I tend to do this pretty naturally, without making any concerted effort toward humour, I have a fairly humour-laden game in any circumstance.  Not to say that my games aren't dramatic, but they have that kind of Dramatic/Comedic rapid-switch capacity, the kind of thing you'd see in Buffy...

What about other people's games? Is there a lot of humour? A little? None?

How do you do it? If you're the GM, is it that you're trying to be funny? Or are your games serious games that also have humour?

RPGpundit

Depends entirely on the game.

I find deliberate humour doesn't tend to work too well unless it has a formulaic premise (Paranoia) though having written several humour gaming books I think there's a rich vein of it in there, it's just hard to deliberately bring out in games.  Horror is the same way, it takes a lot of work.

Oh you have no idea

An entire oWoD campaign set up around a single scene where the GM could try out his Sean Connery impression

An OOC discussion about whether a fresh placenta could be used to distract zombies (I ruled that it wasn't that type of game)

And then there's this

We've had a few really funny moments in the midst of generally serious games.  Mostly, it's been the characters chafing each other, although on one occasion the GM brought down the house by using the name of the exasperatingly unreliable public data network we were connecting with as an in-setting curse.

Quote from: RPGPunditI tend to do this pretty naturally, without making any concerted effort toward humour, I have a fairly humour-laden game in any circumstance.

Well you are a Pundit... :rimshot:
 
-SJ

Team America: World Police
I am totally writing an RPG for that.
You get to shoot people. Alot. Roleplaying consists of humor and dumbassery, which comes fairly naturally already.

I'll have humorous or farcical situations that evolve in-game... and of course, there's joking at the table.

But making a joke of the game is a no-no at my table. It ruins (don't you love this term) suspension of disbeleif for me.

The humor in my game mostly comes out of character and situational stuff.  Setting up comedy usually doesn't work as well for me.

My group tends to not take things too seriously when weplay. I had everything from a Masked Panda Luchador in my Hunter games, to a teeneage boy with 360 degree rotating elbows in AFMBE.
 
Huour just come along naturally with our fun.

My troupe uses humor extensively in gameplay. Usually, no one's trying, we're just goddamned funny people. While our games tend to deal with "omgsoserious issues", and we do RP some serious sequences, the OOC talk via IM during the game is usually rife with jokes about the scenario.

Another thing is that, as long as our characters survive, the GM has more or less carte blanche to injure, inconvenience, maim, fold, spindle, or mutilate the PCs in any way he wants, as long as it's entertaining. This has resulted in closet-based shoe avalanches, a PC's car that turned out to be a cursed damage-magnet (aptly called, "the Frogurt"), and the very battle of Armageddon taking place in a police impound lot.

We also extend humor to the character creation process, making characters with entertaining quirks or concepts. While this occasionally can impede what's considered "critical" character facets (for instance, my current SR4 character has Incompetence in Dodge, mostly because he's too slow-witted and belligerent to get out of the way), we trust our GMs (we trade off when we feel like it) to take care of the character, because the player has taken the time to make an interesting, fun character.

So while we don't intentionally go into the game with the premise of "HUMOROUS CAMPAIGN" in neon above our heads, we're funny people, we encourage humor, and reward/protect those who can do it well.

Quote from: GeekkakeWe also extend humor to the character creation process, making characters with entertaining quirks or concepts.

You know, that can be really interesting, but there's a little thing that buggers me about it. I'm SICK AND TIRED of people creating characters AROUND a quirk, a joke or a guarangada. I mean, I used to play with this guy whose every character had split-personalities. Or the time when the GM came up with this frozen steppey, Frostburn kind of setting, and some guy played Lucrecia Caribe, a maraca-wielding, fruit-hatted halfling bard. Or the time... ok, you got the idea. I find it a totally dumb-assed way to crush a good roleplay. Like "Hey, I'm Hello Shitty, the talking turd". Yeah, right, but what ELSE you are? I mean, it's the best way to create plain, unidimensional characters. Not to mention the joke gets old like two-and-a-half minutes into the session.
One thing to do with that kind of players:
:verkill:

Absolutely right, which is why we don't stand for that sort of thing in our games. We make characters that could play in a serious game, and use the quirks and amusements for flavor.

Yes, those kinds of unidimensional characters can make amusing NPCs, but as PCs after a couple of sessions they become seriously dull.  Its a bad idea to allow them.

RPGpundit

Phindar and Ace are much funnier than me, so I try to have them at every game when they're available. I think players are at their funniest when they're being perfectly serious, because I'm often stunned and amazed at the things that come out of people's mouths. I've started writing down the quotes from the games, and I wish I'd always done this. Sometimes the newer players are the best sources, because they'll ask questions or make "mistakes" in all seriousness.

"I don't even know who's in this party! All I see are a baby and a disembodied arm!"
"Or, you could ask someone who's not an arm..."

"I'm not putting my eye in the big pit thing."

"We are not equipped for attacking large horses."

"Nature does not make compassion. Women, and books, and democrats make compassion."