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Produce Reasons Using ... If your combat Rounds are gorng to have Continu1ty. and your Actors are going to feel as though their actions have some meaning, then you must have a definite reason for each Success and Failure you adjudicate. Furthermore, if any factor should have tended to dictate an action's Success or Fa1lure, then for Consistency's sake, you must mention that factor This isn't really difficult to do The main factors you'll want to keep track of are ... Environment - as in ... q His sleeve gets caught in the elevator door as you rush him - or ¢ Someone throws a chair in your way, as you dive for the gun - or ¢ A deer, frightened by your shout.leaps across the path, taking the arrow you meant for human prey Wounds- as in ... q Your opponent strikes repeatedly for your broken ribs - or ¢ With that sprained ankle, you're finding it hard to run - or ¢ Despite that slash to your midsection, and the loss of blood, your hold your a 1m steady Skill Ranks - as in ¢ You clearly outclass your opponent. With a skillful twist of your blade, you .. - or ¢ Had you known more about industrial manufacturing, you wouldn't have chosen to hide behind that mach1ne - or ¢ Her spell is insidious, slowly eating through your defenses You've never seen such power Attributes - as in ... ¢ Your opponent's mass1ve frame seems to absorb your blows With ease - or ¢ You 'see' the look in his eyes, and begin to react almost before you're aware of what you're doing - or q As you slump to the floor, you wonder how you could have tumed your back on such a cad Any s1gnificant factorwh1ch contnbuted to the action that Round, either by being overcome, or by overcom ing a character, should be mentioned in this way. 100 Theatnx - The Core Rules Consult the Flowcharts The Basic and Advanced Resolution Flowcharts are there to help you 1n deciding exactly how to describe any Success or Failure, for any type of action. Just look there to find a template response for almost any situation Judge Extent Using ... Once you've gotten your decision as to Success or Failure down, then you simply need to know how badly each character Succeeded or Failed. This is based off of the difference in Skill Ranks between each of the Main Cast and their opponents, and the Risk each character took. Always keep your plot in mind, and feel free to be creative STEP 4 - DESCRIPTION OF RESULTS When describrng Results, you must always respond to each Actor's Statement of Intent Always start With intent, and then go from there. For example, 'You in tended to use your greater Strength to pin the assassin and pry his poisoned weapon from his hands, but ... ', or 'O.K. You aim your gun In front of the path of your fleeing opponent, and fire at the barrels in front of him. Just as you predicted ... ' Describe Each Result In Terms of ... Then fimsh your description of Result, putting each of your reasons for adjudicating either Success or Failure (the ones you developed in the previous step), in terms of the following .. Statement of Intent Once again, you must respond with each reason for Success or Failure, to each Actor's original statement of Intent. Otherwise your Actors will not know why they Succeeded or Failed For example, if an Actor wished to use her character's tmmense Strength to grapple her opponent, and she ts to Fail, then she must know that she failed because her opponent was stronger, or faster, or had a knife she didn't know about. etc. If, as Director. your response to this action is . Q 'You attempt to grapple your opponent, but he hits you, and you go stumbling back.' .. then the Actor attempting this action can only be confused. Why did she Fail? Instead try ...
¢ 'You attempt to grapple your opponent, but with a quick move you can't quite follow fast enough, he steps aside and strikes at you. He hits you squarely on the jaw and you go stumbling back, Bruised, and slightly disoriented.' Our Actor now knows why she Failed, ie. her character's opponent was a lot quicker than she thought. Viewpoint When you describe the result of an action to an Actor, it should be from her character's point of view. If the reason for the Result is not apparent to an Actor's character, then it shouldn't be apparent to the Actor. For example ... ¢ In the confusion of battle, a character might not have access to every vital piece of information available - or ¢ Due to a lack of Skillmsome area, a character might not be able to evaluate precisely why an action Succeeded or Failed This is fine. As Director, you should instead make clear that such a character is confused, and if possible, once again, why. Note the following two examples ... ¢ 'A sudden pain rips through your arm. You've been shot! But in the thick smoke and fire surrounding you, you can't tell who your attacker might be.' ¢ 'With a neat move you can't even follow, let Keen Bits alone reproduce, your opponent flicks your sword out of your hands.' Combat has sight, sound, smell, feel, and motion. Use them all. Don't just describe action, make your Actors feel it. So, for example, instead of saying ... ¢ 'Your opponent avoids your strike by quickly moving out of the way, pulls out a knife, and finishes with it at your throat.' ... instead try ... ¢ 'You step in and punch asfastasyou can, but the only resistance you meet is air. Your opponent spins as you thrust, which is followed by a metallic scraping noise, and then the feel of a blade's exquisitely sharp point, like a needle under your chin. In your peripheral vision you can see the dust settling.' We recommend you keep a strong kinesthetic sense in your descriptions. Your Actors will be directly respond ing to your words. If they get a good feel for the movement involved in combat, then the Results of their actions will make more sense. THE BIG COMBAT MEGA-EXAMPLE Well, we gave it some thought, and decided you might appreciate a little help putting this all together. Most other games use long drawn out examples to accomplish this, and basically we couldn't think of anything better. However, our format may be a bit unusual. We've split the action into two columns. The left column contains the storyline proper, while the right column contains the Director's use of the flowcharts and the 'Combat Round Check List', allowing you to glimpse the Director's reason ing at each important juncture. We also include some running commentary on the tricks of Directing. After doing some of this work on your own, I think you'll see that free from games are mostly a matter of trusting yourself enough to push at the boundary between game and art. CAST [Thrilling Organ Music] The Good Guys Johnny 'Tailspin' White Scott McDonough Abe Walters The Bad Guys The Colonel SS Trooper SS Mechanic Note: Templates for these characters appear at the beg1nnmg of the 'Mini-Adventure', included as the last section of this book. You'll find all relevant Skill Ranks, for the characters mentioned above, in that section Theatrlx - The Core Rules 101
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()eslan: David Berkman, Trav1s Eneb
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1J [Bll f)f tf)J[1J§ c INTRODUCTIO
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Downtime Pregaming APPLAUSE JELLYBE
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8 Theatrix - The Core Rules
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10 Tlleatr1x - The Core Rules
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Chapter V- Lights ... Camera ... Ac
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14 fheatr1x - The Core Rules
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pretend to be this other person tha
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¢ A league of super-powered heroes
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20 Theatrix - The Core Rules
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c;> her tormenting her employees wi
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edge to their characters (which mea
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Sequence that they're dreammg. The
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28 lhfl'ah1x -The Core Rules
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edge represented by that number may
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Books If you're creating your own g
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Coordmation is Important in fightin
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¢ A character who can ignite herse
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Example Skills The following page c
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Personality Trait Activation In add
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Ace of Aces -The persona was practi
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Descriptor Activation Like Personal
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CONCEPTION The concept for your cha
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co ; I -i ::::r C'D () 0 ro ::u c:
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Page 52 and 53: Failure, based upon how difficult t
Page 54 and 55: 1:0 Creativity -If the easy solutio
Page 56 and 57: Easy - Ahh, an old style electronic
Page 58 and 59: The final Difficulty of such action
Page 60 and 61: same is really just as true for the
Page 62 and 63: The first set of ovals deals with w
Page 64 and 65: many times, and is 'getting ready'
Page 66 and 67: RANDOMNESS If there are times when
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Page 70 and 71: ecome their own screenwriters. The
Page 72 and 73: The Plot Pomts earned 1n th1s way s
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Page 76 and 77: However strange this turn of events
Page 78 and 79: Zero Point Subplots Although it wou
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Page 82 and 83: velop a starting point for your Mai
Page 84 and 85: each Actors current Plot Point Tota
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Page 88 and 89: they're done right, your combats wi
Page 90 and 91: Some props are less ub1quitous, but
Page 92 and 93: WOUND LEVELS We suggest the followi
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Page 96 and 97: life. Armor can be dented and broke
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Page 102 and 103: [More Organ Music] Brought to You B
Page 104 and 105: Abe - It couldn't be h1m. That's no
Page 106 and 107: Director - No way. Of course, you s
Page 108 and 109: Johnny- Yeah, the instant I drop th
Page 110 and 111: Director- [Accepting Scott's improv
Page 112 and 113: Johnny - Right. We're gomg for the
Page 114 and 115: ' l 1 114 Theatrlx - The Core Rule
Page 116 and 117: Research A quick note on research.
Page 118 and 119: UPDATING THE CORE RULES The Theatri
Page 120 and 121: end, or be re-rolled if the scores
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Page 126 and 127: q character q action q direction Q
Page 128 and 129: What mood will it evoke? What 1s y
Page 130 and 131: need Plot Tum II spins the action i
Page 132 and 133: ecome violent. The Troupe can look
Page 134 and 135: 9 Person's Name 9 Involvement in th
Page 136 and 137: DCPTI I don't have much to say here
Page 138 and 139: strong,just like you would expect t
Page 140 and 141: Midpoint Scene tV Pinch II Plot Tur
Page 142 and 143: ATTRIBUTES (3.5) Sltength (4 OJ Sta
Page 144 and 145: Theatix 12efeence Sheet A Skill Ran
Page 146 and 147: I Plain Fighting Theatr-ix l2efer-e
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