing art as flavor art not why aren't they writing funny adventures.

 

[mflayermonk]

I think we are all ignoring the similarities between Meepo and Randy the Wonder Lizard.