Have you ever found yourself unsure of how to integrate your reply with what others have written? Have you ever written something and felt that it was disjointed from your partner’s reply?
Part of the collaborative roleplaying magic comes from how we weave our narratives together. So when roleplayers don’t fully engage with each other’s writings, the entire thread can feel disconnected — less a single coherent thread and more an anthology of individual perspectives.
When other people in a thread don’t engage your replies, it can feel frustrating — like it’s a waste of time and character potential. If you fail to acknowledge what other people wrote, they might become less willing to invest their time writing with you.
So what can you do?
Don’t worry! This article is here to explore three techniques that can help you transform your replies into more collaborative experiences. These techniques were listed down from the article “Yes, and: A Recipe for Collaborative Gaming” by Emily Boss. So let’s introduce them!
1. Building and Endowing
The first principle is all about giving more depth to what other people have written. Whenever your partner introduces something into the scene, be it an item, location, or an event, you have the opportunity to take what they have already established as a foundation to build more details out of it.
Let’s take the following sample text:
Anna’s sword shone in the sun as if it were fashioned from the brilliant rays themselves. The silvery metal warmed up, as did the fierce knight who wielded it. Her steely eyes watched her opponent. Her valiant form was unyielding. And yet, she wouldn’t dare to make the first move.
One of the key things we can already do is add more details to what they already described. In this example, you could elaborate more about her knighthood, describe what her valiant form looked like, or even comment on how she didn’t make the first move.
Let’s try doing that now.
Bartholomew stretched languidly. He didn’t feel like his opponent was any real threat to his honor. As far as he knew, the woman was only recently given the title of knight. The glint to her sword only fed his ego further, as it seemed to him like a blade that had yet to see much use.
Here, we aren’t simply repeating what Anna wrote, but we are elaborating further and weaving it into our own narration. There’s added emotional resonance. We built upon their reply and then endowed it with new ideas. By doing so, we build up momentum for this duel between Anna and Bartholomew.
2. Consequences and Offers
The next principle is about making reactions and opportunities to react. This isn’t simply about moving the thread forward. It’s more about giving weight to what they have done. For every action that they made, consider giving an appropriate reaction. At the same time, consider giving something for them to react to.
Let’s use this sample text:
The shopping mall was a sensory overload. Casper staggered in his steps. He tried to shake the nausea away, but that was only making him feel even worse. There was some invisible force shoving its way up his esophagus. The man quickly flung himself towards the railing, ready to vomit.
There are few things that we can react to. Casper here was staggering in his steps and flung towards the railing. We can have our character react to those movements. In this scenario, we can literally offer something to Casper’s roleplayer for them to respond to.
Let’s put that into action now.
Darla’s eyes widened. She frantically maneuvered around Casper almost like a pesky fly. When he tilted left, she leapt to the side to try and catch him. When he leaned too far back, she pushed him back up. When he stopped his staggered movements, she thought the worst was over. But when he tossed himself over to the railing, Darla immediately shoved a plastic bag to Casper, hoping he’d take it.
By reacting and showing the consequence of what another character did, we can create a compelling back-and-forth dynamic between Casper and Darla. We built on the staggered steps and had Darla make several actions in response, offering a plastic bag at the end as a prompt for them to use in their next reply.
3. Circle of Expectations
The circle of expectations is a concept developed by Keith Johnston in his book “Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre.” Given a particular set of story elements, new elements can be included as long as they can be considered adjacent or within expectations of the scene. Unlike the previous two, this isn’t necessarily about responding to what they wrote but adding adjacent elements to complement it.
To demonstrate, here is our sample text:
Edgar ran as fast as he could down the alleyways of Chinatown. The hacker mentally cursed himself for the decision. Rows and rows of people crowded the street for lunch, forcing him to shove and squeeze his way through. It was only a matter of time before he tripped and crashed into one of the nearby kitchens. And he did.
From this text, we understand that they set the thread in Chinatown during lunch hour. Instead of trying to directly build on what they wrote, we can add new details that can be expected to appear in that setting. However, we aren’t limited to adding to the scene building. We can also use the circle of expectations to recontextualize parts of their writing for our own purposes.
Still unclear? Let’s show you an example of how.
Fifi tried her best to restrain herself. She wanted to scream, but her hands were already slamming against the table. The mercenary mentally cursed herself for the decision. Why did she order spicy? She knew she couldn’t handle spicy. And yet, the spicy pork simply melted in her mouth. Just as she was about to get another bite, a loud sound came from the kitchen. Almost instinctually, she pulled out her gun and pointed it towards the intruder.
Here we are using the details that Edgar’s roleplayer set to place our character in an area within expectations: a Chinese restaurant. While they didn’t mention any of that in their text, sitting in one during lunch hour shouldn’t be outside that circle of expectations. In addition, we recontextualized the mental cursing from Edgar’s thoughts of panic to Fifi’s thoughts of culinary regret.
When executed well, this can establish a strong common ground without needing to go into too much detail. It can enhance the feeling of cohesion and immersion within a fictional space since it minimizes the number of elements that get repeated between narrations.
Putting It Together For Collaborative Roleplaying
The next time you feel stuck on how to better integrate your partner’s writings into your reply, remember that you can:
- Build and endow upon what they already established
- Show consequences for their actions and offer something for them to respond to
- Introduce elements or themes within the circle of expectations
Remember, roleplaying is a shared vision. Everyone brings their own take on what the world might be like, and by integrating and bringing together these perspectives, we can weave wonderful stories together. Keep these techniques in mind, and you can create more engaging and collaborative experiences for everyone involved.
Interested in putting these roleplay techniques to use?
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