Improvisation tips?

[Desdichado]

Berandor -- while that's all nice advice, it's not really improvisation anymore if you have to mentally go through that checklist every time you do it. That takes a bit of preparation in and of itself! Of course, with experience you can probably do essentially that, on the fly even. The best advice is to go out there and do it a few times. All the theory in the world only gets you so far, and even a little bit of experience is incredibly valuable in terms of improving your ability to improvise.

 

[Pielorinho]

So you say, "As you step into the molten rock, the golden ring on your finger burns with a white flame, engulfing you with a protective sheath of light. You fire warmthcoursing through you, but it doesn't burn you."
Player: "Sweet. I knew it!"

Cool advice, but Laws is more generous than I am, unless he forgot the last two sentences: "However, you can see already that the ring's metal is softening, and as you watch, a drop of molten gold falls off of it onto the lava. You're guessing you've got about another five seconds before the ring melts entirely from your finger."

Reward players in unexpected ways, but remember that actions have consequences. The ring protects the player beyond what it normally can do - but using it thus destroys the ring.

Danil

 

[Wraith Form]

Berandor -- while that's all nice advice, it's not really improvisation anymore if you have to mentally go through that checklist every time you do it. That takes a bit of preparation in and of itself!

I have to go with Josh on this one---by the time I reached #7 on the list, an hour of deep, silent contempation had gone by. And by the time #8 shambled past, all my players had left the table and were driving home outta boredom; meanwhile, I had cobwebs growing off my dessicating corpse.

So much for improv, hunh?!

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Berandor -- while that's all nice advice, it's not really improvisation anymore if you have to mentally go through that checklist every time you do it. That takes a bit of preparation in and of itself! Of course, with experience you can probably do essentially that, on the fly even. The best advice is to go out there and do it a few times. All the theory in the world only gets you so far, and even a little bit of experience is incredibly valuable in terms of improving your ability to improvise.

It's really only four things to remember: most obvious, most surprising, most challenging, and most pleasing. (I remembered them without looking back).

Besides, it's not really a checklist. If you forget one of them, it's not a problem. It's more of a general way of thinking about what makes encounters exciting and realistic.

Law's advice (via Bernador), has given me a lot of confidence and inspiration for my game, after only a few moments of contemplating it.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Most importantly (just like acting improvisation- which I'm sure you could find some more information on):

Listen to the players.

Just in case you guys missed this piece of advice, it's a gem. It means that you don't have to come up with something dazzlingly creative all by yourself. Simply respond to what the players' do--genuinely respond to them--and then dazzling things will happen ... and you'll get the credit!

Best of all, this approach let's your players feel that their choices REALLY MATTER. And that is crucial for the experience of gaming to come alive.

 

[Desdichado]

Just in case you guys missed this piece of advice, it's a gem. It means that you don't have to come up with something dazzlingly creative all by yourself. Simply respond to what the players' do--genuinely respond to them--and then dazzling things will happen ... and you'll get the credit!

Best of all, this approach let's your players feel that their choices REALLY MATTER. And that is crucial for the experience of gaming to come alive.

Absolutely. And to continue my shameless pimping, see my story hour (link in sig) for an example of this. And comment on it while you're at it!

 

[Berandor]

Well, this example was off the top of my hat, and just an illustration rather than a realistic example.

I agree with what has been said regarding that checklist. However, improvisation is something you must practise in order to get better - it's not just a talent. I thionk it's a nice list to fall back on, lest you should draw a total blank in game. Over time, I think the steps will actually merge into one: go with it.
However, when a player asks me whether his spectral stag manages to throw the villain over the railing, I must consider several options by default. There's no problem in thinking about their effects, as well.

the rail could hold, but that would not please any player, not be especially cool. The railing could break, but the villain has a fly spell ready. The rail breaks, and the villain topples down to the ground, taking damage. These options come to my mind naturally, and it's not bad to chosóse the cool one, or the gratifying one over the boring one.

It's also a nicce way to just make you think about your decisions, and not just nodding to everything the players do, or declining every option.

And last but not least, anyone who has ever done improvisational theatre knows that indeed, improvisation follows its own rules and chematics as well. Coming up with something on the fly must not be a totally chaotic endeavour.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Hi! I'm going to try to run a night of improvised gaming soon. I'm a little burned out, and I did some experiments and found improvising to be a great cure. I'm running a campaign right now, which is takning place in a major city. I'm going to run the session as a serious of short one shots where the players take the roles of several mundane and special characters around the city. These one shots are going to give them some more information around the story they are playing in the real campaign. Now, I'm wondering, has anyone tried something like this before, and does anyone have any suggestions or tips on how to make this a better and easier experience for both me and my players...?

Once I ran a Thursday night game for my college housemates, with the specific caveat that I would never prepare. I was up front about this so that they wouldn't get mad.

The one thing that I learned from this (aside from all the other good suggestions already in this thread) is to set it somewhere malleable. In other words, if your memory and note taking skills aren't perfect, set up the adventures in a town or locale that's known to change. I used the Trackless Forest, where the road was never the same twice.

Improvising leads to great ideas. One character from the city wanted to know where the bathroom was in the forest. Somebody else pointed her to a cave. They found a modern bathroom inside. I must say that they RPed it well. (Never figured out the drain for example.) But they took every single towel in the place and raved about it for months after in character.

Another time the water Sidhe came to visit at the PCs invite, raising the lake water so that the entire village was under it and everyone could breath water. Somebody asked "Where does the water end?" They went looking, and found a rising slope of water going over the top of the village.

Which leads to another point. This is all about the magic of storytelling. Use faery tales and spectacular legends for inspiration. You'll all have great fun.

 

[Arthur Tealeaf]

A lot of great tips peopl! Thankyou very much! Now, I'm seriously considering buying the "Everyone else" PDF. Having prepared stats for lesser NPCs is always a big problem for me. Now, if I make some lists of names and places too, This could work out great!

 

[gunter uxbridge]

This is waaaayyyyy out of print, but if you can find it, it is worth its weight in gold.

It is a product by STELLAR GAMES called "Destiny Deck". Imagine three groupings of decks of cards. One is labeled Setting, one is labeled Atmosphere, and one is labeled Challenge.

The DM pulls a card from each deck and has one minute to come up with a game with the elements provided. The Setting might be anything from a sporting event, a festival, aboard a ship, or any other place you can think of.

The Atmosphere will determine the mood of the game, like levity, somber, giddy and such.

The Challenge might be thngs like stop a killing, natural disaster, overcome a mechanical obstable, etc etc etc.

The idea is to come up with a game that can be played in an hour, then the game stops, the PCs are wisked away and a new DM draws a new set. The combinations of games are infinite, and the few times we have used it in a roundtable style were memorable. I sometimes used them in the course of a game to kickstart a slow spot or quick ideas.

(PS...there is a fourth deck called a Bonus deck that I rarely use. It allows the PCs one burst of extraordinary power, like a bonus to open a lock, run, attack..etc. The bonus deck can take the place of or replace magic items or duplicate a piece of technology in a futuristic campaign.)

Destiny deck is the ultimate is improv gaming, and you can have my copy when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.