Review of Improv for Gamers shows an image of the cover of the book

Review of Improv for Gamers, a guide for TTRPG players!

Sometimes, it’s hard to just jump into role-playing a character in a TTRPG, especially if it’s your first time trying out this type of game. Other times, maybe your players have said they want to step their game to try something new, or you could be a GM who wants to make sure you have engaging NPCs for your players. Improv for Gamers is an activity-rich book created to teach you and your gaming group how to more easily act out roles in your TTRPGs with a bit more ease while having fun and using some classic improv techniques (with a TTRPG twist) to get there!

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What is Improv for Gamers?

Improv for Gamers, written by Karen Twelves and published by Evil Hat Productions, is a guidebook full of activities to help you use improv performance techniques to help you come up with characters more readily, engage with bids presented by other players (i.e. yes, and-ing), and feel more free to embody the character you’re playing.

It uses a gradual approach to ease players into accepting their own creativity and acting capabilities in a low stakes introduction and then slowly push for a little more over time to really develop and also recognize those abilities as a positive force in the collective fiction the group creates.

The book is broken into sections that help on a particular focus area, like developing characters or practicing using more motion or working within a dynamic scene, so you can hone in on the specific skills you want to work on first and know what you’re getting into with each session.

Discussions and activities for each exercise are on a two page spread, making them both easy to read in the middle of the action and less intimidating than if they were spread over multiple pages. I love finding rules-lite TTRPGs that introduce new players to the game but that are still engaging for veteran players… and reading this book felt like that style of gaming. It flows like a compilation of one pager games, which is perfect for its mission.

an image of one of the spreads in the book, showing an activity called "convergence" where players end up shouting out the same word at the same time after guessing many related words

Who would Improv for Gamers be great for?

Improv for Gamers would be fantastic for folks who want to feel a little more comfortable with the role-playing elements of playing tabletop role-playing games or who maybe want a break from gaming at the table to get some of the wiggles out with a side activity (this can be very important for younger players).

I’m also coming at this from a few specific angles of application, so I think the best way for me to describe this further is to maybe just talk about those angles so you have some examples:

I introduce a lot of adult players who want to learn how to play D&D to the game, and, even if the interested player is super into the RP elements, they might not have too much experience there or they might bring a spouse who is very out of their element. For these players, activities like this would help break the tension at the start of the game by letting everyone get a bit silly, try things out, and see that we’re all figuring this out together.

I will also be running a one week online TTRPG summer camp for a group of tweens who will only really know each other for that one week. For that group, I’m using specific sections of this book that suggest ways to help with online play to add some variety to each session. I’m anticipating this will help my players loosen up and get used to the new group quickly while facilitating some workshop talk and giving me options for active breaks.

Lastly, I play 1:1 games with my kid, who is seven years old, and sometimes, we really need a movement break even when we’re having fun playing our story games. In those cases, I can just flip this book open to a random activity and try it out together (if it works for two players) to just get something different rolling. I think this would help us both with having fun and developing our RP skills.

a list of sectinos from the book that also have a descriptive image next to them as a symbolic aid. Sections in the book include: warmers, yes and, characters, relationships, status, space objects, timing, and scenework

How does Improv for Gamers help you grow as a TTRPG player?

Improv for Gamers is all about getting more flexible, creative, quick, and expressive at playing your character… while also listening to others at the table and engaging with the shared story.

When I GM for kids, there’s often a tendency for my young players to want to be the center of the narrative, and it takes some time for them to maybe realize that the main character can actually be the whole group. It takes several sessions of players having each other’s backs, taking turns in combat, and deferring certain challenges to other characters who have more relevant skills before players can sometimes cede a bit of control.

This book, with all its group activities and breaking down internal barriers, is like an off-table speed run through that.

Improv for Gamers is a fantastic foundation for teambuilding as players (and GM’s are players too). Everyone is able to practice and play together before the game and free of rules calculations, getting more comfortable with performing and with being around each other, in addition to performing in general. Most, if not all, activities in this book are highly collaborative and require some buy-in from others to really work. There’s activities about literally passing the sword (“Throwing Swords on page 16) giving the attention from yourself to others, making it easier to then embody this type of spotlight-sharing behavior during the game.

While Improv for Gamers helps players practice many skills related to acting, I also think it does a beautiful job of providing a plethora of paths to developing a willingness to collaborate, which, to me, is one of the most important skills (and one of the hardest to teach to some players) to have as a TTRPG player.

Overall thoughts on Improv for Gamers

image of a book mock up for Improv for Gamers

Improv for Gamers is an easy read brimming with joyful activities that make sense, but that, to me, would not be obvious to come up with on my own. I think it’s a solid tool for the whole group to learn more about give and take within the story while also honing individual talents for role-playing.

While not the stated intention of the book, I do also think this would be a great tool to help with parenting. As I was reading, I kept thinking, oh, this would be great to do with kiddo even without a game as a wiggle break (“Lead With Your Body” on page 64), or, WOW! That is a fantastic activity for teaching feeling words and expressing emotions (“You Make Me Feel” on page 80). Basically, I think this is great for using with my players, and I also now want an Improv for Parents book too because I think these are just amazing people skills to teach my kid.

Where to find a copy of Improv for Gamers?

You can find a copy of Improv for Gamers here!

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