Humor in sourcebooks

[Obscure]

Just read the excerpt for the Explorer's Handbook and noticed that it was laced with humor -- the intro, "How to Survive a ___", Windwright Captain's quote -- which smacks of Rich Burlew's style.

How do you feel about having humor in a sourcebook? Should it be all serious, or is a little levity nice in the right places? How much is too much?

I'll hold back on my opinion for a bit.

 

[Henry]

Humor in RPGs has been a staple ever since Gygax put the first D&D pamphelts together. In the origins of the game, no one took it 100% seriously. Even in the 1st edition DMG, I got a big kick out of the fighter and wizard with mickey mouse nose and ears trying to infiltrate the wererats (with the fighter saying "This had BETTER work!").

 

[DaveMage]

I like humor in my RPG books as long as it's also balanced with great gaming material.

As Henry points out, the 1E DMG was a great read because of it.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Bring on the ha, has!!

Gotta love the 1EDMG for the humorous cartoons:
"Well, it either allows the user to cast the various Bigby's Hand spells or it's a +2 backscratcher. So far were not sure..."

 

[Crothian]

If it fits it is great, but humor in books that shouldn't be funny is terrible.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

If it fits it is great, but humor in books that shouldn't be funny is terrible.

I think that makes sense.

Humor is completely inappropriate for something like Valus, unless the punchline was hundreds of people dying pointlessly and horribly. But even then, you need some comic relief. Hey, even the mini-series Band of Brothers had a gag now and again.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I think the fluff can be humorous, but the crunch should be serious.

 

[Benito]

Speaking of humor in sourcebooks - anyone ever notice the power "Deja Vu" is printed twice in the XPH (pg 91 and 92)? Oh those sly dogs at WotC

 

[francisca]

Just read the excerpt for the Explorer's Handbook and noticed that it was laced with humor -- the intro, "How to Survive a ___", Windwright Captain's quote -- which smacks of Rich Burlew's style.

How do you feel about having humor in a sourcebook? Should it be all serious, or is a little levity nice in the right places? How much is too much?

I'll hold back on my opinion for a bit.

Well, two things work together to form my opinion:

1) I'm funny-ha-ha smart-ass kind of guy.
2) It's a game and should be fun. I'm not a "serious" gamer.

So yeah, I like it. The stuff that has already been mentioned about the 1e DMG is all great stuff. Having just met several of the old TSR bunch, I can see where it came from.

I also like the M:tG 5th ed Fear card......

I also like humor outside of gaming. Like the entry for recurrsion in the old K&R C manual. Or the "Fast and Damn Fast" Buffer Amps back in the 1982 National Semiconductor Data Book.

 

[philreed]

I'm not a fan of humor in sourcebooks. I'd never have anything to do with games involving humor.