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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5477237" data-attributes="member: 7006">But even here in your statement... that IS using &quot;Yes, And&quot; improv technique (even if the DM or player don't necessarily realize it.)You made the offer &quot;There is a gaping 10' pit in front of you, deal with it.&quot;&nbsp; That's the opening salvo of this improv scene.&nbsp; You've established the reality.&nbsp; And now your scene partners (the PCs) are going to &quot;Yes, And&quot; it.&nbsp; They will agree that &quot;Yes, there is a 10' pit in front of us.&nbsp; AND... we will deal with it thusly...&quot; and they'll then tell you what they want to do to get over the pit.They have a wide range of options in front of them that they could choose to do.&nbsp; Since there is no ONE way... they have to improvise a choice and offer that choice back to you.&nbsp; &quot;We look for a log or piece of wood that we can place across the pit.&quot; as one example.&nbsp; And now control of the improv scene comes back to you.&nbsp; Now granted, it is here at this point that I agree with you that the RPG format does not exactly match up with improvisation performance... in that the RPG does have conditionals that the DM uses... mainly dice rolls.&nbsp; In an improv performance scene, your next move would probably be to find said log or board and put it across the pit so you could cross (and thus advancing the scene).&nbsp; But in the RPG... you instead can make the players roll a die to see if they can find one.&nbsp; And depending on how important this story point is, how easy or hard it is to progress, and now much dramatic tension you want to build with this part of the improv scene... will directly influence you on your choice of Difficulty Class you assign to the roll.&nbsp; Thus, there DOES promote the possibility of the DM saying &quot;No&quot; rather than &quot;Yes, And.&quot; (but that's the facet of this that makes it a game.)But having the &quot;No&quot; enter the scene because of random chance is much more palatable for PCs than having the DM just say &quot;No&quot; just because he's made an arbitrary decision.And this is why I have a hard time personally getting all bent out of shape if a DM makes an offer using something from my background (when I'm a player), or (when I'm a DM) the player just makes an offer from their own background that seems plausible.&nbsp; Why stomp that out?&nbsp; All doing that does is prolong the scene in question as the other players have to go back to the drawing board to find other explanations to accomplish what they want to do.&nbsp; To me, that's just stalling for no real dramatic effect.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 5477237, member: 7006"] But even here in your statement... that IS using "Yes, And" improv technique (even if the DM or player don't necessarily realize it.) You made the offer "There is a gaping 10' pit in front of you, deal with it." That's the opening salvo of this improv scene. You've established the reality. And now your scene partners (the PCs) are going to "Yes, And" it. They will agree that "[I]Yes[/I], there is a 10' pit in front of us. [I]AND[/I]... we will deal with it thusly..." and they'll then tell you what they want to do to get over the pit. They have a wide range of options in front of them that they could choose to do. Since there is no ONE way... they have to improvise a choice and offer that choice back to you. "We look for a log or piece of wood that we can place across the pit." as one example. And now control of the improv scene comes back to you. Now granted, it is here at this point that I agree with you that the RPG format does not exactly match up with improvisation performance... in that the RPG does have [I]conditionals[/I] that the DM uses... mainly dice rolls. In an improv performance scene, your next move would probably be to find said log or board and put it across the pit so you could cross (and thus advancing the scene). But in the RPG... you instead can make the players roll a die to see if they can find one. And depending on how important this story point is, how easy or hard it is to progress, and now much dramatic tension you want to build with this part of the improv scene... will directly influence you on your choice of Difficulty Class you assign to the roll. Thus, there DOES promote the possibility of the DM saying "No" rather than "Yes, And." (but that's the facet of this that makes it a game.) But having the "No" enter the scene because of random chance is much more palatable for PCs than having the DM just say "No" just because he's made an arbitrary decision. And this is why I have a hard time personally getting all bent out of shape if a DM makes an offer using something from my background (when I'm a player), or (when I'm a DM) the player just makes an offer from their own background that seems plausible. Why stomp that out? All doing that does is [I]prolong[/I] the scene in question as the other players have to go back to the drawing board to find other explanations to accomplish what they want to do. To me, that's just stalling for no real dramatic effect. [/QUOTE]

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