Untitled - Index of - Free

More documents

Recommendations

Info

q character q action q direction Q conclusion For example, members of the Drug Enforcement Agency (the Ma1n Cast) must locate and stop a large sh1pment of high grade drugs before it reaches the streets or hundreds of people are gomg to die. Just one sentence g1ves the characters (a DEA team), the action (locating and stopping the shipment), the direct1on (a struggle With drug k1ngpms who JUSt want to see their money), and the conclusion (hopefully, the Troupe stops the shipment ln time) Writing down your Idea in this short form will keep you on track through the rest of this process. Be simple, short, and clear for now. This is the time to work out the foundations of your story, then stick to them. For ex ample are you mterested in portraymg an action story, w1th some detective elements, or a detective story wrth strong act1on elements? Th1s will keep you from wonder ing where your story went later on down the road Other wise you may end up wanting to g1ve up on your DEA lnvestigat1on turned trigger happy shooting gallery when you realize that what you really wanted was a complex investigation, and not a complex shoot out CLICHE Don't worry about your story bemg too conventional Books and mov1es need to worry about being conven tional because they don't want to do something the au1ence has already seen Your Actors are going to be lns1de your story, where no book or movie audience ever Is. Your unscripted Actors will be Inside your story, getting shot at, having long car chases, talking their way out of bad situations, and generally getting in trouble. Cliche or not, 1fs all gotng to seem new to them In fact, some of the most conventtonal Situations paradoxically, offer the most opportunity for roleplay and role explora tion. The more known and stable your environment, the more lime you have to explore your own possibilities TRANSLATION Sometimes you'll get a great idea for a story, but it won t be in the nght genre No problem With only a little work, almost all stones can be translated easily from one Settmg to another All you need to do is translate the vtsual elements of your plot Idea, into those of the Setting of your choice For example, many of the great Spaghetti Westerns were onginally made as Japanese Samurai movies, and there are some excellent futuristic detective stones based on their anginal 1920's, 30's, and 40's 126 llte.Jtrh.: ·The Core Rules counterparts Swords may eas1ly be exchanged for guns, cars for anti-grav1ty vehicles, and traditional iron and ra1l locomot i ves for h1gh speed magnetic evttat1on trains. A few soc1al and technological shifts and your original concept w111 still work well DRAMA IN 3 ACTS Theatnx Episodes are stones told in words and pictures, much like mov1es L1ke novels. a Theatnx Chronicle has the lime to explore complex 1ssues and Situations, and like a play, its focus 1s upon character and dialogue Although, wtth1n the frame of any single Ep1 sode, from the Director's pomt of view, a Theatrix Eptsode is most like a movie The Director is the camera, and the Troupe, like a movie audience, sees only what you choose to show them The Episode, as a whole, 1s held together by the same k1nd of dramatic structure as a mov1e Every Ep1sode should happen m three acts, the begtnntng IS Act I, which conta1ns the 1ntroductton, the m1ddle is Act II, which contams the confrontation, and the end IS Act Ill, which contains the resolution This structure 1s the drama If you team to follow the nght structure, you'll get good drama every t1me ACT Ill ·THE RESOLUTION Whenever you start to develop a ploU1ne, you start with Act Ill That's because the first thing you're going to need to develop for your plot 1s its conclus1on Remem· ber, all plots come to a close w1th a resolution Resolution means to find a solution. to make clear, or to separate mto component parts In order to give yourself direction and to help the plot progress, you must have an end '" mind More than that, you must have a solution to the plot. Without a solution to head towards, your Actors will probably nt3ver reach one Each Episode's end should also be directly related to 1ts beginning Once an end is reached your Actors should say 'Yeah that fits This doesn't mean that the end needs to be predictable, but It should make sense w1thtn the context of your Settmg, w1th the power of hindsight your Actors will have at that time. As you move through the process of devetop1ng your plothne, you may find that the end you began with no longer works That's okay Just because a plot doesn't look hke 1t s gomg to end the way you had env:sioned 1t, doesn't mean that 1t won't be fun Just keep a definite end 1n m1nd even 1f it changes. This 1sn·t a bmdtng contract you' re maktng w1th yourself It s a wntJng a1d You say to yourself, 'Here's my idea, here s how 1t w11l end and th1s Will be the soluhon • It's a goal to work towards. The direct1on this gives you 1s tnvaluable.
Example of the Resolution Lets conttnue wtth the example of the DEA drug bust we started earlier We ve decided to concentrate on the invest1gatton aspect, but wtth strong background actton. Now we need a solution We've always liked strange surreal endings, so we came up with this one The drugs are betng sh1pped inside large stuffed animals made in Central America The head of the operation tn this country owns a chatn of department stores, and is stortng the toys, with their deadly payload, on the showroom floor of one of hts stores. The kids' toy section no tess He figures, 'Who would look for drugs there?' Our end1ng will be a deadly running battle through the department store, with elevators, escalators, and stuffed animals exploding with high caliber weapons' fire There you go, now we have an end If you review the above paragraph, you'll dtscover that there's a whole story contamed in tt. Because you know the end. and the premtse of the plot you can 1mag1ne several ways the Actors could arnve there Now there's a focus and purpose to the plot tdea We have an ending and a solution This gtves us dlrectton from now on ACT I -THE INTRODUCTION Now we re gotng to sktp back two beats The next thing you're gotng to want to decide upon after your ending, is your plotline's beg1nning. In the introduction you must set up your story's concept, your characters, and your sttuat1on Your story's concept must be estab- fished immediately You need to grab your audtence and set the characters up tn a strong dramatic context. You haven t got a lot of time to wander about trytng to find your story All of the Actors need to be Involved and Interested tn the Plot. right from the start. Plots both large and small should open with action orrevelation. Action is just that tt's tnvrgorating, tt's exciting, it grabs you and propels you tnto the story Revelation is, well. revealing ltshows the Actors something about the story and its cast. A revelatton says, 'look at this. You didn't know this. What does this mean?' The scope of the action or revelation will depend upon the stze and rmportance of the plotline. But no matter the plotline's size, some action or revelation must still be there You need to set up three major elements within the first part of your first session on a new plotline. These elements are Q The marn character, or who your story is about ¢ The dramatic premtse or what your story is about r::> The dramattc Sttuatton. or what the ctrcumstances are surrounding your story's actton Start with a strong opening Scene. Ask yourself ... r.::. Where does your opening Scene take place? ¢ What happens? llwatr1x - The Core Rules 127
Page 2 and 3:
()eslan: David Berkman, Trav1s Eneb
Page 4 and 5:
1J [Bll f)f tf)J[1J§ c INTRODUCTIO
Page 6 and 7:
Downtime Pregaming APPLAUSE JELLYBE
Page 8 and 9:
8 Theatrix - The Core Rules
Page 10 and 11:
10 Tlleatr1x - The Core Rules
Page 12 and 13:
Chapter V- Lights ... Camera ... Ac
Page 14 and 15:
14 fheatr1x - The Core Rules
Page 16 and 17:
pretend to be this other person tha
Page 18 and 19:
¢ A league of super-powered heroes
Page 20 and 21:
20 Theatrix - The Core Rules
Page 22 and 23:
c;> her tormenting her employees wi
Page 24 and 25:
edge to their characters (which mea
Page 26 and 27:
Sequence that they're dreammg. The
Page 28 and 29:
28 lhfl'ah1x -The Core Rules
Page 30 and 31:
edge represented by that number may
Page 32 and 33:
Books If you're creating your own g
Page 34 and 35:
Coordmation is Important in fightin
Page 36 and 37:
¢ A character who can ignite herse
Page 38 and 39:
Example Skills The following page c
Page 40 and 41:
Personality Trait Activation In add
Page 42 and 43:
Ace of Aces -The persona was practi
Page 44 and 45:
Descriptor Activation Like Personal
Page 46 and 47:
CONCEPTION The concept for your cha
Page 48 and 49:
co ; I -i ::::r C'D () 0 ro ::u c:
Page 50 and 51:
50 Theatrix- The Core Rules
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
Page 68 and 69:
68 Theatr-ix - The Core Rules
Page 70 and 71:
ecome their own screenwriters. The
Page 72 and 73:
The Plot Pomts earned 1n th1s way s
Page 74 and 75:
7 4 Theatrlx - The Core Rules
Page 76 and 77: However strange this turn of events
Page 78 and 79: Zero Point Subplots Although it wou
Page 80 and 81: 80 Theatrix - The Core Rules
Page 82 and 83: velop a starting point for your Mai
Page 84 and 85: each Actors current Plot Point Tota
Page 86 and 87: 86 Theat.rlx - The Core Rules
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
Page 94 and 95: Unhurt ¢ Blunt- Your opponent winc
Page 96 and 97: life. Armor can be dented and broke
Page 98 and 99: member that the Scaling of the Sett
Page 100 and 101: Produce Reasons Using ... If your c
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
Page 122 and 123: in question will fly as fast as a s
Page 124 and 125: 124 Theatrlx - The Core Rules
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
show all

Untitled - Index of - Free

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?