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velop a starting point for your Main Cast that's both satisfying, and provides a long life for the Chronicle. RESCALING THE CHRONICLE Simply because your Chronicle has reached the end of its useful life-span within your present Setting doesn't mean that it has to end, especially if everyone's still actually enjoying it. If your Chronicle has outgrown your Setting, and you'd like to find new life for your Chronicle, then ReScale the Setting. This will usually involve UpScaling the Setting so that the Main Cast of the Chronicle looks once again like beginners in a wider world. For example, if you'd been using the Setting of four color comic book superheroes who are guardians of a major metropolis, and your Main Cast has outgrown their street level petty criminal enemies, but the Troupe still wishes to continue the Chronicle, then it's time to UpScale the Setting. How about the federal government taking notice of your little band of heroes and deciding to recruit them for the start of its new, 'Federally United Core of the Knights of Unrivaled Protection', a federally funded group of super-beings responsible for the protection of all citi zens? Suddenly your group is presented with government regulations and interference, new super-enemies they're unprepared to meet, a super-base that's unfamiliar and unfinished, etc. An instant Setting retread. BOTTOM OF THE HEAP Theatrix allows for the creation of very competent roles, with complete backgrounds and a lot of experience. However, in order to get the most out of each of your Settings, the Troupe should always start as absolute beginners within that context. This is not to say that they won't be powerful, just that they should start a good deal less powerful than the threats which they'll face. So, for example, if your Troupe is a band of powerful wizards in a magical medieval realm, then they should be starting powerful wizards. If your Troupe is a bunch of Galaxy spanning superheroes wielding cosmic powers, then they should bestarting Galaxy spanning superheroes. Drama is about conflict, and conflict involves overcoming threat. So whether the arena is to be political, physical, or intellectual, your Troupe should start each Chronicle facing a world of greater challenges. TOP OF THE HEAP Plot Points, as discussed under 'Improvisation', are earned through participation in the Chronicle's plot. Since plot is the medium of every Chronicle's growth, Plot Point Totals may become a measure of a Chronicle's maturity, and conversely, a measure of the maturity of the 82 Theatrlx- The Core Rules Main Cast. We therefore use each role's Plot Point Total as a limit upon that role's immediate growth. The more Plot Points earned, the more a role will be allowed to grow towards maturity within the Chronicle. HIGH WATER MARK This whole system of character advancement de pends on two things. The first is the Director's knowledge of where the Chronicle is going, and the second is each Actor's knowledge of where her individual character is going. Neither of these concepts needs to be set in stone, but no matter how fluid these goals become, they aught to be constantly flowing towards some foreseeable point on the horizon. Both the Main Cast and the Chronicle should mature together, apace, and this requires an idea of where you believe things will be ending up. ADVANCEMENT SUBPLOTS Characters in books and movies don't have natural learning curves. We, in our mundane existences, grow and learn through practice and hard work. The boring way. Characters in books and movies get to live dramati cally. Changes to these roles are always a function of Subplot. Theatrix characters develop in ways which fur ther the plot, or accrue changes due to the plot. Any Subplot which advances a Main Cast persona, in any significant way, is termed an Advancement Subplot. Advancement Subplots may be instigated by any mem ber of the Troupe, be it an Actor, or the Director. Ex amples of Advancement Subplots could include infusion with strange alien powers, beneficial technological acci dents, crash study courses, knowledge from the reading of forbidden tomes, the acquiring of strange artifacts, the assumption of new positions of power, etc. Any plotline that significantly improves a character's Attributes, Skills, Abilities, Descriptors, or position within the Chronicle. Advancement Subplots may have a dual purpose, and they may act as both an Advancement Subplot for one or more of the cast, while acting as a Personal or Troupe Subplot for any of the other cast members involved. Any role that receives positive alterations due to an Advancement Subplot, receives them in lieu of the normal Plot Point reward (that character earns no Plot Points for that Subplot). This requires that each Actor engage their role in Subplots that do not advance their character, in order to accrue Plot Points to buy the right to engage in Subplots that do. We'll discuss this more fully under 'Pushing the Envelope', coming up in this chapter.
COMPLEXITY There's a limit also to the amount of benefit which any one Main Cast persona may receive from any one Advancement Subplot. In general terms, and this is as close as we're going to get to a definition, a Main Cast character may be altered in ways no more Complex than the Advancement Subplot which produces the alter ations. In other words, a Simple Advancement Subplot may only make Simple changes to a character. While a Complex Advancement Subplot may make Complex changes. Yes, we are simply dropping in the Director's lap the awesome responsibility of judging what level of Complexity is required, in order to make the changes an Actor wishes for her persona. This subject is so particular to each Setting, each Chronicle, and each Troupe, that you're just going to have to work it out on your own. Don't sweat this too much though. Theatrix is a very open ended system that involves a lot of free discussion between all the participants. The entire Troupe should be deciding what they want for their Chronicle, how hard it is to advance their characters, and at what pace that should occur. THE FORMS OF POWER Character advancement comes in many forms, and it would be a mistake to assume that only increases in Tra1t Ranks should be counted. The Actors' roles are capable of growing along many positive dimensions, other than those represented in numerical form on a character sheet A lot of advancement will probably occur in the social and political structure of the Setting in which the Chronicle resides, and this is as valid a goal for an Advancement Subplot as Rank modifications (see the 'Advancement Guidelines' chart, on the next page). In fact, we suggest that as Director, you make the most of this sort of role development, and leave the addition of new Skills, Abilities, and Descriptors, for the times when they're truly necessary and appreciated. PLOT DEVICES Plot Devices are obJects, or sequences of events, or Setting conventions, that serve as a tool for creating alterations in the direction of a plotline. Some examples of Plot Dev1ces include the alien artifact that temporarily provides enough power to defeat the villain, the unseen Secret Service men that come in at the last minute to save the day, after you've done all the 'work', or the consistent loss of your handgun in random accidents, forcing you to always fight the enemy with martial arts. Anything that's used as a 'tool' by the Director can be considered a Plot Device. Sometimes Plot Devices will temporarily grant additional power to one of the Main Cast. Sometimes a Plot Device will temporarily strip a character of power By 'power', we mean Traits and their associated Ranks, social standing, business holdings, political offices, etc. By 'temporary', we mean any reasonable amount oftime that's limited in duration. Just so long as eventually, the character effected is returned to a position approximately equivalent to the one she left. Plot Devices are a Director's licence to break all the rules surrounding character ad vancement, for the purposes of the plot, as long as those breaks are temporary in nature. These temporary, but sometimes radical alterations to the characters, can be the basis for some very interesting and Complex plotlines. Think about it. ACTOR'S CONTROL Anyone may initiate an Advancement Subplot, or alter a present Subplot to allow for a character's advance ment, within the limits of your Troupe's use of Distributed Directing. However, the amount of advancement allowed each Main Cast character will be limited by their Plot Point Totals, as we'll discuss under 'Pushing the Envelope', below. Since every person's role is important to them, and since each Actor must work for their persona's advance ment, each Actor should have final say over any perma nent alterations made to their persona. There will be times when the Director wishes to permanently alter a charac ter, and a temporary Plot Device s1mply won't do. How ever, using an Actor's hard earned Plot Point Total 1n th1s way shouldn't be done lightly. There will be times when someone wishes to keep the exact nature of an Advance ment Subplot's changes a mystery, in order not to spoil a surprise. This is fine, as long as when those changes finally appear, the Actor portraying the altered role is happy with them. PUSHING THE ENVELOPE We've said that each role's Plot Point Total will act as a limit upon their stage of development within the Chronicle. We've said that for this to work, everyone needs to have some idea of where the Chronicle is headed, and where their individual personas are headed. All this is true. The Director also needs a feel for how far along her Chronicle is at any given time, the number of Plot Points it has taken to get there, and the number of Plot Points 'left' in the Chronicle before it ends, or needs to be ReScaled. Basically, the Actors may use Advance ment Subplots to mature their roles apace with the maturation of the Chronicle, as represented by their Plot Point Totals. So, if the Chronicle is 25% of the way to completion, then each of the Main cast should be approxi mately 25% of the way towards their maturity. The tricky part is in knowing how many Plot Points a Chronicle is good for, what percentage of that goal is represented by Theatr1x -The Core Rules 83
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()eslan: David Berkman, Trav1s Eneb
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1J [Bll f)f tf)J[1J§ c INTRODUCTIO
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Downtime Pregaming APPLAUSE JELLYBE
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8 Theatrix - The Core Rules
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Chapter V- Lights ... Camera ... Ac
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pretend to be this other person tha
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¢ A league of super-powered heroes
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c;> her tormenting her employees wi
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edge to their characters (which mea
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Sequence that they're dreammg. The
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edge represented by that number may
Page 32 and 33: Books If you're creating your own g
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Page 38 and 39: Example Skills The following page c
Page 40 and 41: Personality Trait Activation In add
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Page 46 and 47: CONCEPTION The concept for your cha
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Page 58 and 59: The final Difficulty of such action
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Page 64 and 65: many times, and is 'getting ready'
Page 66 and 67: RANDOMNESS If there are times when
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Page 70 and 71: ecome their own screenwriters. The
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Page 116 and 117: Research A quick note on research.
Page 118 and 119: UPDATING THE CORE RULES The Theatri
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ecome violent. The Troupe can look
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9 Person's Name 9 Involvement in th
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DCPTI I don't have much to say here
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strong,just like you would expect t
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Midpoint Scene tV Pinch II Plot Tur
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ATTRIBUTES (3.5) Sltength (4 OJ Sta
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Theatix 12efeence Sheet A Skill Ran
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I Plain Fighting Theatr-ix l2efer-e
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