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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: bibliophile20 on February 09, 2011, 04:24:13 PM
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When I'm in the gamemaster mode, half of what I do is rules adjudication, half is improv theater, and a quarter is stand up comedy. Part of this is my own persona--I'm an incorrigible punster--and part of this is me trying to be faithful to the feel of the books, given Harry's sense of humor. However, no offense to my group, but they're not used to trying to throw off bon motts and assorted one liners, leaving me to pick up some of the slack (which I do--with gusto). But the feel of the world feels somewhat off without the occasional outbreak of witty banter.
This got me thinking: Dresden himself is an Epic Wiseass (says so right on his sheet), and that humor greatly colors the novels. But that's a character trait, not necessarily a setting trait.
So... the point of this is as such: who has games with wiseasses and who doesn't? And for those of us whose groups are a little more serious, does it affect the feel of the world tremendously?
And, on a side note, I will occasionally throw in bits of humor to see if anyone notices. The WCV compound they infiltrated last scenario had a bunch of fun "No Trespassing" signs; personal favorite being "Trespassers Will Be Violated"; nobody noticed that one. Anyone got any good bits of wit they'd like to share?
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We had a psychotic scion of Ares in our party of Lawful Good types who when the rest of the party were having a circular conversation with a member of the Knights Templar (telling the party they could do nothing as she was protected by the accords) snuck up behind her and knocked her out muttering the line “boring conversation anyway”.
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half of what I do is rules adjudication, half is improv theater, and a quarter is stand up comedy
Man, you must be an awesome GM giving 125% for your games!
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Man, you must be an awesome GM giving 125% for your games!
Trust me, most weeks, it feels like it! :D Not that I don't love every minute of it, but somehow our four-hour sessions have turned into six- and eight-hour sessions!
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I prefer a dry dark wit personally, most of my dresden games are from the perspective of what would be a villain in any other game so my accounting is bound to be abnormal.
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“boring conversation anyway”.
Win.
I'm only in my first full PbP right now (first one fell through in a day and a half), but we're not very witty. I'm playing a middle-aged Terramancer, so he's not big on humor necessarily. When some more dialogue comes in I'm planning to sneak dry humor in (he wouldn't be punny). References are a must (especially obscure ones, this guy was in his teens in the 70s).
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While I don't have a record of it, my game is set in high school and a few of my players are Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, so I ended up with a group that's very Genre Savvy (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenreSavvy)* as well as trading a lot of snarky banter.
* Every new student is automatically suspected to be supernatural of some sort, doubly so if she's a girl and the horndog of the group likes her. they even have a formula for it.
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I have one player that is a scholar/mage/historian that was trapped in the nevernever for quite a long time, so he appears in his late 20's but was born in victorian times. Conversation with the martial artist about fighting, and he says something along the lines of "I was taught to fight" in this lovely semi-pompous way, and the PC actually stands up into this steryotypical high-class, fists-up-in-a-totally-unworkable-way and says "I was trained as a pugilist" (the character has no combat skills so it would default to 0) cracked everyone up.
Dian
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I have one player that is a scholar/mage/historian that was trapped in the nevernever for quite a long time, so he appears in his late 20's but was born in victorian times. Conversation with the martial artist about fighting, and he says something along the lines of "I was taught to fight" in this lovely semi-pompous way, and the PC actually stands up into this steryotypical high-class, fists-up-in-a-totally-unworkable-way and says "I was trained as a pugilist" (the character has no combat skills so it would default to 0) cracked everyone up.
Dian
Nice.
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I have one player that is a scholar/mage/historian that was trapped in the nevernever for quite a long time, so he appears in his late 20's but was born in victorian times. Conversation with the martial artist about fighting, and he says something along the lines of "I was taught to fight" in this lovely semi-pompous way, and the PC actually stands up into this steryotypical high-class, fists-up-in-a-totally-unworkable-way and says "I was trained as a pugilist" (the character has no combat skills so it would default to 0) cracked everyone up.
Dian
Hmm, I think that perhaps only works since Europe lost a lot of their hand-to-hand and related martial traditions with the advent of guns (though I wonder if anyone on here knows much about how that sort of thing was going in Victorian times). The Far East didn't have that issue so much, since guns came in with foreigners relatively recently and related issues.
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Hmm, I think that perhaps only works since Europe lost a lot of their hand-to-hand and related martial traditions with the advent of guns (though I wonder if anyone on here knows much about how that sort of thing was going in Victorian times). The Far East didn't have that issue so much, since guns came in with foreigners relatively recently and related issues.
About the only unarmed-martial-arts kind of thing that made it through that period and survived to our times is la savate, and even that is barely still present.
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About the only unarmed-martial-arts kind of thing that made it through that period and survived to our times is la savate, and even that is barely still present.
...The Marquess of Queensberry rolls in his grave, weeping.
In addition, while also barely present, Bartitsu has also survived from the Victorian era, though mostly dormant in the 20th century, the style exists, having found an upswing this past decade.
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...since Europe lost a lot of their hand-to-hand and related martial traditions...
Err, what? Wrestling has been around for a long time. Boxing is another, though it has degenerated over the last hundred years or so. However there are option beyond the obvious ones. Irish stick fighting. A variety of folk wrestling styles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokh_%28wrestling%29). Even the quarterstaff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarterstaff#History) made it through to the 19th and 20th centuries.
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Err, what? Wrestling has been around for a long time. Boxing is another, though it has degenerated over the last hundred years or so. However there are option beyond the obvious ones. Irish stick fighting. A variety of folk wrestling styles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokh_%28wrestling%29). Even the quarterstaff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarterstaff#History) made it through to the 19th and 20th centuries.
Yes, but there were martial arts that Knights and such were trained in. Heck, we don't even have very good records overall of the fighting styles with swords and other weapons. A LOT was lost even if some survives, especially compared to the Far East as best I understand it.
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One of the PC in a game I was in subverted a tradition scenario; the villain had been defeated after causing much death and destruction and when brought to a final showdown the villain was willing to submit to the party in exchange for his life. So the Villain was holding up his hands with the tradition put me in irons gesturer and the PC marches on him menacingly, the villain says "you can't kill a man in cold blood" to which the PC replies "I am sorry I failed my course on applied ethics" and cut the villain down.
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In addition, while also barely present, Bartitsu has also survived from the Victorian era, though mostly dormant in the 20th century, the style exists, having found an upswing this past decade.
Bartitsu didn't "Survive" the Victorian era, it was invented in the early 1900s.
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Yes, but there were martial arts that Knights and such were trained in. Heck, we don't even have very good records overall of the fighting styles with swords and other weapons. A LOT was lost even if some survives, especially compared to the Far East as best I understand it.
There are manuals from German and Italian sword-fighting schools (actual combat not fencing) that have survived and have been reprinted, they have very good pictures of the manuevers and some text (none of it originally in English although there are some that have translations of the text as well). Unfortunately while there are now groups, mainly in Europe, that are dedicated to the relearning of these techniques we don't have a direct line of heritage so most of what is happening is studying the pictures and filling in the blanks with what we know of martial arts and body mechanics. Essentially we are using the wisdom of the old masters to create new systems that are like the old ones.
German school: http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm (http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm)
Italian school: http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Liberi.htm (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Liberi.htm)
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There are manuals from German and Italian sword-fighting schools (actual combat not fencing) that have survived and have been reprinted, they have very good pictures of the manuevers and some text (none of it originally in English although there are some that have translations of the text as well). Unfortunately while there are now groups, mainly in Europe, that are dedicated to the relearning of these techniques we don't have a direct line of heritage so most of what is happening is studying the pictures and filling in the blanks with what we know of martial arts and body mechanics. Essentially we are using the wisdom of the old masters to create new systems that are like the old ones.
German school: http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm (http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm)
Italian school: http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Liberi.htm (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Liberi.htm)
We have bits and pieces and some groups are trying to put them back together. A TON has been lost.
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Bartitsu didn't "Survive" the Victorian era, it was invented in the early 1900s.
Technically, I believe it was originally formalised in 1898. Hence, at the very end of the Victorian era (1837-1901).
Granted, the style is an odd mix of boxing, jujutsu, savate and Vigny stick fighting...
Oh, man, it was the original MMA style... O.o
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...The Marquess of Queensberry rolls in his grave, weeping.
In addition, while also barely present, Bartitsu has also survived from the Victorian era, though mostly dormant in the 20th century, the style exists, having found an upswing this past decade.
Marquis-of-Queensbury-style "martial arts" are largely highly-codified, polite-society fisticuffs; I wouldn't class them as an effective, all-around martial art.
Bartitsu? No offense, but I've never heard of it. Can't really call that "surviving" and definitely not "flourishing".
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Marquis-of-Queensbury-style "martial arts" are largely highly-codified, polite-society fisticuffs; I wouldn't class them as an effective, all-around martial art.
Agreed; I just remember the dead-on parody of them that Sir Pratchett did in Discworld, with the Marquis of Fantailler rules. "Inventor of a list of rules on the manly art of pugilism, involved chest out-thrust and fist balled in a spirit of manly aggression, as well as places were you are not allowed to hit an opponent.
The rules are not much use against an opponent who does not abide by the rules, for example using a chair to batter the user of the rules senseless. The last words of many a fighter are "Stuff the bloody Marquis of Fantailler..."." ;D
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Marquis-of-Queensbury-style "martial arts" are largely highly-codified, polite-society fisticuffs; I wouldn't class them as an effective, all-around martial art.
Bartitsu? No offense, but I've never heard of it. Can't really call that "surviving" and definitely not "flourishing".
No offense taken, though I don't recall claiming Bartitsu was ever "flourishing". Surviving, yes, even reviving, but it's definitely a niche martial art.
Actually, Sherlock Holmes was supposed to be quite adept at the style, fictional though he may have been. (Though Sir Arthur did make an error in referring to it as "Baritsu"...)
On another note, is it a necessity for a style that you must have heard of it for it to be counted as "surviving"? ;)
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It would sort of be required for at least a large segment of society to be aware of it, wouldn't it? Perhaps not me personally, of course, but since I'm reasonably well-read and have never seen it even mentioned (an odd word like that will almost always catch my attention), I think it's a safe conclusion. La savate I've seen mentioned and even talked about (and you see a fair amount of it in martial-arts movies of our time), but not bartitsu. To use a natural-world approximation, while it may not be extinct, it's at least on the verge thereof, while la savate, although endangered, is a bit more present - la savate still has a sizeable number of practicioners in Europe, along with scattered pockets elsewhere, whereas bartitsu is pretty much at the scattered-pockets level everywhere.
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It would sort of be required for at least a large segment of society to be aware of it, wouldn't it? Perhaps not me personally, of course, but since I'm reasonably well-read and have never seen it even mentioned (an odd word like that will almost always catch my attention), I think it's a safe conclusion. La savate I've seen mentioned and even talked about (and you see a fair amount of it in martial-arts movies of our time), but not bartitsu. To use a natural-world approximation, while it may not be extinct, it's at least on the verge thereof, while la savate, although endangered, is a bit more present - la savate still has a sizeable number of practicioners in Europe, along with scattered pockets elsewhere, whereas bartitsu is pretty much at the scattered-pockets level everywhere.
A fair enough assessment.
On a peripheral note, should you ever come to Bergen, Norway, I should recommend you look up a group called Kongshirden. They're doing a decent job of reviving the combat styles of the 13th century or thereabouts - swords, shields, axes, that sort... They put up some good shows from time to time.
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So... the point of this is as such: who has games with wiseasses and who doesn't? And for those of us whose groups are a little more serious, does it affect the feel of the world tremendously?
In our game, I don't think it's so much "wise ass" as "genre savvy". For example, when its time for my "true kung fu" character (who can call up various abilities as martial arts styles, via a special implementation of Mutable Power) to make a fists roll, I try to always call out some cinematic / anime style kung fu manuever name. Last night I jumped on some red court vamp, wrapped my legs around his arms, and started pounding his head; that was "Monkey Eating Watermelon" (I was using Monkey Style, which given the setups I took, seems the most powerful style I have). When he tried to hit me with a free arm, I blocked with "ducks around tree defense". Eventually he got thrown flat (by the magicians spell, aimed to place an aspect) and I pulled out a vial of holy water to use as like brass knuckles- landing the "Tears of Father Damion Falcon Punch" for a whopping net 9 stress. (I figure if my character is made mostly to fight, I'd damn well better put on a good show when doing so.)
Of course, there's always the obligatory "I really don't want to be doing this" type statements - made as you are obviously fully intending to do whatever it is will bring trouble (and heroism, and fate points) on your head.
(Note- this Martial Artist is the same one Dian's Victorian scholar was talking to. So yeah, hopefully the mage and I can riff a bit- sadly, my inept comments about magic is not nearly as amusing. It seems my little knowledge is enough to be dangerous, but not quite enough to be funny.)
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A fair enough assessment.
On a peripheral note, should you ever come to Bergen, Norway, I should recommend you look up a group called Kongshirden. They're doing a decent job of reviving the combat styles of the 13th century or thereabouts - swords, shields, axes, that sort... They put up some good shows from time to time.
Ooh, neat. Anything on YouTube or something?
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Ooh, neat. Anything on YouTube or something?
Sure is. Just search for "kongshirden" - they'll be right there at the top.
Mind, it IS YouTube quality...
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So one of my players had a character who was drunk from spiked punch. Her Master woke her up bright and early in the morning in a hearty German speaking voice (shout) and said, "It's time for you to learn some sonomancy!" and accompanied it with a magically enhanced BOOM of his staff on the floor.
My players of course all heard SODOmancy and various anal sex jokes pervaded the game for the rest of the night.
That's about the level of witticism that my group gets up to. XD
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So one of my players had a character who was drunk from spiked punch. Her Master woke her up bright and early in the morning in a hearty German speaking voice (shout) and said, "It's time for you to learn some sonomancy!" and accompanied it with a magically enhanced BOOM of his staff on the floor.
My players of course all heard SODOmancy and various anal sex jokes pervaded the game for the rest of the night.
That's about the level of witticism that my group gets up to. XD
Poor player... Butt of everyone's jokes like that. :)
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Poor player... Butt of everyone's jokes like that. :)
Don't worry for the player. The laughers will eventually get what's coming to them in the end.
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Don't worry for the player. The laughers will eventually get what's coming to them in the end.
I see what you did there! ;)
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I see what you did there! ;)
They: Should: Be: Careful: With: Such: Potent: Magic: Misuse: Might: Make: Them: Start: Talking: Like: This:
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They: Should: Be: Careful: With: Such: Potent: Magic: Misuse: Might: Make: Them: Start: Talking: Like: This:
Colon overload error! Please replace!
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Colon overload error! Please replace!
Seriously?
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Colon overload error!
AAAHahahah!!! :D
Yes, more dirty jokes pls!!
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Yes, but there were martial arts that Knights and such were trained in. Heck, we don't even have very good records overall of the fighting styles with swords and other weapons. A LOT was lost even if some survives, especially compared to the Far East as best I understand it.
That's because the laws about peasants not owning weapons lingered far longer in the East than the West. The reason that many martial arts weapons resemble farming instruments is that peasants carrying weapons were killed on sight, but they still needed to defend themselves from bandits.
Of course weapon laws and bandits weren't the only reason the martial arts lingered there. There was the whole "ban firearms because they undermine the noble swordsman" mentality when came to warfare.
Richard
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That's because the laws about peasants not owning weapons lingered far longer in the East than the West. The reason that many martial arts weapons resemble farming instruments is that peasants carrying weapons were killed on sight, but they still needed to defend themselves from bandits.
Swords have plenty of martial arts associated with them, as do most other "real" weapons. The fact that firearms supplanted things so thoroughly in the west is why the martial arts associated with knights and the like have only left behind fragments. Note that the east still kept a lot of their stuff regarding the use of swords and other weapons of war. By the time more modern weapons came to them, it was already very close to the modern era and most of those martial arts were able to make a transition to hobbies and cultural curiosities that didn't happen in the west. I would wager this probably has to do a lot with how much leisure time we have these days, the ease of travel, and the spread of information. A few hundred years ago there just wasn't the time and infrastructure to support martial arts continuing as hobbies very well...so most of the western ones vanished.
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Swords have plenty of martial arts associated with them, as do most other "real" weapons. The fact that firearms supplanted things so thoroughly in the west is why the martial arts associated with knights and the like have only left behind fragments. Note that the east still kept a lot of their stuff regarding the use of swords and other weapons of war. By the time more modern weapons came to them, it was already very close to the modern era and most of those martial arts were able to make a transition to hobbies and cultural curiosities that didn't happen in the west. I would wager this probably has to do a lot with how much leisure time we have these days, the ease of travel, and the spread of information. A few hundred years ago there just wasn't the time and infrastructure to support martial arts continuing as hobbies very well...so most of the western ones vanished.
A curious factoid springs to mind... In this world, there were people who were born in a feudal medieval society, who ended up killed by an atomic bomb...
Ah, isolationist empires.
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A curious factoid springs to mind... In this world, there were people who were born in a feudal medieval society, who ended up killed by an atomic bomb...
Ah, isolationist empires.
Hmm, and in the Dresdenverse, there are probably many martials arts that DID survive in the west among Wardens.
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A Mercenary team for the Coperation of London were given the task of babysitting a Denarian, the Denarian then asked what was worth watching at the West End to which one of the Merc replied "Wicked I think would suit your personality".
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My group has a bizzare and very personal sense of humor.
My Lycanthrope player DM's a Serenity campaign so over the top I couldn't resist giving him a weapon 2 magic knife of relative uselessness as satire of his own campaign. This character is also hilariously reckless at at times.(He owes a white court vamp several favors for bailing him out after he got arrested and then proceeded to bash the door off of the cop car and get run over by the next cop car in the line.
My GF's character is both an emmisary of Puck and based off of Luna Lovegood. She has a bit of a sugar obsession(more than a bit) and is more than a little cracked which leads to quite a bit of humor.
Our group NPC is a former WOD character of mine that is old, grumpy, loves whores, and is more than a little racist. He is also the parties Bob(Used his death curse to lock his ghost into a Red Court Vampire skull after wiping out all the reds in the Twin Cities)
The Changelings Mom was last seen as Santa's consort and is in general known to be rather promiscuous(which for the fae probably doesn't mean much, but bothers the character immensely.)
There are also a variety of uncomfortable allegations about the werewolf dog trainer and her dogs...
Lastly there is the idea that while The Erlking represents the Hunt(natural selection), Puck represents natural anomalies and useless growth. His symbol is the Platypus. I have them as a natural Law vs Chaos axis.
My style of humor runs far closer to Harry's than any of the players, but I'm the GM I run the game, so it doesn't show as much.
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Mmm, the Changeling Prosecutor I play sports a disturbingly deadpan absurd kind of humor... A lobbyist asked for support, and received a bookend... Another politician wanted to add my prosecutor's voice to his cause, and was granted it... leading to awkward situations when my prosecutor's "Inhuman Voice" aspect started to affect him... Also, he knows nothing about his mother, save she is an Unseelie Noble. He knows that Grimalkin is, for all purposes, an Unseelie Noble. He prefers not to think too much about that...