15 improv mistakes EVERYONE makes

Comments · 275

• TH

  @theDMLair · 3 years ago · pinned

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• GE

  @GeraldKatz · 3 years ago

  If any time PCs show mercy the bad guy/kobolds/whatever come back later to do more havoc, the PCs will never show mercy again and just kill everything. They&apos;ll kill every mook they capture for questioning. They will hunt down any monster trying to retreat from battle. Consequences do matter, but they also matter when the PCs show kindness. If the PCs are punished for being kind they will never be kind again.

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• DR

  @DrArchipelago · 3 years ago

  #1 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=23">0:23</a> - Not knowing your World<br>#2 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=164">2:44</a> - Not understanding your players&apos; characters<br>#3 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=402">6:42</a> - Not building modular game elements<br>#4 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=584">9:44</a> - Not creating pool of ideas<br>#5 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=951">15:51</a> - Not having backup plan <br>#6 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=1343">22:23</a> - Not using &quot;Yes, and...&quot;<br>#7 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=1632">27:12</a> - Overusing &quot;Yes, and...&quot;<br>#8 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=1780">29:40</a> - Trying to do everything yourself<br>#9 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=1879">31:19</a> - Expecting to improve without practice<br>#10 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=1988">33:08</a> - Not redirecting your players<br>#11 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=2190">36:30</a> - Not reskinning<br>#12 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=2353">39:13</a> - Not buying time<br>#13 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=2498">41:38</a> - Not delegating<br>#14 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=2691">44:51</a> - Ignoring clues from your players<br>#15 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=2863">47:43</a> - Not eating enough bacon

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• TE

  @techstorezombie9316 · 3 years ago

  As a newer DM who is worried more about fumbling improv than anything else, this video has perfect timing.

  488

• QU

  @Quantum_Gemini · 3 years ago

  I have one player who likes to uniquely investigate areas, which leads to great opportunities for me. After a fairly basic forest encounter he wanted to climb a tree to see if there were any unusual structures he could spot from a higher vantage point. I had nothing else planned in that area, but i said &quot;sure, you see a bizarre outcrop from the mountain side which is vaguely tower shaped&quot;. <br>I turned this into a broken down, abandoned lookout tower of a drawven tribe who no longer inhabited the mountain. It gave me a location to reintroduce a pair of NPCs who were using the spot as a campsite, and built in another layer of history and plot devices to the campaign.

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• G-

  @G-and-J-Chapel-Artworks · 2 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJsnd8tpQ&amp;t=2365">39:25</a> <br>I had to put a bridge into a region that didn&apos;t have one.<br>&quot;Let&apos;s check out the bridge.&quot;<br>Caused an oh crap moment.<br>Now, all of the sudden, there is a bridge guarded by half orc thieves.<br>I planned a fight, the players decided to put smart them.

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• SC

  @Scorpious187 · 3 years ago

  &quot;They told me &apos;practice makes perfect&apos;. Then they told me &apos;Nobody&apos;s perfect&apos; so I stopped practicing.&quot; - Steven Wright

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• VA

  @vapypr · 3 years ago

  Your teacher was correct. Practice makes permanent. If you practice something incorrectly it solidifies that behavior. Perfect practice means deliberate, constructive, methodical repeated attempts. You have to know the goal and the steps to achieve it. &nbsp;For instance learning an instrument. Playing each movement slow and deliberately, making sure you hit each note correctly and in time.

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• RO

  @robinblaine5385 · 2 years ago

  The kobolds greet the player characters warmly as friends. They are confused when the pcs are angry at them and asking why the kobolds started doing bad stuff again. The kobolds claim that they haven&apos;t! That they used the shiny stuff to buy the barn and goats from the farmer, but then the farmer tried to make them give it back without paying for it. Now the players have to figure out who is telling the truth.

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• ME

  @Mercadian · 3 years ago

  Welp, I was like &quot;I do pretty much all of these&quot;, though my favourite method of stalling is &quot;You stop for the evening; did X want to discuss their issue with Y in the last encounter?&quot; and my (admittedly extremely wonderful) group starts RPing in character, I get some time to prep things, AND also listen to their chatter to make long term plans.<br>Then you added tip 15, and... I&apos;m allergic to bacon/pork/ham etc. So that&apos;s a mistake I can&apos;t rectify!

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• RO

  @rowdyparks6770 · 3 years ago

  Sometimes when i listen to my players, they come up with something that they think is happening that is in my mind better than what i came up with. When they get to the thing, i like to reward that player, or players an inspiration.

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• CE

  @CelesProxy · 1 year ago

  Last session my DM ran was a side quest.<br>The chef NPC wanted us to get a pig for her while we were at port and asked one of the party members, to which he then needed to try to convince the only strong person in the party my barbarian to help steal one. She is very gullible, so he just lied, said they were rescuing the pig from an abusive farm, the party split, me, him and one other, while the rest of the group stayed on our ship.<br>As the session went on, the lies my character was told extended to we need to save this pig from the APS (anti pig society.) We ended up having a run in with the mafia, who we bribed to let us see a pig. Turns out on this island pigs are sacred, and that the mafia runs the place and protects them. So like geniuses, we did end up stealing the pig. My character still has not learned the truth and genuinely believes that she rescued a pig from the APS.<br>At the same time group B had their own run in with the mafia, one of our NPCs got kidnapped on the ship. Turns out he had previous ties with the mafia and they found out there was salted pork in one of his rations...<br><br>Obviously wacky hijinks ensue, but it was an amazing session.<br>The best part is, when asked, our DM said that she had planned the whole thing and knew this was how this was going to play out, she understood exactly what we were all going to do. 70 someodd sessions and almost 2 years of play and yeah that makes sense.

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