Quintin Smith of Quinns Quest plays the 1984 game Toon, about cartoon characters "acting before they think."

Play to Find Out: Toon

The Plus One EXP crew plays Slugblaster: Kickflip Over a Quantum Centipede with the designer, a game of rebellious teens doing sick tricks across the multiverse.

Slugblaster with Mikey Hamm

Brennan Lee Mulligan guides four professional wrestlers on an adventure to match the Greek gods themselves.

Dimension 20 Presents: Titan Takedown

Little to no emphasis on realism, a comic tone, and player empowerment are perhaps the three major elements that contribute to a game's wackiness, whether or not the rules intend it! The less grounded in realism the game becomes, the more absurd things become possible, without the need to justify or explain them. A comic tone encourages players and GMs to let themselves be silly, cut loose, and have fun with characters and scenarios. And player empowerment lets them try anything they can imagine, even if it doesn't make perfect sense, and gives them a chance to succeed. 

Cartoons are without a doubt the best example: movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Space Jam, and Shrek bend the rules of genre and storytelling in a wacky way. Television shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Rick & Morty, and Adventure Time all have a zany tone and "cartoon logic" where they casually break the laws of reality with regularity. Comedy movies like Airplane!, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Austin Powers, and Anchorman gleefully go for wacky jokes over realism, as do shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Arrested Development, and sketch comedy like I Think You Should Leave. There are even plenty of wacky and absurd video games, like Goat Simulator, Katamari Damacy, The Stanley Parable, and many LEGO video games.

If you want to release the constraints of realism and allow your imagination to truly run wild, embrace a more improvisational "yes, and" approach to roleplaying games, and not worry about telling a grounded, serious, down-to-earth story, you might enjoy a wacky RPG. If your primary goal is to hang out with your friends, play a silly game, and have some laughs, this style of game could be for you.

Going all-in on absurdity all the time can definitely wear thin; most wacky games are designed to have peaks and valleys of humor and strangeness. Contrasting hilarious hijinks with more down-to-earth moments is the best way to make both types of play shine! Make sure you and your table all agree approximately where the tone of your game should sit, and play around that area, making sure to have quiet and simple scenes to counterbalance the high-energy zany ones. 

Wacky

Wacky denotes a subgenre or tone of a larger genre which is silly, strange, funny, and surreal. Also called "zany" or "gonzo," works with a wacky tone are unconcerned with realism, instead relying on absurdism or "cartoon logic." The primary goal of wackiness is to amuse and entertain, but it also has the benefit of unbounding the imagination; in a wacky world, anything is possible.

Wacky tabletop roleplaying games lean into this imaginative possibility. While a group of players can make any game's tone wacky with the right attitude, wacky RPGs are intentionally comedic and actively give players the ability to be funny. Its rules might be especially light or flexible to allow for silly shenanigans, or it might encourage over-the-top descriptions or strange solutions with bonuses or benefits. The premise of the game itself might be inherently absurd, or characters might be cartoonish caricatures unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. If your ideal RPG experience is a raucous romp full of goofs and capers, try bringing something wacky to the table!

Browse Wacky TTRPGs Explore one-shots, campaigns, and homebrew adventures run by expert GMs across Roll20, Foundry VTT, Discord & more. Find your perfect game on StartPlayingGames!

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