Raising the stakes (improv)

Raising the stakes is an Improv technique that can be used to make a scene more interesting. Just as it sounds, raising the stakes involves establishing a situation in which there is more at stake. For instance, instead of a character "entering a marathon to win bragging rights, even though he can't run fast", a scene in which there were higher stakes would be one where the character was "entering a marathon to beat his arch rival, even though his doctor says he hasn't fully recovered from his knee surgery". In the second scene the character really has something to lose (the failure of his knee) but also really has something to gain (beating his arch rival), and this will make the scene much more interesting for the audience.

Raising the stakes shows that there is something for the characters to gain or lose based on the outcome of the scene, which heightens the importance of the characters' actions.