The other day one of my long-time gamers and I were talking gaming and silliness. He's a veteran of a playthrough of Dungeonland.
His comment was basically that a lethal Young Frankstein beats a serious Ravenloft.
So does my DF game have silliness?
Obviously, it has in-jokes, like the Bells of D'Abo, comments about "just another snake cult," "as the stirge flies," or Magery as an "evil trait."
But I mean real silly stuff, in the spirit of the lethal Wonderland homage of Gary Gygax or the Gods of GURPS Fantasy II.
Yes, it does. There are some truly weird and lethal and silly things in Felltower.
I decided it's probably a good idea to make it clear. In a blatantly obvious way, even, so the players can decide if they're in the mood for silly or not. I don't want a groan of disappointment, I want groans of pained enjoyment.
I might go as far as to actually label stuff "silly" - with a sign, with a fool's coxcomb, actually writing Silly on the entrance to the area, whatever. I haven't decided, yet.
While I can't use Dungeonland again with anything near its original impact, I have my own goofiness there for people who want to take gold from murderous homages to less-than-serious source material.
But does it have those 5% grades to cause havoc with the party?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to get too silly.
DeleteBut let's say there is a 1 in 20 chance of it happening. Want to roll for it?
As long as it's a roll low target number.
DeleteI sincerely hope we run into a hypnotic bug-eyed hunchback, witch Frau Blucher riding a Nightmare, a blind monk who throws hot soup and cups of espresso, a guard with a mechanical arm, and of course, the singing, dancing flesh golem known as "the Monster..."
ReplyDeleteYou can always warn players by setting off a silly trap. Rubber tipped arrows, an invisible knight who slaps you with a fish and then runs away, a singing bush, or a pressure plate in a room full of terrifying metal statues that sets off a whoopee cushion, causing the statues to animate and blame the characters for farting.
That's why I figure on the warning. You can say, "On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It 'tis a silly place."
Delete