Always be responsive to your players' desires in terms of the balance between action scenes and storytelling. Don't be afraid to change campaign style mid-stream. The bigger the change the more dramatic, so don't hold back!

In the real world of the Gags & Griswolds universe, of course, National Lampoon's Vacation doesn't exist. That's the premise of this entire comic, after all. But most of the other things we know and love (such as blondes in red convertibles) do, albeit modified by the lack of Vacation:

• Roadballs is a serious documentary about Irish road bowling.
• Chevy Chase is known (barely) for doing voiceovers for poorly selling computer games, but gains widespread fame after his appearance in the first Futurama movie.
• Beverly D'Angelo is known primarily for her role in Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills.
• Nerdy guys make YouTube videos of themselves unboxing new Apple products instead of jumping cars off ramps in the desert.
• Without the success of National Lampoon's Vacation to spark interest in road trip movies, Mad Max was never revisited with numerous movies and series, and remains an obscure one-shot Australian film.
• The Canterbury Tales was never made into a movie. Fans of Chaucer never had it so good.
• The major road trip background that pervades all of Western culture is Thelma and Louise, despite it never being much good. The original was adapted recently into a new, updated TV series with a bigger budget, high-tech computerised special effects, and edgy writing. And it sucked.
• Throughout the 1980s, all the greatest Hollywood comedies were stories about humble sports teams succeeding against all odds.
• The Comic Irregulars exist and are making a screencap comic based on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Transcript

Rusty: She's on my side!
Audrey: Am not! The line is here!
Ellen: Kids, I don't want to have to come back there.
Audrey: Are we there yet?
Clark: Whose bright idea was it to roleplay a family road trip?
GM: Normally all you want to do is quote comedy films while we're playing. This is your chance.
Clark: We want some action! Thrills! Danger!
GM: Okay, fine. A policemen on a bike pulls you over.
Aunt Edna: Maybe he's on the take. Or Russian Mafia, or something!
Audrey: Relax. This is a light-hearted game. Your character's not going to die this time.
Aunt Edna: Awwww!
Clark: A policemen. Oh, I'm so scared. All right, let's see what you got.
Policeman: Have you seen John Connor?