Comments on: The Right Quip at The Right Time: Humour in RPGs

By: Humor and Gaming Blog Carnival Roundup | A Butterfly Dreaming

Humor and Gaming Blog Carnival Roundup | A Butterfly Dreaming — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:40:07 +0000

[...] the right quip at the right time is pretty important for comedy, and Campaign Mastery talks about how different forms of comedy can [...]

By: Paul Cardwell;

Paul Cardwell; — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:09:09 +0000

Excellent, but you did leave out puns – one of the main forms for our game group – both impromtu ones in the course of the game, and often involving mounts, familiars, and similar peripherial characters. Example of the latter are a camel named Sopwith and a cheeta Rivera.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:44:54 +0000

It’s never a wasted day when you learn something new. I had no idea that the terms “DM” and “GM” weren’t universal. Thanks for the explanation, Loz. KODT is one of my favorite reads, in fact it’s the only comic that I read regularly these days – they priced themselves out of my level of interest back in the early 90s, some 15 years ago. So our world grows a little bit larger!

As for quoting of your all-time favorites, why not write them up for Johnn as a feature article for roleplaying tips? I’m sure others could use them as a source of inspiration… or just an entertaining read!

By: Siskoid

Siskoid — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:08:39 +0000

So that’s an MJ! I mean, I’m a francophone too (an Acadian from Atlantic Canada), but we usually use the English words for game terms, all our books are in English, etc.

By: Loz

Loz — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:01:33 +0000

Two quick points.
One: my apologies for the typos in my post : I thoughtlessly clicked on “add comment” before giving it my usual once-over. Lesson learned.
Two: an explanation of the phrase “MJ technique”. I game most often in French (I live in France), and in France a Games Master (GM) is called the “Maître du Jeu” (MJ). It requires a conscious effort for me to scrub out “MJ” when a type it, and replace it with the english equivalent of “GM”. Obviously this too slipped by in the absence of the once-over. Sorry.

Mike : I haven’t posted my “Bêtisiers” online since I don’t have most of them (they are in the GM’s hands!), and in French. Also, yes, context plays a big part in many of them. Some, though, are timeless comments on role-players in general à la Knights of The Dinner Table about which I feel I am justifiably proud.
One MJ / GM did scan the ones a gave him and e-mailed copies to all of his players. All 31Mo of them… It’s nice to be appreciated!

Additional thought : Verbal “Bêtisier” or top-notch humour one-liners are noted during game-time, read back at the end for more chuckles and fond-memory making. Also I type them up and keep them for later. Any player who has a spare few minutes during game evenings can peruse them to keep himself occupied.(I’m straining to prevent myself from quoting my all-time favorites… :) )

By: Siskoid

Siskoid — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:48:52 +0000

Loz, terrific ideas. Ça m’allume. I especially like the idea of having a “wall of laughs” in the gaming area. For a while, I did have an emailing list that immortalized the best moments, especially since we were holding our own private Gaming Awards once a year (best moments, characters, games, etc.) and needed the mnemonic help.

However, your system is a lot more immediate. I like it.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:26:56 +0000

Excellent points and suggestions, Loz, especially the cautionary tale at the end. Do you ever put your one-panel jokes online? Or do they require too much contextual explanation?

By: Loz

Loz — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:24:50 +0000

I’m a big improv man myself (albeit I try for the role-playing version Spider Robinsons “planned Improv”…) and humour is a big part of my various gaming groups.
One MJ technique I sometimes use is the “What if…” (“If he fumbles this he probably gonna leave a crater in the ground…”, “If this guts the villain, this is when he’d say “Guards, kill them all!” ” and so forth) as it simultaneously adds a touch of humour to relieve stress, stops the other players staring anxiously at the player making the dice roll and allows me too subtly heighten the perceived risk and thus augment the players feeling of triumph when (if!) they succeed… downsides : it depends on juxtaposing a surprise alternative vision of possibilities, which may shock some players too much (e.g. knock them “out of character”)

N.B. With so much humour floating around a table of veteran gamers, we generally don’t even *try* entirely-suspense-based scenarios à la Call of Chthulhu… and I have a sign posted on the wall. A big (A4) roadsign (red circle with red diagonal bar) forbidding “Games nostalgia anecdotes, MMORPG talk, Politics” in game. It cuts down on distractions, and nudging someone and discretly pointing to the sign is a whole lot more diplomatic than saying “For God’s sake shut up, you’re wasting our precious gaming time.”

When I’m a player and feeling inspired (often), I sketch pages and pages of one-panel “Bêtisier” (for the Non-French speaking : “Dumb things we did”-ery) of visual jokes, “What If” riffs, immortalisations, and prolongations of touches of humour by the various players. About 8 panels per page. After each one I pass it around the table for the laughs (the other players kindly forgive my amateur-level sketchs). It chews up a bit of game time, but Oh My the laughs! I make a gift of them to the GM (who gets “imortalised” too, often…) and ironically they often serve as a backup Campaign Journal! If you’re a semi-decent sketcher, this might be fun for you, too. If you’re the GM and you have enough time to sketch this kind of thing, something is wrong with your game-session (i.e. players arguing amongst themselves without end)!

Note : be careful about using humour, sometimes out-of-game activities can leave players sensitives to jokes on certain subject (i.e. if one of your players has just discovered she’s pregnant, or a familly member just died….) and this can cause bad feeling. Happened to me once : so do what I did, and apologise sincerely for accidentally flicking that person on the raw.
After all, the goal is “All for fun and fun for all!”

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:52:40 +0000

@Siskoid: I’ve noticed the same phenomena, myself – both sides of the coin! My experience is that the more you make up on the spot as a GM, the wilder and less constrained things get – not necessarily more comedic, but more of whatever the tone was. This can be great for a single session or scenario, but can easily get out of hand on a more regular basis, and I have even seen it kill campaigns. But it’s fun in the meantime!

@Ameron: Thanks. Here at Campaign Mastery, our goals are to encourage fun in games (for both GM and players) and to offer value-for-money in everything we do; in the case of the blog, it’s free, but the readers’ time is valuable. So it’s great to hear that we’re succeeding in achieving our ambitions. I got the impression very early on that the sort of short item you describe was what was most likely to be delivered by most participants in this month’s blog carnival; that’s why I deliberately took a broader perspective. It looks like it was the right choice.

By: Ameron

Ameron — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:25:49 +0000

Wow. I was expecting a short “try to lighten the mood of your game by telling the occasional joke” article, but this is fantastic.

I think that too many of my players forget that the purpose of play an RPG (or any game for that matter) is to have fun. I think we can all work on being less serious during play and trying to add the humour element. After all, the most memorable sessions generally involve a lot of laughter (usually at someone else’s expense).