Barpro
Barpro is a short-form scene game set in a bar in which one player takes on the role of a seasoned bartender-host. Other performers enter as patrons with distinct characters and problems, and the bartender must manage the evolving social dynamics. The fixed setting and rotating characters create a natural engine for varied scene work.
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Related Games
Bartender
Bartender is a short-form guessing game in which one player tends bar while several patrons, each endowed with a secret character trait, identity, or quirk by the audience, attempt to communicate their assignments through behavior, dialogue, and physical choices. The bartender must identify each patron's secret while maintaining the scene and keeping the bar running. The game belongs to the family of guessing games (alongside Party Quirks and Psychiatrist) and creates comedy through the tension between the patrons' increasingly obvious clues and the bartender's attempts to decode them. The bar setting provides a natural framework for one-on-one interactions, character reveals, and the rotating focus that guessing games require.
One Eighty Five
One Eighty Five is a joke-format game in which performers riff on the setup "185 [occupation or type of person] walk into a bar. The bartender says we don't serve your kind. They say..." and deliver an improvised punchline. The game cycles through multiple players, each offering their own punchline to the same setup. It rewards quick wit and a facility with wordplay.
Front Desk
Front Desk is a scene game set at a reception desk, hotel lobby, or similar service point. The fixed location creates a natural parade of characters who arrive with different needs and problems. The game rewards the desk worker's ability to maintain composure while adapting to each new visitor's energy.
Continuing Styles
Continuing Styles is a scene game in which the performance style shifts at the host's command, moving through genres such as film noir, soap opera, Shakespeare, or horror. Performers must maintain the scene's established reality while instantly translating every element -- dialogue, physicality, relationships, and emotional stakes -- into the new style.
Genre Rollercoaster
Genre Rollercoaster is a scene game in which the performance style shifts rapidly between genres at the host's command. A scene might move from western to soap opera to sci-fi within minutes. The game demands instant genre recognition and the flexibility to transform a scene's entire aesthetic without losing its content.
Five Titles
Five Titles is a short-form game in which the cast generates five scene titles from an audience suggestion and then performs each title as a brief, complete scene. The titles are created collectively and posted visibly before any scenes are played. The game rewards rapid creative synthesis, the ability to find a complete scene inside a single phrase, and the audience's pleasure of watching titles they helped create become real.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Barpro. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/games/barpro
The Improv Archive. "Barpro." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/games/barpro.
The Improv Archive. "Barpro." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/games/barpro. Accessed March 17, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.