DMs taking the piss out of own game

[alsih2o]

This may or may not come as a surprise to people, but I'll put it out there anyway.

My Britannia 3E game has been going for about a year now, and I think it's going okay. The players seem to be having fun, and the world is taking shape nicely, based on what they've been doing.

well, based on what i quoted, it seems you are doing fine. i AM surprised you do not take yourgame more seriously, and i am not surprised you seem to eb able to run a pretty tight game despite it.

i have never played in a solidly serious group. murmurred witticisms, outirhgt jokes and terrile puns are par for the course BUT i still feel we take the game somewhat seriously, and it sounds like it is happening to you too.

we can have silly names, badly formed personalities and in-jokes and still have a great game imho.

over time i have seen your sense of humor and your approach to the game, and i think i would like to game with you, de-pissed or not.

have faith, just because you are not taking it 100% seriously doesn't mean you aren't taking it seriously- just like life.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Well, I for one can't stand Terry Pratchett, but one of my players just loves those books. This doesn't always mix well in our D&D game when he's going one way and I (as the DM) am going the opposite way. Especially when his sillyness lands him in some trouble when he was "just trying to have some fun." Like the giant disembodied smiling gnome head floating above the barbarian villiage. They weren't amused.

But, we work it out somehow, and it sounds like you're not as bad off as I; it sounds like you and your players have similar styles going on in the game.

 

[the Jester]

My game mixes deadly serious (Return to the Tomb of Horrors) with humor (the hunt for the yellow shocker lizard that cries PIKA!). It's sometimes very light-hearted (the halfling clan trying to find the secret jam recipe) and sometimes very serious ("If it isn't evil," said the big bad guy to his legions of demons and devils, "kill it. I don't care if it's a man, a monster, an animal or a plant... kill it."). The main thing is, is it fun? If the answer is usually yes, or better yet, if the answer is overall YES!!!, then you're doing all right. There has to be a break from grimness, and too much silliness loses my interest.

On the other hand, I did play in a hilarious 2e campaign where the world was a dying wizard's last blare of thought made manifest. We could play any creature that was intelligent and more or less humanoid with 4HD or less (I was a doppleganger; our party included an undead, a faerie dragon, a plasmoid- basically an ooze-man- a crabman, and even weirder things). We worked for Juiblex and the Slime-Mold Mafia, and met Lou Barlowe (brewer of beer) from whom we stole the Wand of Orcus. We travelled with a blind beholder. We met a marilith bartender with a staff of retributive strike (I can only presume it was fully charged, since... well.) We had catapults fire galeb duhr at us. I didn't expect the game to be able to hold together, but we played it regularly for a couple of years and it was a blast the whole time.

 

[Altalazar]

I don't see a problem with it if you are having fun and are cool with it.

If you were trying to run a Ravenloft campaign, with darlky serious themes, and it was nonstop jokes, that might present a problem. It is all about the atmosphere you want for the game. If jovial is what you like, then there is no problem.

Hell, even my Ravenloft campaign had its moments of (rather dark) humor. In a way, it was really needed to keep it from getting too dark and to show some contrast with the really bad.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

I get silliness in my games, primarily because my players are a fun-loving bunch. However, usually my plots are fairly serious, and most of the character concepts are serious as well.

But we do have occasional elements of strangeness and slapstick humor. For example, the druid in my game wanted a dire squirrel animal companion. Or the time that I had a perfectly normal and respectable plot hook that hinged on a single joke. I told the PCs, "You see a fork in the road." When someone, laughing at the expect joke said, "I pick it up," I told them the fork was silver. Turns out it was from the bundle of a frightened halfing kid whose family's caravan had been attacked by a bulette.

Or one time the druid was swollowed by a giant dire monstrous frog (from Tome of Horrors), and subsequently the character has developed a deathly fear of frogs. I placed, deliberately and with malicious intent, a fairly useful though low-level homebrewed figurine of wondrous power, a jade frog. The other party members have used it to great effect to scare the druid.

In addition, after our somewhat emotionally intense games, the party likes to get down and boogy at the local inn, usually getting rip-roaring drunk and quickly making up for any silliness not had during the regular session.

 

[diaglo]

Does anyone else have this problem?

read the Story Hour in my sig.

we take the piss out of the game for the DM.

 

[Aeolius]

:: looks at the title of this thread....realizes his game is set underwater....100 jokes come to mind... ::

Nahh....better not.

 

[Ferox4]

Let me ask you this, hong - do your players enjoy the game? I'm sure you spend A LOT of time prepping, researching, daydreaming, brainstorming and the like for your campaign(s). so why not have some fun. When I DM, all I care about in the end is if people seem to be embracing the plot, that they feel I am prepared for the session and, above all, that they have fun. I don't think there's a functioning RPG police squad (as yet) to revoke your gaming card..........

RPG cop: (Loud pounding at door) Um, Mr. hong, is it?
You: Yes, what is it? I'm in the middle of a session here.
RPG cop: Not anymore you're not. May I see your gaming license, please? Hmmm, yes, just as our EN World snitch told us, you haven't kept up to date on your Seroiusness endorsement. And WE do take that VERY SERIOUSLY. You'll have to come with us. Put the dice down and place your hands behind your back, please...... we're taking you to WOtC, they'll take all the fun out of you. It may take a few revisions, but nobody will be playing with you in a few years.

 

[MarauderX]

I know what you mean. See my thread about goofy names for NPCs (Violet Deth and company)...

It's always fun though when after an hour of close battle, dangerous plot developments and lurking for clues someone just busts out an elf joke or mispronounces something purposefully. Sometimes I can already hear it when I am putting together city adventures, but most of the time it's the unexpected ones from the players that make it fun.

~ Marauder "joining the 'name-in-quotes bandwagon, so go ahead and goof on me' fad" X

 

[KnowTheToe]

It is a hard habit to break. Our gaming group can't keep the game serious. I think we would all like to tone our goofyness down, but are incapable of doing so.