Friday, August 13, 2021

#RPGaDay2021 Day 13: Improvise

Today I'm totally taking the easier, alternate prompt: Improvise! 

The playing of RPGs can involve a little or a lot of work. There are characters with their backgrounds goals and motivations, settings, rules, possibly scenario details, and however much work you want to pour into any part of that, RPGs will take it. When it comes to my primary, central enjoyment of RPGs however, all of those previous things are preparation for the big show. Maybe you run over the locations in your head as a GM, maybe a player says some things out loud in the car as his character while driving home from work, trying to get the accent or attitude just right. Like a jazz or jam band musician practicing their instrument, an actor setting the stage, it's all just there in preparation for everyone to show up on game night... and perform.

To me, the perfect RPG game night is players, on stage, performing their characters. There are practical matters that get in the way, maybe some rules need to be looked up and it slows the flow, or a player feels a need to break out of the flow and check in, and this is all fine in so much as it's necessary. One of the key things about the performance though, is that it's not a recital of a written play or piece of music. It's a jam, an improvisation. My joy is being in it and reacting to it as it happens, trying to entertain others and be entertained myself with... our roleplaying chops, as expressed through our own individual personalities. It's the challenge to see if I can step up and have my character handle situations as they occur, in a satisfying way. I've made the analogy before, and am not the only one to compare roleplaying to musical improvisation. As a player, sometimes you step out and play a solo, other times you support what others are playing. As you add more players, that shapes the vibe as well, and maybe one of the players is just playing a minor supporting instrument, but it still enriches the tapestry of the whole thing you've all got going on. Some songs are ballads, others get people on the dance floor. All calling for a different approach that every player has their own thing they can bring to.

There are a few things that can put a damper on the free-wheeling "on stage" improvisation I really dig in a session. One of them is extensive out-of-character play, because I'm not getting to see the player express their character's personality as directly. Out-of-character planning also feels like the band pausing, stopping play to chat over what they are going to play next while the audience waits for them to figure it out. Consulting with other players as to what a character should do, or out-of-character suggesting what another character should do also is shy of my ideal. When we're on stage, I feel like every player should strive to be able to play their instrument (character), and also try to develop a vibe with the fellow players so that in-character moves and knowing looks are enough to set up psychically where we're headed next. Basically, once we're on stage I want the show to roll, and we'll be juggling and improvising, and maybe different people will flub a note here and there, or a cue is missed, but the show keeps going and you recover. You never want to have to stop the song and restart again.

My ideal here I know is being expressed in a fairly strong way. It is an ideal for me, and not an expectation. It takes time and experience with each other for a group to be able to engage in play like this. It takes compromise and communication. It takes trust in your fellow players, that you're all keyed into each other. The benefit, I think, when it all works, is that the game hits you full on. Players and their characters' actions delightfully surprise you in a way they can't when too much "back stage" discussion occurs regarding what the "party" should do. Characters and the world they are embedded in become primary, more vivid, instead of being reduced to tokens at a player's control. This is not to say other play styles are wrong, or whatever. I'm just talking about my jam, and improvisation is right at the heart of it!

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