Something I miss

It's funny you mention humour (I spelled it the Canadian way) but I also was going through my collection and discovered my collection of Murphy's Rules. man those were funny. I love the random zombie reaction table

roll d6
1. stare
2. stagger about
3. stare blankly
4. a limb falls off, it stares
5. stagger continuously into a wall
6. mutter and then stare and then stagger...into a wall...and then a limb falls off

There is a pile of rules jokes in this compilation that I forgot just how ludicrous some of the rules were. Too funny!!!

Actually now that you mention it, dragon had an article by Mike Mearls on Kobolds recently (can't remember if it was 364 or 365) that had something just like this. You rolled a d20 to see the kobold's reaction to taking out an opponent. Some of the reactions are really amusing.
 

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Somewhere in the last few years there was a WOTC designer essay saying thet they intentionally no longer put funny bits in their publications. Theory was: funny comes from players at tables, putting it in publication wrecks it for players who want to be serious.
This I agree with. In the games I run, I don't put intentionally comical bits in the adventures. But if the players are in a funny mood, there's a lot of comical stuff going on. However, sometimes they're in a serious mood, and since there's nothing comical forced upon them by the adventure, they are free to do that as well.

Seems to me if WotC were to put out a comical adventure these days, the message boards would be full of "They're telling us what's funny! They're forcing their idea of funny down our throats!" Which I suppose ties in to the OP's argument about being too serious about the game...
 

I liked the comics in the old DMG. I loathed and hated the April Fools editions of the Dragon; usually they made that a wasted month as far as I was concerned. I really don't need silly stuff showing up in modules or things; it's usually stuff that I have to cut out for being anachronistic or not fitting the setting anyway.

Comedy is probably the single hardest thing in the world to do, and I can't say I've ever seen an intentionally comedic roleplaying product that was the least bit funny. They all try too hard and it seems forced at best, and usually just turns out to be stupid. The idea is a good one, but the execution is almost uniformly terrible.

Almost all comedy in a session should flow naturally from the actions of characters and the situation.
 

Comedy is probably the single hardest thing in the world to do, and I can't say I've ever seen an intentionally comedic roleplaying product that was the least bit funny.
Wait. Paranoia is not funny? Toon? Macho Women with Guns (esp. the originals)? The Castle Greyhawk module (assuming you don't worship all things Greyhawk)?

I'll stop there. I don't want to be accused of telling you how to have fun.
 

There are lots of examples where funny can be injected into the game.

I just wish there was a bit more of an attempt, from time to time, to step away from "serious gaming" and inject a bit more whimsy. Anachronistic stuff, wahoo stuff, just plain weird stuff.

Now, the only just plain weird stuff we get is Far Realms based and, while weird, is far too horror for what I'm looking for.
 

I once ran a satire game very seriously. Almost every monster, area, etc. was a joke or reference to something else or odd. Once the players caught on we had some pretty silly shenanigans. The sorcerer in the party became the captain of the town guard by lighting a dummy on fire. ...stuff like that.

Here is a bad idea I once tried. A monster race that hardens its own feces over fire to make weapons. As much as I thought it would be funny... it wasn't.
 
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