Learn to establish the “Base Reality”, the key elements necessary for any scene.

Base Reality

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title: Base Reality
description: Learn to establish the “Base Reality”, the key elements necessary for any scene.
thumbnail: /posts/tutorials/character-customization/images/thumbnail.png
draft: false
---

## Base Reality - Who, What, Where

In this exercise we’ll learn to establish the “Base Reality”, the key elements necessary for any scene:

1.  **Who** the characters are, and the relationship between them.
2.  **Where** the scene takes place.  
3.  **What** the characters are doing.

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Base Reality is a believable situation that isn’t trying to be funny, an ordinary world we create so that anything funny or unusual can clearly stand out in contrast to it (like a setup for a joke). Comedy comes from the contrast between the strong expectations established by the Base Reality, and the unusual thing that breaks them.

- Use “Yes, and” to build on each other’s ideas.
- Agree with your scene partner, don’t negate their contributions to the scene, don't contradict what they're saying.
- Make statements, don't ask questions.
- The scenes work best when you begin with the characters who already know each other, and care about each other. 

"Play at the top of your intelligence" - commit to portraying the character as realistically and honestly as you can. To the best of your understanding of the world, how would a character like this respond in a situation like this?

Ground the scene in reality, make the choices that are true to the character, try to react to the situation in a believable way, like you would if you were in the character's place. Avoid breaking the reality of the scene for a cheap joke.

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<Collapsible title="Exercise: Yes, And">

In this exercise, we'll practice using "Yes, and" to build on each other's ideas, and agreeing with your scene partner.

- Two players play a short 30-60 second scene.
- Every response should be in the form of “Yes, [repeat the last thing the other player just said], and [add some information to the scene]”.

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<Collapsible title="Exercise: Establish the Base Reality">

- Two players play a three-line scene.  
  (Player 1 says a sentence, Player 2 responds, Player 1 responds with the final sentence.)
- Their goal is to establish the Base Reality in these 3 lines: where the characters are, who they are, what is the relationship between them, and what they are doing.
- Discuss the scene as a group, make sure that the players have clearly conveyed all 3 elements, and we all have a clear picture of what’s going on in the scene.

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<Collapsible title="Exercise: Play Believable Characters">

Think of it as an acting exercise where our goal is to get good at playing believable characters.

- Two players play the scene until the characters, location, action, and relationship are established.
- First round, pairs of players take turns playing the scenes set in our world - normal and ordinary reality. Play characters who are similar to yourself.
- Then, we play the scenes set in a fictional reality - can be fantasy, sci-fi, action movie, drama, etc, with characters who are different from the improvisers. But our goal is still to make the scenes as realistic and believable as possible - think Game of Thrones, Lost, not Futurama.
- Players who are watching the scene should raise their hands if they see anything not believable.

Deliberately avoid introducing any absurd elements, aim for a grounded, realistic, believable scene that you could see in a serious movie.

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