Comedy in D&D, good or bad?

[el-remmen]

I beleive comedy should be incidental.

In other words, the things that end up being funny are not funny on purpose - but more because they would be funny in real life too. Like a clumsy person, or someone who takes himself way too seriously and is really an idiot.

We have some comedy in my game - but that is because we have one PC with an 8 Wisdom. . .

I do try to have an occasional light-hearted moment to give the PCs a moment to breathe in an otherwise dark and over-whelming campaign. Generally, I use the wizard's familiar and the ranger's dog to accomplish this - as they have a "Tom & Jerry" type relationship

However, totally avoid silly names. I did this a lot when I first created Aquerra (about 13 years ago) and to this day I come across notes for people and places where I have to change stuff to fit my current vision of it.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

Okay, tell me if this could pose a problem- An intelligent, speaking holy avenger that believes it is beyond all other beings and that it is in fact the god Heironeous trapped inside a sword by his brother hextor. He is very opinionated, and insists that his owner (whoever it is that'll get stuck with him) takes him EVERYWHERE but refuses to be used in battle (he's very squeamish)

PS: Erotic Pants Man? LOL

 

[Col_Pladoh]

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.

Yopu got it Psion, and the Ranger dude is wrong. Campaigns with silly stuff in them might be fun for a few sessions, but they tend to be very short-lived and not at all satisfying.

Ciao,
Gary

 

[Hand of Evil]

I don't think you can keep humor out of a game. Wise cracks, wit, and jokes are all part of human nature and it is a way for people to reduce stress.

You have to think about when and how much to allow. You can control it by making the game darker and deadlier but mostly remember to have fun and a good time playing.

 

[RangerWickett]

Gary, though I think you're misinterpreting me a little, I will say again that I must disagree with you. I do not advocate anachronistic puns or allusions, but I do think it is very important to have humor in one's stories, particularly in high fantasy adventure. Yes, pure silliness is worthless in the long run, but a good fun story has mix humor and drama, or else it becomes either tedious or vacuous.

As three examples each of high fantasy adventure at its best and worst, consider:

Good example--Star Wars. In Star Wars, Han Solo is always ready to crack a joke, or make fun of a badguy. There isn't too much humor there, but a little bit here and there keeps the action fun, even though the subject matter is rather dark. Even though there's a huge evil empire out to destroy them, the party doesn't go about things gloomily. When they're all stuck in the garbage masher, they make a few jokes at each other's expense, to lighten the mood. Having a crap monster isn't very dramatic--it's there for comedic effect.

Even better example--Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Almost all the scenes with Henry Jones are hilarious. He's an old gentleman who, despite the danger around him, does not get flustered. His anti-dramatic solutions are such a counterpoint to the way Indy works that it makes things funny. But the humor makes the movie great; it doesn't ruin it.

Bad example--However, as an example of this gone horribly wrong, we have Star Wars: Episode One: The Phantom Menace. Here, jokes were thrown in just to be jokes, just to be silly, rather than working in the framework of the storyline. Jar-Jar is just pointless, as are half the aliens in the pod race. The humor falls flat, because it doesn't mesh with the story in any way.

Good adventure humor has to either be based on something going on in the story, or it has to be a light-hearted (but not flippant) component of the story. Though I will agree that you should not make a major villain be humorous, a comical henchman can act as a counterpoint to reinforce the seriousness of a main villain.

 

[Altalazar]

Sometimes comedy is made all the more sweet by the seriousness of a situation.

Watch Braveheart - that is a deadly serious movie, and yet there are moments, even when it is most serious, where there is a bit of comedy - it relieves tension.

Such as during the first battle, when the arrows are flying, and they are hiding behind the arrows and the irishman quips - 'The good lord has arranged to get me out of this one. But as for you, you're pretty much f*&#ed'.

Of course, you don't want to overdue it - but they don't call it comic relief for nothing. The campaign that had the most fun with that was actually my Ravenloft campaign - described elsewhere - where you had one party member cursed to turn into a fish-man, another cursed to turn into a zombie-lord, and yet another one slowly turning insane. At one point, they ran into a cursed NPC who was traumatized by it and told them about it to get both sympathy and to threaten them. The quick reaction of the party, which was unexpected, was the fish-man (Aqua-man as he became known) threw back his hood and showed his scaled head, the zombie lord threw off her cloak, and the stepped forward, pointing at themselves and said something like 'You think YOU have problems, Listen...'

 

[Ravellion]

Okay, tell me if this could pose a problem- An intelligent, speaking holy avenger that believes it is beyond all other beings and that it is in fact the god Heironeous trapped inside a sword by his brother hextor. He is very opinionated, and insists that his owner (whoever it is that'll get stuck with him) takes him EVERYWHERE but refuses to be used in battle (he's very squeamish)

PS: Erotic Pants Man? LOL

Terrific! That could be quite funny, as long as you allow the wielder to make Ego/Will saves to actually wield it!

Demon to Paladin "Mortal, you do not have what it takes to defeat me! Only the most powerul weapons can inflict a wound upon me, not that toothpick in your hands now!"
(Draws Heironous)"This sword is Heironeous himself! I smite thee now, evil demon" (Makes will save, rolls a modified 26)
"Noooooooooooo!" screams Heironeous.

LOL!

Rav

 

[Ycore Rixle]

Nitpicking

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.

Just picking a nit here, but Macbeth starts with the three witches, and then the next scene describes Macbeth cutting a bloody swath through some bad guys to cleave the chief bad guy. I never thought of those scenes as comic. In fact, none of the big four tragedies have comic openings (Hamlet opens with the ghost, Othello with Iago's betrayal, and King Lear with the division of the kingdom). Julius Caesar's string of puns in the opening lines probably qualifies as comic. Romeo and Juliet's opening fight scene may have humorous counterpoints but its overall tone isn't comic, especially after the prologue.

What Shakespeare did do was start with a super dramatic, super attention-grabbing scene. For example, Hamlet's ghost, R&J's fight, Richard III's hunchback monologue, Tempest's storm, Henry V's chorus, and so forth. But he didn't usually do it with comedy.

FWIW, I think that it's great if the players find pleasant laughter and funny moments in the course of the adventure, but that, as and adventure, humor is definitely in the background. Generally, when I DM, I never plan to make anything 'funny.' I focus my energies on excitement and heroic opportunities; the humor generally seems to happen just fine on its own.

 

[el-remmen]

What Shakespeare did do was start with a super dramatic, super attention-grabbing scene. For example, Hamlet's ghost, R&J's fight, Richard III's hunchback monologue, Tempest's storm, Henry V's chorus, and so forth. But he didn't usually do it with comedy.

But these tragedies did have comedic moments - for example the two clownish gravediggers in Hamlet, or Gonzalo in the Tempestas (which technically is a comic-tragedy) is a comedic character.

Shakespeare DID use comedy to punctuate his tragedies.

Then again, "The Merchant of Venice" is technically a comedy - but he does use a certain amount of pathos to break that up - the character of Shylock may have been funny to an Elizabethian audience - but Shakespeare wrote a tradgic character with that one - and you can tell by the voice he gives him - personally, (this is way OT) I have always thought that old Bill Shakespeare was pulling a wink, wink, nudge, nudge - with that one and pulling one over on his audience.

 

[Henry@home]

Best example of Shakespearean "Dramady" in my opinion - The Taming of the Shrew. Heck, not even the audiences of its day likely truly "got" what that play was really about!

As for Comedy in a game - I try to keep my games serious without sight gags, word puns, etc. - because my players always introduce funny moments into the game without even trying.

Gary, you yourself related the tales of the Dwarf with the Boots of Speed, the legend of The Great Stone Face, and the Trained Black Pudding. Every one of those is comedy gold, when looked at from the outside looking in. Players will do enough funny stuff without the DM adding in base humor.