Improv a Gateway to Get More out of the RP of RPGs

Improv a Gateway to Get More out of the RP of RPGs

Keegan Michael Key was on a YouTube interview show called Off Camera with Sam Jones that talked about improv. An idea I have believed was closely related to making good RPG sessions. I always had a hard time conveying that to players though because I don't have an improv background that makes it easy to put the concepts into words to teach someone.

Before going on any further, you should watch it if interested in getting better at building stories, or role playing your way out of a scenario you feel lost in, or even just how to ask questions to build a better idea of the scene in your head. You should also watch it cause it's 3 minutes long and my post is about it so why not get it straight from the source so you have an idea of what I'm talking about.

Improv is an essential tool for a GM and an invaluable one to have as a player. For GMs, sometimes players just don't see the breadcrumbs the GM thought they would; so the GM needs to whip up a new way for the breadcrumb to be dropped in their path to get them the information they are searching for in the first place. It helps a GM think in terms of structuring a story out of random elements, so reacting to players becomes more natural and allows the story to flow more easily without running into too many roadblocks to the fiction.

For players, knowing how to structure a scene makes it easier to find your way out of the scene the GM has put you in. Except you get the added advantage of being able to ask questions as a player about what your character sees to fill the scene in more without worrying about breaking the flow of the narrative. You don't need to act your way out of a situation, you can question, contemplate, plan, and then act if you want.

To use the metaphor from the video above: the GM is dropping the player in a situation and asking their character to act/react when the player might not have all the scene's variables necessary to make an informed choice. The player has the option of talking to the GM to clarify the variables, so that they can make a choice as their character that makes the most sense given the variables they know and the scene they are in. This clarifying of the variables is the taking a step backwards that Keegan Michael Key talks about in the clip.

It's easy enough to say to clarify the variables, but that may be too broad to be useful. I don't have the exact way to describe it, so examples might be easier. Clarifying the variables could be:

• Getting a general description of the environment again
• "What's the room look like again?"
• "Were there any windows in this room?"
• "How high up did you say it was?"
• Asking about a specific element of the environment
• "Which member of the royal family is there?"
• "What do I find after going through the wardrobe?"
• "Is there anything hidden under the bed?"
• Asking about an element from the story that has already happened
• "Does this look similar to that other thing we saw earlier?"
• "Would that NPC we met be able to tell us what this is?"
• "Was TOWN the only place that those things come from?"

In improv all of that gets done on the fly without the ability to ask questions to clarify the situation before they are expected to take action. This is because improv is done live and people are being put on the spot in the situation without the safety net of being able to step out of the scene to clarify it for themselves before deciding on their action.

The most dreaded weapon in the GM's arsenal "What do you do?" can feel like it is putting a player on the spot and asking them to improvise something awesome. That question doesn't require immediate active response from a player's character. A passive response from a player character (such as the above clarifications) doesn't mean you do nothing or "pass on your turn" it just means you gather additional information before acting. A player should embrace their ability to pause the fiction, to step out of the action, complete their understanding of the situation, then take action. It's way easier than improv.