Stepping out of the Spotlight, and other Roleplaying Improv Tips
Only one of these is an actual acting tip, and even that is about making it less work for you.
Around 10-15 years ago I did improv once or twice a week for around 3-4 years. This taught me several things:
It’s about the right amount of time to be really invested in it.
The most accurate depictions of improv in wider media are, in order, a) Don’t Think Twice (dir. Mike Birbiglia, 2016) b) SE1E06 of Broad City c) the ‘improv as Scientology’ plotline in Season 2 of Bojack Horseman.
Most people will go on to use what they learn in things other than improv.
Notably, there is a lot of improv/tabletop roleplaying game crossover (even from performers who have made far more money on the West End than they ever will via improv or ttrpgs).
So here are three miscellaneous tips. This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but they are the things I use the most, and I was inspired by Prismatic Wasteland on Sharing the Spotlight to talk about the final tip in particular.
The OSR Lethality of Hamlet
Tell a group of beginner improvisers (or, horror of horrors, your colleagues at a team building exercise) the following “split into two teams and mime a tug of war between them”.
9 times out of 10, here’s what will happen; they will all pull on an imaginary rope… forever. Until prompted, no side will mime collapsing, stumbling over the line in the middle etc. This is because humans instinctively don’t want to lose, even when there are zero stakes and the ‘contest’ only exists because of a shared narrative.
This has a direct application to any ttrpg with high lethality, especially OSR games (horror games are easier because it’s an inherent feature of the genre).
So, here’s how to use this to pitch such a game to a player who is worried about character loss.
Actors fight over the role of Hamlet, even though Hamlet dies at the end (spoilers). Without accepting that a character may fail, may suffer a reversal of fortune and may, yes, die… there is a lack of contrast with their successes.
Moreover, just like a character may die at the end of a 30 second improv scene, the death of an rpg character is simply a reason to bring in another character from a literally infinite pool of potential PCs.
Thus, we can conclude that your character dying does not mean you are playing wrong. You are not letting down other players, and you are not failing to parse the rules. It is simply the fate of some characters.
Speaking styles, not accents
A decade of actual play streaming, videos and podcasts has put a lot of pressure on GMs to emulate professional voice actors or other performers. Now, even though I don’t play or run trad/OC 5e any more I haven’t stepped fully into ‘immersion is bullshit’ levels of indie-ness. I think there is absolutely a place for speaking in character, provided it’s something the table is comfortable with and you’re aware that invariably slows the pace of the narrative.
But what I am interested in is efficient acting. That is to say, how to get the most benefit from the least skill and effort. And that benefit isn’t just surrounding everyone in the room with a richer narrative environment, it’s practical things like differentiate NPCs from one another and making them memorable.
So, don’t worry about accents — think about the way people speak. Slow? Fast? Do they have a stutter or other verbal tic? Do they use simple language or flowery metaphors? Are they constantly referencing their faith or other beliefs? Are they snobbish or overly friendly?
What you’ll often find is that an accent of a sort develops naturally from these prompts, and it will help you memorise and build them as characters as well.
To quote a former improv teacher “every Coen brothers movie has at least half a dozen characters who speak in distinct, memorable ways and these are pretty easy to steal”
Stepping out of the Spotlight
This one is as simple as it sounds. GMs are (correctly) told to ‘share the spotlight’ between player characters, to make sure not only that the narrative doesn’t default to the most vocal player, but that the action economy doesn’t collapse in absence of a defined initiative roll or equivalent.
But if you’re the player — you can give the spotlight away.
Looking for ways to do so is a great way to help players that are unfamiliar, anxious or unengaged (within reason — don’t pile on the pressure!). And it works both in and out of combat. You can:
Rule yourself out of scenes — ‘my barbarian will play dice in the tavern while the rest of them go to the library’
Ask for help — ‘Can Grommir help distract the ogre so I can smack it in the head?’
Prompt someone to lead — ‘As a druid, I know nothing of the city streets, can Blackwing guide me to the correct alley for the deal?’
Offer help to others — ‘If I make myself big and imposing to distract them, someone else can take advantage of that’
Take a passive action — ‘I stand guard while the rest of the party examines the corpse’