I love that one Brennan Lee Mulligan clip as much as anybody. We all want nothing more than for the guy with his own +10 katana of civilian-murdering to see it and have a magical change of heart. But the day a player who has word for word said, “Now that we’re done with whatever that was,” in a game gleefully shared the clip with no irony whatsoever, I started thinking about how somebody actually improves as a player, should they want to.
There are endless resources out there for GMs to up their game, to build compelling scenarios, and to generally be in charge of making a game good. I’ve never found much equivalent material for players, beyond descriptions of what bad play is and saying “don’t do that.” But besides the fact that I don’t think so-called “bad” players see themselves in those descriptions anyway, I figured there must be a middle ground of players like myself to want to be co-storytellers with the GM, and to do their part in making an compelling and maybe even moving journey for the whole table. And that’s a skill that can be learned and improved upon!
There are a lot of ways that popular actual play series don’t always set people up for success when it comes to playing a home game, and one of the key ones is that the most famous games are populated in large part by professional actors. But unlike other differences, that one’s actually a learnable skill, too.
Even for players who are writers or actors, telling a story through a TTRPG isn’t quite the same as the other narrative strategies and tools we’re used to. Telling a story through a game has its own quirks and strategies, and things that are compelling and exciting in a novel or an improv scene aren’t always going to land the same way at the table.
Drawing on my own background in writing, acting, playing a whole lot of TTRPGs and GMing considerably fewer, I want to create a series of tips and resources for players to develop their skills as collaborative storytellers and improvisers—giving you a way to make your table into the storytelling experience you and your fellow players all dream about.
Subscribe or otherwise keep an eye out, as I’ll kick off over the next few days with a series of tips for creating a character your fellow players (and GM) will be invested in right away.