Comment by PaulHoule
4 days ago
Personally I can't stand to run a D&D game as players take it all too seriously.
I will run Toon, Call of Cthulhu or Paranoia any day, the latter without a scenario as I can kill off their all their clones in my very dangerous Alpha Complex and have them rolling on the floor laughing the whole time with a help of a stack of prerolled character sheets and some random encounter tables. (I'd expect an LLM to be able to do the same)
Contrast that to the famous Bloodstone campaign which is the pinnacle of D&D scenarios but can't really be challenging to the players because players have to win over and over again if you're going to use most of the material.
I DM for early teens and I would kill for a D&D party that took it all too seriously. :)
Try Tales from the Loop -- https://freeleaguepublishing.com/games/tales-from-the-loop-r...
Try a simpler game. I think a lot of people think TTRPG = D&D and the world is worse off for it.
There are numerous tactics that work to face the "not serious" problems you have in a game for "young adults".
For instance, serious players get resentful when somebody not serious comes in late, forgets their character sheet, etc. You could lose either or both of them, but with a little prep you don't have to. In Paranoia it's easy to shove a preroll into their hands, give them a 1-2 minute briefing from "The Computer" and build up tension around this character who mysteriously appears (and if the new player complains that they don't know the rules tell them they're not allowed to know the rules!)
Toon is the epitome of "not serious" and, like the other two games I've mentioned, is a game where you can buy one book and have everything you need, including your first scenario.
I think whatever rules we tried to play, the nob jokes would persist.