RPGaDay: Shade

'Hanging a lampshade,' or 'lampshading,' is dealing with an element of a story that might threaten the suspension of disbelief by drawing attention to it and moving on.  It refers to works of fiction, and isn't really a thing in published RPG material (the TV Tropes page on the subject has almost nothing in the tabletop games section) but when I'm actually playing or running a game...

"In accordance with tradition, you all meet in a bar."

"This door leads to the toilets.  Yes, unlike most such structures, this secret underground base has been designed with adequate sanitation facilities."

"Y'all want an inspirational speech?  OK, everyone knows stormtroopers can't shoot straight, so stay in cover and you'll be fine.  Who feels inspired?"

"This is a problem that only a party of four to six adventurers can solve."

"Due to the complete lack of health and safety considerations when this castle was constructed, you're going to have to make an athletics roll to cross this bridge."

"Against my better judgement, I take the ghost's hand."

"And having described every single other feature of this room in great detail, we now get to the one you actually need to know about: the rust monster in the far corner."

"I'm going to eat this pork which is definitely not a person."

"This episode was badly written!"

Obviously this kind of thing doesn't work in all games, but in my home group where we've all been playing D&D/Pathfinder for years, or in some cases decades, we know the tropes so well that hanging lampshades on them is the way we stop everything from feeling extremely cliched.  My complaints about health and safety and the fact my dungeons always have toilet facilities has become a running joke at this point, along with my husband's puzzles that defy human logic.  It's also a way to deal with the fact that certain RPGs are a bit dated these days.  Lampshading every ridiculously 80s thing about Cyberpunk 2020 is now part of the fun of that game for us.

Contrary to what the name would suggest, an appropriately deployed lampshade can lighten the mood and brighten up the game.