Group: Annie Nguyen, Miranda Diaz, Jasmine Steele, Ember Fu
Playtest #1
6 players
Notes:
- People are trying to force their objective in even when the other partner doesn’t want to go in that direction
- People were violent? Shot a cat and blew up Bella with a bomb
- People are acting very exaggerated
- Lots of laughing!!!
- Stalemate: both trying to achieve their objective but not getting anywhere until audience interferes
- Guessed each other objectives and tried to avoid them
- Using voices and accents, very silly
- Someone was struggling to figure out how to act as a “superhero”, might need more guidance with setting the scene
- Someone directly told the other person to do their objective, quick end
Mod:
- Audience screams “freeze” and actors freeze in place while an event or object is played
- Can’t say words on cards
Idea:
- Audience have a goal as well?
- Actors don’t know each others objectives but want to help each other to achieve them
Feedback:
- Characters don’t wanna do anything too sporadic because they’re scared of triggering the other person’s goal
- Rewarded for being timid
- Assigning the roles because people will try to pick one
- Other person knows the objective, guess it and its void, or get a point for guessing it
- Rewarded as a team, trying to do as many objectives as you can in your turn
- A card per round for interjections, one for each performance
- Explicit rules about what you can’t do
- Players write the objectives for the actors
Some changes from these observations we’re considering include adding the “freeze” mod for audience interference cards, giving the audience more interference cards, and adding additional direction on the role pair cards to help teach improv to those less comfortable/familiar. For instance, instead of just “Superhero”, one could have a suggested direction under the text like “You’re trying to save the city from an explosion”. This could be implemented as an easier level as well, where more advanced players can play without the suggestions. We also want to playtest more with two tweaked directions: having objectives be continuous (players must act for a certain amount of time and earn points based on how many times they can complete the objective, rather than ending play once one person achieves theirs); cooperative play where the pairs don’t know each others objectives but want to help achieve both to earn points collectively/in teams while the audience tries to interfere.
