19 thoughts on “I just realized something!”

  12. It occurs to me that I’ve never seen a PBTA comedy game. Is this because the engine just doesn’t do comedy well (similar to being a poor choice for mysteries) or because everyone still considers Fiasco the go-to comedy RPG?

  13. Tim Jensen PBTA is really about genre and genre investigation. Comedy isn’t a genre. It is something that either just happens to, or requires a ton of planning and setup. Comedy can happen at the table but that is in the hands of the players. The mechanics can’t make it happen.

  14. Shane Liebling​, I’m not sure I see how pbta are investigation games, but I definitely think comedy games exist. How else would you describe fiasco or inspecters.

  16. David Rothfeder Re fiasco and Inspectres: I would argue that the comedy still comes from the choices the players make and how/what they RP. Both of those games can be used to tell extremely serious and dark stories. I think the tone decision is what leads to more likely comedic stories. Both are written with specific movies in mind and the texts lean into the feel of those films. Maybe what I am getting at is that you can’t mechanize comedy (just like you can’t mechanize drama).

  17. Ok, your earlier remark about investigation makes more sense. I’m still not sure about the distinction between comedy from the game vs comedy from the players. All tone does need to come from players. Sad games or dark games won’t be so if the players are being silly the whole time. Mechanics and touch stones can encourage it, like the confessionals in inspecters, but with every game the players need to follow through on it.

  19. I’d cast Lana as the Quarantine. She frequently calls out how crazy and wrong all of this stuff is and doesn’t get the craziness of everyone else. She is one of the way more normal people in Archer.

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