Untitled - Index of - Free

Super1nan dlsuuised as Clark 1\en nlild-mannered
repvrter fvr a ureat metrVP()IItan newspaper Huhts a never­
endinfl batue f()r b-uth Justice and the 4met·l£.an way.
MAKEUP AND COSTUMING
When an Actor puts on makeup and a costume and
walks out upon a stage, she wears more than these thm
outer alterations of appearance. In order to play a role, an
Actor must take on the attitudes, abilities, mind-set,
history, appearance, potentials, and deficits of her role
The character as we see it is the end product of a whole
life, lived before we were ever privileged to view it. The
character is the sum total expression of that previous hfe
What follows is a method of taking thts totality of expres­
sion, and distilling it down to 1ts essence. In roleplaying,
it is these essences that we deal w1th in terms of the rules
In Theatnx, we distill each character down into four basic
categories of essence, whtch are termed 'Tra1ts'. We deal
with four basic types of Traits, which are ...
q Physical and Mental Attributes- These six
Traits comprise a descriptton of each
character's physical and mental capabilities,
and include Strength Stamina, Coordination,
Intellect, lntuitJon and Presence
q Skills and Abilities - Skills are Traits that
measure the depth and facility of your
persona's knowledge in particular areas, and
expertise at various tasks. Abilities are very
much like Skills, but cover feats of a
paranormal nature that often fall outside the
realm of normal leammg.
q Personality Traits - These Tra1ts form a
description of your persona's major
psychological motivattons
-Anonymous
q Descriptors -These Traits help to portray
the effects of a role's background, history,
and soctal position, as well as some physical
oddities and paranormal features
By dealing with these simplified facets of character­
ization, ie. Traits, we can provide a basis for a usable
system of rules The rules, 1n turn, provide a consistent
method of adjudicating the results of various actions
wtthin the game world
QUANTIFIERS
The basic composttton of each Trait is a description
of it, in language To make judgements about a character's
Traits even easier, certain Traits will be further distilled
down by asstgning them a smgle number, from '0.0' to
'1 0.0'. This number, or 'quantifier', will tndicate the rough
magnitude, or strength of that Trait. Traits are somettmes
quantified in this way to provide a better objective guide
for decisJon maktng Keeping each Trait's baste descnp­
tJon tn mtnd. we are able to do some pretty neat things with
those numbers as you'll see 1n the next chapter, titled
'Lights ... Camera ... Action!'
SCALING
Theatrix is also a universal roleplaying game, and
the same Range of numbers (from '0 0' to '10 0') will be
used to quanttfy T ratts across all Theatnx Settings. How­
ever because some Settings are gntty and realistic, while
others are more expanstve and grandiose, th1s can lead
to problems. For example, a Nobel Prize winnmg physt­
cist in a realistic modem day Setttng, might be considered
barely competent in a futuristtc dimension hopping fan­
tasy Yet mastery of physics must bear the same numeri­
cal quantifier in either Setting (although the actual knowl-
Thall ix - The Core Rules 29