[Rant] Bad cliches, silly names, and acting stupid around the gaming table

[megamania]

Depends on the group.


My group has names in use like "Bob" (for a Thri-kreen), Wall (Dwarven Defender) and Pelor (Eberron healer).

Its all good.

 

[Phlebas]

My group has names in use like "Bob" (for a Thri-kreen)

If your group can quote Blackadder shows like mine, "Bob" is never a good name for a NPC unless they're petite blondes pretending to be men.......

Though i have used that joke myself before so perhaps i shouldn't comment...

 

[Crust]

There's a lot of cutting up at my table. Lots of jokes and dumb comparisons. Nothing that's written in. It's all out-of-game. I often slip into an out-of-game joke in the midst of narration. For example, I might narrate as follows:

"You learn that the orc citadel of Xul-Jarak (Sons of Gruumsh module) is ruled by a fierce orog warlord named Thrull... who is of course the son of Krull... the movie (which makes no sense)... and strangely enough, he wields a glaive that happens to be a five-pronged throwing weapon as oppose to a pole-arm..." ...and so on and so forth. Can't resist.

We exist simultaneously in both worlds: out-of-game comedy and in-game seriousness.

 

[BOZ]

man, i am all about the humor in RPGs, as long as it doesn't disrupt the game in any way that makes it not fun.

for example, we once played in a campaign where all the PCs had the names of characters who had been in cartoons. there was Casper, Drupalong, Sonic (the Hedgehog), Binky (i think i named him after Binky the Clown from garfield?)...

 

[jdrakeh]

D&D isn't inherently silly by default so if somebody said "Wel'll be playing D&D" and I showed up only to find out that what they were really playing was HoL via D&D rules, I'd be really, incredibly, disappointed. Tht said, if they'd told me up front "We'rte playing HoL via D&D rules!" I'd probably be all over it like flies on. . . well, you know.

That said, as many others have stated, I'd only enjoy this kind of thing as a one-off or diversion from a default (i.e., not silly) campaign. Seriously, if I just want to act silly, there are far better (i.e., less expensive, more fulfilling) ways to go about it than roleplaying. I guess I roleplay primarily to do heroic stuff, not to act like a moonbat.

 

[Psion]

Trying to deliberately inject humor into something that isn't inherently comedic gives you Jar-Jar Binks.

I hate Jar-Jar Binks.

Let the humor flow naturally. Just because a character is serious doesn't mean he cant be a jokester, or no one can be funny. On the contrary, I find that the more serious a game, when funny things happen to come along it makes them stand out and they become that much funnier and more fun.

But playing a game as an intentional parody would seriously irk me.
As a one shot game, like PC said, sure, why the hell not? Sounds fun. But for a long term campaign, no thank you.

I absolutely agree. Players seldom make good amateur comedians, and it just throws off the mood when they try.

I do play the game to be serious. I don't want my personal version of Lord of the Rings to be punctuated by corny names and dick jokes.

 

[Kid Socrates]

All things in moderation. I don't think I could play in a game that was all slapstick and puns, and I don't think I could play in a game that had the Zidane Complex (every major city you visit is promptly destroyed and it's all because of you). I think a healthy mix is... um, healthy. Bad sentence.

In my Final Fantasy game, I try to keep things mixed. I had a cult leader burn a heretic in front of the PCs and I've had the characters listen to the audio recording of one characters' brother's mental conditioning into an assassin. I've also had a beloved NPC go in disguise alongside the group as Steve Incognito and we've had more than one Pimp My Chocobo joke.

The main reason why I game is to have fun, and laughing around the table is quite fun. Therefore, that's what we do.

 

[pogre]

As a player in the above game (run by Mallus), I should clarify something. There's a huge difference between over the top stuff out of character and in character, and in Mallus's game we're always using that distinction. When we run into a character named Mephisophocles, there is a chorus of groans from the players, but since the characters have never heard of either Mephistopheles or Sophocles, the PCs are completely serious.

I know a lot of people say that kind of situation/humor takes them out of their character's head, but the way I figure it, if sitting around a table and rolling dice doesn't take you out of your character's head, then a few bad puns shouldn't do so either. I guess it comes down to the purely arbitrary nature of most people's likes and dislikes.

I think it is obvious from your story hour that you folks do this very well.

 

[diaglo]

Who's with me? Cheer if you like your dwarf drunk, your elf foppish, your rogue a complete bastard, your wizard an insufferable know-it-all and your paladin a self-righteous prude! I know you're out there!

read the story hour in my sig.

i'm all for it.

fiddle "dragonslayer" skipstone... halfling ranger extraordinaire
bartol pinesheaf -- half elven barbarian with a spellbook

 

[BOZ]

see, diaglo would know, there's been silliness in D&D right from the beginning.