/tg/, how do you pull off "gonzo fantasy" or "weird

>>52637562
By making it uncanny and offsetting instead of wacky.

>>52637562
By playing it completely straight and serious.

>>52637893
This.
Beyond the magic mirror taught me this. Great classic 2 module run. Originally part of gygaxs castle greyhawk

>>52637893
>>52637849
Agreed. Weird Fantasy will result in smiles and laughs at the table but so do all other role playing games.

Being turned into a newt isnt actually a laughing matter.

>>52638137
What if you are then blessed by the newt goddess and can now with a flick of your tail throw lightning

>>52638158
It wouldn't be much of a curse then, would it?

>>52637562
>/tg/, how do you pull off "gonzo fantasy" or "weird fantasy" without it feeling like you're trying too hard to be lolrandom?
There are two guidelines that I recommend.

First, be casual about it. "Weird" is relative. What seems like weird fantasy to you is normal for the people living in it. Don't put too much emphasis on how weird and wacky the setting is, just let it be weird and wacky. Make it less like something that exists just for the sake of a joke and more like something that exists and just happens to be funny.

Second, cause and effect. Basically, make it so that the weird things happen for a reason, and think about what would happen because of them. It's one thing to ~say~ that a village of weasel people is being menaced by evil giant bees, it's another to think about how a civilization of weasel people would actually live, how the giant bees would behave, and why they would arise so close to each other in the first place. And you shouldn't go with a simple explanation that would cover anything that pops into your head, or an obviously contrived one either.

Basically, make the weird parts mean something. The reason "random" humor is so uninspiring is because it's meaningless; pepole think it covers innumerable possibilities, but it doesn't matter what exactly a random joke thing is or what it does because it's all just random, and that makes it ironically generic and interchangeable. That's why it loses its appeal so quickly; at first it seems to offer so many options, but once people realize it doesn't matter which option is chosen, they stop caring about them as anything but "a random thing".

>>52637562
Read the Discworld books.

The characters need to treat it seriously.

>>52637562
Pick a few things that don't traditionally belong together and go whole hog on them before adding more different hings.

Like, if your apparently medieval setting has flying saucers, put grays in them, give them ray guns, and have them trying to steal the planet's magical crystals. Don't stop at the flying saucer and put owlbears or Hercules or The Hulk in it.

I mean you can have those things too - the heroes can team up with Hercules to stop the grays - but as soon as he's here you need to make sure Zeus and pals are players in your setting. You can't make room for more stuff by only picking and choosing a few items from each source. (Of course, gonzo also means overstuffing your setting a little.)