Comedy in D&D, good or bad?

[gregweller]

Personally, I find it hard to sustain fantasy without humor. I *want* to be like 'Knights of the Dinner Table'. It might very well have something to do with spending six years in graduate school studying literature during the height of postmodernism. I've just never been able to completely suspend disbelief enough to get the whole heroic thing. I'm thinking of books that were very popular in literary circles during the 70s--John Barth's 'The Sotweed Factor' or 'Giles Goat Boy' and 'Chimera', Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' -- all these specifically deconstruct the myth of the hero. After reading all of those I was never completely able to look at heroic literature with a straight face. To me 'Tomb of Horrors' or 'Rappan Atthuk' (sp?) are essentially comedies with lots of chopped off body parts (the apotheosis of this is Peter Jackson's movie 'Dead Alive')--they depict such an insanely hostile universe that the only proper response is to laugh or go mad--the MASH syndrome. I don't think that this is an isolated thing in the gaming culture, either. The 'Nightmare on Elm Street' movies and the 'Friday the 13th' movies are dark comedies. Now don't get me wrong--I can play heroic fantasy, but the operative word here is 'play'--I might look and act like a hero, but inside, my chaotic neutral imp is looking at this in a completley different light. I think that my single most memorable gaming moment was at a convention one time where the party had completely and totally misread the point of what we were supposed to be doing, and just stayed focussed on this one subplot. We were having a blast and it kept getting more and more ludicrous. Well, 3 and a half hours into it, the person that wrote the module popped in to see how it was running, and I will never forget the look of abject horror on his face when the DM told him that the party is still trying to beat information out of the old lady who they are convinced is a demon. If someone wants to play heroic fantasy straight, that's great, but there's some of us that just can't.

 

[Drunken Gnome]

All depends on the game and the players involved. Too many variables.

 

[Celestial Weasel]

I think that if your group wants comedy, there is not going to be much you can do about it. I know that our group is always coming up with one liners and comments that sometimes make it into the game. Especially with names. For example, one shaman we were fighting was named "Shakas" (pronounced Shaa-kaas). The guy who was playing the only character who could talk to him decided to be funny and said his name was "Shark-ass". Of course all the players knew the real name, so we thought this was funny. Well, the character died and the DM decided that since he was the only one who could understand the shaman, all the rest of the characters thought the shaman really was named Shark-ass.

Again, I think what you put into the game should be balanced with what the group wants. Perhaps you should plan some comic relief or maybe just see what the players come up with on their own.

I know, lotta help I am!

 

[omedon]

Arguably the most comedic character in Macbeth is the porter. Everytime I have watched it he always manages to get a good laugh out of the crowd.

Porter
'Faith sir, we were carousing till the
second : and drink, sir, is a great
provoker of three things.

MACDUFF
What three things does drink especially provoke?

Porter
Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and
urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes;
it provokes the desire, but it takes
away the performance: therefore, much drink
may be said to be an equivocator with lechery:
it makes him, and it mars him; it sets
him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him,
and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and
not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him
in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

MACDUFF
I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.