thread: 2005-07-05 : Setting and Source Material
On 2005-07-06, Ian Charvill wrote:
Hey MatthijsDo you think total acceptance of new elements would work - a "don't say no" rule? Or would that just leave people flailing in a vacuum?
The starting point has to be a non-judgmental environment. There's nothing wrong with a model of "that's excellent! Can we top that?" Not judging something, and I suppose I mean not judging something negatively, doesn't preclude choices. Especially if those "choices" are essentially arbitrary—e.g. the dice decide.
"Don't say no" though is the cornerstone of a lot of improv games, it tends to appear in the form "Never Negate". And it doesn't leave you flailing around because as soon as one person has said one thing, the next thing has to build on that, so the vacuum exists for as long as it takes someone to say something. If you have a commitment to the stuff being created by the other people at the table, then the vacuum is ephemeral. So even in the extreme case, I don't think flailing around is necessary (that's not to say it might not happen for some groups).
