Comedy Relief In Role Playing Games
By Jason Patterson
The idea of using role-playing games for comic relief applies not just to games that are already intended for comic relief, either the system itself (such as Paranoia, HOL, etc), but to more standard (usually "serious") game systems where the players all agree to give comedy a run - playing for comic relief can even be done on a per-character basis, even within a game that is NOT geared toward comedy, though the style, content and intensity of this type of play is best kept within the players' overall tolerance for "shenanigans" - this is not something one should do at every game, but an opportunity which may present itself from time to time.
While rules-lite game systems tend to lend themselves to comedic role-playing a bit better than heavier number-crunching games, due to the freer narrative without the accompanying requirement for dice rolls to perform every action, even game systems heavy in the mechanics department can provide an entertaining venue for the rpg comedian, or as some internet rpg humor lists refer to them, zanies or loonies.
Using the general theme of the scenario or adventure itself, the fairly-universal semi-insurance that the DM isn't going to outright kill you if you're being entertaining (even if not necessarily wise), and the typical probability of the game system's success/failure mechanics, consistent methods of comedic playing, usually of the "incompetent, bumbling, sidekick" slapstick variety, can be played right alongside the swarthy mercenary and the mysterious elven sorceress. Endearing fumblers have long accompanied more serious and heroic protagonists in novels and movies, and so too it can be in role-playing games.
In the case of a more densely-concentrated rules system, for example 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, the urge for comedy can spring as inspiration, as much from happenstance or even frustration, as much as genuine premeditated comedic intent. As a practical example, a player in a four-person adventuring party was of a more "cinematic" bent, play-style wise, and felt he was constantly being penalized by the game system used, for his attempted over-the-top heroic actions, possibly more suited to a swashbuckling or buddy-cop martial arts movie, than a gritty fantasy dungeon crawl.
Deciding to make the system work in his favor (or die in the process, most likely), the player's fairly generic, gruff Dwarf Paladin, evolved into the cluelessly overconfident Dwarf Paladin who saw himself as a righteous crusader, protected and blessed by his faith, hailed by all as a shining icon of heroism and bravery. The ancient drawbridge leading over the bubbling black water to the tower proper, looks weathered and unsteady - this naturally then would be the time for the plate-mail clad Dwarf to make a prodigious leap to the tower. Failing that, as he did, this would instead be the time for him to crash bodily through the rotten timbers and plummet dozens of feet into the rancid murk below, requiring his companions to lower a rope to pull him out, as he patted himself on the back for taking the risk and sparing his friends the danger.
No longer would this holy warrior skulk around in dark corners, giving Evil the satisfaction of waiting for someone to "check for traps", this warrior strode bravely into darkened corridors, hundreds of feet below ground, heedlessly kicking in thick doors leading to unknown chambers, filled with chittering and slithering noises. An inspired tumble between the legs of the ogre, and a failed roll accompanying the action, would find the Paladin played like a croquet ball by the hulking ogre as he slammed the short-statured hero into the next room with his massive gnarled two-handed club. Granite hammer in one hand, shield in the other, crossbow bolts sticking out of his breastplate, the Paladin would charge zealously into teeming masses of kobolds and gnolls, plate armor glinting in flickering torchlight - sometimes he would even emerge from these battles still conscious (though not often).
But there are more ways than bumbling, to get a bit of comedy relief in a game. Sometimes it just takes a quirk for an otherwise competent character, even if the quirk is not-so realistic to the setting. The keen-eyed Elven Archeress, respected among the party for her skill with a bow, when asked if she was ready for the upcoming battle, replied in a bubbly tone, "Like, duh - fer sure!" Some players consider it a mark of success for their fellow players to beg, or better yet, threaten them, to NOT play "so much" in character. The Valley Girl Elf Archer was surely one such time that would count toward this end."Mama Cici" proved that you could be both competent AND a bumbler AND realistic, and still provide some comic relief, in the way of pure normalcy. The overweight middle-aged cook and mother of four joined the adventuring party, armed only with her good dishes (including her trusty iron skillet), determination and homespun wisdom handed down to her from her Grandmammy. Borrowing a little from 90s telephone psychic "Miss Cleo", Touched by an Angel's Della Reese, Martin Lawrence's "Big Mama" and Nell Carter, Mama Cici could dispense cautionary tales and advice at the drop of a hat, but her lack of skills in "Ride Horse" and "Fight" really proved to be disadvantages on a cross-country adventure.
As for the Halfling Pit-Fighter and seven foot tall barbarian professional wrestler, perhaps they would be best left forgotten...
Caution, restraint and good judgment should be used by players attempting to "liven up" a game with comic relief, especially if the other players are obviously hoping for a more serious game, and especially when you get lots of frowns, frustrated sighs and even more especially, threats of bodily harm. Sometimes one must put away the whoopie cushions and cream pies for the sake of the gaming group and continuity. You wouldn't want a deranged psycho-killer to suddenly go rampaging through a forest of big-eyed chittering animal characters any more than the tactician and the gunslinger want to be thrown off their timing by the clown next to them priming his water-squirting flower.
Jason J. Patterson - June 29, 1973 - Small town in northeast Oklahoma on Hwy. 66, U.S.A.
WRITING HISTORY
In my teens, I began writing short stories and home-made "choose-your-own-adventure" type "books" (really just a few pieces of typed paper stapled together), and personal thoughts on philosophy and metaphysics and culture, as well as personal and dream journals
I have also written a number of informal, freely released supplements, rules errata, resources and scenarios for tabletop role-playing games, as well as a simple board game and a couple of dice game rules sets.
As a child and young adult, I was an avid reader, mostly of fantasy and some horror and science fiction novels (Dean R. Koontz, Piers Anthony, David Eddings, Dragonlance, etc.), as well as books related to language, the paranormal, philosophy and various other references, with boxes of literally hundreds of books - this lead to an interest in developing my own writing skills, and I also have some ability at freehand sketching/cartooning - with examples online at Elfwood and Deviantart.
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Propp's Fairy Tale Functions and the Fantasy Role Playing Game
By Ty Hulse
Propp was one of the most brilliant folklorists of all time, very knowledgeable of fairy tales, their meanings, and most especially their story structures. As people during his time attempted to classify stories by key features, and elements, something which led to hundreds of story types, Propp felt it would make more sense to examine story structure based on functions.
In his studies Propp found 31 fairy tale functions, it was his claim that while not all these functions where in any fairy tale, fairy tales where all driven by these functions which all occurred in the numerical order he outlined for them from least to greatest.
While it can be argued that there are perhaps folktales especially those in other cultures that do not follow exactly the outline created by Propp, he certainly discovered something that is true the majority of the time, and when talking about humans that is normally the best one can get, for humans have few if any rules regarding their imagination which are true all the time. It is wise then to utilize Propp's functions set as a tool to understanding fairy tales, rather then simply working to dispute it, because if you try to you will find fairy tales that don't match it, but you will find many more which do.
What Propp means for fantasy stories and RPG's
So what do Propp's functions have to do with fantasy role playing games and fantasy worlds? Everything, for it is Propp's functions which have shown the outline for most all of the early fantasy stories, and certainly for the most famous of such stories. By defining this storyline Propp has not only created a tool for understanding fairy tales, he has created one for writing them, and fantasy stories structured like them, and considering the power and timeless nature of fairy tales this is indeed a valuable story tool. When creating a quest for your characters this tool is invaluable for helping to generate ideas, often times quests are merely a string of challenges rather then a story. Propp offers a more concrete structure for ideas. This way a game master creating an rpg quest could rather then simply stringing together challenges, string together events from meetings with hero's, receiving of magical objects, and villain's natures being revealed.
Of special interest to those creating role playing quests includes the interdiction violated (the players, or someone close to them does something they where told not to). Common in fairy tales, someone is told not to do something, and so they must inevitably do it. In the case of a hero this could be a good opportunity to use external characters to pressure them. Someone close to them bothers them until such time as they do the thing they where told not to. Or the pc's could be forced to choose between a known negative event and an unknown, as they are chased by a dragon, poisoned, or driven to do something they normally would not do to survive. For in fleeing the dragon they enter a fairies private realm angering it. To cure themselves of the poison they make a deal with a stranger. There are many other ways to direct the PC's towards the breaking of the interdiction, allowing you to set them up for the fantasy quest.
Once the interdiction is broken the PC's could find themselves in trouble, and so would need the help of the villain who at this point is disguised as a helper. One of the things that make fairy tales so interesting is the way in which villains often start out as those seeming to help the hero characters. Yet they do so only to cause some sort of harm to or to get something out of the hero. In your role playing game this duality of the villain character could add interest and of course a more story like feel.
On the flip side of the hidden villain is the actual helper character, someone who provides magical aid to the hero. Fairies play in this role well for they do not have their own unknown reasons for helping and so could simply choose to be helpful if the player's characters are friendly to them. What's important to understand in this is that these are not simply random events; it is ok if the pc's receive miraculous help from an outside source in this story structure because this structure is so well known to most peoples. Propp's structure after all is the structure on which most of our fantasy stories are originally based.Propp's function started with an initial set up situation of who, what, when and where, after this the stories according to him would follow along in order some of the following 31 functions.
1. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);
2. An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there');
3. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale);
4. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim questions the villain);
5. The villain gains information about the victim;
6. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);
7. Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy;
8. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);
9. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);
10. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;
11. Hero leaves home;
12. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
13. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);
14. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
15. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
16. Hero and villain join in direct combat;
17. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
18. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
19. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);
20. Hero returns;
21. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
22. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
23. Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;
24. False hero presents unfounded claims;
25. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
26. Task is resolved;
27. Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28. False hero or villain is exposed;
29. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);
30. Villain is punished;
31. Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).
Ty Hulse is helping to develop dragonsmeet.net as center for role playing games, where you can learn about the impact of fairy tales on RPG's, and about creating fantasy worlds for your role playing games.
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