This one may have a surprising amount of material that I can speak about. It won't exactly be a rant as I don't really feel strongly about the things I'm writing today, but there are a few things to say.
* Most games I've played have had some humorous elements. I try to take things a bit seriously from time to time in a campaign, but cracking jokes helps release the tension even in real-life. Out of character table talk in a serious game is okay by me, but not always. Respecting the characters and acting how a character would act when their friend dies is kind of important to setting the tone. Out of place humor can take you right out of it.
* I don't like "multi-verse" stories, but everywhere I turn these days some show, movie, book or game seems to be doing that kind of story. Not only did the live table I play in turn into one, but the online game I run--I RUN IT!!??--turned into one. As I'm writing this, the latest 5E book soon to be released is a revisit of Planescape, so these style of stories look like they're not going anywhere. For the better part of this year at the live table the party found themselves in the extra-planar kingdom of Freshtovia.
* For those that don't know, American fast-food hamburger joint, Wendy's has become a real internet presence over the years. Their social media guys are really funny and have leaned into the whole thing. The company is known to be savage--in a tongue in cheek kind of way. They often cater to the niche audiences released their own TTRPG called 'Feast of Legends' back in 2019 apparently. It's a fully playable system which the DM converted--very easily--to 5E.
* You can probably guess that the Wendy's mascots--such as they are, I'm only aware of Wendy herself--are the good guys while the McDonald's and Burger King mascots are the bad guys. We didn't encounter any BK guys but the McDonald's mascots are easily identified and turned on their heads. The funniest one for us was the Beef Bandit who is their version of the Hamburglar. We wound up taking him with us, and he's continued to make trouble to this day.
*Now for the ranty bit, I never liked these food based characters. Ronald, the Burger King, and Wendy are fine as are fantasy creatures like Grimace or living containers like a milkshake cup or happy meal box. I just always have had a problem with Officer Big Mac, Mayor McCheese, the hamburger guys and the chicken McNugget guys--which are starting to reappear in commercials in HK and China at least.
I hate having to kill animals for food. I once thought I was a vegetarian for five years--as God as my witness, I didn't know Jello was an animal product--but now, I accept use of animals as a necessary evil. Having worked in a meat department, I can tell you that going vegetarian will not save a single animal's life, at least not in the States. Human beings are more important than animals. There is no reason for a nation to have people starving in the streets while cows are roaming the neighborhoods and being worshiped. With all that said, I believe the animal should be respected. Raising a living thing, killing it, taking its flesh--mechanically separating the flesh of several and mixing it into a hodgepodge of goo to be honest--processing those bits into shapes, deep frying the shapes and then having the marketing department come up with cute mascots based on the various bits of these once living creatures is about as far from respect as one can get. At least in McDonald land continuity the hamburgers grew on trees.
Wait a minute...this was supposed to be the funny entry...yes, Feast of Legends was very funny for us and gave us a lot of laughs in spite of my misgivings.
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