Serious Vs. Humor

[Harlock]

I run a light campaign myself.

Sure, there are some serious aspects, but there's alot of light heartedness.

I like comedy. I don't like doom and gloom myself. Or just fixation on goals. I'm there to have fun, as are the others. Hopefully my players don't mind the tone.

We all hate it! Oh, okay, so I may just be one of the worst offenders about laughing at every dire situation that you throw at us. I tend to find a lot of humor in... well, everything. D&D has always been a fun game for me and since it is fantastic, I assume that people in a fantasy are used to it somewhat (not assuming Cthulhu/horror stuff) and therefore are prone to well, still being (demi)human. I know I like Scarred Lands a little too much, but I thuoght that was one aspect of Hollowfaust that was presented spot on. Despite a rather macabre backdrop (city of necromancers and undead wandering about) the people have this black humor and gallows mentality that presents a wonderful dichotomy. Often times humor is used to deflect more painful emotions in real life, so why not in fantasy?

I should think adventurers really would get to a point when they can laugh off yet another BBEG saying, "I will destroy you all!"

"Take a number pal! There's about 12 other people ahead of you."

It's also kind of heroic. Sort of like Spider-man and the bantering swashbuckler types. Of course, YMMV and it doesn't fit everyone's style and even for our group I think we like a little change now and again. Meh, 'nuff said.

 

[Rich Anthony]

Gotta have a little bit of everything in your campaign

 

[chaochou]

I think it could benefit my group, since, with the way things are going, they're not having a lot of fun to begin with.

What do you guys think?

Personally, I'd have that conversation with them instead of here. It'll cut to the chase much quicker

 

[Sunseeker]

A lot of people use humor to defuse tension. It's not entirely uncharacteristic for a person in a deadly serious situation to crack jokes.

A good campaign should not worry to much about how people react to the situation, and worry more about setting the tone. If the part of the campaign in question is deadly serious, make sure it feels such and don't worry about if the players crack jokes. If part of the campaign is supposed to be light-hearted and funny, don't worry if the players take it deadly seriously. That's just people. You can control the feel of your game. You can't control your players reaction to that feeling and you shouldn't try.

Personally my best option has always been to keep the NPCs playing it straight. If the NPCs think it's serious, they'll react poorly to players not taking things seriously (increasing various conversation-related DCs), if the NPCs think things are funny and fun, they'll react poorly to players being deadly serious. If players behave in a manner appropriate to the situation, sometimes I'll completely waive social challenges since the players have essentially met the challenge by acting in a manner contiguous with the scene.

Eventually players get it, or they don't care. If they don't care nothing you ever do will change that, so you can either deal and move on or boot them.

 

[aramis erak]

[quick rant]Argh!!! I missed "Talk Like A Pirate Day"!! Now I have to wait 365 more days!!![/end quick rant]

Sometime ago, I took a periodic hiatus from gaming...I just couldn't stand the way my group's games were going. Some games just don't go anywhere, and others are getting burned out by killjoys. So, for the past few weeks, I've been avoiding everything and anything related to gaming. Until now.
I've been thinking that one of my group's problems is that no one can take a game seriously. I've been thinking that maybe what would be a good thing to do is to run a purely humorous game with no intent except to not be what the other games are, to possibly just get it out and away from the seriousness of things. I think it could benefit my group, since, with the way things are going, they're not having a lot of fun to begin with.

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance!
Cheers!

I've had the problem of players who can't play serious. And others who can, but intentionally throw stupid humor in just because they don't like serious.
I don't play with them any more.

I do run with a good bit of humor happening, but most of my player bases have the ability to play serious scenes when the story needs it.