1. Now that I think about it, maybe this is why I couldn't connect to the Nolan Batman films? They're supposed to be grimdark, but the plot and dialog don't take themselves seriously. It's not even that they're cheesy - plenty of action movies are (for example, Shoot 'Em Up, or most Schwarzenegger flicks). It's that they're cheesy in the way of a cheerful kids' movie, which is so out of tune with the supposedly grim, superpower-less tone.
2. One of the things I've done in LARPs, and should stop doing, is play with tone in character sheets. Seek/Find is the prime example: it has an absurdist premise (super-spies have all lost items and are at the Lost and Found, and their last mission involved a plot to destroy various vegetable strains), and character sheets that are largely written in serious style. I vary tone in character sheets as a way of showing personality, and that's fine - for example, again in Seek/Find, the youngest, newest spy is the only one whose character sheet contains patriotic thoughts. But you're right that the tone should be in line with the setting.
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1. Now that I think about it, maybe this is why I couldn't connect to the Nolan Batman films? They're supposed to be grimdark, but the plot and dialog don't take themselves seriously. It's not even that they're cheesy - plenty of action movies are (for example, Shoot 'Em Up, or most Schwarzenegger flicks). It's that they're cheesy in the way of a cheerful kids' movie, which is so out of tune with the supposedly grim, superpower-less tone.
2. One of the things I've done in LARPs, and should stop doing, is play with tone in character sheets. Seek/Find is the prime example: it has an absurdist premise (super-spies have all lost items and are at the Lost and Found, and their last mission involved a plot to destroy various vegetable strains), and character sheets that are largely written in serious style. I vary tone in character sheets as a way of showing personality, and that's fine - for example, again in Seek/Find, the youngest, newest spy is the only one whose character sheet contains patriotic thoughts. But you're right that the tone should be in line with the setting.