Focusing silliness on NPCs is a good way of keeping a straight story but have the players laughing on the sidelines. Its surprising how such NPCs get adopted by the players.

It reminds me of my Otyugh monster that mastered the basics of Common and that called everything ‘Food’ like ‘Food that walks’ (PCs) ‘food that bites’ (Dungeon monsters) and ‘Food that eats’ (meaning itself). So we called it Food that Eats and the monster was adopted by the party.

it’s also always fun to dress up a kobold in foppish musketeer clothes, widebriummed hat and a big feather, just to see how nervous everybody gets.

“he looks silly! He MUST have class levels, beware! run for it!!!!”

and in case you wonder, of course the players bought the alligator after a while, and of course it actually was magical ^_^

Make sure to call the Tavern keeper ‘Herb’

Aside from the ever-present pop culture references uttered around the table I try to do things like make up funny names for NPCs. For example, our group was trying to find some information from a wizard’s aide who had been driven mad by abberations. I realized at the last minute that I had forgotten to name him so he became Ci’lantro since my wife and I had been talking herbs and spices that afternoon. I made sure the madman uttered things like “We’re out of time! (thyme)” a few times and refered to his wizard employer as “His Sage”. 8^)

Since then we’ve also had a Coriander and my visiting brother played a one-shot Genasi named Taragon.

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That’s exactly the type of one-shots I’m talking about! Good one!

@Steve: I absolutely love running gags like that in a campaign. In fact I’d even use the scthick as a plot device. Like if the players really need to go from the Free-City of Crunchia to the Capital of the Republic of Fluffia, I’d have them discover a strange portal that allows them to go from one city to the other through the Tavern…

but “both” taverns would burn down shortly after… he he he.

@RPG Ike: Arghhhhhh, here is that Nom-Nom expression again (Damn you Cookie Monster/LOL cats!). As you say, laughter is a very strong emotion that comes with the release of ‘good feeling’ chemicals in the brain. So having the players burst out at least once, for whatever reason, is a step toward a good game session. The thing is to try to avoid having the outburst at the worse possible moment.

@flashheart: Let’s not forget that silliness should not be an element of all games, not even most. Some campaings aren’t conducive to silliness and that’s all right. It does provide a nice change of pace/tone between serious chapters though. Also, sometimes the gaming group just needs to get it out of their systems.

@Eric: The only silliness that you control is the one that you purposely insert into your games… and even there, it might just fall flat. About 10 years ago, I tried to play a Paranoia game with my Gurps group and the whole thing fell flat because none of the players (all blue collar workers in a Northern Mining town) found the premise of the game any fun.

@Questing DM: Could you develop that? You think that the game crash because of player silliness? What would you think is the root cause for this (without you going into self-flagellation mode about your DMing).

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@Steve:
I love your “Chain Tavern” concept! I’m-a steal it fer sure.

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I find this kind of thing is welcome in most games, and doesn’t feel forced or incongruous, even alongside themes of extreme violence or even torture. The bottom line is people love to laugh, I think.

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That said, my D&D games have always had a “silliness sandbox”. The idea is outright stolen from a friend, but I like to take credit for it nonetheless: The Chain Tavern.

The tavern is in every town. The bartender is always the same, and speaks in a funny voice. Kobolds (in pumps, cocktail dresses and make-up) wait on the tables. Popular bands perform on stage. Weird stuff happens.

It is — quite literally — where the characters go for a break. They can order wings, watch the Rolling Stones on stage, and even go backstab John Travolta who’s over dancing in the corner.

A lot of fun, an ability to be silly and bring up pop culture references — all without leaving character, or having to say “guys, guys — let’s get back to the game”.

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If the campaign mood is generally serious, we need to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. But silly campaigns (especially one-shots) can be really fun to play. Such as sending a group of neonates on a city-wide search for Mr. Fuzzles.

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@Wyatt: Dude, I’m telling you now, what you are creating is your very own brand of D&D! Embrace the silliness and make this world come alive, in a few years from now, I’ll have people tell me in cons that they played in a Salazar game…

Example: In one Cthulhutech game I ran, the players were spending an overly long and intimate period of time mourning the passing of a PC. Even the PC’s replacement PC was mourning his old PC. They went to a place to eat, and I named the place Shub-Way. It was filled with lovecraftian puns.

In my current ongoing game, while it is decidedly serious and sometimes dire, it’s also packed with references. For example, the player’s powers are actual power cards they have to hang on to, as well as all their items and rituals and suchlike. Their major enemies are female personifications of every edition of D&D (they are currently fighting Fawry, who is 4th Edition, and controls a dungeon-wide scrying network called DDI, Dark Dungeon Infiltrator). A few upcoming rooms have NES Megaman references like having to walk backwards through a door to get anywhere (having to go right instead of left in a side-scrolling game) and disappearing blocks.

If you play with Wyatt, it isn’t a question of if there will be silliness, it’s a question of if you can look past it when all the cute characters start dying horribly and the world goes to crap and misery and woe reign supreme…while people are still making video game references.

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Indeed. It will burn quite well enough on its own. And I find that the longer a group stays together, the more the personalities play off of each other to make jokes.

And I don’t consider it a bad thing, as long as the DM can rein things in and keep moving forward. Nothing sobers up a table like a nice coup de grace attempt.

@Menaderthal: Welcome! I agree with you. The last thing a GM wants is to have his game turn into a Benny-Hill skit (altough I’d love a stupid chase scene with a beholder, a short bald orc and a series of PCs running here and there).

And having players goof off too much is another issue that might point toward a disconnect between what the players seek and the DM wants.

But that’s another story altogether. In such cases I agree that you shouldn’t add more oil to the PC’s funny fire.

This doesn’t mean that there can’t be humorous moments in the game. Franz’s example above of the bad guy being out on a restroom break is a good one. I imagine the heroes bursting into the lair, only to find it unoccupied, utterly robbing them of their heroic momentum. A couple of beats go by, to build tension. From behind a door in the back corner, a toilet flushes…

But you don’t want to go to that well too often, or it ruins it. You want your players to reminisce fondly about that bad guy they caught with his pants down. You /don’t/ want them to follow that up with “And the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy. What is it with you and pants, anyway?”

As a player, it’s another matter. My characters tend to have humorous qualities, but I play them as straight as possible and let other people make jokes off of it. My dwarf’s clan name is Boozehammer. Other people think it’s funny, but to him, that’s his name! Why would he make a joke about it? He comes from a long line of respected holy ale brewers, thankyouverymuch.

@Conlean: Great story! It’s nice to see your group take failure in stride and make it into a funny story instead of getting frustrated.

@John: Thanks man, welcome to the Blog BTW. I agree that humour can cause a game to crash and must be used with care (heck sometimes a little mistake or an unfortunately named NPC in a serious game will make it crash… ask me about that Eleven Dagger I called Sodomir when I was 13, we still talk about that).

@Franz: Welcome to the blog! Bathroom trope! Nice one indeed.

One time I had a group barge into a bad guy’s lair only to find it empty, as he was out going to the bathroom!

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I enjoy humor but I rarely plan it. When odd things or odd rolls occur in game, we kinda get a laugh out of it sometimes and roleplay it to the hilt. Sometimes I’ll have villians taunt the players while doing battle. We have a minotaur in our game and one villian kept calling him cow beast and other weird names. Of course that spurred on the cow beast, I mean minotaur to attack all the harder.

I guess for me I want to be sure and not shatter the versimilitude of the game so I’m careful with planned humor. Even so when it happens its cool.

And generally that’s how things get hilarious with us. Mostly due to cursed dice