Greetings gamers from all systems, places, and timelines!
I’ve been running games for over three decades now, and my favorite campaign of all time, ironically, is my current one. Not because my table is filled with rule or dramatic roleplay experts. Actually, quite the opposite, as two of the players had never played a TTRPG in their lives, and because the setting was designed to be whimsical, as most of its inspiration was pulled from Curse of Strahd.
During these games, we laugh so hard and so often that I’m honestly surprised no one has actually passed out. And while many DMs and players alike are too serious for anything like this, allow me to give you five reasons why humor might be just what your table needs.
Humor Creates Memorable Moments
No matter what table you’re at, some of the game’s details will slip through the cracks of everyone’s memories—making the session recap something as needed as the desert needs the rain. However, no one forgets one of the game’s hilarious moments.
My group, who are on session eighteen, are still laughing about something that happened in session three, as if it were yesterday. And while it cannot be said with certainty, when the campaign comes to a close and the players are asked what their favorite moments were over all of our adventures, some may mention their heroic deeds. But I suspect it’s much more likely to tell stories that made them laugh for minutes on end, like the time that they were magically trapped in a soap opera.
Humor Helps New Players
TTRPGs have great potential hooks for new players to sink their teeth into. The only problem is that each player is different, and even they have no idea what they will enjoy doing the most in the game without playing it for a while.
As new players try to decide whether they love deep, immersive roleplay or are power gamers at heart, keeping things light and comical will bring them back for more, especially amidst all of the pressures in a live gameL trying to remember how the game works, what their character can do, how to do it, all while trying to remember how to read the four-sided die.
It Provides Balance
Every good game will have a range between its dramatic points and its more enjoyable and amusing ones. Even in the most well-crafted dramatic or frightening movies or stories, maintaining that level of intensity over the long term is extremely difficult.
Case in point: my Journey to Ragnarok campaign setting was dark, freezing cold, and everyone was on an invisible clock to stop the end of the world. Making everything as serious as a heart attack after a while can make it so that it just becomes normal.
“Yep we might freeze and starve to death, and it’s also Tuesday.”
Humor can be the palette cleanser that resets the mood and allows you to begin a new slow buildup of tension later. Alternatively, it can enable you to introduce a new, surprising event or piece of information and still achieve the desired effect.
Laughter is Free Material
One of the goals, or at least it should be, of running a game is for everyone involved to have a good time. So that the party either laughs at the jokes in your material provided or makes jokes about whatever is occurring, making the scene feel like a true win-win. At least in terms of how the time is being spent within your game.
If you don’t believe me, try to think about a time when you were with a group of your friends and you just laughed for minutes on end. Now, out of all the times that happened, how many of those times were you honestly bored? The only potential problem in the game is that if a few players are going completely off the rails with some inside joke, it is proving to be actually disruptive.
Final Thoughts
As a DM, GM, Judge, Storyteller, or Keeper of Arcane Lore, you should always be pushing yourself to broaden your horizons and not just sit in the box of your comfort zone, where you make endless clones of your one campaign that everyone really liked from back in the day. Besides, that honor is reserved for Hollywood.
Previously, for myself, it was the challenge of incorporating more terrain and props. Now, it’s adding humor in places in the most unlikely of places to really keep the players guessing.
Now, a word of caution: not every table is up for funny business, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, this is something that should be discussed before and possibly after a session to ensure everything is still moving in the right direction. Just do your best to strike a balance between the drama, tension, and whatever hilarity you have planned.
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