So, on the advice of a lot of people, several of them here at this board, I finally broke down and got Patrcik Wetmore's post-apocalyptic science-fantasy super-gonzo dungeoncrawl, Anomalous Subsurface Environment.

I love it (hell, I think it's damn near impossible not to, for anyone who's into gonzo D&D) but it is a tad more gonzo than I've expected. Since my players are AD&D 2e-head who see Larry Elmore as the ultimate D&D artist, I was expecting to introduce the SF elements in a manner a bit more gradual than ASE's electric-light-lit, robot-patrolled city-state of Denethix, or ASE itself in which a hologram greets adventurers in the very best corporate jargon.

At the same time, holy fucking shit, I love ASE as written. I'm just not sure how my players will react to the upfront SF "weirdness" of the setting. I've considered toning it down but I'm afraid I might be throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Who's got any experience, good or bad, introducing gonzo SF weirdness in D&D to players unfamiliar with this style? Any bad reactions, or am I just overthinking shit again?

Quote from: The Butcher;633532How gonzo is too gonzo?

I don't understand the question.

Is there such a thing as too gonzo?

Quote from: The Butcher;633532. . . [A]m I just overthinking shit again?

Probably.

I think you are overthinking it. Just approach the idea of a campaign like this with your players. Start throwing references like robots and mutants made of eyeballs and trashcans that speak in the D&D game you want to run, and just look for their reactions. If they look at you like "fuck yeah that sounds totally stupid,... and awesome!" you'll know you're in for a good game.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;633533I don't understand the question.

Is there such a thing as too gonzo?

Gnomish amazons, riding kangaroos, throwing hand grenades at the shoggoths.

Quote from: P&P;633540throwing hand grenades at the shoggoths.

If you can ram Cthulhu with a steamship you should be able to make a shoggoth dance.

Sigh. I suppose this day had to come. What exactly does gonzo mean in the context of RPGs to you people, as far as I'm aware it was coined by Hunter S Thompson to reflect his personalised spin on news reporting as opposed to being impartial and dispassionate.

I have very pedestrian tastes when it comes to D&D.

So "Gonzo" is more often than not something that will unsell me on a product.

Give me Elves, Orcs, castles, scary forests, haunted moors, mad kings, etc...

Quote from: P&P;633540Gnomish amazons, riding kangaroos, throwing hand grenades at the shoggoths.

I call that 'random encounter number 3.'

I think there can be too much gonzo, it depends on the setting and what you're going for.  For example, Heavy Metal as a D&D adventure would be pretty gonzo, but at the same time, it's not slapstick gonzo.

There's weird crazy shit that can come with SF running amok in fantasy, but that doesn't mean we're all rolling our eyes at the 4th wall puns, and laughing at a wild mix of Star Wars and Star Trek cliches delivered with a Monty Python accent.

Quote from: The Traveller;633543Sigh. I suppose this day had to come. What exactly does gonzo mean in the context of RPGs to you people, as far as I'm aware it was coined by Hunter S Thompson to reflect his personalised spin on news reporting as opposed to being impartial and dispassionate.

To me Gonzo implies a concerted effort to subvert or discard cliche and archetype.

Aliens and spaceship, clowns, etc... are not native to fantasyland so a gonzo game will include them.

Fantasyland hobbits are fat gardeners so a gonzo game will make them nomadic barbarians.

Fantasyland has always made an effort to be internally consistent so a gonzo game will deliberately include inconsistencies.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;633533Is there such a thing as too gonzo?

I think so. Every aspect of world (adventure) design has a point of diminishing returns. This is evidently subjective, but there is a point where the vivid contrasts and strange juxtapositions lose their imaginative power, becoming rote and tiresome, or just ineffective because you no longer have a reference point among so many 'gonzo' and 'weird' things.

To give an example, in our Wilderlands campaign, the characters came upon the tower of Sulzannarg, an evil, high-level magic-user. They looked down on the marsh-covered plains, and the 300' tall metal spire rising from its centre. It was a total 'wow' moment for the players even in the absence of much context or explanation, because it was so strange and unusual. They gave the tower a respectful berth as went on their way.

I don't think the same encounter would have worked if similar megastructures were featured every game session. On the other hand, most of us play fantastic RPGs to experience larger-than-life events. So there are three levels of gonzo: not enough, just right, and too much.

Quote from: P&P;633540Gnomish amazons, riding kangaroos, throwing hand grenades at the shoggoths.

Hang on... Two out of those three are from Call of Cthulhu, not D&D!

Quote from: Piestrio;633545I have very pedestrian tastes when it comes to D&D.

So "Gonzo" is more often than not something that will unsell me on a product.

Give me Elves, Orcs, castles, scary forests, haunted moors, mad kings, etc...

I'm kinda the same way.

Gonzo for me is good.
Silly for me is bad.
There is a line between the too where awesome gonzo becomes dumb/silly. Its hard to define where that line sits until I see a game or work that goes across the line.


Example: Gamma World (4E) Gonzo and Good. Reclamation RPG steps over into silly with werewolves and vampire "classes." While Armageddon which has supernaturals does not.

One or two gonzo encounters in a medium dungeon is plenty. Enough to remember them, not enough to make them boring or expected.

Remember, D&D is incredibly gonzo right out of the box - we're all just used to it.  You've got pun monsters like sea lions, you've got man-eating furniture, you've got half-owl half-bears, you've got giant flying eyeballs with smaller eyeballs that shoot deathrays, you've got robot lobsters that you can drive around.  This is the default D&D universe.  It's completely ridiculous.

Anyhow, how I started my home ASE campaign was just in the ridiculously normal boring village of Chelmsfordshire, with standard equipment lists.  I didn't bother informing anybody of any of the background or gonzo elements, because who wants to hear a giant info dump anyways?  My players found out everything as they experienced it.  There was a certain amount of surprise when they first visited Denethix, and a bunch of effete young nobles drove by in a convertible to the Inn of Alabaster Surprise.

[edit - apologies for repeating myself, I see I made pretty much the same post in that "fallacy that modules suck" thread]