Improvisation league : rules and team sign-up

**Harpalos-mxo**

Hello. Yesterday, we held the preparation meeting where I described my views about the kind of game we could make. Of course, not everyone that was interrested could make it, but the players that were there were quite enthusiast about the idea. I will explain here the concept that we agreed on yesterday in detail. Every player that wants to play in it, and every audience member that is curious about how things will work should read it! This might not answer every question, so feel free to ask !

Background
Where I come from (Quebec), improvisation (impro or improv, whatever you prefer) is a widely played game. Every high school has its team, and even league. I played and coached in this game for years, and this is definitely where I developped my best roleplay skills. The concept of short form improvisation dates from a long time, and everyone knows about it thanks to shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway? However, we'll be using a specific set of rules and game structure for this mxo league.

The participants
Each game has 2 teams of 4 players, distinguished by uniform color. Many teams will be accepted, to allow different matchups . This is open to any player, and teams don't have to be faction-related. Since the game is totally out of character, players from any background can join.
There's an arbiter, who is acting as MC. He gives the themes, counts the points and gives warnings when necessary. For the first league, I will be handling this role.
In the game of impro, the audience is a key player. Since each improvisation's winner is determined by a vote, it's the audience that determines the winner of each match.

The game setting
Matchs will be held in a bar with a scene, like Polyvinyl, but maybe somewhere less crowded, but available to low-levels. Both teams will be on the stage, at each end of it. Teams must be in a mission team. Players which are not in play must sit and stay quiet.

The game sequence

The game is made of about 8-10 improvisations. In each impro, both team has to roleplay through a given theme, with set contraints. At the start of each impro, the arbiter presents the theme, the type, the duration, and an handicap. Here is an example of how this will be presented :

Compared improvisation. Duration : 3 minutes. Handicap : none. Theme : My kingdom for a blue pill.

This description contains 4 parts. Here is the lowdown on each one.

The type : there are 2 different types of improvisations : compared and mixed. In mixed improvisations, both teams each present their improvisation, but one team after the other. This allow more control in story building. In mixed improvisations, both teams have to work together. This is the most challenging type of impro, since you have to compete directly against your opponent's ideas, but is often the most interresting.

The duration : each improvisation must be played within the said time limit. Once the arbiter tell that this is over, the actors must go back with their team.

The handicap : this is where special contraints can be put to spice out the challenge. Whether it is to force players to speak in rhymes or set them into a parallel universe, the handicap totally modifies how players will play. The arbiter has to describe the handicap when its not clear enough.

The theme : this is what the actors must loosely follow. There is place for a lot of creativity, so as long as you can make a link to the theme somewhere, this will be ok. By the way, not every theme or execution has to be linked to the Matrix universe since this would probably limit us more.

Once the description is done, each team has 1 minute to prepare their game plan. Each team discuss in team chat about what they will do, who will do what, etc. It got to be noted that it's not necessary to have the full team playing at each time. Having too much players at once can bring confusion, and make bad improvisations.

Immediately after the huddle, if the improvisation is mixed, at least one player of each team must come in the scene to start it. If it's compared, a /random made by the 2 captains will determine which team will have a chance to start or let the other team begin.

During the improvisation, silence among non-playing actors is essential. Especially in a chat environment, it can be easy to lose track of what is going on. Emotes can be used, but the most important thing is to make the scene flow well. So it's better to type short sentences than to write a long message.

At the end of the improvisation, the arbiter calls the vote. Each member of the audience got to vote by moving to either side of the room. Each person votes by using its own criterias. Some might prefer character building, while some others would prefer comedic elements. Once the vote is made, the arbiter counts the votes, and the highest number gains a point. Then it's time to move on to the next improvisation, until the match is over!

League structure
At each week, 2 teams that never met will face each other. At the start of the league, it won't be possible to add a new team, but once the league is over, we will be taking new applications. By the way, all of this is made strictly for fun. There's no prize in itself. Matches will be played sunday nights, around 9 PM EST. Yes, this won't be a good time for european players, but we can rethink the time for the next league. Each match should be 1-2 hours long. Consequence will maybe be hosting an improv league section on its website, so results can be presented.

Well, that was long, but I think it was important to define well how things will work!

If you are interrested, you can start subscribing to the league by forming your 4 person team, and giving the names of the participants here. If you don't know anyone, or are not enough to form a 4 players team, add your name and we'll try to match you with others to form a team. Also, team captains should pick out their team color. Each team will be named by its uniform's color. The uniform of each team will be a distinct color of G-Met T-shirt. They are ugly, yes, but they come in a large variety of colors. So pick up your team color, name a captain, and start forming teams!

Message Edited by Harpalos on 06.26.2006 11:45 AM
Message edited by Harpalos-mxo on 06/26/2006 07:45:56.

Sykin

Sounds pretty cool, Harpalos. I'd definitely like to give this a shot next Sunday.

Staticzero

I am in Harp ,

Just gotta find me a team,

**Shinryu**

Not sure if I'd participate, but I'd love to watch just to see how it turns out SMILEY

Fatmop

Free Tibet? I'll take it!!

I mean, I'll do this thing, yeah. I'll probably be working every time you set it up, though.

Aleatha

Sounds like it would be alot of fun, nice job bringing it to MXO.

Sadly I won't be able to participate mainly due to its timing, but I wish good luck everyone who does.

**nephillim**

I'm in.

**caillech**

I'll take the risk of saying, I'll start a team. Anyone interested? Contact me in game please. E-mails there are fine. Four to a team, if we get enough responses, we can form two teams.

**n1nj4**

I would not mind joining a team. Timing would be a bit of a problem, but I think I can make it most of the time.

In-game: TakaOkami

**caillech**

Oops, I forgot. In game is Caillech.

Parkin

Count me in! I just gotta hook up a team!

**Harpalos-mxo**

So far, I have heard many individuals interrested in joining in.
However, there's no team announced for sunday. The first two full teams
announced here will be competing against each other for the first match
of the league.

**caillech**

My team is formed and come one come all, we are ready to stun you with the brilliance of our improv!

**Aiyalla**

Count me in!!!

**Pyroclasam**

Count me in Matey so long as I aint forced into work (**bleep** real life) I'm there.