Salutations, friends!
Its July 2025, and I am honored to be hosting the RPG Blog Carnival for this month. This event is a brilliant opportunity for bloggers from across the internet to challenge themselves with a topic, and explore it in unique ways! … Altogether, the various advice, takes, and expressions invoke a fanfare of colorful tents, festive displays, and tantalizing concepts which amount to a shared mind-space that embodies a carnival in theme!
Thus, I have taken up the torch of leading the internets ever-evolving and intrepid rabble of scribes past the half-way point and into new territory; one fully equipped with an amphitheater, perfect to step into the performance art side of tabletop RPGs!
This months topic:
Improvisation, Roleplay, and Warmups
Why did I choose this these topics?
Okay. Perhaps I’m going a bit overboard.
This is a sprawling… nay… these are three sprawling topics with countless possibilities. A wide series of nets, and perhaps entering on the generic. Whats my angle? Why did I take up this mantle?
Over the past three years, I have been an improv acting student! … The decision came one day after a weekend of watching shows in town, and completing an epic DnD session, realizing that I was already doing the job of an improviser. So I signed up, and began accumulating practice and knowledge of on-stage improvisation techniques!
Along with a pandemic delve into running some streamed actual play campaigns, I built up an entire base of curiosity around how we approach in-the-moment character development, immersion, role play, active play, and improvisation.
The fact is,… Tabletop RPGs are a massive collaboration of game mechanics, world building, and play dynamics. Yet, some of the best experiences I’ve had at the table involved quick and nimble problem-solving, cinematic character or scene-work, and the use of powerful tools of immersion. … Therefore, I’m sounding the trumpet and welcoming contestants to step forward and share insights and experiences within one or more of these concepts!
Many rides to choose from!
Naturally, a carnival is nothing without rides. Therefore, allow me to provide this months series of prompts for your consideration and writing.
Because it is a broad range, allow me to put this in the form of a 1d10 table! … Roll to your hearts desire. Or choose your favorite. Or more than one! … If a specific question doesnt fit your train of though, revise it how you like!
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IMPROVISATION |
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1 |
Low-to-No Prep. What you did to build your session with little or no preparation? Any tips for making an otherwise long process into something tiny? What are your favorite resources to help you get by? Any amazing anecdotes of great games run with minimal prep? |
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2 |
Random Encounter Mastery. Whether it be combat, or a social situation, what are some ways you’ve adapted to the randomness of the dice concerning encounters? How have you taken otherwise mundane words on a table and elevated them to something memorable? How do you make combat encounters exciting on the fly? Or social encounters? |
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3 |
Yes Anding The Scene. Much of TTRPG hosting is about simulation and narrative control from the GM. However, there are those beautiful moments that benefit from improvs most essential rule, “Yes, and…”. … In this case, taking a blank or ambiguous situation, and creating it WITH the players live, through questions, prompts, dialogue, or suggestion. Provide an example of a time you built a scene/situation with the players during the game. How did you perform this activity? How did this experience impact the rest of your campaign? |
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4 |
Saved From The Brink. Every game hits moments where all plans fly out the window. The survival of a session, or the campaign, may rely on the quick thinking of the GM and players. What is your guide on handling game-or-story breaking catastrophes? Do you have a story where you or your players brought a game back from the brink of complete ruin? |
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ROLEPLAYING |
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5 |
Above And Beyond. Roleplay can be a passive or subtle experience, or it can be active and expressive. … but we’re going bigger than that! What are some ways you and your players went all out to play or present your characters? This includes anything from dress-up, to live song-playing for bard players, to even participating in extra curricular activities that surpass the limits of the game. What are some activities or obscure methods of roleplay you enjoy? Any examples, how-tos, or fun stories? |
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6 |
Cinematics. What tools or methods did you use to make your players experiences more cinematic? How have you used scene-work or points-of-view to provide the setting or situation to your players? What advice do you have to make your game more compelling? How do you grab your players attention with dazzling presentation? |
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7 |
Backstory Drama. Every character/NPC has an origin. What advice do you have about building the story of an origin? Do you leverage any specific formulas, touchstones, tools, or sources of inspiration? How do you/have you guided your players building of their characters? What is your process for establishing your NPCs for your games? |
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WARM-UPS |
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8 |
Pre-Game Rituals. Everyone arrives for the game, and is emerging from all manner of chaos and distraction. Do you have any particular rituals for bringing the players away from the days mundane events and into the splendor of the game? How do you leverage the time before the game to get the table prepared? |
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9 |
Quick Immersion. You’ve embarked on the session, and you now have to ground the players in the world, and get them inside their characters eyeballs. What is your advice on establishing, or maintaining immersion? How have you leveraged social cues, tools, media, to establish the immersion? |
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10 |
Revising the Code Legal. This one is the ugly duckling that doesnt fit nicely into the theme, but…. … Every game session has a series of rules and expectations set for the GM and players in order to keep them focused on engagement and positivity. Whether it be just from a Session 0, a recurring set of regulations, or a cautionary tale for your fellow GMs: … What are your basic expectations? How do you pair them with player expectations? What advice do you have on communicating those expectations throughout the campaign? … Furthermore, any unique challenges or emergencies that required changing the rules, changing of rituals, or even performing a follow-up session 0? |
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Once you are completed with your blog post, please provide a link to your post in the, comment below so I can add it to the end-of-month roundup!
Happy blogging!
I love the carnival! … Its a purrfect opportunity to lose myself in spectacle: Trilling at birds on the ferris wheel,… pouncing people in the mirror maze,… stealing the duckies,… nibbling on corndogs from the trash.
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I think this comes under pre-game rituals? my entry – a rapid-fire recap or introduction activity.
Excellent! Thanks for the post.
I have a post that’s at least partly about the role that preparation can play, and that interpretation must play, in improvisation: “Preparation, Interpretation, Improvisation.” My apologies if it is not quite what you were looking for; thinking about improvisation made me realize something about narrative emergence, and what I’m calling narrative kitbashing, that has long been puzzling me.
Your response is 100% valid; I realize that my prompts do convey the idea of quick and nimble problem solving, but dont really address the runway, the plane, and the air traffic control (preparation). Perhaps I should mention that over the years I’ve streamlined my preparation in attempt to make the experience more improvised. This does not negate the value of prep; I’ve just found myself decimating the amount of time I’ve spent on it. … Guidelines are helpful, though I’ve made more things up on the fly than I honestly remember at this point.
I’m happy to see posts inspired by the concepts rather than the prompts.
I wrote https://vdonnutvalley.bearblog.dev/crumbs-of-improvisation/ to share a little bits about the topic