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IMPROVISATION
Remember when we promised that the Actors were
going to put your plotlines through severe stress? Re­
member when we said that the Actors would do half the
work of creating your plots? We lied. Those were under­
statements, and this chapter is why. We're going to hand
much of the decision making process, the creative pro­
cess, and a lot of the Director's control over to the Actors.
We're going to allow the Actors ... actually, encourage
the Actors to improvise. In this chapter we'll talk about the
concepts of drama, Information, plot structure, story
process, and Subplots, to set up a basis for improvisa­
tional techniques. Then we'll discuss the limits of impro­
visation upon the physical stage and any Statements
which provide new Information. We'll cap this off with a
discussion of Consistency, the brother of Continuity. And
last, but not least, we'll finally describe in detail all the
guidelines for awarding, earning, and spending Plot Points.
You, the Director, will be nominally in charge of this
whole mess, guaranteeing the story's continuous flow,
and holding it somewhat within the bounds of a single
script. It's going to be very important to give the Actors as
much freedom as possible. You have the ultimate veto
power on all subjects, but try to use it only to keep your
genre and story intact. The Actors will twist your plot in
ways that will make you cringe. They'll attempt to run
roughshod over your carefully crafted tale. You'll be there
to guide them. This is going to be a lot like handing you the
reins to a team of wild horses. You'll love it. Really.
TROUPE STYLE ROLEPLAYING
The following guidelines will introduce a Troupe
style of roleplaying into your Chronicle. What you read
here are simply guidelines, but we've done many hours of
- Lewis Carroll
play testing to produce just the right mix of rules, rewards,
and controls to make the system work as a whole.
Basically, a Chronicle that's set up for Troupe style play
may have more than one Director. Every Actor may take
a turn at the Director's chair for one or more Episodes. Not
every Actor needs to take a tum at Directing an Episode,
but everyone should be involved in the creation of the
Chronicle's Setting. This style of roleplay requires that
everyone be sensitive to the work that others have done
in creating Supporting Cast members, plotlines, and
Subplots for the Chronicle. Although each participant
may claim 'ownership' of certain pieces they've created
for the Setting, important aspects of the Chronicle must
be owned and developed communally. Even if only one
person will be acting as Director for the Chronicle, the
following rules almost demand fuller participation by the
Actors, and require the Director to give up some portion
of her control, in favor of allowing the Actors a lot of
improvisational freedom.
DRAMA
Whether or not you decide to have more than one
Director for your Chronicle, Theatrix places a lot of
emphasis on allowing the Actors to improvise. We want
Theatrix Episodes to create the feeling of drama you get
from a good book or movie. The problem is that books and
movies have authors and screenwriters. They're scripted
to make the protagonists look good. For an author or
screenwriter, the main characters and the story are one
and the same. Roleplaying games, on the other hand,
work with unscripted Actors whose concentration is mainly
upon their characters, and pre-scripted Directors whose
focus must mainly be upon the plotline of their Episodes.
Our solution will be to blur the lines between the Actors
and the Director. We wish to give the Actors improvisa­
tional control over the story, in essence allowing them to
Theat.-tx - The Core Rules 69