RPG A Day 17: Funniest Game You've Played

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Day 17 Question - Funniest Game You’ve Played

One-shot, probably the Secret Society Of Supervillains.

Consistently funny per session, TOON. Also a key game in my GMing development.

Funniest among other things... well, that really has to be Buffy The Vampire Slayer and specifically The Watch House.

As SteveD who was inadvertently responsible for TWH’s concept has previously noted, one of the great game-friendly things about Buffy is that it takes the genre-savvy snark players will be doing around the table and lets it go in-character.

Another element of TWH in particular is that the players went all in for it as well. Some of the funniest sessions and episodes came from their ideas and plot hooks, either on the night or pitched in advance. The super-awkward body swap was suggested by the players involved a few weeks in advance. The invasion by the revived Milli’s home dimension was another player’s idea. That time we made Henry Cavill a superhero five years before DC did was the result of the players on the night getting an idea and running with it wildly. Going behind the scenes of the TV series was me ripping off Eerie Indiana, but the players playing each other rather than themselves was totally their idea.

The No Permanent Damage rule that was in place was also a factor. Being kidnapped or body-swapped or split into two beings or flung into a nightmarish future would all be more-or-less okay in the end. This led to the players conspiring to get their characters into trouble in a way that a game with permanent stakes generally doesn’t. This counted for drama as well (hence the Memorable Character Deaths) but especially for comedy. Like TOON, where it’s no big deal if you walk off a cliff, it provided a safe space to mess around and show off.

And it had a long time to develop running gags and motifs. The phrase “pig bit?” has a special place in my heart.