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To demonstrate this power, we'll give a brief ex­
ample here. The situation at hand is a murder. The Actors
have arrived on the Scene after the fact, as part of a police
investigation. Two of the Actors are portraying police
detectives, more interested in handguns than fingerprints
(Primary Descriptors of 'Sharpshooter' and 'Loads of
Connections and Informants' respectively). Another Ac­
tor is portraying a psychic called in to help in the investi­
gation of this bizarre series of murders (Primary Descrip­
tor of 'Psychic'). And the last Actor is portraying a consult­
ing private investigator with extraordinary powers of
deduction and inference (Primary Descriptor of 'Percep­
tive'). The Director has described a room in brutal disar­
ray, and the body of a large man lying on the floor, his
limbs arrayed at impossible angles. The Director has
carefully set up the clues so far, the most important of
which is the inexplicable escape of a gorilla from a local
travelling circus.
One of the police detectives states casually that this
must have been the work of the escaped gorilla, however
unbelievable. This is a natural Statement, and the kind
that gets made all the time in a roleplaying game. The
private investigator turns, and using her Primary Descrip­
tor of 'Perceptive', makes a Disapproval of the earlier
Statement. The private investigator declares that the
bruises upon the victim's neck show that he died of
strangulation, and that their size indicates that the perpe­
trator had hands not the size of a gorillas, but of a
woman's. This is not only a Disapproval that falls within
the domain of the private investigator's Primary Descrip­
tor, but also a Statement in its own right. The private
investigator adds a Plot Point to turn this hypothesis into
concrete fact, making sure that she will not be wrong.
Th1s is not what the Director expected at all. To
make matters worse, the Actor portraying the psychic now
adds to the damage by touching the corpse, thereby
receiving a 'flash of clairvoyance'. She declares that the
killer was indeed a woman, and that she has come from
far off, another land, seeking her victims here. The
psychic then also pays a Plot Point for the Active.
dramatic use of her Descriptor, guaranteeing her veracity
as well.
Well, that's it for the Director's planned plotline.
Fortunately, the Statements made do open up many
interesting possibilities for the plot, as will often be the
case. Just as fortunately, most of the Director's planning
will still be usable for this new, deviated plotline, as is also
most often the case. If the Statements made had not been
so kind to the time and planning the Director had already
done for the Episode, then the Director may very well
have denied them. Statements may be the best opportu­
nity for the Actors to step in and help 'write' the story in
progress, but they must do so in a way that's respectful to
the work others have already done.
IMPROVISE FOR SUCCESS
The above improvisational techniques can become
critical to the Success of your actions. Such determina­
tions are based largely upon how well you roleplay.
Accordingly, making your actions dramatically appropri­
ate, and improvising, should greatly improve your chances
of Success. Take liberties with the Stage and use State­
ments. They're free. For example, next time you're
trapped in a bUilding complex, and looking for a way to
ambush the h1red killers that are out for your hide, don't
ask the Director what you ought to do. Simply declare
'Aha! No one ever thinks about up. I'll hide myself in the
supports above this false ceiling, break into the building's
air duct system. and crawl to a position behind the enemy
lines!' Make that Skill in Urban Combat Tactics meaning­
ful. Did the false ce11ing or the air duct system even exist
before you just declared them? The Director never spe­
cifically said they didn't, and that's where your opening for
improvisation awaits.
CONSISTENCY
With everybody involved in the story being able to
control part of it at any moment, it's easy for things to get
out of hand. We're going to need a few guidelines to help
make this work Our basic guideline is Consistency. In
order to keep Consistency, no improvisation may alter
any previous Information that has become fact. The
reasons behind the Information may change, and new
Information may be added, but any new declarations
must logically (or illogically, depending upon the mood of
the Director) fit all previous known Information.
For example, imagine a small band of brave knights
(they all have the Personality Trait Brave) entering a dark
cave. They've come here upon rumors of something evil
making off with the local maidens. The Director, who's
known to have a predilection for dragons, describes that
about them by the lurid light of the torches, they can see
great claw marks and burned patches at the cave's
entrance The Actors moan and give the Director vile
looks, but they proceed on. The Director then describes
the movement of some great beast ahead, the metallic
scraping, and the unbearable heat. The knights round the
corner swords drawn and shields at the ready. when one
of the Actors suddenly declares 'We round the corner only
to find the king's minister, operating a large furnace in the
cave, and turning a great wheel with a metal rim to make
that scraping sound.' The other Actors turn to the creator
of this event with stunned expressions, but the Director's
smiling. Without skipping a beat, the Director declares
that the minister turns to them w1th a sour look and cries
out' 1 would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you
meddling knights!'
Theatrix- The Core Rules 75