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When spects begin to play, they need you to appear confident so they can become confident themselves. A major factor is the way you speak. Even if you’re playing low physical status, while spects are building their confidence, speak with assurance. Confident speech is also important when playing experts.
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Until you’ve done it quite a bit, starting a scene can be a daunting task. If you’re starting from nothing, where do you begin? When you’re playing from a scenario, how do you know where to start?
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If thinking is like walking, one might assume that thinking fast is like running. It’s not. Walking fast and running are two entirely different skills. It’s the same with thinking. Thinking fast isn’t really thinking at all. It’s responding. Thinking is slow and methodical. Responding is quick and intuitive. To think fast, you don’t think, you respond.
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There’s nothing wrong with questions. They’re valuable in many ways. However, if you resort to questions because it’s hard to make statements, that’s a problem. You need the ability to make offers as statements because it’s a clear way to establish context. Here are some ways to turn questions into statements before you speak.
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Before writing a vignette, perform in a few. Playing with spects strengthens your ability to write for them. You can get started with 50 Interactive Vignettes, a collection of open-source scenarios available for download at interactiveplaylab.com/101-extras.
Exercises
Players choose an animal to become. They move about the room, embodying the animal with their bodies, voices, and attitudes. They begin as 100% animal. After fully inhabiting the animal, players become 80% animal, and 20% human. They move around in this state for a while. Then they become 60% animal and 40% human. The process continues until the players are 100% human, while still embodying the essence of the animal.
Exercises
Go where a variety of people are gathered together, e.g., on a subway, in a store, at a park. Observe individuals and guess what they might know about or be good at. Describe how you could incorporate each person’s strength if they were a spect in a given scenario.
Exercises
Think of an object that seems like your character. Identify three qualities of the object, two positive and one negative. (E.g., a shoe: comfortable, laced up, stinky.) Mingle with a group, playing as a character who embodies the qualities of the object.
Exercises
Two players look deeply into each other’s eyes. After a while, they briefly look away, and then re-establish eye contact. One says, “Hello,” and the other says, “Hello.” They hold eye contact for a while, then look away and back again. When ready, one player says, “I see you,” and the other says, “I see you.” They hold eye contact, then break and re-establish it again. When ready, one player says, “I could be hurt by you.” The other says, “I know.” They continue to hold eye contact until one looks away. Then the exercise is over.
Exercises
Two players improvise a scene in which the only line they can say is, “I love you.”
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