Loader image
Loader image
Back to Top

Blog

Nerdarchy > At The Gaming Table  > Improv is Critical in RPG Storytelling

Improv is Critical in RPG Storytelling

E60 YR1- Diseases, Tricks, and Hazards from the 5th Edition Dungeon Masters Guide Podcast
Tomb of Annihilation Dares D&D Adventurers to Defy Death

 

improv

Improvisational theatre in progress. [Image by Aude Vanlathem/www.audevan.com]

Tabletop RPGs are deeply rooted in improvisation. After all, they’re games where people do things by saying they’re going to do them, and everyone else has to react to what’s being done by saying what they’re going to do.

 

This process repeats for two to four hours, or until there’s a good stopping point. Even Game Masters who prefer a more structured style are going to improvise more dialogue than they’ll use their actual prepared material.

This does not even include all the improv for the inevitable unplanned encounters, or how the GM has to improvise describing the outcomes of rolls – especially in combat. Technically you can just say what you’re going to do and exchange numbers across the table to determine success, and not describe what’s being said or done, but what would be the fun in that?

Critical success and failure as improv tools for your RPG

Tabletop RPGs are a shared storytelling experience, and you can’t have a communal story without a lot of improv.

Improv comedy teaches the concept of “Yes, and…,” which is a mantra I’ve heard from a number of experienced players and GMs. It’s very good advice, but I don’t think it’s quite the whole story for tabletop RPGs.

We should use the mantra of “Yes, if…” because tabletop RPGs rely very heavily on luck for success or failure. If they succeed at the roll, then what they want to do will happen. If they fail the roll, then what they tried to do will go awry. Notice, though, I didn’t say nothing will happen. It’s a story, and a story must always go forward, meaning it can’t just suddenly stop.

In fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, if you’re wearing a disguise and you fail on a Charisma (Deception) roll when trying to pass yourself off as someone else, the story doesn’t just stop there. The Dungeon Master must react to this new development. The situation changes. The player tried to pass their character off as someone else, and failed the roll, but the story didn’t fail.

For the current context, I’m using critical successes and critical failures differently than critical hits, misses or fumbles. I’m going to categorize critical success and failures for skill challenges. Critical hits, misses, or fumbles will be reserved for combat encounters. D&D, as written and intended, isn’t supposed to have critical successes or failures. But because “Yes, if…” is such an integral part of the game, there’s no reason why the skill and social elements of the game can’t equally enjoy the same degree of total unpredictability as can happen during combat encounters when criticals happen.

In fact, criticals are generally the most memorable element of most games, like exceptional scenes in your favorite movies. They are so memorable that Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch bring up a series of great stories they remember from the game, which are the ones involving impossible rolls and insane crits, one of which gets told in both of the ArmorClass10.com-sponosored videos below:

Memorable RPG moments

critical

Houston Texans’ Arian Foster fumbles while being tackled by Dallas Cowboys’ Keith Brooking, Jay Ratliff and Anthony Spencer. Reliant Stadium. Houston, Tx. Sept. 26 2010. [Photo by AJ Guel]

As Dave said, people like when crazy things happen with they critical, whether it’s a hit or miss. These are the things that we remember.

So, why stop all of that enjoyability at combat? Worse, why punish players who are better equipped for skills and social encounters from having that degree of total unpredictability?

If you want to avoid the character not failing on simple things, include more passive skills. But everyone has an occasional brain fart when trying to remember the most mundane information, or totally flubs on something they’re good at in real life, so critical failures are anything but unrealistic.

Critical failures not only make for more interesting stories, but they can also be very realistic. As Nate the Nerdarch pointed out, it’s all about how you describe them. If you have a more serious game, you can still choose to describe them seriously, just like how more fun games can go overboard with their descriptions.

In the same way that a critical failure can be a great story for those who are normally proficient, critical successes are great stories for those who aren’t. One of my favorite moments on Geek and Sundry’s Critical Role is when Vax couldn’t unlock a door (because, of course). Grog offered to give it a shot, and Vax gave him the thieves’ tools, with frustration and scorn. Being that Grog had no proficiency in the tools, nor had ever used them, and it was a lock that Vax was already having a hard time with, Grog’s player Travis Willingham needed to roll a critical success in order to do so.

Of course he did, and it was this amazing moment. Not only did they get through the door, but that scene doesn’t exist without “Yes, if…” That scene doesn’t exist without allowing for critical successes and failures.

Criticals help with creation and illustration

In my own home game, probably my favorite moment was when my players had spent about 10-15 minutes planning for their first encounter, which was a sneak attack, and my rogue (of all people) rolled a critical failure on his Dexterity (Stealth) check, face planting him into the sand of the beach and ruining the surprise round in the process.

Afterwards, he rolled a critical success on a Charisma (Intimidation) check when interrogating the pirate scout they managed to capture. It was this great balance in the game for him, and I think he felt like vindicated for his previous failure. It creates this great story of a character (really and a player) who wanted to redeem themselves, and it’s a story that only could’ve been told through a critical failure and a critical success.

RPG

Eurasian wolf at Polar Zoo in Bardu, Norway. [Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

That critical intimidation success also changed how I had to play the pirate scout. If I had limited my “Yes, if…” to a pure pass/fail system, then I would’ve limited my own performance in that scene as much as it affected how much information I gave them.

With their critical success, I injected the idea into the character (not that my players knew) that she was afraid of dogs, and having a big wolf shoved in her face, all snapping and growling, made her afraid at a primal level.

She wasn’t just intimidated into giving up the information. She was so scared, and so fixated on the wolf, that it barely occurred to her to do anything other than answer their questions. It afforded me more unpredictability by including critical successes and failures, and it made for a better experience for me, too.

In the end, it all makes a lot of sense that tabletop RPG players and GMs would embrace the tenets of improv. Improv and dice share that commonality of unpredictability. On stage, if someone throws you a line you’re not expecting, or they jump ahead, you have to adjust and move forward. At the table, exceptional or unfortunate rolls will force you to change your tactics and move forward. In either case, the trick is accept the situation as it is, and try to do your best to react as quickly as possible, so you’re not holding up the group.

[amazon_link asins=’1544663412,0989387801,0897934245′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’0150ea74-614f-11e7-be61-5142311430e1′]

 

Share
Joshua Brickley

Despite looking so young, I'm in my mid-30s (36, to be exact). Up until I was 21, I focused a lot of my attention on stage acting, mostly local and school theater. At some point, I felt a need to change my life's direction, so I joined the Air Force. After 10 years, where I was an Intelligence Analyst and Mission Coordinator, I was medically retired. I went back to school and got my Bachelor's in English, focusing mostly on literary theory and rhetorical criticism, at the University of the Incarnate Word. In this next chapter of my life, I'm turning my attention towards tabletop RPGs.

No Comments

Leave a Reply