Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 26 - Basics of Improv and How It Helps you Be a Better GM and Player

Episode Date: June 21, 2020

The ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome obstacles is a critical skill needed for GMs and players alike.  In this episode Jeremy discusses techniques of improvisation utilizing the basic tenets he learned performing improv comedy, allowing GMs to keep the story on track and players to support their game partners.

ladies and gentlemen thank you for tuning into taking 20 episode 26 the basics of improv and how it helps you to become a better gm and a better player we have two sponsors this week the first of which is the chattahoochee funeral home our staff will stuff your stiff i gotta be more careful with that joke. It's kind of an antique. So improv. It's short for improvisation. It's anything that's extemporaneous and unscripted. If you want examples, watch the movie This Is Spinal Tap, or Best in Show, or Waiting for Guffman. All of which, by the way, have the late great Fred Willard, who was an improv genius. A number of the lines in those movies were not written beforehand. Fred Willard and the other stars would make the lines up as they went.

That's a textbook example of improvisation. For TV shows, you can look no further than whose line is it anyway, with Wayne Brady, Ryan Stiles, and so forth. They are amazing at what they do, coming up with scenes just off the cuff. You don't have to be as well versed at improv as these amazing people to bring these skills to bear for your RPG player that you're playing or your RPG campaign that you're running. Improvisation. There's no script, which means you have to be mentally agile and change your plans on the fly depending on the scene. Comedy gets a lot of the spotlight when it comes to improvisation, but any genre can be improvised, and even seasoned actors

benefit from having these skills. What is DMing? Among other things, you're an actor for the rest of the world, which is why these improv skills are important. Because your players are going to take your adventure a completely different direction than you expect. They're going to go to new locations. Things like, we want to go to a hat shop, or let's travel to Burgerburg. Hey, DM, what's under the sewers? They're going to want to talk to different people. Someone you didn't prep. Someone that isn't really important to the story.

Random NPC number 227, who right now, when they say they want to talk to her, has no name, but they want to know more about her and become friends with her. They're going to take different actions than you expected. Let's go house shopping. How much would you pay us if we could get two tons of grain to the outpost in a week? I want to ask the queen if she'd like to dance. Ladies and gents, I think it's time for a mutiny. When that happens, the ability to improvise lets you keep the story moving.

You can roll with the player's choices. You can adjust plot points so they're not lost. You can keep the adventure on track behind the screen and make it look like you planned it that way all along. As a player, improvisation allows you to support your other players who want to suddenly roleplay a scene. As an advice to GMs and players, whatever you do improvise, either record the episode or write stuff down, because you don't want the reality as you've established it to be lost because you forgot something.

Improvisation is obviously an important skill to have. So how do you do it? Well, there's some basic tenets that all improvisation is built on. And if you understand these skills, which are basically the foundations of improv, then it becomes easier to have your characters or NPCs naturally react to things. The five skills are yes and, if then, support your partners, show don't tell, and fuck your fear. Number one, yes and. In general, don't disagree with your other players or your players at your table about plot points or character actions. What does this look like at an improv show? Person one walks up and says, up periscope,

ensign, and the person two says, aye aye, captain. Person two supported person one's statement of up periscope. What does it look like when they don't do it? Up periscope, Ensign. And the second person says, but we're in a helicopter. I mean, you can hear the brakes screech. Person one established by saying up periscope, obviously they're in a submarine of some sort. And then person two tries to shoehorn the fact that they're in a helicopter. No, no, that's horrible. So yes-anding is all about listening to the player's ideas and by default agreeing, which is the yes. And add additional details, so your own contribution to the story.

Examples. Player says, I reach for the guard's sword to try to escape. Here's what a bad GM does. You can't do that. I mean, this is a world based on choices, and characters should have the ability to make a choice like that. So just saying you can't do that just puts a brake on everything else. Um, you can't do that because he's not wearing a sword.

Why would the guard be unarmed? Oh, I forgot to mention to you, you can't do that because your hands are tied up behind your back. Or you can't do that because the guard dropped behind you. These are all examples in improv of what's called denial. It negates proposed actions. Listen, there may be some sort of weird situation where there would be no way for the character to reach for the sword. Maybe the PC is sealed in an airtight bubble and could never reach the sword no matter what they did. Short of that, make sure the player knows the consequences and let the PC try. If you listened to previous episodes, the phrase

are you sure kind of can be a bit metagamey, but it can clarify consequences for a player. I want to reach for the guard's sword. Are you sure? There are four other guards around. Do you think you can fight your way out? You're welcome to try. Good GM. Okay, make me a stealth role. I'll try to pickpocket his sword. Or, you can certainly try. Thank you very much, Matt Mercer, for that phrase.

I use that quite regularly. By the way, my players have learned anytime I say, you can certainly try, that means there are risks to doing this. In short, learning the yes and ability is a way you can allow PCs to use their choices to affect the world around them and ensure they keep their player agency while being able to adapt on the fly and adjust to whatever those choices are. Number two, if then. This is one of my GM pillars. It's easy once you get into the practice of it, even if it seems daunting at first. The basics of it is this. It asks, if what the player is

saying is true, then what else is true? If-then. It gives you choices on how the story can proceed and how you can add new information. For example, player says, since we're so close to where I grew up, I propose the party stops for the night in my hometown. I left there 15 years ago and I'd like to check up on everybody. Bad GM to himself. Well, I haven't prepped that area. So he says, okay, you stop, talk to old friends. The next morning, you've completely blown through a potentially important moment in that character's life. Good GM thinking to self, if this player ran away 15 years ago and hasn't kept in touch, how would things have changed? I mean, there's an old

adage, you can't go home again. And anyone who's moved away from the geographical area where they grew up, every time they come home, it just feels weird. It's not quite the same as it was. This player 15 years ago had a best friend. Maybe that best friend married someone the character wouldn't expect. Maybe the best friend was the jock in high school and wound up marrying the nerdy girl. People could have undergone massive changes to their attitude. Their bully from school is now the mayor and has a great demeanor. Maybe they've gotten worse. Maybe someone they love that used to be reliable and easy to work with has fallen into alcohol or drugs or crime. If they return after 15 years, what are their loved ones doing?

Obviously, they had parents, possibly even had siblings at one point. Are they still alive? Do they still live in the area? How do they feel about the prodigal son or daughter returning? Friends, are they the same or different? Have they grown or regressed? Remember, people grow, mature, and change at different rates. I mean, think about how long most campaigns are. In a number of campaigns and adventure paths, players will gain levels over weekend. So they may leave as a level one and they could conceivably come back to town the following weekend a level four character.

For examples of growing at different rates, think about the movie At World's End. Not Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End. The movie At World's End, part of the Cornetto trilogy. It really illustrates the point. Simon Pegg's character really hasn't matured. He still wants to act like he did in high school. His friends have matured, gotten jobs, married, kids. While he just wants to complete the golden mile of drinks at ten pubs in town and bang a girl from his past. I mean, it's Rosamund Pike. I understand. I'm not sure I could condone it, but I'm married, not dead.

The difference in their maturity rates makes for interesting conflict between the characters, and the story was really improved by the friction created by these different levels of maturity. People may have changed for the better, for the worse, and may have matured at different rates compared to the character. So people may have changed, but what about the town? How's the area economically? Has it prospered? Maybe the town has expanded with the city center growing up and suburbs sprawling out. So the area could be booming because maybe new industry has come in or existing industry has expanded. Or maybe the area is starting to decline. Maybe the main industries are starting to dry up. The logging industry has moved to areas further west because a lot of the forests are now becoming clear-cut. But they wind up back in town after 15 years.

So how could you show this change to your players? You could say, well, you stop off at your old watering hole and you see Kaya, a girl you knew from school. She's dressed in high-quality leather armor, emblazoned with a town seal, and has a pristine crossbow on the table. How could Kaya react to this player? Hey, look who's back! Pull up a seat, you dusty bastard! Tell us where you've been! Or, well, look who's back! Hello, Mr. Fancy Pants! Come to slum it with the people that you grew up with? Well, look who's back. Hello, Mr. Fancy Pants. Come to slum it with the people that you grew up with?

Or what may be a very interesting roleplay moment, who are you again? By being able to improvise what type of reaction they get from the town folk, how the town has changed, you can make the world seem real and lived in, and their hometown didn't just go into stasis when the PC left town. Rule three, support your players. Two of the tenets of improv are that one, it's not all about you and you alone, and two, you support your scene partners no matter what. You never try to make yourself look good by making the other players look bad. Your friends aren't getting

together to inflate your ego. They're getting together to have fun together, collaboratively tell a story. As a tip to GMs, if someone's plans have to get foiled, make them yours so the players succeed. Examples. Don't punish players who come up with creative solutions to your devious traps. Don't punish players who short circuit your plot with keen insight. Don't keep taking away players' abilities just to make the game tougher. If one of the players has the ability to fly, have a trap or a pitfall or some sort of obstacle where flight can get them over it, let that player feel special, important, like they contributed to the success of the party.

Reward those players and possibly add complications down the road if the plan needs it. But if a player is using their abilities intelligently, cleverly, to bypass some sort of nifty trick or trap that you came up with, encourage that, support them, congratulate them, give them XP for it, and move on. Rule four, show, don't tell. This is harder since much of RPG story is told instead of shown, but here's how to apply it. Don't let the players learn things second hand or third hand from their dog's ex-owner's roommate. Show them. Show them how evil the Big Bad Evil Guy is. Have the Big Bad Evil Guy commit atrocities in front of the players or allow the players to see visions of what the Big Bad Evil Guy is doing via use of oracles or tarot cards or crystal balls or

space communicators or whatever methodology that you have. Have the big bad evil guy taunt the players. Imagine the big bad evil guy sends a note to the players with the head of their favorite NPC in a bag. That lets them know how evil the big bad evil guy is. It's not something that happens way off in the distance off screen. Now it's there in their lap, in their face, if you will. The other thing you should show and don't tell are the effects of player decisions, positive or negative. Show them their choices have mattered. Show them the hope that they have generated. Maybe the family that they saved continues on. Show them how the loss of a primary breadwinner has affected the town or the family. You know, obviously keep the tone of the campaign in mind. If you're running a happy-go-lucky

campaign and the party kills a troll that's guarding a bridge, I'm not sure I'd do a flash sideways to the troll family and a mama troll putting out a bowl of stew for a young troll that will now never come home thanks to the party. Knitting a little, uh, like, troll shirt for him that says number one son and happy birthday. I mean, you know, I'm not sure you want to go all... that says number one son and happy birthday. I mean, I'm not sure you want to go all... I'm sorry. I have something to add to a future campaign.

But keep the tone of the campaign in mind. If it's all dark and broody, I'm not sure to have a flash sideways for comedic effect. Fifth skill you need to learn. Fuck your fear. I learned this one from a veteran improv director of mine who learned it from Mick Napier's book Improvise, Seen from the Inside Out. I'll put a link down in the resources.

The use of the word fuck here has multiple meanings. One, meaning disregard. Fuck your fear. Disregard it. It's not uncommon to be concerned or scared as a DM. Are the players having fun? Do the players like the story? Are they just humoring me? Is the world just an artificial construct and I'm really just a brain in a DM? Are the players having fun? Do the players like the story? Are they just humoring me? Is the world just an artificial construct and I'm really just a brain in a jar? I mean, how would I

even know if that were true? If you're nervous before a session, remember a few things. One, your players want to be there. Two, they want to have fun with you. Three, they want you to succeed. I saw a recent social media post about a guy who was completely freaking out because he was going to DM a game where Matt Mercer was one of the players. He was really concerned that he wouldn't be an adequate DM. There's a lot of great advice. Mine was very simple. Mercer's not there to judge your quality as a DM. He's there to play. He wants you to be the best DM you can be, not try to just mimic him. DMs and players are not an adversarial relationship. It's collaborative. So DMs, GMs out there, fuck your fear. Your players are there to support you and will help

you overcome it. Two, fuck your fear. Don't worry about the consequences. Don't worry about the repercussions of choices. Taken too far, it's a disaster, but for the most part, keep the story moving. In improv, the characters on stage have to keep scenes progressing, raising stakes, building tension, and releasing it. If you're a DM scared you'll make the wrong decision, then you're only going to make the safe decisions. Safe decisions are boring, vanilla, and repetitive. You're preparing for your next adventure, and this module has variable gravity for this fight. I don't know how to handle it if gravity is very round around, so I'm just going to disregard it.

Or worse, disregarding unique for safe. Looking at a time travel adventure where the party visits the same tavern in three different timelines. The DM, I'm cutting that out because I don't know if I can do it right. You're letting your fear get the best of you. But the worst decision you can make is no decision at all. I want to go talk to that girl at the bar. What's her name? Uh, uh, uh. Your players would rather do anything than just be locked in a nowhere location as you shy away from great choices because of your fear. Fuck your fear. A bad choice is better than none.

So make choices, keep the scene moving. If you're concerned that the choice is going to be a bad one, make it anyway. And then worry about the repercussions down the road. A lot of times when you make a bad decision in the moment, given time between sessions, you can repair that bridge. You can make that choice still matter and still tie it into the story at large. So fuck your fear and make those choices. Now this last part is not going to be politically correct. Keep in mind, by the way, that the bar for comedians, improv actors, such as myself, is completely skewed as to what actually is politically correct these days. If you get offended by this third interpretation of fuck your fear,

then please turn off this episode and thank you so much for listening. Or fast forward about one minute, give or take. Third interpretation of fuck your fear. Figuratively, fuck your fear. What do I mean by figuratively fuck your fear? Like, don't be the Florida teen who stuck his junk into a beehive who was trying to literally fuck his fear. No, no. Use your fear to invigorate and motivate you. Turn this weakness into a strength. The comparison my former mentor made was, imagine the most beautiful girl, in my case, because that's what I'm attracted to.

Change this to make this appropriate to whatever gender makes your loins smoke. Imagine the most beautiful girl that you never asked out because you were scared or intimidated. Now imagine you'd put the work in, nut it up, overcame your fear, had a great date, and you're in the middle of plowing her like a fallow field. Do that to your fear. Imagine you've overcome your fear. The players are having a great time. Visualize that happening and make it happen. Use that fear of failure as a motivator. Study the rules, learn good plots, listen to great podcasts,

and use the things you learn to fuck your fear and send your players home sticky, tired, and satisfied. your fear and send your players home sticky, tired, and satisfied. I may have taken that example too far. Whether you're offended by the sex references or not, please head over to taking20podcast.com and leave me some feedback. I'd love to hear more about what you're enjoying, how we can improve, and any topic ideas you may have. If you like the podcast, please tell your gaming friends about it and please invite them to listen to me. If you hate the podcast, don't say anything to them about me at all. You don't know nothing. Thank you again for listening to Taking 20, Episode 26, The Basics of Improv and How It Helps You Be a Better GM and Player. I want to thank our second sponsor, the Chattahoochee Brothel. Our stuff will stiff your staff. Next week, we're going to discuss role versus role playing,

which is actually a topic that was emailed in, so I look forward to discussing it next week. So until then, I hope that your next game is your best game.