Timault Azal-Darkwarren started a really cool thread a while back, about the relationship between roleplaying and improvisational theater.
He mentioned an improv exercise called "yes, and..." wherein the first player starts with a statement and subsequent players elaborate on it, starting with "yes, and..."
It's supposed to break the habit of censoring other people and swatting down ideas that don't appeal to us, but rather building off of and accepting all ideas. Anyway I thought it would make a fun game in the spirit of the three-word and three-sentence games that we have going in other threads.
I guess I'll start:
The world as it is known is about to change forever, poised on the edge of a great cataclysm which threatens all life.
Yes, and the cataclysm is caused by a hyperactive dwarven/gnome-made super robot with levels in sorcerer, who has recently attained the power of a deity and wishes to rain havoc on his creators (by destroying the entire multiverse).
Yes, and...
the gnomes and dwarves of the setting are actually ANTI-technology because of their relationship to this machine-god. So instead the machine-god sends minions to placate other races with the convenience of technology so he can get a foothold in their cultures, their temples, and their homes. Also the machine god sends its agents to purge members of the Ephemeral Lotus Blossom or to slander their reputations.
Yes, and Orcus and Demigorgon relized that for the first time in eons they had a common foe in the Machine God. His anti-technology plan by making everyone reliant on his technology would wreck their plans for control over the material plane and their upcoming Demon WWF match.
Yes, and so therefore they agreed to an alliance of convenience until the Machine God could be cast down. The two of them sent demonic agents to the world to create pockets of resistance. These agents in turn trained mortals in the demonic magics, resulting in the warlock, hexblade and sorceror classes.
Yes, and...
The reason for the fall from power of the demon lords was that the influence of the machine god purged those races under its thrall to be dull gray beings, without the fury or passions that the demons inflamed. Without their ability to tempt, the demons would no longer have the thralls they needed, and hence no more souls.
yes, and one of those demons (a nalfeshnee named Curtis) quit the circus, absconded with a dozen small critters from the petting zoo, and settled in an idyllic pasture.
Yes, and several of these critters were actually immature flumphs. Said flumphs escaped from Curtis' pasture and have begun ravaging the countryside.
Yes and the said Flumps were spotted by a group of starving gamers that were on an outing to insert flavor into their game. Having spotted the ravaging flumps, they all agreed they looked a lot like pancakes and easily captured and ate them with lots of maple syrup.
Yes, and this resulted in them all being tainted by the essence of Flumph. Now possessing the Flumph-Tainted Soul feat, the adventurers took lodgings at a nearby inn and began holding nightly philosophical discussions regarding the nature of being a third-tier intellectual property.
yes, the discussion was loved by all as they no longer had to respout old d&d scenarios. It was something new; something fresh. The friends could not wait to try out some new found blood traits.