Hi! You came to my PAX workshop on learning heroic inspiration through improv. Here’s my thanks – a bunch of exercises from the workshop, and some resources to get you going.

Here’s that scene from CRC3E1 that made me love 5.5e DnD.

Go be gay and roll dice.

– Ro Southerton

Exercise 1: Endless Trove
Purpose: Learning spontaneous imagination, self-trust, and agreement.

You and a peer have an imaginary box between you. One of you reaches into the box and says what it is you’ve pulled out. Feel its weight and size, hold it accordingly. Say what it is. Your fellow player must nod, agree. Continue to pull things from the box until you are blank. Say “blank!” and your fellow player is now the person reaching into the box and pulling things out until they go blank. Then, it’s your turn again!

Exercise 2: What?
Example: Dragon Friends
Purpose: Learning what the game of a scene is.

The game of the scene is a more advanced concept that comes from a specific school of improv. I recommend avoiding it when you’re working on your more grounding imaginative skills. But this exercise is to give you a sense of what game is – which is different to falling on a quick joke – so you can identify when you or your friends are falling into the habit of making quick jokes that cut off an opportunity in play.

One player/your GM is a speaker/expert on something. Perhaps they are reporting on a scene in-game as a general or a patron. You/the players, must raise your hands (do not interrupt spontaneously – it will lead to chaos that is only fun for you), and the NPC will take questions. As reporters/PCs/heroes, deliberately mishear what this figure has said, and ask a question based on your mishearing. You MUST try to make it sound like the thing they’ve heard – it cannot be just something random funny. TRUST the truth of the funny that is simply in mishearing. Your GM then must try to respond to this question in away that remains in-character.

Exercise 3: The Endowment Game/And That’s Because
Example: Desi Quest
Example: Dragon Friends
Purpose: Learning how to endow and accept with care and spontaneity, rather than ‘smarts’ and comedy.

This is a mash-up of two different exercises. One is learning basic endowment and learning to FEEL and ACCEPT endowment, and the other is adding reason to that endowment TOGETHER (which is further endowment).

Sitting opposite each other, you deliver a line to each other about who you are to each other, and your relationship (what’s been happening, what caused it etc.) Take time to feel what the other person has said, as your character. You purely endow each other, but that includes saying how you feel about something, and you can also make ‘we’ statements.

The player can state the physical description of their character themselves.

Questions for this exercise:
Who are you to each other? Answer: “You are my…”
What do you want? “I want…”
What do you want fundamentally? “I want…”

Feel the endowments. Give yourself a minute to think about who this person is, what’s going on.

Then: A GM/a peer can describe a scene, and what has just happened or what is about to happen. Considering the relationship you have established in the earlier part of this exercise, players then say out loud to one another:

1. Player 1 says how the other player feels about it.
2. Then Player 2 says why: “YES, and that’s because…”
3. Player 2 then says how Player 1 feels towards Player 2’s character
4. Player 1 says why: “YES, and that’s because…”

Exercise 4: Anecdotes
Example: Desi Quest
Example: Dragon Friends
Purpose: Learning how to build a world and relationships together.

Two to three people create this scene. One player suggests a situation that the three players will be talking about, and then two players share the story of what happened to them together, to the third.

The best format for this that allows for prompts is a TV-style scenario. For example:

Two experts/people who have experienced something sit together, and a TV host prompts the two people to tell their story. Focus on agreement, details, endowing one another when you can, endowing yourself and how you felt and WHY you did things.

BONUS EXERCISES

Exercise 5: Receiving the Gift
Purpose: This is a simpler version of the exercise we did in the workshop. It breaks down the moment you give someone a “gift” and they practise accepting it.

Pt.1 Two people enter a scene/sit beside one another. The person on the left initiates a scene by offering something – and saying what it is – as a gift to their scene partner. The scene partner receives the gift and thank them. “Thank you!”

Pt. 2 The person on the left initiates the scene by calling the scene partner by their scene-name, and giving them a gift. Person 2 says what the gift was and that they always wanted one: “Oh wow! It’s a blender! I’ve always wanted one!” Person 1 would say “I know you’ve always wanted one because…”

Exercise 6: Move (commonly “Walk” but all movements are great)
Purpose: Encouraging players/GMs who are preparing NPCs to physicalise their character

In this activity, you/a friend/ your GM says the word “walk” in different voices and tones. You/players/the GM has to walk in different ways that relate to the style with which your initiator says “walk”. You can do this to get into ONE character (i.e. consider how your character would walk according to these different voices/tones) OR you can use it to CREATE characters.

Key principles that make improv such a strong world-building device
Yes, And
Endowment
The Game of the Scene

Improvisors/teachers/resources/places I recommend to get started:
Katy Schutte – absolute legend.
The Improv Chronicle (Lloydie James Loyd)
Jason Chin (his book sets the tone for strong relationships and focused play, and it’s a short read) Also Amazon sucks but it’s very hard to find his book elsewhere.
Jason’s book (sample) on Google Books.
Impro Melbourne (Story and relationship-first improv classes)