I love improvisational comedy. I've watched it, performed it, and even toyed with the thought of starting my own troupe.
And I can't help but realize that the art of improvisation and roleplaying go hand in hand. It's the same creative process whether we're around the table or up on stage.
I think that the best DM's and players are those that can think on the run, offer unique challenges and non-standard solutions. I feel that they build the deepest characters and add volumes to a campaign world.
With that in mind I've been thinking about offering some improv advice that I believe could help people become better roleplayers. For example, some of the character development exercises could help with character creation and scene development skills might offer a model for encounter creation.
Would anyone be interested in this?
One can never have enough insight. Type away!
Ultradan
Yes and...
There's a core improv rule that says that you can never deny an idea presented. A classic exercise that challenges you to work on this idea is called "Yes and..." where one person suggests an idea and the next person must accept it and build upon it by starting their next statement with "Yes and..."
I find this acceptance and building to be absolutely key in the creative process, especially when creating with other people in a shared world. Around the table this is a great exercise for your gaming group when creating their party. The player has the final world, but everyone has a chance to express some input and therefore have a stake in each and every character. This process also leads to many connections between PC's and NPC's allowing for stronger relationships and greater depth to a character history.
A friend of mine and I have been working together to create a campaign world and at times I wish we could start over with this "Yes and..." mentality in mind. The objective is to create, create, and create. After everything is done you can look through your ideas (I prefer a visual web/map process) and see what fits and what doesn't fit. While creating I make it a rule to never destroy an idea - it only bogs down the process, makes me more self conscious, and therefore I take less risks.
When all is said and done the whole creative roleplaying experience should always be open to risks and hopefully be a collaborative effort with all involved. The "Yes and..." mentality challenges us to be open to all the ideas we can come up with as well as allow others to offer their insights.
You know, kind of like these message boards.
~Matt Whelehan
yes.
and. . .
Nice thinking, d13. I was writing my long post while you posted this one.
Would anyone be interested in this?
It's always useful. I've done improv myself (the things you pick up while working on a BFA in Theatre), but I would have to address one point:
In improv, the choices made are supposed to say 'yes' to the other participants, to encourage creativity. How would you address the issue of the DM effectively saying 'no' for the purpose of game balance?
**EDIT** That'll teach me to start writing a post at work and not finishing it until it's been replied to! =)
In improv, the choices made are supposed to say 'yes' to the other participants, to encourage creativity. How would you address the issue of the DM effectively saying 'no' for the purpose of game balance?
I was trying to speak to the creation of characters and campaigns, but once the action is started there are a few ways.
First, the DM can always set the DC of a particular task rather high. So if someone proposes something outlandish the DM can always allow the character to try something - the random nature of the dice act as an equalizer.
Second, we can always keep in mind Rules 0 and 1 to roleplaying: "Everyone have fun" and "The DM has control." Hopefully the creativity leads to more fun but if it gets out of hand then it's the DM's job to reel things in.
Exactly.
This is a really interesting idea. Character creation is often such a solo effort - I had never thought about doing it as a group exercise. This would be a fantastic way to create a sort of "Dirty Dozen" group. A group of characters that has a certain goal or a certain worldview - right from the beginning. An initial brainstorming session using the "yes and..." principle would guarantee that everyone had input and draw on the creative instincts of the whole party in its creation. Nice.
I always figured that, at the very least, everyone should communicate during character creation to ensure that even if the characters don't know eachother you get a balanced group that is going to have reason to adventure together. It's always good if everyone has ties to at least two other PCs too. I think I might require an approach similar to the one described here, if for some reason I find myself bereft of my senses (or desperate) and DM my entire old group. No dark angsty loners with two weapon fighting! Especially not if they're monks.
In improv, the choices made are supposed to say 'yes' to the other participants, to encourage creativity. How would you address the issue of the DM effectively saying 'no' for the purpose of game balance?First, the DM can always set the DC of a particular task rather high. So if someone proposes something outlandish the DM can always allow the character to try something - the random nature of the dice act as an equalizer.
Dice tend to be the "friendly no" a lot of the time. If you don't want to say no, but you mean no, you ask for a diceroll and close your eyes and imagine a DC of like 100,000. I'd be interested in a resolution system--not for the ruck and run of games, but for the experimental kind we're talking about, that could function as a "yes...and" sortofa' way.
The other thing I'd like to warn is that "yes...but" is similar to but in many ways the evil twin of "yes...and." It's a control mechanism the same way "no" is. It'd be interesting to hammer out an exercise that accepts serious ideas in the form of a story, without judgement or fear of power imbalance or loss of the DM Given Right...blah! Let's just do this thing! Let our DM egos rest for a bit and see what comes out when players just come together to come up with a story.
I'm tempted to suggest we do our first exercise right here, to actually try the first tool we've been given and see how it works out...