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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