Serious Vs. Humor

[Bloodstone Mage]

[quick rant]Argh!!! I missed "Talk Like A Pirate Day"!! Now I have to wait 365 more days!!![/end quick rant]

Sometime ago, I took a periodic hiatus from gaming...I just couldn't stand the way my group's games were going. Some games just don't go anywhere, and others are getting burned out by killjoys. So, for the past few weeks, I've been avoiding everything and anything related to gaming. Until now.
I've been thinking that one of my group's problems is that no one can take a game seriously. I've been thinking that maybe what would be a good thing to do is to run a purely humorous game with no intent except to not be what the other games are, to possibly just get it out and away from the seriousness of things. I think it could benefit my group, since, with the way things are going, they're not having a lot of fun to begin with.

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance!
Cheers!

 

[Wombat]

Different games, different people, different tastes.

One time my gamers demanded that I create a "Serious Game" (tm) and I did -- dark, foreboding, no one smiling, claustrophobic, seemingly everything they wanted.

So they started cracking jokes all the time.

I created a total joke campaign, warning them well in advance -- they said they were good with it and yet they got all deadly serious.

Most of may games have a little bit of humour, a little bit of absolute slap-in-the-face seriousness, and a lot somewhere in between. I will never be able to have a true LotR-feeling campaign (or worse yes Conan -- does anyone ever smile except in malice or grim satisfaction in those stories?) with total seriousness. OTOH, I can keep a campaign from turning into a Road Runner cartoon or a Three Stooges movie.

Find the balance that works well for you and yours.

 

[Stormfalcon]

It's not a bad idea at all to have a humorous campaign going alongside a more serious one. It certainly gives the players and DM an outlet for being silly. Here are a few suggestions for fun, humorous games:

1) Teenagers From Outer Space - Aliens invade Earth. They go to our schools. They go to our malls. They eat our fast food. In short, they're here to party down with us. Couple that with a great and very simple system and you have an excellent game to be silly and stupid with. Oh, and if you don't like the premise, the system is flexible enough to be used with other genres (Forgotten Realms High, anyone?).

2) Paranoia, assuming that you can find a copy these days - Teamwork goes out the window in the Game of a Darkly Humorous Future. Players are expected to betray, backstab, frame, and outright murder their fellow players for being commie mutant traitors...nevermind that each player is a mutant and a member of a secret society (quite possibly an actual communist at that!). Oh, and the society is run by Our Friend, The Computer, who never makes mistakes and always has our best interests in its silicon heart. Don't forget, the rules are Security Clearance Ultraviolent (read, only the GM is supposed to know them), and displaying knowledge of them is an act of treason. Please report to the nearest termination center. Thank you for your cooperation, Friend Citizen! Oh, and avoid 5th Edition and any Post-Oops stuff while you're at it.

3) Toon - What else can be said about this gem? Roleplay in a Looney Tunes-style universe. If you know your Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Disney shorts, Woody Woodpecker, etc., then you'll have fun with this game.

4) Munchkin, either the card game or the new d20 version - Just like in Paranoia, teamwork goes out the window. However, everyone's encouraged to be munchkiny, rules-lawyering, rules-bending ubertwinks. It all comes down to killing the monster, stealing the treasure, and stabbing your buddy.

This should get you off to a great start with a really fun campaign to offset the serious ones.

 

[hong]

I think there's room in a campaign for moments of silliness as well as moments of seriousness. Having too much of one can quickly become boring. The trick is to be able to read the mood around the table, so that you don't try to be silly when everyone else is being serious, and vice-versa.

 

[ForceUser]

I think there's room in a campaign for moments of silliness as well as moments of seriousness. Having too much of one can quickly become boring. The trick is to be able to read the mood around the table, so that you don't try to be silly when everyone else is being serious, and vice-versa.

What he said.

 

[dave_o]

Different strokes for different folks. I, personally, love serious campaigns -- since my life is pretty rife with enough humor for a lifetime.

I say, just wing it. It all evens out in the end.

An aside: Hong, I do photoshop work professionally, and for fun I took the kitten in your avatar (the stock image of it, actually) and have it aflame while running. It's already avatar-sized. Interested?

 

[Umbran]

What do you guys think?

While it is possible to do comedy in the short term, it's generally hard to make an entirely comedic campaign. Keep this in mind as you go into it.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

My group's done something similar to that. A game intended to allow us to purge ourselves of all our munched and jokey urges to get them out of our systems.

Outside of that, I do tend to include a few elements of humor in my game now and then.

 

[Berandor]

I try to balance comedy and seriousness in my campaign, or when I'm playing.
I feel that humor works best when contrasted with seriousness, and dark and gripping events affect you even more when you could laugh or smile a little while before.
It's also a matter of comfort. Too many jokes can lead easily to unrestrained silliness, something you might be aiming for, but that I don't necessarily want in a long-term campaign. Otoh, being too serious or grave can lead to a lack of comfort among the group, because there is no outlet for the tension I hopefully create (except for grim humor, of course).

That said, I am known for little one-shots on holidays, where the players have to save Santa from being frozen alive by an angry White Dragon because her little baby dragons didn't get any presents (they've been naughty ), or where they play a group of goblins charged with perimeter defense trying to save the tribe from meddling adventurers

 

[reiella]

I run a light campaign myself.

Sure, there are some serious aspects, but there's alot of light heartedness.

I like comedy. I don't like doom and gloom myself. Or just fixation on goals. I'm there to have fun, as are the others. Hopefully my players don't mind the tone.