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So, how serious is the tone in your games? Is it more humorous, or do you tend to be super serious.

Personaly, i just dont like the idea of humor gaming, its fun, but not to GM.

Most of the time dead serious, occasionally someone says or does something that makes us laugh our ass off.

And other times, well it is supposed to be fun.

We use a bit of both.

There's a lot of humor in my BtS2 campaign. Some of it is intentional. Mostly just exaggerations of what would happen or what you would find in real life.

On a scale from 1 to 10 on seriousness, I'd say we're at around 4......the game has serious issues going on but the talking b/w PC's is hilarious...

in our game we call it the tangent tobogan. It referes to any 30 minute or longer period were nothing but silly off point jokes and stories interrupt the game. They used to be fun when I first started, but now I pray for a little more seriousness in my games.

I would have to say we're a 5 out of 10.. we're serious yet funny too.. the conversations between the pc's is usually quite funny. It depends on the setting and the pc's at the game tho. Some Pc's are quite serious and other's just outright comical..

My games are mostly serious, but I do like to throw in a little comedy to lighten things up. Especially after a particularly grueling task or fight. Comic relief has its place, as long as its handled properly and doesn't take over the game!

I'd say theres a mix, we're all just having fun, I tend to look at games like a TV show, where a super serious game would be Battlestar Galactica (new version) it dose have it comedic moments, my game runs closer to Babylon 5 / SG-1 in terms of mix of silly and serious, The plots are serious, the characters take it seriously but there dialog and actions sometimes come off as comedic

Most of the time, its laid back. but ultimatly it has to fit the type of game we are playing and the group we are playing. one of the few times it's no-nonsense gaming is when we have been in a campaign for almost half a year and only gamed 3 times tops and we want to continue on.

but nothing makes the game more worthwhile to play than a good laugh.

we have a very serious game but i try to not let it get to the point were people feel uncomfortable. heart attacks in the middle of the game is a bad thing. but at the same time if its getting too laid back i will do whatever possible to get it back on track.

I think the best kind of humor is when a realistic situation takes a turn for the absurd, like it often does in real life.

IN my games, the tone is typically quite serious/dramatic (I'd say 8/10). However, I like to break it up with some comedy as well. At the same time, as a player group I'd say the seriousness is more around a 5/10 since there is a lot of out-of-character joking (most of it tasteless) and razzing that occurs. We will also take time out just for general BSing as the session proceeds.

Fine. See if I jump in a nerve-gas filled hole to save YOUR sorry hide you PKing flail-about.

If 1 is outright ridiculous and 10 is Dead Serious my group rests somewhere around 2 or 3, going all the way up to 6 if they decide to REALLY get into the game. It's frustrating as person who wants to run a serious game, but extremely gratifying if I know my players are having a great time.

If I just want to goof off, we play a game like Paranoia. While humor is usually an aspect of the game, it doesn't tend to be much fun if no one takes anything seriously.

there is a fine line, I think. Some folks think of "serious" as 'all concentration, no jokes', you know, like how chess tournaments are serious. And others think of 'serious' as 'with large possibilities of permanent negative effects', like how firefighting is 'serious' (But firefighters joke a lot, because they know what they're doing!).

I prefer a more relaxed game. The intense concentration for me is kind of a let-down. So I love a jokey campaign. However, if the campaign has lots of danger and the like, I like that too. So I guess in way #1, I'm not serious, but way #2, I am.

you need reliev from seriousness to build it anew...
So it is a mix...

If everything is dead seriuos the whole time... well I think it redicules itself after a while.

Like in a good book or movie

So its a healthy mix in the games I gm

(sorry for my bad english, but I am not a native speaker - well I hope my message was clear...)

Oh yeah, we're definitely only clocking in about a 3 or 4 in Rifts. Our group is just sort of a 'Hey, let's play RPGs all the time!' group, so we usually approach Rifts in much the same way as we approach Shadowrun. It always ends up begin an 80's action movie. Yeah, the plots are always serious and epic, I always develop some cool intrigue and twists...but when it comes time to start playing, everything explodes.

It's all about the epic, ridiculous action scenes. The critical successes with a mid-air particle rifle shot that cut three surfing ninja borgs in half, and the 'I'll see your 15 missile volley and RAISE you six!' aerial duels.

We really love the combat system, so we spend most of our time exploring it and sneaking around enemy strongholds. Though I think we seldom end up actually ROLE playing because none of us can really take the setting that serious in character. For some reason, even though we all loathe D20, we feel right at home doing serious character interaction in DnD, but cannot keep a straight face in Rifts long enough to not just starting blazing away with cannons.

To each his own, I suppose.

Fairly serious in my long term gaming group, maybe a 7 out of ten.
Alot less serious in the group I play with on and off down a t the library, 5 out of ten, really as a story teller your playing to your audience somewhat so if the crowd enjoys some comedy you should look into providing it, having said that tho, alot also depends on the story on enviorment/world.

many of the Rifts funny moments in my groups come from practicle jokes amongst the PCs getting out of hand or encounters with fairie folk and occasionally from insanities.