Here's something I picked up from theatre stripped of jargon for use by gamers.


In simplest terms, "to act" is "to do."  Actors do things according to a script, or in the absence of a script (as is the case with an RPG or improvisation) on raw impulse.  Each physical action you choose must meet nine criteria for it to have maximum dramatic effect.

An action must ...

• be physically capable of being done.
• be fun to do.
• be specific.
• have its test in the other person.
• not be an errand.
• not presuppose any physical or emotional state.
• not be manipulative.
• have a "cap."

To expand upon this ...

1. An action must be physically capable of being done.  
You should be able to do this action at any time.  For example, "begging for mercy" is something you can do immediately.  You cannot, however, "pursue the path of righteousness" on a moment's notice or even in a single scene.  To say that an action has to be physically possible does not necessarily mean it involves intense physical activity such as jumping around or assaulting someone.  Indeed the more violent activities your character engages in will certainly be resolved by the rules of the game itself (that's what they are there for).  Begging for mercy or Belittling an inferior are actions that can be done while sitting in a chair.

2. An action must be fun to do.  
This is a game after all.  But a "fun" action need not be comedic.  Instead the action needs to be compelling and interesting to you to be fun.  It needs to appeal to your sense of play.  Ever wanted to tell someone off?  Here's your chance.  It is certainly more fun to "get the dirt" on someone than to simply "gather information."  While you don't need to come up with a creative way to think of everything you do in the game for this to work – but what you do need to do is find something that gets you going and fires up your passion.  And what does that?  Only you can say.  Remember this though: the way you speak to yourself influences the way you act in play.  If you are clear and concise with yourself about your intentions then those intentions will be all the more clearer for your scene partners (the other players and the DM).

3. An action must be specific.  
If you choose vague and general actions then your acting will in turn be vague and general.  It is more fun to describe how your character searches over a room for a hidden door than to simply announce a search roll and cast the die.  It is more fun to "prove the baron is a phony" than to "find out something."

4. The test of the action must lie in the other person.
An action is the pursuit of a goal, and that goal must lie with your scene partner, be it the DM or another player.  By looking at that person you should be able to gather how close you are to accomplishing your goal.  Concentrating this way also helps reduce self-consciousness about your performance.  If your action is "bully the goblin to reveal his tribe's lair" you should be able to tell how close you are to accomplishing this goal and only when he does this (or you give up) will you have completed this goal.

5. An action cannot be an errand.
An errand cannot be sustained for a whole scene, so your action can't be an errand.  It only takes a sentence or two to "give a gift to a friend," and for the remainder of the scene you have nothing to work on with your partner.  However, "convincing a friend of my devotion" is something you can do while giving a gift and can be used to sustain a scene.

6. An action cannot presuppose and emotional or physical states.
You cannot control your emotions, so don't bother trying.  If you live truthfully in the imaginary circumstances of the game you will have natural emotional reactions to what is going on and these naturally occurring states will be a thousand times more interesting to watch and play than presupposed states.  So "making Alice know how angry she's made me" is a bad action choice because it requires you to be angry.  If you are not, the action falls flat.  "Cheering up Sharon" is also a bad action for the same reason since it requires the other person to be in a specific emotional state to work (in this case, they must be sad).  

In the former case try, "putting Alice back in her place" and in the latter case try "building up Sharon's confidence" since it doesn't matter how confident Sharon is, you can always work to add to it.  Physical states are slightly different since the game will bring them upon your character – but whatever they are you need to treat them externally from your action.  You can "show off to the barmaid" while sober or drunk – although in the latter case being drunk may impair your action.  More on this a bit later.

7. An action cannot be manipulative.
A manipulative action is one that desires to produce a certain effect on your partner.  An example is "make someone angry."  By contrast, "telling someone off" may well make them angry, but the anger may well be an honest reaction to your words rather than the product of a manipulation.

8. The action must have a "cap."
An action must have a conclusion.  "Begging for mercy" has a cap since you can look to your partner and determine whether or not they are willing to bestow mercy to you.  "Maintaining someone's interest" by contrast is an action that can go on indefinitely.  Depending on the dice or the whim of the DM you may never achieve your action – but you should always be working towards an end.

Interesting stuff, as it sits.

Can you tell me how to apply it to gaming, or are you hoping to figure that out together?

These are general rules of acting. As such they are more useful to LARPs than to RPG's in general. If a game doesn't have things said "in character" or have scenes played in character then none of this can apply to that game.

I could see it inspiring some interesting tabletop mechanics.

Pulling this into a fully-LARP context, most of this boild down into some other simple stuff, to me...

Focus on what you really can do.
Your character may be able to jump up to the ceiling - but you, the player, can't; you need to use rules or "out of character description" to do that, and those can slow down Live play for you and others.  So, unless it's clearly worth breaking character (or the break will be small enough to make little difference), focus on what you, the player, can do.

Set-up is only useful if it pays off.
When you take action, you'll either be looking to make something happen now, or you'll be looking to set things up so they can happen later. Now, sometimes, it's worth working in the context of the game to set up a lot of stuff, but there is zero play value in activity used to set things up that don't pay off in play.  If you spend a lot of game time working to create things on your character sheet or downtime sheet or whatever, and those things don't actually come into play, you've wasted that time.

You're here to play with others.
Tabletop gaming provides an unparralled opportunity to interact with the sum total of an imagined world.  Live gaming doesn't.  LARP offers you an opportunity to interact with a whole lot of characters, played by other people.  When creating your character, setting their goals, and playing them, keep this in mind at all times.

You are opposed by other players.
The flip side of being here to play with others is that the vast majority of challenges and obstacles that will be placed in your path come from those other players.  If you focus heavily on the world outside of those characters, looking for challenges there, you will ultimately end up in what amounts to a tabletop situation played without comfortable chairs.  Don't show what you can do to the world; show what you can do with them.

...Now, some of this stuff, I can't get into this "plain advice" format.  Can anyone else?