RPGaday Topic 17: Funniest Game you’ve played

[Agemegos]

I'm doing RPG-a-day in August, as promoted by Dave Chapman (Autocratik). This is Day 15 of 31.


Funniest Game you’ve played

Hmm. Perhaps it is because I notoriously lack any trace of a sense of humour, but I don't remember running or playing a character in any funny games. I know there have been moments of paralysing hilarity during games, but… (1) They have mostly been such things as hurricanes of puns, or catchphrases that weren't funny the first time, or the second, or even the seventeenth, but were side-splitting the fiftieth time. That is, pretty much extraneous to the game. (2) I can only put one specific memory of the kind into its context: an occasion in one a fantasy games in which most of the PCs had been conned into buying worthless protective amulets, and one of the PCs launched the notion that to use them a character had to present the amulet vigorously and shout "Want some of this‽". What can I say? It seemed funny at the time.

[whswhs]

I didn't intend my first GURPS campaign to be comedic, but large parts of it were. It was probably inevitable when I allowed two Tymbrimi PCs. I remember one of the fin PCs telling one of the Tymbrimi, "You can't short-sheet water, b****!" That was a mistake, as he found out when he dived into a tank that had been polymerized. . . .

I've run several campaigns that intentionally had humor as a major aspect: my Toon mini-series, my Discworld mini-series, my Buffyverse campaign. We had a lovely bit of pure roleplaying humor when the Slayer and her half-demon best friend and the handsome soldier both were flirting with all got zinged by Cupid (yes, THE Cupid), which inflamed all their passions; all I had to do was tell each of them the result, and step by while they roleplayed like mad.

Some of the campaigns I've played in had comedic elements, often partly of my contribution; the GURPS Dragaera campaign where I played a Dzur nobleman modelled on Bertie Wooster and the Changeling campaign where I played Edward Gray Wolf, a coyote pooka whose recurring story was that he inspired Chuck Jones's cartoons, both had a lot of funny scenes.

I'm not sure I could pick out a single funniest game. Do we mean "session" or "campaign" here?

Bill Stoddard

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Do we mean "session" or "campaign" here?

Or "rule system"?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Or "rule system"?

Do you mean the intentionally funniest rules system or the involuntarily funniest rules system?

Bill Stoddard

[Agemegos]

I mean that Autocratik's questions systematically fail to draw distinctions among "session", "adventure", "campaign", and "rule system", leaving themselves ambiguous.

[Agemegos]

A friend reminds me that another friend ran a Dying Earth adventure called The Day of the Quelo, that I played in it, and that it was funny.

[Kalzazz]

Hmm! Tough one!

I think probably my poor friends supposed to be played straight DnD game of political intrigue and whatnot, where I did a few things wrong. First, I either didn't read or misread the campaign handout, and thought the game was on Earth, so I assigned my character all the wrong languages and so forth and had no clue what was going on. And also, turned in my character sheet with no background or description or anything but a name (Hellene Delacour) and as usual, bribed the DM to write a description for me (I hated descriptions). So the DM, having A - gotten tired of me turning in character sheets with no backgrounds, and B - having latched onto the idea that PCs had jobs other than being adventurers, decided that my character was a porn starlet. And since the character was supposed to be a Religious Archer sort (Order of the Bow Initiate), and the DM was writing the description for me, she ended up as a stripperiffic DnD Catholic schoolgirl with a longbow!

Considering that the other party members were things like Professors, Tribal Chiefs, Ambassadors and Priests the game was doomed from the get go to devolve to silliness and devolve to silliness it did, political intrigue or not!

A close second was my first long term GURPS game I played in, the great Non Sequitor GURPS campaign. It was random silliness piled on random silliness, where fighting Dr Robotnik, evil Ninjas, hanging with Greek Gods, and going to the Underworld and fighting vampires were all part of the fun!


I'd also like to mention my own GURPS campaign I've been running for 10 years or so, Tanuki City USA. Which started out with me learning I was DMing a modern game about 5 minutes before I started it as Fantasy and began as 'Your all in CiCi's Pizza when . . . ' and went on that course from there

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

I mean that Autocratik's questions systematically fail to draw distinctions among "session", "adventure", "campaign", and "rule system", leaving themselves ambiguous.

Which, whether deliberately or not, can make for a wider discussion.

As far as rules system, Paranoia (particularly the second edition and Paranoia XP) probably drew the most laughs from me of any ruleset, though GURPS IOU came close -- the campus was just far too close to my own beloved University of Colorado.

The funniest game night? Maybe the point in our In Nomine: Madison campaign when the party found what appeared to be a demon slain in the previous campaign cycle, now completely mindblown -- either a Remnant or someone who had spent way too long in Limbo. He had so little left upstairs that when put in the shower, he didn't bother to strip, forcing the others to get off his sopping clothes and wrap him in a towel.

At which point, the angel Kay decided to call the one PC not yet present: her "sister," a Bright of War called Susan, so that she could fetch the demon some dry clothes. The conversation went south quickly ... so far south that I eventually logged the results on the Memorable Quotes thread:

Susan (at a hospital visiting a wounded angel): "Hang on a sec," she tells the Malakite. Not answering the phone, Susan texts back, "I'll call you back in a few."
Kay: (Texts back) "I'm in a room with a naked guy and Bertha and I have clothes on"
GM: "Is that a cry for help or bragging?"
***
Susan: "Alan is *BACK*?! As in, alive???"
Kay: (Remembering she can get clothes elsewhere) "NVM...I'm a dork"
Susan: "No, no, Sister, I'm not going to nevermind that a naked demon is in the room with you!"
Kay: "I'm fine! Bertha is with me"
Susan: "What is Bertha doing with the naked demon??"
GM: "Oh, such a straight line ..."
***
Kay: "I thought you wanted to talk later?"
Susan: "You have a demon and another angel with you, and you want me to talk to you LATER now?! A NAKED DEMON?!?"
Kay: "You said you were busy!"
Other angel at the hospital to Susan: "Way to keep a low profile, hon ..."
***
Susan: (After hanging up and practically destroying the cell phone) "C'mon, we have to go off the demon who won't stay dead--or dressed."

[RogerBW]

Paranoia, definitely. I don't generally do funny RPGs (everyone knows I have no sense of humour), but perhaps by being funny in a profoundly grim and depressing setting Paranoia often manages to work for me.

[johndallman]

The Skool Rools game I mentioned in the #15 thread is a strong candidate.

Another was a one-off game I ran at a con in summer 2001, based on the UK General Election that had taken place earlier that year. The Dying Earth RPG was new that summer, and a game whose mechanics are all about pretence and posturing seemed a natural fit for politics. We had Robin Laws, author of the game, guest-staring as President George W Bush.

The funniest moment was when the leader of the Liberal Demoncrats was being told that, no, he couldn't host the garden party for the President "Because. You're. A. Giant. Hamster!"