DB

I’d love to talk about a little thing, a little scene work foundation that I learned in my beginning improv classes that really helped me with figuring out the bones of a scene. It’s a good trick of conversation, it’s a good trick of establishing scenes in improv, and it’s also a good trick of figuring out a direction in scenes in general.

So, let’s get into it. So: state, support, establish. These are three steps and benchmarks you can look to fulfill in order to understand the reality of a scene. I learned of it with an exercise through a three-line scene between two people.

It goes a little like this, where Sally and Tom are the two people in the scene.

Sally: States.
Tom: Supports.
Sally: Establishes.

Sally initiates the scene and states something about the world, or a character (either themself or their partner). Tom will support what Sally says–this is the core and spirit of the infamous “Yes, and ” mentality of improvising. Tom will agree to the reality, or the thing that is said, and add something more to it. By adding more to the stated reality, Tom is supporting Sally. Sally then responds to the response, adding more to what Tom said. This establishes a pattern in the scene, and gives a base for the characters in the scene to explore.

State

You can state something that talks about any of the base aspects explored in CROW, or something that is based off of a suggestion that you were given as an improviser (it is customary to ask for a suggestion to generate ideas off of). If you are not improvising, but playing in your favorite TTRPG, you can draw on the things you know about the world, the characters that you are surrounded by, and the potential conflict you are dealing with.

Bjorn: Evas, when you said that killing a dragon was a lot of work, I didn’t think…well…I thought that the work would be…

To state something for a pattern to form, it doesn’t even need to be a sentence.

Support

The next line comes with a supporting statement. With what was said, agree with your scene partner and add to it. Following the line of Bjorn…

Evas: That the work would be paper work? Yeah, dragons are a delicate part of our political system. If you want to kill one, you sort of have to put in the proper research and make sure you have the proper jurisdiction to go about with the slaying bit. We don’t want to break any laws.

Establish

The third line establishes what is being talked about, and additionally adds to what was said. By focusing on what is being presented in a scene, and by building or exploring what is already there, scenes become more complex.

Bjorn: So…the law of the sword…that still works here, right? Me killing the mayor won’t screw us over?

In three lines, we have a mess between two party members who have very different opinions on the interpretation of the law. You can potentially build up on the game of Bjorn not knowing that they screwed things up, and bringing those things up to Evas. You can explore the relationship–is this the first time this type of conversation is happening, and how do the two of them settle their differences? You can explore the the character of Bjorn or the character of Evas and dig into why they go about things the way that they do.

These are just aspects that were taken from the three lines. As an improviser and as a player, you don’t always have to invent new things. New stuff will always happen to your characters, and that’s wonderful. But, there is a lot to be explored by digging into what is already there, and by supporting your scene partner who initiates a scene with something. If they are starting a scene, it is because they have an idea in mind. By supporting that idea and listening to them, you can each build a wonderful scene together.

Patterns in 3 Lines

There’s an exercise that we do which is a type of a pattern game where someone says a word or phrase.

Sally: Red.
Tom: Green.
George: Blue.

Green was a supporting idea and blue is the third item which establishes the pattern. We’re talking about colors, right? Colors would be the pattern based on what was said. The third line really establishes what you’re talking about. You could go:

Sally: Red.
Tom: Green.
George: Christmas lights.

The first two lines have the same statement, the same support, but the pattern can be expanded and changed based on the third line. We’re talking about things we see during the Christmas season, which is a little different from colors.

The Value of Efficient Scenes

So, why use state, support, establish? In three lines, you can effectively communicate what you want the scene to be about, which is efficient storytelling. In the context of improv, you want to get to the meat of a scene as fast as possible. If you’re a professional improviser, people paid to watch your show, so the faster you can get to the juicy bits, the better that they feel.

With a proper understanding of how to listen to your scene partner and how to establish patterns, you spend a lot less time discovering. For your tabletop role playing game, you spend, precious time exploring a story and a game with your friends. And as TTRPGs go, scheduling is the bane of most groups. When we talk about gaming, the time we spend together is precious. While it would be wonderful to have small talk in or out of character the time that we spend not getting to the point is time just gone, right?

(That being said, there is value in a slice of life scene, or people just hanging out, but it really does depend on your game. If your game is an actual play, or a streamed game, it would be prudent for you to get into the bones of the scene if that is what your audience wants. In the case of certain groups though, your audience may enjoy the slice of life scenes and the comraderie! There’s no definitive answer as to how to play a game or do a scene, but listening and supporting to your scene partner has never hurt anyone.)

So…state, support, establish. Give your scene some good bones to give it a direction and to lay down the foundations of CROW! When you know what is happening in a scene, or a conversation, it makes the act of it a lot easier. Let’s just bring this topic to real life, and the world outside of improv and games. Say that we’re baking a cake.

We know that we’re baking a cake. There’s something wonderful about having an activity and knowing what the activity is. I speak to this as an introvert who does not do well with small talk and just like, normal getting-to-know-people sort of thing. I really need an activity to fixate on to flourish in a social setting. Then if I’m feeling up to it, if I see a little shiny bubbles that are interesting to me while we’re baking a cake and talking, I could pick those out.

In that space of nothing where there is no activity, man, is it hard for me to just be present in a moment, right? It’s terrible. It’s terrifying. And so, by having that direction, a pattern, there’s a little bit of that fear gone away. And for a new player, if you know what’s happening, in a scene or a conversation, you don’t feel too terrible as new role players.

You might be intimidated by trying to like act as a character, which is a style of playing. “How would my character talk?”, “What would my character do right now?”, “Uh, convince the guards to leave their post…? But…uh…my charisma is so low…”, “How do I become someone that is different than me?”

There’s already a lot on your plate as a player (especially as a new player). So, having a direction is a godsend. It helps ground your scene and guide you in some rules you can follow to make the scene work. It is essential and great to have in your, you know, just your little toolbox of scene work.

Scene tools. Yeah.

Links
3-Line Scenes