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<blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 5395998" data-attributes="member: 1106">But that's the default; most DMs seem to be trying to run something steeped in drama and epic storytelling, whereas the reality is that this is a social group of friends, playing a game where silly situations occur naturally because at a fundamental level RPGs are largely silly (just like acting, ever seen a blooper reel?), and to downplay that is to potentially destroy the best game memories and a lot of the cameraderie.&nbsp; The funny thing about silliness is that you can bounce back from South Park quotes to finding the assassin who slew the duke very easily, so nothing is lost.&nbsp; A hint is that the games built for the most whimsy (AD&amp;D 1E and Hackmaster) are also the ones built for the most ugliness and adult themes.&nbsp; I mean, take away the funny and Paranoia is a dystopia, so grimdark and silly are natural bedfellows.I suspect it's to a degree DM and game designer egos getting in the way; &quot;Who could possibly get bored and want to quote Star Wars or make jokes about a silly magic item when playing under our masterful ruleset and campaign arc?&nbsp; Preposterous, it's far too sublime.&nbsp; Purge the silly item and dial up the angsty and serious more-uber-than-thou purple prose quotes in the PHB.&quot;&nbsp; But it happens consistently and naturally in my experience, whether the DM and designers take themselves too seriously or not.I'm just saying that you don't even need to &quot;get players on board.&quot;&nbsp; Instead, avoid repeating the mistake which IMO has happened in the very ruleset, which is restricting the scope of gameplay, and instead extend the scope of your campaign to accept silliness and OOC jokes gracefully, even gladly.&nbsp; When the tension relief is over, they'll all get back to finding the duke's killer, and perhaps you'll have a lot more great memories...fun, even...than in a po-faced campaign.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="rounser, post: 5395998, member: 1106"] But that's the default; most DMs seem to be trying to run something steeped in drama and epic storytelling, whereas the reality is that this is a social group of friends, playing a game where silly situations occur naturally because at a fundamental level RPGs are largely silly (just like acting, ever seen a blooper reel?), and to downplay that is to potentially destroy the best game memories and a lot of the cameraderie. The funny thing about silliness is that you can bounce back from South Park quotes to finding the assassin who slew the duke very easily, so nothing is lost. A hint is that the games built for the most whimsy (AD&D 1E and Hackmaster) are also the ones built for the most ugliness and adult themes. I mean, take away the funny and Paranoia is a dystopia, so grimdark and silly are natural bedfellows. I suspect it's to a degree DM and game designer egos getting in the way; "Who could [i]possibly[/i] get bored and want to quote Star Wars or make jokes about a silly magic item when playing under our masterful ruleset and campaign arc? Preposterous, it's far too sublime. Purge the silly item and dial up the angsty and serious more-uber-than-thou purple prose quotes in the PHB." But it happens consistently and naturally in my experience, whether the DM and designers take themselves too seriously or not. I'm just saying that you don't even need to "get players on board." Instead, avoid repeating the mistake which IMO has happened in the very ruleset, which is restricting the scope of gameplay, and instead extend the scope of your campaign to accept silliness and OOC jokes gracefully, even gladly. When the tension relief is over, they'll all get back to finding the duke's killer, and perhaps you'll have a lot more great memories...[i]fun[/i], even...than in a po-faced campaign. [/QUOTE]

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