Situational humour in games, Effective use of the ridiculous Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Talia Invierno]

Once again, this thread isn't about combat humour. (Sorry!) Besides, for some reason, these kinds of things don't seem to work too well with particularly trigger-happy teams :spin:

A couple of weeks ago, half of the group decided it was a good idea to poke their heads out into the city proper while actively wanted. (Temporary downtime, and they were bored.) They did originally manage to keep a relatively low profile. What they didn't know was that a professional film crew with a particularly dippy cameragirl had been hired to shoot a tourist promotional video for a casino and the surrounding area ... and that was the day she was doing street interviews.

As distinct from opportunistic or coincidental humour, where the actions of PCs have an (intentional or otherwise) humorous result or consequence, situational humour will have been specifically planned by the GM into the environment and potentially into the plotline. In general, I find anything to do with the astral, spirits (personality, appearance, complications of summoning), Matrix, mass media, or attempts at linguistic translation to be particularly effective vehicles for occasional insertion of a little situational humour into the campaign. Sometimes I specifically create a lightly humorous atmosphere in order to set up sharp emotional contrasts when I know something harsh lies just around the corner. (Buffy fans will know exactly what I'm talking about, here.)

Is this something you habitually make use of (or have encountered) in your own games? Does it have a valid SR function? How frequently should it be used, if at all? Share your stories!