Making Comedic Choices
Unlocking Your Inner Chaos Monster
Lots of new stuff happening this week. There’s a trailer for the new season of My First Dungeon, new updates on Elliot Davis’s time-travel solo TTRPG, and even a new contributor to this very newsletter!
A big Twenty Sided Newsletter welcome to Shenuque Tissera!
Shenuque is a comedian, actor, and a founding member of Many Sided Media (the company that produces this newsletter, My First Dungeon, and The Twenty Sided Podcast). Shenuque will be writing periodic articles about actual play performance, comedy, and all the games they’ve got their eye on.
Making Comedic Choices
Five Tips for Chaos Monsters
There is always room for a good flimflam, shenanigan, or a little hanky panky when playing any TTRPG. If you’re unsure whether you're funny, I have good news! Everyone is funny and can learn how to make great comedic choices. Here are five helpful ways to make your comedic choices even better.
A classic improv staple, “Yes And.”
It might be a cliché, but in TTRPGs, this is the foundation for almost every joke. All this means is that when someone makes a choice (that doesn’t break the world completely), that choice is true, and we support it by adding details to it. “Yes And” gets to the core tenet that listening to your fellow players provides the opportunity for better jokes because it’s created and supported by everyone. This is the core of joke-telling, whether improv, stand-up, or sketch. Listen to the world around you; the comedy will be right there.
Know your characters’ wants and needs.
If you know what your character wants/needs, it makes it much easier to create funny moments for them by tempting them with their wants or denying them something they need. This isn’t about working against your character, but rather about interrogating the dilemma that arises when someone’s needs aren’t met. For GMs, follow the classic “Brian-ism.” Your players will say what they want but don’t want to be handed that thing. Players want to earn their wants, and in that journey lies much comedy.
For example, a player chooses to play a hermit that just wants to be left alone. Well, great, maybe that player’s party is fleeing from a heist, and you take cover in a tavern where a speed-dating event is happening. As a player, allowing your hermit character to go on speed dates while trying to hide from the authorities lets you explore how your anti-social character reacts to this incredibly social place with the stakes of not being caught for being a thief. Knowing that your character wants to be alone and exploring this denial of this character’s want gives you that space for comedy gold.
Not everything has to be funny immediately.
Sometimes you need to set up a joke for it to pay off in the long run. Don’t be discouraged by choices that don’t get a laugh immediately. It’s a choice that can have a massive payday in the future. There are no punchlines without a setup. The chickens can’t get to the other side until we ask why it crossed the road.
Swing!
If the opportunity for a choice presents itself, swing that bat as hard as you can, and trust that your fellow players and GM will support it. This doesn’t mean saying intentionally mean or insensitive things; instead, don’t hesitate to choose. Nothing undercuts a moment in a game more than everyone looking around the table and waiting for someone to decide. For example, if a GM asks what’s the catchphrase for the retired warrior who sits outside the tavern? And someone blurts, “Let's get yucky!” Well, now you have so much rich information about this retired warrior, they say things like “yucky.” They may be asking people to go into the tavern to drink the signature drink “yucky” with them or roll around in the mud outside the tavern. The choices are plentiful here, and it’s all because someone took a silly swing.
Be Specific.
Details are the building blocks of a good story, making them building blocks for good jokes. For instance, saying, “Oh yeah, remember that funny thing?” is not as fun as you saying, “Remember when we robbed that bank by accident because we thought it was a KFC?” This specific choice gives rich details to the characters while also leaving room for additions from other players to contribute to it. Details help everyone at the table envision what’s happening in your head and make it much easier for your fellow players to support and enrich your idea with the brilliance they have in their heads. There is no such thing as too many details!
Congratulations, you now have the tools to be a silly little chaos gremlin at your next session, making your GM not know how your character will act! Just like me! Stay tuned, and I’ll give you even more tips so you too can become a chaos monster!!!
-Shenuque
Project ECCO is Now a Full Book!
For new readers, Project ECCO is a game of time travel and cosmic horror. A solo journaling RPG that you play across the pages of a planner.
Written and Illustrated by Elliot Davis (me)
Guest Writing by Sam Leigh
Editing by Will Jobst
Layout by Brian Flaherty
OST by BE/HOLD
We crowdfunded the game in February and are now careening toward the finish line.
(If you want to learn more about my lessons from crowdfunding, check out “10 Tips From a Reluctant Marketer” and “A Lesson, an Observation, and a Surprise” in our Zine Month Issues.)
I’ll have much more to say about the learnings from seeing this project through the entire publication process in a future issue. For now, I’d love to share some of the highlights of our progress from the last few months.
EDITING
Will’s editing of this game brought many improvements, big and small, but ultimately, they helped give this game cohesion.
One note, in particular, had a profound, brain-rewiring effect on me as I implemented changes: “How can we reflect this cool detail in the rules?” It sounds specific—maybe even simple—but it became one of the north stars for many other changes I would make. That’s the power of a good editor.
LAYOUT
I underestimated how much layout helps convey the vibe, story, and even game mechanics. The right layout has the power to change how you read the text, how quickly you engage with the words, and how you feel as you flip to a page for the first time.
Here are a few spreads (by Brian) that I love:
THE BOOKMARK & THE PLANNER
The Character Sheet is finished and ready to become the bookmark it always dreamed of being.
The Project ECCO planner is in progress. There will be some extra goodies in there, but my main goal is for it to be the best tool for play that it can be (and a usable planner, maybe). With that, I’d love to hear what your planner “must-haves” are. Do you prefer lines or blank space? Do you like to have extra room for notes in the back? The front? Should Sat/Sun be split horizontally or vertically? Let me know!
WHAT’S LEFT?
The short answer? Fulfillment. The part I am most daunted by. Project ECCO is now shaping up to be an 80-page book which is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. Fortunately, I have two great partners in ratti incantati and Peregrine Coast Press. (For more on the remainder of the process, check out my latest update for the campaign).
Thank you to everyone here who supported the campaign. I am so proud to be close to delivering on the game we set out to make.
My First Dungeon Enters Good Society
Last Friday on our Discord server we revealed that for our next season of My First Dungeon we will be playing Good Society, a game about social ambition, family obligation, and breath-taking, heart-stopping longing.
We love making wild swings in tone and genre between seasons and thought a romantic romp through the Regency-era game would be a perfect follow-up to the emotional intensity of DIE.
We will be launching the trailer and revealing the all-star cast for the season on Friday June 16th. But maybe you can guess the players from their silhouettes…
Upcoming Schedule
6/16 - Good Society Trailer and Cast Reveal
6/23 - Good Society - Interview w/ Hayley Gordon (Good Society creator)
6/30 - Good Society Actual Play (Act 1)
7/7 - Good Society Actual Play (Act 2)
7/14 - Good Society Cast Talkback
In Other Media…
Both Brian and Shenuque were recently featured on the podcast Don’t Quit Your Day Job to talk about comedy, TTRPGs, and anything else they could think of.
You can listen to their interviews on Spotify or watch them on YouTube.