D&D 5E Why is "whimisical and dark" humour needed to offset the dark and depressed theme of Out of the Abyss?

hawkeyefan · Aug 31, 2015

Don't many stories about madness tend to also have a dark humor to them? I'm thinking of 12 Monkeys and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and things like that.

I tend not to like lighthearted D&D adventures, myself. However, I don't think that the quirky NPCs that we saw in the preview constitute a lighthearted adventure. They are perhaps a lighthearted aspect to what otherwise seems to be a very dark adventure. And that's just fine. To me, they seem like interesting and memorable characters to have my PCs meet and interact with. I bet my players even remember their names, unlike how they forget the brooding noble or the befuddled wizard.

Whether these characters are "needed" or not seems entirely up to the DM and the players. They certainly seem to serve a purpose, but I imagine could be easily replaced with less quirky versions. It's simply a matter of preference.

Wik · Aug 31, 2015

hawkeyefan said:
Don't many stories about madness tend to also have a dark humor to them? I'm thinking of 12 Monkeys and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and things like that.

Absolutely. Personally, I'd also add the story "Flowers for Algernon", which, while not about madness or horror, still uses a lot of humour to underline the main sadness of the overall story.

Steven King, called the American "master" of horror, uses a LOT of humour and whimsy in his stories. "The Mist", probably his scariest story in my opinion, has some very lovercraftian bits, but it's also sort of funny and whimsical - a bunch of people hiding from tentacled beasts in an old grocery store while a "Flat Earth Society" decides to use Christian Theology to justify human sacrifice. Yeah, it's scary... but it's also really funny.

I tend not to like lighthearted D&D adventures, myself.

Fair. And I agree with you. I don't really buy 'em myself, or the DRAGON magazines that come out in April. But I don't mind jokes in the actual printed work, or a few joke NPCs.

I bet my players even remember their names, unlike how they forget the brooding noble or the befuddled wizard.

Wait. You mean they DON'T change NPC names to something stupid or punny? Can we trade!?

Whether these characters are "needed" or not seems entirely up to the DM and the players.

Don't forget the authour, who should have a say in what he thinks is needed for his creative works. And this one clearly wants to go in that direction. Good for him.

They certainly seem to serve a purpose, but I imagine could be easily replaced with less quirky versions. It's simply a matter of preference.

Couldn't agree more. I don't know why this thread topic needs to come up three different times, when the end result is always "if you don't like it, change it".

hawkeyefan · Aug 31, 2015

Agreed, [MENTION=40177]Wik[/MENTION]. And good example with The Mist.

I think pretty much every story has room for some funny moments or some quirky characters or absurd ideas or events. It all depends on how it all fits together. Hard to say since we haven't seen the actual book yet, but from the preview material, I have a strong feeling. I'm gonna dig this adventure.

The whimsical aspects seem so easily changed that I just can't understand the criticism.

Sacrosanct · Aug 31, 2015

The answer to this is easy, and has been answered in the other threads. Most people either like it or are OK with hit. WotC is a business. So rather than cater to a 20% demographic, they are catering to an 80% demographic. This is surprising how?

Morrus · Aug 31, 2015

It's pretty simple. It's *not* needed. None of this stuff is.

Is Alice in Wonderland needed? After all, some people prefer War & Peace. Is Monty Python needed? After all, some people prefer documentaries about WW2.

Some people like it. I like it. @Corpsetaker has made it blatantly clear that he/she doesn't. Different people like different things. This is the first WotC adventure to excite me in the 5E era; it's the one that turns Corpsetaker off. That's fine. I don't like Grease (the movie); my wife does. I don't like E.T. much; she loves it. I love Godfather 2; my wife went to bed this evening when I started watching it.

Different people like different things. This is a feature, not a bug. If you don't like a particular book, adventure, film, game, don't buy it. Move on. Maybe buy the next one. Adults understand that different people have different tastes, and the existence of a thing not to your taste is not a problem. You can just not buy it.

But objecting to the very existence of things because they aren't to your taste? That's problematic. And the problem isn't with the thing.

Paraxis · Aug 31, 2015

I like the idea of an as if directed by Tim Burton style D&D game, it seems a good number of other people do too, for those that don't like it just run it differently.

Is that so hard?

There are elements of some of the Pathfinder adventure paths that I don't like, I still ran them, I just changed it up. This is D&D if you don't like something change it.

Galendril · Aug 31, 2015

I personally would love a Terry Gilliam level of madness in a campaign.

Lanefan · Aug 31, 2015

Galendril said:
I personally would love a Terry Gilliam level of madness in a campaign.

I just wish I could DM a Terry Gilliam level of madness in a campaign and successfully pull it off.

Lan-"or maybe most underdark creatures are like the Boggarts in Harry Potter, best defeated by laughing at 'em"-efan

Iosue · Aug 31, 2015

I just want to point out that those of us who enjoy some whimsy have had to put in ourselves for the last two campaign adventures, as well as LMoP. It's not like WotC has generally catered to us in the past, nor will they in the future. Let us enjoy this brief bone thrown us whimsy-likers. D&D will go back to being Serious Business soon enough.

Wik · Aug 31, 2015

Paraxis said:
I like the idea of an as if directed by Tim Burton style D&D game, it seems a good number of other people do too, for those that don't like it just run it differently.

The irony here is that the person doing most of the complaining, in another thread, complained about the level of whimsy and "Alice in Wonderland"-ness in OotA, and then in the same post suggested that it would've been better if written by Tim Burton.

D&D 5E Why is "whimisical and dark" humour needed to offset the dark and depressed theme of Out of the Abyss?

hawkeyefan

Legend

Wik

First Post

hawkeyefan

Legend

Sacrosanct

Legend

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Paraxis

Explorer

Galendril

Explorer

Lanefan

Victoria Rules

Iosue

Legend

Wik

First Post

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