Comedy in D&D, good or bad?

I'm a novice DM and I have a question. (Well several, but one that's been bugging me for a bit) How much comedy is too much for a game? Is it going overboard to have a mystical being named Chet? Or an NPC named Poofypants? I kind of have a lot of humor in my adventures but I've been thinking it's too much..

From quite a long experience in running FRPG campaigns, I urge you to keep comedy to a minor role in your games. Most players want to have fun, true, but the adventuring done by their characters is best if made heroic, serious, dangerous and deadly. Treat the environment and its inhabitaants in a realistic way--based on the make-believe of the game, of course. Comedy is great when served up in small doses to underscore the normal drama of the campaign. That way it adds to the otherwise serious perils faced by the characters most of the time.

FWIW

Gary

Way to kill a thread, Gary. How are the rest of us supposed to give advise once you have?

Moments of lightheartedness are fine. But there is a line between moments of humor and just being silly. An alien extradimensional being named Chetentakhea'tsuleen'meraturan who allows it to be shortened to Chet is close to the line. A surferd00d mystical being named Chet would suck.

It's a matter of preference by DM and players. Personally, I have a very low tolerance for silly, it totally screws with any suspension of disbelief.

I think it totally depends on your group. THe guys I used to game with loved the comedy stuff in game. The puns, and inside jokes were the best, but there were a lot of other things too. They loved it.

I, personally, like humor in a game, but not when overused. The occational humorous adventure is cool, but I need the danger and serious stuff more than I need the comedy. For me in a 'normal' adventure if there's more than 1 or 2 gags by the DM in a night it can get old. Besides we as players always came up with ways to amuse ourselves in game rather than having the DM hand it to us all the time. SUch as giving the NPC's and places nicknames and such.

So if you have a group that likes that kind of thing go for it. But if it's a group that prefers more serious gaming I'd say keep some things, but more to amuse yourself than the players.

So there this thread's not quite dead

Lady Starhawk

Well, I'll come out and say it proudly. Gary's wrong here.

If you're going for an epic, serious tone, then keep comedy to a minimum. You wouldn't want a villain named Poofypants, or at least not an archvillain, but having a henchman or a side character who can be the butt of the party's jokes is actually kinda useful. Indeed, if the players in your group are the kind who want a fun game moreso than an epic game, comedy relief is a must. Being all somber and serious all the time ain't fun, and can lead to dissension in the ranks.

For instance, in my game back home, I had myself and one friend who were Role-Players with capital RP, and then three casual gamers who did it because it was fun and because we got to hang out. I originally tried to be serious and epic, but they weren't really the type to get too deeply or emotionally into character (high school guys, ego problems, go fig'). One of the villains of my first story arc was named Limoges. To my horror, when they heard his name, they started referring to him as "Lemon Cheese." The villain I had wanted to intimidate my party, to be the bane of their existence, was now just kinda cheesy.

To my chagrin, this happened several more times with other NPCs, making my game a bit more like fantasy-comedy than fantasy-drama. I had to spend most of my time idiot-proofing my villains' names so they couldn't be mocked so readily.

Then, finally, I shrugged, and decided, hey, they're having fun regardless of whether I make it wholly serious. In fact, when I try to be too serious, they get a little uncomfortable. I should just go with the flow and have a game that is fun for their sake.

Thus, when I was planning my next game, I decided to give the villain some henchmen to be whipping boys. The main villain was a patron of the arts, so his trusted servants were all bards. A group of bards, in fact. A group of bards that sing a capella and go by the name of "Aural Pleasure." It worked pretty well, in my opinion. Because they were able to get their whackiness out of the way with the henchmen, the climax of the game managed to be quite dramatic.

So, in my opinion, a healthy dose of humor is important in keeping the game fun. Even in tragedies like Macbeth, Shakespeare would usually start with a comic beginning to lure the audience in, and then craft the tale so that those who just came for entertainment can be satiated early. Once their desires for comedy are fulfilled, they'll often sit back and be more willing to accept the rest of the story, even if it's not quite as humorous.

IME, if you want to play a game in a campaign setting you want taking seriously, do not make a joke of places / names / people. Comedic overtone tends to leave an indellible mark that you will live to regret if you start trying to explore more serious aspects of a game.

In-game lightheartedness is okay, but in-jokes and puns that trasncend the mileu tend to totally shatter disbelief.

IMO, if you want a comedy RPG, make a world specifically for that purpose and keep it completely and totally separae from anything you want the players to take seriously.

Comedy is a two edge sword., not enough lightheartedness and a game can get dull, too much and the game is detroyed.

repetitive wrap up of what everyone else said

I think it definately depends on the group you play with. Read them and if they play along they're probably enjoying it. If they groan everytime Mr. Poofypants comes out to visit perhaps you should change modes. I know my DM can be very serious at times but when our players get playful and turn his evil orc mage half fiend into a frog, and put him in a box, in a bag, in a tree or threaten to kidnap his child oricle and sell his messages back to his people he takes it in stride. While our players generally supply the humor his reaction to it makes the game fun. Perhaps your humor would be better applied in such a manner.

Poofypants kind of reminds me of an character in a game a ran. A theives guild was employing a succubus/incubus for the umm, pleasure of its members. ( this was in Sigil, so I figured it made sense) When I read through the description, I decided that a succubus could change its gender with polymorph, although I'm not so sure anymore. As the PC's were raiding the theives guild, they stumbled upon this demon, who I described something like the following. "A handsome, well muscled, barechested man, wearing some sort of erotic looking silk pants." In the ensuing fight, the players referred to this guy as Erotic Pants Man. When things weren't looking good, the Incubus teleported away. The players had several more encounters with this creature, and soon the name was shorted to E.P.M.