So I am currently in the midst of a Hell's Rebels game that has a lot of focus on the very gritty aspects that can be brought to bare in Pathfinder
The atmosphere is quite oppressive due to tyrants and rebellions etc.
One of my players (and I have limited people interested in playing in any games) normally makes silly (or sometimes even downright stupid) characters with weird backstories. Exception being in this current Hell's Rebels AP
They have recently said they don't really want to play a "serious character ever again".
Now next AP on the slate if we decide to go that way is very much intended to be Rise
I am currently struggling to see how that can be made less gritty and more light hearted and humorous.
There are some very dark themes what with the Lamashtu stuff, family members killing each other, ritualistic serial killers, deliverance ogres etc.
Is an attempt to play a lighter version a non-starter?
Note I am not interested in seriously changing the content just wondering if there are ways of changing the delivery or other things that can be added or emphasised to alter the overall tone...
I think it's possible. In Book 1 you won't need to change that much. Just pretend every NPC and enemy is a Looney Tunes or Tom&Jerry character. Especially the goblins would fit in any cartoon, if you change 'slashing open dogs, horses and humans' to some slapstick variant (banging people's heads against each other or hitting them with pans or something).
If Ameiko's father is angry, just think about angry cartoon characters with steam coming out of their ears. And Lamashtu is just the source of evil bosses who want revenge.
For book 2 you could maybe replace ghouls with zombies, they are more light-hearted in my opinion. And you can make a lot of jokes about brains. Or else, vampires maybe?
I haven't thoroughly read book 3 but I think the ogrekin don't need to be ogrekin. You could maybe replace them with some dumb and poor human family, there are plenty of bad TV shows that showcase that. Or keep them as ogrekin but leave out the gritty details, making them regular dumb meatheads.
Obviously you don't need to go this cartoony, but it might be good practice to go to the extreme and then take a step back towards regular Pathfinder again just so you know how to slide the scale between gritty and light-hearted.
|
Lighthearted Pathfinder APs... huh. That's difficult.
I'll ditto a lot of what Lawrencelot has said here - lean into the goblin shenanigans in Book 1, and swap out monsters that are inherently awful to deal with with something a bit easier to engage with.
Aldern -> Dread Zombie. Make Iesha into a zombie or similar undead as well, and make them a sort of showy murder couple in a haunted mansion. Turn the haunts from disturbing memories to jumpscare style nonsense.
Make villains' sins more exaggerated so they stop feeling like realistic excesses. Xanesha's a glutton eating those she charms, Nualia is just REALLY pissed off, etc.
Also include more puns. Especially from Justice Ironbriar. He makes a lot of murder puns but it looks like that's because he's a criminal prosecutor. Also maybe make him a vampire.
Ogrekin -> Trolls? Make 'em a bit like The Hobbit's trolls.
Book 3 is... tough. I'd say that Lucretia got rid of the Black Arrows in a less gruesome, more clever way, like somehow getting them stuck in the First World. I'd also just play up Lucretia as a character, as she can do a LOT for the comedy of the campaign. Playing up how much better she thinks she is than the other villains is especially fun.
Make Mokmurian more of a loser. That doesn't totally make things lighthearted, but it makes it easier to turn his allies against him and less sad when he dies.
I... find it hard to turn a story about one's sins corrupting them into something lighthearted, regardless of how funny it is. I run my games quite comedically (I like to think), but there always comes a point where it's not funny anymore. Each book has had a moment where reality hit... so I guess my instinct here is just not to lean into those moments.
Nualia's backstory will need reworking to keep things light.
The history of the Misgivings will need to be less... like that.
The Heart of Sadness chapter just can't exist. It's titled appropriately. Lucretia got rid of Lamatar some other way, period.
Mokmurian's campaign must be transparently illegitimate imo.
That's.. the main stuff coming to mind.
By the way, maybe we can all add comedic things that we've already added to the campaign?
-I thought it was funny that basically every villain had a diary, so I exaggerated that part. I even thought about giving Gogmurt the goblin druid a diary, but in the end it was just a note with Ripnugget's name written on it (to steal his soul).
-Orik the mercenary literally lost his balls in my campaign after being captured by another goblin tribe after being released by the party. It was meant to be gruesome but the party imagined him as being changed from a gruff mercenary to a whiny scaredycat so I went with it. He was brought to Habe's sanatorium and then back to Sandpoint after Habe turned out to be... different than expected.
-The skinsaw cultists were called Carrot Men by the party because I made my own orange figurines out of clay and they were a bit too bright orange. Would be hilarious if you changed their clothes to an actual carrot suit.
You may also want to check out the various Blackadder TV series starring Rowan Atkinson. That show had a knack for combining broad humor with occasional grim situations and endings.
Wouldn't it be great if you could end your campaign with a TPK that has your players rolling on the floor laughing?
|
If you want something light hearted and humorous you might have to look for something else.
- Have you played the We be Goblins adventures? That might just be what your players want. Let them create their own goblins and run all the adventures for them. It will keep you busy for a time.
- Apparatus of the Brachemoth is also a funny adventure, though it's just a 2 page adventure. You might need to rework some things to fit your taste and to expand the adventure, but the plot is okay.
- Find a funhouse dungeon, or make your own.
- A funny idea for an adventure I had is Gnome Liberation Force. A Medusa has put a bounty on all the gnomes. The gnome PCs have to liberate their captured and petrified friends and stop the Medusa.