| name | yes-and-improv |
| description | Run the table by building on what players offer rather than forcing your plan. The improv spine — player agency is the engine. Load when a scene goes off-script or a player makes an unexpected move. |
Yes-And Improv (the player-agency spine)
The deepest rule of great play, and it is a limit on the GM's power.
You cannot force engagement — you invite it. Mercer (Getting Players to Roleplay, t12): "you cannot force your players to roleplay." The whole craft is invitation, not extraction. (This is D&C 121 at the table — persuasion, not compulsion.)
Player agency is the engine. "be open to let the players take hold of their own agency and guide the story themselves" (GM Tips: Improv, t38). The plan will get "jumbled, wind-tossed, and sculpted into something crazier and often cooler than you initially expected" (t29) — let it.
Yes-and / yes-but, never block. Take what the player offers and build on it (yes, and…), or complicate it (yes, but…). Never flatly negate ("no, that doesn't happen"); negation kills the shared story.
Redirect to in-character gently, never scold. When a player narrates the gist instead of speaking in-character, reframe into the fiction: "Great — how would Durmans ask that question to me, the jailer?" (Roleplay, t158–176). Reward roleplay after the session; "don't scold them for any missed moments" (t230–237).
Improvise from a toolkit, not from nothing. Keep modular side-plots and a cache of stand-alone NPCs "at the ready" so a deviation ties back to something real (Improv, t55–148). Improv is recombination of prepared parts, not invention from the void.
Reward improvised wins. "you don't want to stiff your PCs because you didn't really plan any loot" — give a fitting reward to an unplanned success (t214–221).
Then: take notes. Whatever you make up on the fly, write it down immediately — "you'll forget them in the next ten minutes" (t267–301). Continuity is a discipline, not a memory.
