It's fun to play in games with lots of different tones, but which is your favorite? I know there's a lot of in-between and they're a little fuzzy, but I think this is the best balance. Note it's not about heroic fantasy vs sword and sorcery—either of those can exist in any of these categories—but about how light or dark the tone is.
I think in the end, absurd? So sorta Pure Comedy and Dark penetrating each other so much you can't tease them out.
I mean, I actually like games where as the DM, my reflection on the session or adventure parallels this (under spoiler because profanity):
Put your spoiler here.
Having a PC trying to flee the country, a PC and NPC needlessly dead, and another PC wanting to bargain for a CHR ASI and whole plot basically lost isn't that unusual. But we had fun.
And yes, as a DM, in my mind I'm reviewing the adventure from behind a desk while talking to myself as someone reporting in on all that had happened.
I like things fairly gritty myself, but it really depends on the group. Some groups can't consistently hit more serious notes than your Lighthearted category, and others like things too intense and serious for anything but Classic or Dark.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
It's a mixture of most of these themes, with the least common one used being a "Classic" D&D tone. It also depends on the setting we're playing in at the time. If we're playing in Exandria, it's somewhere between lighthearted and pure comedy. In Eberron, it's a mixture of lighthearted, dark, and classic tones. In the Forgotten Realms campaigns that we've done (Descent into Avernus, Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and Rime of the Frostmaiden), it's pretty much an equal mixture of all of the tones. If it's Spelljammer, it's basically all pure comedy, lighthearted, with a bit of dark tones in it.
I like variety in my campaigns. If I play one tone for too long, it grows old and we move on to something else. My favorite is probably lighthearted, but I mix the others in as I see fit.
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I know of a group that often swings across the spectrum, but they usually stay around the Lighthearted region. For them, it's difficult to go darker when one of the players is cursed to roll terribly whenever it actually counts. The DM is a mathematics major and keeps saying how unbelievably improbable that player's rolls are; usually while crying with laughter.
The DM obviously wants a darker tone, but the group is actors that are more known for comedy and even some slapstick; and worse, they were dragged into the adventures unwillingly by the extremely powerful nemesis of one of the adventurers during a political coup. When the group discovered that they were all wanted dead or alive by the Order, I believe the character's exact words were, "Kinda LOL that you guys got dragged into this." Yes. The player pronounced LOL as spelled.
I prefer my groups to toe the line of metagame-to-IRL comparisons without actually crossing over into metagaming, which leans more lighthearted than dark. We will ponder the rules of the world and how much sense they do/don't make to our characters in-game.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
My previous campaign was lighthearted. It had a bit of monty python levels of absurdity, but also some more LOTR style moments. I plan for the next one to run to be a more classic style like LOTR in terms of how dark I'm gonna go. I'm soon gonna play in a campaign with a dark theme which seems interesting.
It's fun to play in games with lots of different tones, but which is your favorite? I know there's a lot of in-between and they're a little fuzzy, but I think this is the best balance. Note it's not about heroic fantasy vs sword and sorcery—either of those can exist in any of these categories—but about how light or dark the tone is.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I think in the end, absurd? So sorta Pure Comedy and Dark penetrating each other so much you can't tease them out.
I mean, I actually like games where as the DM, my reflection on the session or adventure parallels this (under spoiler because profanity):
Put your spoiler here.
Having a PC trying to flee the country, a PC and NPC needlessly dead, and another PC wanting to bargain for a CHR ASI and whole plot basically lost isn't that unusual. But we had fun.
And yes, as a DM, in my mind I'm reviewing the adventure from behind a desk while talking to myself as someone reporting in on all that had happened.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I like things fairly gritty myself, but it really depends on the group. Some groups can't consistently hit more serious notes than your Lighthearted category, and others like things too intense and serious for anything but Classic or Dark.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
constantly switching between very light hearted and semi-dark with the occasional moment where this exist at the same time
like the time the barb fed their liver to give an enemy a deadly diesese
the diesese was in the kidney
Check out my homebrew subclasses spells magic items feats monsters races
i am a sauce priest
help create a world here
It's a mixture of most of these themes, with the least common one used being a "Classic" D&D tone. It also depends on the setting we're playing in at the time. If we're playing in Exandria, it's somewhere between lighthearted and pure comedy. In Eberron, it's a mixture of lighthearted, dark, and classic tones. In the Forgotten Realms campaigns that we've done (Descent into Avernus, Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and Rime of the Frostmaiden), it's pretty much an equal mixture of all of the tones. If it's Spelljammer, it's basically all pure comedy, lighthearted, with a bit of dark tones in it.
I like variety in my campaigns. If I play one tone for too long, it grows old and we move on to something else. My favorite is probably lighthearted, but I mix the others in as I see fit.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
My sweet spot is classical. I can go 1 notch either way but I don't like doing pure comedy. And my favorite is always going to be classical.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Classic.
It’s important to let the story breathe a bit...set it up for epic encounters, so everyone can find a heroic moment when they want to...
...but when they just want to be funny; classic let’s them poke fun at the fantasy tropes, too.
Perfectly balanced.
Funny, when I do Spelljammer adjacent stuff, the game gets dark.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I know of a group that often swings across the spectrum, but they usually stay around the Lighthearted region. For them, it's difficult to go darker when one of the players is cursed to roll terribly whenever it actually counts. The DM is a mathematics major and keeps saying how unbelievably improbable that player's rolls are; usually while crying with laughter.
The DM obviously wants a darker tone, but the group is actors that are more known for comedy and even some slapstick; and worse, they were dragged into the adventures unwillingly by the extremely powerful nemesis of one of the adventurers during a political coup. When the group discovered that they were all wanted dead or alive by the Order, I believe the character's exact words were, "Kinda LOL that you guys got dragged into this." Yes. The player pronounced LOL as spelled.
I prefer my groups to toe the line of metagame-to-IRL comparisons without actually crossing over into metagaming, which leans more lighthearted than dark. We will ponder the rules of the world and how much sense they do/don't make to our characters in-game.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
My previous campaign was lighthearted. It had a bit of monty python levels of absurdity, but also some more LOTR style moments. I plan for the next one to run to be a more classic style like LOTR in terms of how dark I'm gonna go. I'm soon gonna play in a campaign with a dark theme which seems interesting.