Running jokes in your campaign

[Lucius]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Yeap,

 

And it wasn't all that suprising to me, I've seen the poster of Hokusai's The Dream Of The Fisherman's Wife she has on her bedroom wall.

 

Doesn't surprise me either, given that she's yours.

 

LA

p

[McCoy]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

One time players called Dr. Strange, and were put on hold. "It's kind of interesting. You've never before heard a Gregorian Chant arrangement of Muskrat Love."

 

From that day forward, hold music on phones, musiac on the elevator, over the PA system in the mall, always Muskrat Love.

[Pariah]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

In my current "save the world from extradimensional reptilian invaders" campaign, one of the characters is Bobby Dare. He's a corporate-sponsored thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie. He surfs, skydives, free climbs, BASE jumps, races cars, skis in avalanche country...you get the idea. Think of a combination of (insert name of extreme sports star here) on amphetamines and Captain Amazing (with his corporate logo uniform) from Mystery Men, and that gives you some idea.

 

Oh, and Bobby Dare is an illeist. Anytime he talks about himself--which is practically ALL the time--he refers to himself by name. And there's always a dramatic pause before he names himself. So when facing off with an enemy for the first time, it's pretty much a given that he'll taunt them with something like, "You're about to get your butt kicked by.....Bobby Dare!"

 

It's gotten to the point now where the rest of the team is doing it, too. Only they do it to taunt him. "Whoa, Grandma Miyagi just clocked.....Bobby Dare!"

 

The other running joke in the campaign also involves Bobby Dare. The campaign takes the heroes all over the world, with this secret society providing planes, cars, and so on for transport. Bobby Dare has Transport Familiarities for pretty much any vehicle short of the Space Shuttle. If it's mass produced, he can fly/drive/pilot it. But he never gets to. Wherever they have to go, Bobby Dare always offers to drive, and knowing his penchant for extreme stunts, nobody will let him.

 

(He takes this in stride, though. After the head of the secret society told him he couldn't pilot their private jet, he decided to go wing-walking instead.)

[BcAugust]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Both a running joke and a neat idea I've considered ripping off...

 

At the beginning of new campaigns, a GM I played with a couple of years ago would sometimes ask the players of female PCs if they'd signed their "DID (Damsel In Distress) Release Form." It was explained that if they said yes, then they were giving him permission to put their character in at least one of of a number classic damsel in distress situation at some time during the campaign. He once even went so far as to create the actual form in Quark Xpress. My current GF was one of the rare female players to check the box giving consent for an encounter with an ATB.*

 

 

 

*ATB= Amorous Tentacled Being

 

Heh, do you have a copy of that form? It sounds useful.

[Susano]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Heh' date=' do you have a copy of that form? It sounds useful.[/quote']

 

I'd like one as well.

[zornwil]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

One time players called Dr. Strange' date=' and were put on hold. "It's kind of interesting. You've never before heard a Gregorian Chant arrangement of [i']Muskrat Love.[/i]"

 

From that day forward, hold music on phones, musiac on the elevator, over the PA system in the mall, always Muskrat Love.

I really, really like this!

 

I'm probably going to steal an element of that, though our Dr. Strange just got killed...

 

As an aside, there's a running gag for one the PCs, he runs a 900 service for most to call him at, and has different business cards, the more expensive 900 number for those he doesn't care so much to hear from, a cheaper line for those he DOES want to hear from, and a no-charge line which is shared only in the rarest circumstances.

 

And he's one of the super-INT types, so the 900 number is designed with hold music specially appealing to people so they want to hang on, and the 900 number menu system and hold system is geared to maximize so that one hangs on as long as possible and pays the highest charge before they would likely hang up or get through.

[transmetahuman]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

And he's one of the super-INT types' date=' so the 900 number is designed with hold music specially appealing to people so they want to hang on, and the 900 number menu system and hold system is geared to maximize so that one hangs on as long as possible and pays the highest charge before they would likely hang up or get through.[/quote']

So, it's a villain campaign?

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Due to an 18 roll, all of the C's in a game fear being around boy-scouts and little old women with umbrellia's. I had my try to jusp over this group of scouts and well he rolled 18, landed almost on top of said little old lady. She then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of my C. He wasn't hurt but he was/is a Batman type. The embarsement was and isafter 20+ years good for a laugh.

[st barbara]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Well in my "Adventurers' Club" pulp campaign I am developing a running joke about one of the NPCs who has "Weirdness Magnet" as a disadvantage IN SPADES ! She can't actually go into the club library because the books, card files etc start leaping about all over the place when she does. It doesn't actually effect the game (and the library is currently closed, which is a plot thread yet to be exploited) but it is a little ploy to keep th PC's guessing about the NPC's.

[Korvar]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

In the Deadlands campaign I was in during the Old Times, a couple of interesting rolls from a few NPCs led to the running joke that everyone from Britain was a deadly boxer, with Fists Of Death.

 

That was the campaign that led to the term "cactus", for when players not currently involved would try and interject themselves into the action.

 

Involved player: "Hm. Which way should we go, left or right?"

Uninvolved player: "Go left!"

GM: "You're not there. Who's supposed to have said that? A nearby cactus?"

[CandidGamera]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

My current D&D game has three PCs - all multiclass, all part warrior - and an NPC Cleric. The Cleric has shown an amusing tendency to inspire critical hits with my dice - much to the warriors' chagrin. It hasn't quite elevated to a running gag, yet, but I'm sure they'll dub him the deadliest Cleric alive in due time.

 

One of the PCs has a fondness for javelins, as a ranged weapon of choice, and the other two players often mock him for playing with his little sticks.

 

-------------

 

I remembered one from a Pulp game I ran - GURPS Supers. The PCs had a 'criminal' contact named Eddie. Or, I should say, an "allegedly" criminal contact. Eddie was inordinately fond of that word, and would tack it on to almost anything he'd say.

 

"I heard they were moving the stuff tonight .. allegedly." We had great fun with Eddie.

 

Eddie was, in turn, loosely based on a D&D PC from a Planescape campaign I once ran - a tiefling with ratlike features, based on, in further turn, a character from one of the Shining Force games.

 

The New York-type accent I mustered for both of them was about the same, but Slade (the tiefling) had a different catchphrase. "Not too shabby."

 

---------------------------

 

Now one from a campaign wherein I am a player. I think I've talked about my swashbuckler, Victor, before. Fantasy world - he's both a swashbuckler and a magic user, and really quite brilliant. But he plays the stupid fop role very well.

 

His fiery aura spells that buff his attack and defense got him nicknamed "superfop" by analogy with "super saiyan".

 

The most amusing recurring element is his poorly-kept secret identity. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, Victor fights evil as 'The Crimson Mask'. To change into the Crimson Mask form his normal appearance, he ties a scarf with eyeholes in it around his head.

 

This fools no one.

 

The purpose of the dual identity, though, is to keep his father from discovering that he's off indulging in swordplay rather than studying magic as he should be. And for that, it works. (Since all the action reports use the name 'the Crimson Mask'.)

 

This does not stop him from talking about the Crimson Mask in the third person, when he isn't wearing the mask, though.

 

(Victor) "Hmm, if only the Crimson Mask were here to help.. perhaps we can find a way to contact him."

(NPC, nonplussed) "Uhhh..yeah, I bet you can do that."

[Lucius]

Re: Running gags in your campaign

 

Heh' date=' do you have a copy of that form? It sounds useful.[/quote']

 

I'd like one as well.

 

Me three

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary thinks multiform sounds like a power for a super bureaucrat…

[Kenn]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

In one game I was running back... 1990 or so, the PCs were boarding a rocket to fly to the satellite where the bad guy was. Someone asked "How long will it take to get there."

 

By brother quipped, "Just maintain a conversation the whole trip, and it'll take no time at all. Talking takes no time."

 

Poking fun at the basic version of the rule that allows for monologuing. The comment is oft-repeated.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

The running gag for the last Traveller campaign I ran featured three old men who seemed to be everywhere the characters went. Problem was, each and every time the characters were about to get into trouble, the three old men would be noticed playing cards or talking or something in a secluded corner somewhere in the vicinity. One time, the group saw the elderly trio boarding a starship they intended to travel on, and they intentionally avoided boarding it! It was ripped whole cloth from Cowboy Bebop, but nobody in the group ever caught on...

 

Matt "My-head's-in-jumpspace" Frisbee

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

There's this "super villian" in our campaign called "Doc Savate". he's just a guy who knows savate. Everytime he's beaten he gets some device to try and compensate. The first time he showed up he was defeated by a blow to the solar plexus so he started wearinfg a padded vest. The next time it was a punch to the jaw so he got a "super shock absorbing chin guard". the next time his blows were ineffective so he got steel reinforced boots. Etc.

[input.jack]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

The only examples from my games that come to mind immediately are "Captain Adventure" and "Weapons and Sh*t".

 

"Captain Adventure" is a recurring NPC in my HERO campaign. He is an athletic, courageous person who decided to put on a costume and fight crime. Unfortunately for him, he really has no "schtick" other than a LOT of Body.

 

Captain Adventure is often encountered face-down on the pavement when the PCs arrive, splayed out where he was clocked by the Bad Guys. Hes built on half the points of the PC heroes, and is often the butt of derisive jokes.

 

...Or he was, until one of the PCs, a flying plasma projector named Starfire, basically game a short speech to the rest of his team explaining how he ADMIRED Captain Adventure. You see, he said, Captain Adventure -always- kept trying. He had been defeated again and again and again, but his drive to help protect people from criminals was so strong that he never gave up.

 

It was really cool, seeing the other PCs (and their Players) look at Captain Adventure in a whole new light, and honestly, it totally changed how the characters perceived the Captain. Now, rather than make jokes or leave him face-down on the sidewalk, the PCs actually -talk- to him, and have discovered that while he isnt up to their par in a combat, he is an -excellent- source of information about street-level goings on.

 

"Weapons and Sh*t" is a retail outlet of "previously owned weapons, armor, and adventuring gear" in one of my old fantasy games, run by a susprisingly Eddie Murphy-like entrepeneur and salesman who somehow manages to always be behind the counter of the local outlet wherever the PCs happen to be. He can also occasionally be seen running onto battlefields with a wheelbarrow after all the fighting is over, scavenging and scrounging gear, and is apparently also a competent armorer and blacksmith in his own right. Gear bought from "Weapons and Sh*t" costs about three-quarters what it would new, and is tough, well-made, and durable. Hes an honest businessman, but a shameless scavenger

[Karmakaze]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

A few campaigns ago one of the PCs commented about a mystical PC in the group that he really didn't buy into all that "hippie crunchy granola cr4p".

 

Ever since, magic is frequently referred to as "hippie crunchy granola cr4p".

[sinanju]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

In a fantasy game I ran for a while, one of the bad guys was a sorceror with a long (and admittedly nigh-unpronounceable) Arabic name. At some point, tired of trying to remember it, one of the players referred to him as "Al-Jibber Jibber."

 

It stuck. Hell, _I_ started calling him Al-Jibber Jibber. (Of course, I'd lifted him from a game module so it wasn't like I was attached to the name.)

[Dr. Hercules]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

In Templar's Defenders Congregate Campaign, there are several running jokes. Here's a few.

 

Warforge is our resident Mystic Brick type. He is a metal golem built by Vulcan. Anyway, during one combat the villians shoved a metal light pole through his torso. No worries, since he could absorb metal into his body that's what he did, telling the GM: " I absorb the pole!"

Its become a running joke. " Are you going to absorb the pole?" or "He only absorbs poles" and such.

 

Mechanon doesn't exist in our universe--- yet. The running joke is that my teenaged uber genuis is going to inadvertantly create him.

It usually goes something like this:

Tomorrow Boy: It should be able to create an artifical minature sun that we could use power our base.No problem.

PC: Yea, until you build Mechanon!

 

Nighthawk is billionare Jack Kirby. During one adventure the rest of the players eventually discovered that fact. So everybody knows Nighthawk secret ID. Except our leader Fantastic-Man. See, he can't seem to wrap his head around that concept. So everytime he is in Jack Kirby's presence he says something like "Sure wish Nights was here." or "I wonder were Nighhawk is? we sure could use him", etc.

 

Speaking of Nighthawk, every game session he has to jump off/down something. off a roof, down an elevator shaft, etc.

 

Rampant Lion is a PC who originates from England, so the running joke with him is "don't mind him, he's British", no matter what it is he said or done.

[grey_goose]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

When we first started playing AD&D 1E (with the Unearched Arcana supplement), one of the (many) hax was the "Cuisinart Half-Orc".

 

19 Strenth, Ambidextrous (1 extra attack per round), double specialized in darts.

 

Darts, you say? 5 attacks per round, +7 STR, +4 specialization damage bonus. So we're talking about 60 HP DMG per round for a first level character. Of course part of the humor was in describing how many dart-laden bandoliers could be worn...

 

This character concept was soon discontinued, but the joke kept running...

 

GM: "You come around the corner/open the door and see five half orcs standing at a trough."

PC: "Are they eating?"

GM: "No, the trough is full of darts."

PC: "OH ****!"

 

GM: "You see two large human-shapes chasing you, carrying buckets..."

PC: "OH ****!"

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

One time I was trying to be all literary and clever and refered to some goons as "gorillas in wrinkled suits" and the players thought they really WERE gorillas. Now I can never use that phrase again but its constantly brought up. Any actual intelligent gorilla is now required to wear a wrinkled suit.

[sinanju]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

One time I was trying to be all literary and clever and refered to some goons as "gorillas in wrinkled suits" and the players thought they really WERE gorillas. Now I can never use that phrase again but its constantly brought up. Any actual intelligent gorilla is now required to wear a wrinkled suit.

 

I remember that! "You open the door to see some anthropoids in wrinkled suits."

 

Julie had no idea whether you were being "literary" or literal--after all, it was that kind of game.

 

I also remember the two of you going 'round and 'round over the "giant white ape erupting from the sewer."

"No, really. What happens now?"

"A giant white ape erupts from the sewer."

"No, really..."

[Manic Typist]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Did it really?

[The Main Man]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Ever since reading the Uncyclopedia article on Hulk Hogan, my Monday group has the running comments "completely fucking devastate ______" and "that was the most baller shit I have ever seen."

[sinanju]

Re: Running jokes in your campaign

 

Did it really?

 

Yes, it really did. You have to keep in mind that Steamteck's game way back then started out as a Traveller game...with heaping helpings of Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha thrown in, along with weapons and armor and races from the Starguard miniatures sf combat game, OGRE, worlds (and weapons and armor and tools and plots and characters) from Larry Niven, Star Wars, and countless other sources, including lots and lots of classic SF and pulp.

 

A giant white ape erupting out of the sewer was hardly impossible--however much Julie had trouble believing it on that particular occasion.