Clara Allison

Every year my band does a “let’s go to a haunted place and poke ghosts” activity and every year I wonder how I am supposed to replace 11 singers?

Gen Z/Alpha humor is deeply rooted in being exclusionary. “Haha adult doesn’t know our fun cool inside joke” but it’s across tiktok algorithms. The humor comes from the fact that adults are baffled. Otherwise, it’s just elevated echolalia.

More TTRPG tips from improv class:

Don’t be coy. Confess the secret.

We don’t know what is in your head. The only thing that exists in the narrative for your table is what you voice aloud. You may have a cool tortured backstory but I don’t know to bring that up with you if I don’t know it exists.

Illustration of a woman with golden dreadlocs with goldfish spread around. Her eyes are closed. She's earing a golden headwrap and black and yellow top. Drawn by gdbeeart in 2023

GoldyLocs

Actual Play tips from improv class:

You have to care about your scene partner. You don’t have to LOVE other characters. You do need a reason to interact with the people in your scene.
“But my character wouldn’t-“
Find a reason.
If you don’t want to be there, the audience won’t want to be there.

🥹 awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Truly nothing activates the Group Project trauma than being in a game that has downtimes and homework and being the only one who does it.

This isn’t about anyone in particular and I’m trying not to turn it into a multi-post rant. We’ll see how that goes.

Wait no, this one is solid.

If you get stuck. I really just want to see you start naming game designers you think you could fight in a Dennys parking lot.

There is no thoughtful opinion or insight I can have that doesn’t immediately lose credibility when it’s followed by “fuck I’m going to be late for improv.”

If your player tries something at the table like a trying a (not racist) accent or making recipes from the world you’re in, they get a benny.

If there are talking animals in your game at any point you gotta do the little voices.

Anyway, the point of TTRPGs over video games is that I get to use ANY solution my heart (OR HISTORY) might come up with.

Did you medieval castles had poop chute toilets that just had seats built over holes that were over like, a chute down the side of the tower? PEOPLE COULD CLIMB UP THEM. KING EDWARD II WAS MURDERED BY A TOILET ASSASSIN.

If you’re in a historical setting and someone’s solution to a problem is based in a thing that actually happened in history, they should be allowed to do it.

This is very personal.

You gotta be more unhinged.

“If you stand up at the table you’re LARPing. I don’t make the rules.”

One did but that’s cause improv class doesn’t teach you to win.

Otherwise you need to be meaner.

This is the only good version of this meme.

This isn’t a bad thing either. We don’t expect movie studios to provide grants for smaller scale studios. D20 and CR *do* have strong community leaning models but demanding they do anything other than what they are doing is somewhat parasocial imho.

But it would be nice.

The industry would be far better off if people could accept that it's okay to cordially dislike someone who hasn't really done anything harmful but who just annoys you personally. It should be fine to just not get along with someone without that meaning "and therefore their life should be ruined."

9. The desire for personal brand ownership leads to a staggering duplication of effort in AP, and depletes the resources available for any one project. We'd be making more, better stuff if the base instinct was "Who can I join?" instead of "Where can I build my own thing?"

I’m well actually-ing and yes-anding like a good improv nerd:

If you take an improv class the first thing they’ll tell you is NOT to try to make jokes. The funny will just happen. HOWEVER I fully believe that people who try to earn credibility by citing their education probably do just want to win.

P.S. If you see yourself in a post I make about the generalized you; that’s probably something to reflect on.

Doubly so if it hurts.

Tripply so if it’s about my shitty dating life.

I’ll do another rant on what I think professionalism is in AP later but to this thread: don’t lie and say you want to be part of something bigger, you will build resentment toward the product. People can tell when a decision was made for one person over the product and it always sits bad with us.9/9

I hate the “work a job you love and it won’t feel like work.” I think one of the Green Brothers said “work is work and sometimes the work is fun.” There will be things that are not fun to do. They don’t stop existing because you don’t like them. 8/9

AND THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH DISCOVERING YOU HATE THE PRODUCTION PART OF MAKING ACTUAL PLAY.

You just HAVE to be honest with yourself and others when you realize that yourself and take care to manage it because decisions to elevate ONLY you will likely be detrimental to the full product. 7/9

This goes doubly hard for things like AP because you don’t have the infrastructure of a huge studio or traditions of an industry to draw people whose favorite thing to do is make Twitch overlays for no money. People start studios wanting a place to perform and discover they have to produce too. 6/9

I loved solving weird problems when I worked in Art dept. I love telling stories through clothing in costume. I never went to work thinking about what happened to the project once it left my department’s scope beyond whether or not the final project would reflect my hard work and skill. 5/9

Early in my film career I was told “Fall in love with the process because if you are in this for the awards you will be miserable.”

Yeah, being on a production is hard. Being in an unpaid one is THANKLESS. Likely the stuff you make will never make it past local cable, or your social circle. 4/9

I’d argue it’s because of the point made by Aaron: if people who create a space insist it’s about the product rather than admitting it’s a vehicle for themselves, they’ve done everyone else on the project a disservice because decisions will get made to fuel ego not the original intention. 3/9