VSF Gritty or Whimsical

[HerbyF]

Gritty is good in VSF. A little whimzy helps too. It is a flavor of the period. They are both present in most of my colonial games too. A lot of hard fought battles between smaller groups of colonial powers forces vs native mobs peppered with whimsical bits. Like in one of my unit of Fuzzies I have a figure that is naked & has only a spear. He has established himself as somewhat heroic in several battles. In one he stood & fought after all the rest of his unit was killed & single handedly killed 2 royal marines, 3 sailors, and the captain of a Nile steamer. We call him Buc E Bar Ras. After all we are here to enjoy our games & have fun.

[The_Beast]

We call him Buc E Bar Ras.

I bow to your superior sense of whimsy. 

Doug

[XCIV]

I like a good dash of whimsey.

And daft names.

[zebcook]

Whimsical with a backbone of history.

How else are you going to justify the incredibly inappropriate toys that show up in the ranks? No general in his right mind would actually use the daft inventions we like to field.

[Sinewgrab]

I like to treat the premise with all due seriousness, and then sprinkle it with sly humor and whimsy.  I mean, heck, anyone who looks at my Free Norway Project knows I like to build backgrounds that explain what this ridiculous combination in front of you is, and how it came to be...

US Cavalry on a D&D bulette - oh, well, the Lennsmann were trained by US Cavalry officers, and the bulette is a form of sandworm that evolved in the highlands, where there is less sand and more solid rock...and then I'll have them led by a man named Captain Armstrong, an elderly American soldier who fled earth after a failed military sorty, and is thought to be dead by his former associates.

And name my desert Martians' religious leader Mullah Dib.

[Captain Blood]

I like Witty and Grimsical!

Heh heh. You beat me to it 

Surely VSF is by definition whimsical, n'est ce pas?

Whimsical meaning fanciful.

[Dewbakuk]

Heh heh. You beat me to it 

Surely VSF is by definition whimsical, n'est ce pas?

Whimsical meaning fanciful.

To an extent. It can go too far though. For example I really don't like the Pax Limpopo range by Eureka as it's way too whimsical for my liking. Others think it's great though, each to their own.

[DrVesuvius]

I like things fairly gritty in terms of vehicles and equipment.  Basically VBCW but fifty years early, with only one or two more far-out toys.  And I try and keep scenarios fairly sensible.

Names and placenames however, go from the whimsical to the downright Pythonesque.  We've fought over places like Nether Fondle and Much Snogging-On-The-Moor.

It's important to get a consensus as to where your game sits, otherwise some participants will grow frustrated when the other(s) take things too seriously/silly.

Dr V

[workerBee]

The whole "Serious VSF" thing confuses me.   

Seriously?   

These are games.   

Even more than hysterical... historical... games.   

Gracias,

Glenn

[Dr DeAth]

This, with a healthy helping of double entendre mixed in for good measure 

cheers

James

My wife didn't know what a double entendre was, so I gave her one. 

[Captain Blood]

My wife didn't know what a double entendre was, so I gave her one. 

That sounds like it ought to be a very ancient joke (Tommy Cooper perhaps?) but I hadn't heard it before - a real gem