Untitled - Index of - Free

should cover the main thrust of each role's purpose. So if
an Actor wishes to portray a Vampire Gunslinger, she
may either take the Primary Descriptor 'Vampire' (and be
a Vampire who also happens to be a Gunslinger), or the
Primary Descriptor 'Gunslinger' (and be a Gunslinger who
also happens to be a Vampire). In any case, no character
may have more than one Primary Descriptor.
If several characters want the same Primary De­
scriptor, such as may happen with the Primary Descriptor
'Gunslinger' in an Old West Setting, then they must each
take a Specialty of that Primary Descriptor. For example,
the Main Cast of such a Chronicle might contain the
Primary Descriptors 'Trick Shot', 'Fast Draw', and 'Eagle
Eye', each a Specialty of 'Gunslinger'. Primary Descrip­
tors will be discussed further in the chapter titled 'Impro­
visation', later in this book.
FLAWS
Not every Descriptor must be complementary to a
character. Every Actor should feel free to assign Flaws to
their roles as well. A Flaw is a reoccurring problem that is
personal to the role taking it. Flaws may be used to
describe phobias, physical impairments, long-term and
persistent interpersonal problems, perverse facets of a
role's history and background, etc. Flaws may include
such descriptions as 'Claustrophobic', 'Blind', 'Requires a
special serum', 'Loses all power when bathed in green
radiation', 'Walks with a limp', 'Interfering and meddle­
some cousin', 'Wanted by the police', etc. The lives of
Main Cast characters are meant to be complicated by
plotlines. That's why they're part of the Main Cast. But a
Flaw is a way of letting the Director know that you have a
preference for some particular complication. Flaws add
depth to many types of characters.
There's also a special bonus for taking a Flaw for
your character. Anytime that your role's Flaw is intro­
duced into an Episode, you receive an extra Plot Point for
that character, at the end of that Episode. In one way
that's not so bad, because if you're going to get in trouble
anyway, you might as well get extra Plot Points for it.
However, anytime your Flaw shows up, and you get the
Plot Point for it (whether you want it or not), then the
Director has the liberty of using your Flaw over and over
again, in that Episode. For that Episode, your Flaw may
become a major complication to your character, and
possibly others. Of course, the more complicated an
Episode, the more Plot Points everybody will earn (see
the 'Improvisation' chapter), so again, this may not be so
bad.
You can Activate a Flaw in the same way as any
other Descriptor, although there may be fewer opportuni­
ties to do so. You may also use a Flaw in a non-dramatic,
ie. Passive way, for characterization purposes, without
gaining the Plot Point bonus, or adding the Flaw as a
major plotline complication. So the mere presence of a
Flaw does not always count toward gaining the bonus Plot
Point for it. For example, if a persona had taken the Flaw
of 'Blind', then we assume that role is blind in every
Episode. However, the same persona probably has a
variety of means for offsetting that penalty, such as the
Descriptor 'Highly acute senses', or a high Skill Rank in
Walking Cane. To get the bonus Plot Point for being
'Blind', that Flaw must be used dramatically, as a fairly
major complication to the Episode. Such a dramatic use
might have the character in question running from gun­
men who are giving chase, lost, crashing into walls and
over garbage cans, unable to find her way, and totally
disoriented. That character had best think fast. The Flaw
is now worth a Plot Point and may become a major
reoccurring inconvenience. It's up to the discretion of the
Director to decide how far she wishes to stretch the
bounds of plausibility in making an Actor earn that extra
Plot Point.
GENERAL THEORY OF CHARACTER
CREATION
The use of the Traits detailed in this chapter should
allow you to create almost any character your imagination
can invent. The only limiting factor is your ability to clearly
describe the functioning of your role's Traits to the Direc­
tor. Once this is done, your character's possibilities will be
free to fluctuate in a natural way, depending upon roleplay,
plotline, and necessity. This simulates the way characters
act and interact in movies, books, comic books, and
television. But how do you come up with the kinds of
characters you've enjoyed in your favorite stories?
Just as in well written movies, books, comic-books,
and television, every well developed role in a Theatrix
Chronicle has a purpose. When designing a character for
Theatrix, you must keep the needs of the Chronicle in
mind. The following section will describe a method of
generating a character concept, and then filling in the
details, in a way that will work within the context of any
Chronicle you wish to develop. This method is based
upon purpose. Action defines who a persona is - action
is character. Personality is action defined by a purpose.
In order to create an interesting, 'living' role, you have to
know what makes your character 'tick'. It's not enough to
simply know what your character can do, and why she can
do it. You have to know what your character wants to do,
and why she wants to do it. In order to get there, you might
try the following steps ...
Theatr-lx- The Core Rules 45