COPYRIGHT

DramaSystem SRD ©2013 Robin D. Laws by arrangement with Pelgrane Press.

Libre Edition (October 2013): This is an unofficial EPUB version prepared by Chris Sakkas (email, Living Libre website, FOSsil Bank wiki). Second Release.

Read the original on the Pelgrane Press website.

The DramaSystem SRD is made available under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US).

The DramaSystem SRD is an original work.

"DramaSystem" is a trademark of Robin D. Laws and Pelgrane Press. Permission is granted to use this trademark in works produced under this license. You may not use the DramaSystem trademark in any way that deliberately or inadvertently claims or suggests a relationship with or endorsement by Pelgrane Press or Robin D. Laws.

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To use the DramaSystem SRD in your work, please use the following attribution language. This text must be placed in the same place you put your own copyright notice, and must be the same size as the rest of your copyright notice.

This work is based on the DramaSystem SRD (found at http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=12485), a product of Robin D. Laws and Pelgrane Press, developed, written, and edited by Robin D., and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

DramaSystem Reference Document

This document is made available by Robin D. Laws and Pelgrane Press in support of the DramaSystem open content arrangement.

It is not a teaching document structured to show you how to play and enjoy DramaSystem, but a reference document for writers and game designers to create their own products derived from DramaSystem. For the former, see Hillfolk from Pelgrane Press.

Components

To play this game, you need:

5–8 participants

one deck of playing cards

a supply of poker chips or beads

1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow token per participant

about a dozen tokens of a fourth color (I use blue)

as many index cards (or spare playing cards or collectible game cards) as you have players

writing utensils

scrap paper

Creating Characters

Step By Step

The Game Moderator briefly encapsulates the series setting and premise, defining the group from which the main player characters are drawn.

GM determines precedence; see p. 3.

First player in order proclaims his/her character’s name and role in the group.

Second player proclaims his/her character’s name, role in the group, and relationship to first character. Players notate relationships on relationship maps.

Third player proclaims his/her character’s name, role in the tribe, and relationship to all other proclaimed characters.

According to precedence, remaining players repeat above step.

In the established order of precedence, players proclaim their desires.

In the same order, players define their characters’ dramatic poles.

GM chooses a new precedence order.

First player in new precedence defines what his/her character wants from any other player’s character.

The player of the other character defines why they can’t get it.

Both players adjust the statement as needed to reflect first character’s understanding of the situation.

Repeat steps 10-12 for each remaining player in precedence.

Repeat steps 9-12 until all characters are named as objects of at least two other characters’ wants. (Any unaddressed relationships are defined during play.)

Each player ranks his character’s action types, sorting them into Strong, Middling, and Weak.

Players apply “How I Do It” descriptors to their Strong action types.

Based on what they now know about their characters, especially their dramatic poles, players complete the statement, “My story is of a man/woman who...”

With a renewed order of precedence and an initial scene framing, play begins.

Order of Precedence

From time to time, the GM determines precedence—an order in which the players act.

Before play begins, write your player’s names on index cards, one card per player. Whenever you need a precedence order, shuffle them and note the result.

Role in the Group

The main cast of player characters (PCs) in DramaSystem belongs to a group, which may be closely-knit or loosely affiliated. Players are free to define their characters’ role in the group however they choose.

Defining Relationships

When you define your relationship to another PC, you establish a crucial fact about both characters. You can make it any kind of relationship, so long as it’s an important one. Family relationships are the easiest to think of and may prove richest in play. Close friendships also work. By choosing a friendship, you’re establishing that the relationship is strong enough to create a powerful emotional bond between the two of you. Bonds of romantic love, past or present, may be the strongest of all.

As in any strong drama, your most important relationships happen to be fraught with unresolved tension. These are the people your character looks to for emotional fulfillment. The struggle for this fulfillment drives your ongoing story.

Defining one relationship also determines others, based on what has already been decided.

Players may raise objections to relationship choices of other players that turn their PCs into people they don’t want to play. When this occurs, the proposing player makes an alternate suggestion, negotiating with the other player until both are satisfied. If needed, the GM assists them in finding a choice that is interesting to the proposing player without imposing unduly on the other.

Keep track of relationships as they are established during character creation with the Relationship Map page of your character sheet. Represent each character as a name with a box or circle around it. Place your character in the center of the sheet. Draw a line from your character to each other PC. Label the line with the nature of the relationship. As relationships between other PCs are established, connect them and label the connection lines as well.

Your Desire

A PC’s desire is the broadly stated, strong motivation driving his actions during dramatic scenes. The desire moves him to pursue an inner, emotional goal, which can only be achieved by engaging with other members of the main cast, and, to a lesser degree, with recurring characters run by the GM. Your desire might be seen as your character’s weakness: it makes him vulnerable to others, placing his happiness in their hands. Because this is a dramatic story, conflict with these central characters prevents him from easily or permanently satisfying his desire. Think of the desire as an emotional reward your character seeks from others. The most powerful choices are generally the simplest:

approval

acceptance

forgiveness

respect

love

subservience

reassurance

power

to punish

to be punished

Your Dramatic Poles

Driving any compelling dramatic character in any story form is an internal contradiction. The character is torn between two opposed dramatic poles. Each pole suggests a choice of identities for the character, each at war with the other. Events in the story pull the character from one pole to the next.

What You Want From Others

Now bring your dramatic poles into specific focus by declaring what they lead you to seek from particular other PCs.

The sooner you define a want, the more important it is to you. The first and second PCs you name as your withholders of emotional reward are your fraught relationships. List these first in the “People In My Life” section of your character sheet. Also, mark your fraught relationships by circling or highlighting them on your relationship map. If you find it a useful memory aid, include a notation describing the emotional reward you seek.

Action Types

In some series, for example one inspired by the works of Jane Austen, the characters’ fates are never determined by their prowess at external tasks. For such settings, omit this step, dropping all reference to it from the character sheet.

In other series, external actions provide complications that then drive the drama. The game breaks practical actions down into seven broad types. In this stage of character generation, you designate two of them as your Strong types and two as Weak. The rest are Middling.

Here’s what you can do with each of the Action Types:

Enduring: You resist physical ill-effects of all sorts. Wins with this ability allow you to overcome, or at least reduce the impact of, exhaustion, injury, sleep-deprivation, hunger, poisoning, thirst, heat stroke and the like.

Fighting: You overcome others in physical combat, and avoid injury in other dangerous athletic situations.

Knowing: Your head buzzes with useful information.

Making: You build, craft, and repair physical objects.

Moving: Under difficult circumstances, you run, climb, jump and swim and otherwise travel from place to place, over distances long and short.

Talking: When seeking practical advantage from negotiations and other verbal interactions (as opposed to dramatic conflicts, where you seek emotional reward), your skill at reading and playing to other’s desires allows you to prevail.

Sneaking: You’re good at skulking around, hiding items, concealing your activities and moving in a manner that minimizes the chances of observation.

Custom Action Types

You can create your own, narrower action type and make it one of your Strong types. Do this to make a clearer, more specific statement about your character. Strive for a one-word type name.

A custom type allows you to overlap several of the existing types, though only when the action directly relates to your specialty.

When you take a custom action type, three of the standard action types are treated as Weak types.

How You Do It

For each of your strong action types, write a short phrase (or single word) describing your specialty within the type. In a situation where it fits to describe yourself as employing your distinctive talent, you gain an additional advantage. Use specific detail; don’t just find a synonym for the broad category. Your GM may ask you to adjust an overly vague, broad, or dull description.

Descriptors distinguish main cast members from one another. If two players pick similar descriptors, negotiate to decide who keeps the current idea and who picks a new one.

Your Story

Given what you’ve now discovered about your character, complete the sentence: My story is of a man/woman who...

The sentence should evoke your desire, and possibly your central relationships and contradiction. It serves as a reminder to keep you focused on the story you, taking into account the collaboration of other group members, have resolved to tell. If your sentence is more than 25 words long, your idea isn’t simple enough. Adjust the introductory clause a little if it makes for a clearer, shorter sentence.

Episodes

Each session presents an episode—a series of loosely connected scenes.

Themes

Distinguishing each episode is a theme for participants to weave, loosely or obviously, into its events. At the end of the first session, the GM chooses the next precedence ranking. It sets out the order in which players choose the themes for the following episodes. The first player in the precedence order chooses the theme for the second session, the second choose for the third session, and so on. Once everyone has had a chance to pick a theme, start over again, continuing in this order until the series comes to its conclusion.

Scenes

Each episode consists of a number of scenes:

an opener that introduces the theme

an indeterminate number of development scenes that riff on and refer to the theme in various ways

a closer that somehow completes the theme—or ends organically, on a cliffhanger, conclusive line, or other exciting moment

Calling Scenes

Each scene begins by throwing to a player who then calls the scene, laying out the parameters under which it unfolds. These are:

Cast: names the main or recurring characters taking part in the scene. To cast a scene your player character is not in costs you a drama token (p . 10.)

Setting: where the scene takes place (at least at its outset; a scene can shift in time and place as it unfolds)

Time break (if any): by default, scenes are assumed to take place shortly after, or concurrently with, the previous scene. If you want to jump ahead in time, say so, and by how much. Time breaks are susceptible to challenge (see below.)

Mode: Indicate whether this is a primarily dramatic scene, in which a PC or recurring character pursues an emotional reward from a PC or recurring character, or a procedural scene, in which one or more PCs (possibly aided by supporting characters) pursues an external, practical goal.

Situation: a brief description of what’s happening at the scene’s outset. As excitingly as possible, the caller describes the scene’s location, the activities of the characters involved, and the prevailing circumstances. The situation may be a simple meeting of characters to hash out an emotional conflict, or can introduce a complication: a new plot development affecting some or all of the main cast. Caller narration may be challenged if players object to what you describe them as doing, or if they feel that your complication assumes a plot advancement that ought to be played out instead. Other players cast in the scene may bounce off your description to describe what they’re doing or other details. The scene, dramatic or procedural, then unfolds from the complication.

Often you’ll find it more natural to describe these elements in another order than the one given above.

Calling Order

Before the episode’s first scene, the GM picks the next precedence order.

The player choosing the episode’s theme always calls first. Then comes the player who actually appeared first, in your precedence order. The GM inserts herself into the order, replacing the player who chose the theme.

Scenes are then called according to this altered order. Once you reach the end of a calling order, it rolls over, continuing the already established precedence order.

Challenges

Players may request adjustments to called scene parameters by announcing a challenge. How they do this depends on the element they object to.

Except where otherwise indicated, challenges resolve through a vote. With a show of hands, all players side with the caller or the challenger. The GM votes to break ties. Should the scene seem satisfyingly in keeping with the narrative to date, she votes to uphold the call. When the call seems somehow punitive, unfair, or contrary to the spirit of collective creation, she votes to uphold the challenge.

Players may see that a scene might justifiably be challenged, but elect not to do it.

Ducking a Scene

You may challenge your casting in a scene you do not want your character to take part in.

The caller may then acquiesce to your objection, and call the scene without you, or may further describe the scene so that your character’s desire and poles compel your participation.

You can duck this compulsion by spending a drama token, which goes to the caller.

After you successfully duck a scene with a cast of two, leaving nothing to play, the caller starts over, calling a new scene that does not include your character.

Rushing a Scene

To insert your character into a scene the caller has not cast you in, and actively wants to keep you out of, spend a drama token (p. 10) or a bennie (p. 20.) The caller receives the token or bennie.

It costs nothing to join a scene if the caller consents to your joining.

A caller may block your unwanted entrance into a scene by spending a bennie.

You can attempt to rush a scene already in progress.

Challenging a Time Jump

Players may object to jumps in time when they preclude them from taking actions they see their characters as wanting to take in the nearer term. Resolve a challenge to a time break with a vote.

Challenging a Plot Jump

Players may object to a situation on the grounds that it advances an ongoing plot element that would be more satisfying if played out in full. Alternately, they might feel that you’re cutting into the middle of a brand new situation, and that it’s unbelievable that their characters would not have intervened in it sooner.

If the caller loses the challenge, she must then revise her situation description to meet the objections of the challenging player, and the voters who supported him.

Challenging For Novelty

Players may object to a situation on the grounds that it is an attempt to retry an earlier scene the caller’s character lost.

If the scene seems too similar to the GM, she invites the caller to point to a change since the previous scene that puts the situation in a new light.

The best defense against this challenge is to point to an intervening scene that changed the situation. Prevailing in a dramatic scene with a third character may change the complexion of an emotional conflict enough to justify a second attempt.

If the player can’t point to a changed situation, the GM resolves the challenge by requiring the caller to call an entirely different scene.

Going To Procedural

If a player describes his character successfully performing a difficult practical task, any participant, GM included, may demand that a procedural resolution (see p. 13) instead be performed to see if they successfully do it. Unlike other challenges, it takes only one objector to trigger a procedural resolution. The narrating player may avoid the procedural resolution by either withdrawing the description entirely, or adjusting it to satisfy the objector(s).

The Right to Describe

Players with characters present in the current scene may at any point narrate details, including:

physical circumstances (“I look up and see vultures circling overhead.”)

the behavior of walk-on characters (“The Tridents are getting restless.”)

their own characters actions and what comes of them (“I pick up an axe and smash the idol.”)

When someone objects to a bit of narration, they can either adjust what they’re describing or let it go to challenge.

The GM also pitches in with narration, as needed.

Dramatic Scenes

In a dramatic scene, characters engage in verbal conflict over the granting or withholding of a desired emotional reward. The character seeking the reward is the petitioner. This role is more often than not taken by the scene’s caller. The character deciding whether or not to extend it is the granter.

Tokens

All participants, including the GM, collect and spend drama tokens throughout the course of an episode. Everyone starts each episode with zero tokens. A central pile, or kitty, contains an inexhaustible supply of tokens. We recommend blue tokens to represent drama tokens, but any color other than red, yellow or green will do.

Drama tokens left unspent at the end of a session contribute to a player’s chance of winning bennies (p. 20), then revert to the kitty. They do not carry over to the next episode.

Tokens do not represent or simulate anything in the fictional reality you’re collectively depicting. Instead they bend events toward a satisfying literary rhythm, where characters sometimes prevail and are sometimes defeated in emotional confrontations. They overcome gamers’ natural tendency to always dig in when challenged, forcing them to play their characters like real people, impelled by emotional need and obligation.

“Finally you see reason.”

“You wear me down, Stonecircle.”

Calling Dramatic Scenes

Call a dramatic scene by specifying:

the cast

the location

how much time has passed since the previous scene (if any)

The final ingredient for a dramatic scene is intent—what the petitioner wants, consciously or otherwise, from the granter.

If you are calling a scene in which your character acts as petitioner, as is the norm, simply go ahead and enter into the scene, without announcing your intent.

You don’t have to make your character the petitioner, although it costs you a drama token if he or she isn’t present at all. You can designate a recurring character, or another PC, as the petitioner. When doing this, suggest what it is that the petitioner wants. The participant playing the character may ask for an adjustment, or allow the character’s intent to drift as the scene plays out and the granter responds.

Never call a dramatic scene between two recurring characters. No one wants to listen to the GM talk to herself, especially not the GM.

When the GM calls a dramatic scene, she may cast any participants in the scene, provided at least one of them is a player character. The GM chooses the petitioner and granter as her conception of the scene demands.

Playing and Resolving Dramatic Scenes

Players portray their characters through dialogue until the petition is either granted, or it becomes apparent that it has been conclusively rebuffed, or is losing tension and energy. This occurs when the players in the scene start to repeat themselves, or players not taking part in the scene grow visibly bored or restless. Where necessary, the GM steps in to declare the scene concluded, by asking the petitioner if she thinks she got a significant concession.

If the answer is yes, the petition is considered granted, even if other players feel that the petitioner didn’t get everything he or she wanted. Neither the caller or the other players in general may gainsay the petitioner’s player on this point.

If the answer is no, and the rest of the group agrees with the petitioner’s assessment, the petition is considered to have been refused.

If the answer is no, but other participants feel that a significant shift in emotional power from granter to petitioner occurred, the group, including GM, votes. The scene’s caller gets an extra tie-breaking vote, where necessary.

Gaining Tokens

Any dramatic scene ends with an exchange of one or more drama tokens.

If the petition is willingly granted by the participant, the granter earns a drama token--from the petitioner if he has one, or from the kitty if not.

If the granter refuses, the petitioner gains the token—from the granter if she has one, or from the kitty if not.

Forcing

If the player (or GM) playing the granter chooses not to relent, the petitioner may, by spending two drama tokens, force the granter to grant a significant emotional concession. This may still withhold some part of what the petitioner seeks, especially on the practical level, but must nonetheless represent a meaningful shift of emotional power from the granter to the petitioner.

At the end of the scene, the forced granter receives the two drama tokens from the petitioner, provided the force actually takes place.

The granter’s player may block a force by spending three drama tokens. These are paid to the petitioner, at the end of the scene. The petitioner does not spend the 2 tokens that would have been spent on the force, for a net gain of 3.

After a force occurs or is canceled, the same characters may not, for the duration of the episode, be called into similar scenes intended to reverse the original result. Some significant new element, as judged by challenge voting if need be, must be added to make the scene a true new development, and not just another kick at the can.

Supporting or Blocking a Force

Players not directly involved in a scene may support an attempt to force, or cancel a force, by giving their drama tokens to the current petitioner or granter—provided their character is present in the scene. They describe what they say or do to make the force more or less likely.

If you support a force which the granter then blocks, you get your tokens back.

Concessions and Emotional Power

A grant needn’t give the petitioner everything he wanted in exactly the terms he wanted. Any major shift in emotional power from granter to petitioner counts as a grant. Sometimes you'll reach clear consensus on what constitutes a major shift; in a few cases you’ll have to vote.

Even a force must respect the bounds of the granter’s established character. You can’t, and shouldn’t expect to, turn an avowed enemy into a loyal friend in a single scene. Forced petitions represent the character giving in for the moment, not undergoing a life-changing epiphany. They certainly don’t play like hypnosis or mind control. A force causes the subject to grudgingly act in a friendly, or friendlier than usual, manner in this particular instance.

No Contest Scenes

When you act as granter, you may find, as a scene plays out, that your character has no reason to oppose a petitioner’s request. If so, you can declare this a no-contest scene, bringing it to a quick conclusion. The caller may then call a new scene—hopefully one in which real conflict does occur. If at a loss for a replacement scene, the caller may choose to pass to the next caller in the established precedence order.

Two-Way Exchanges

At the end of a dramatic scene, the GM and participants might conclude that it was a two-way exchange, in which each character sought an emotional payoff, which either was or wasn’t granted.

If both participants were a) denied or b) got the payoffs they sought, each receives a drama token. If both players have a drama token already, this cancels out—you needn’t actually trade tokens. If one or more have zero drama tokens, however, the missing token(s) come from the kitty.

If one petition was granted and the other denied, the denying player pays the granting player two tokens. If the denier has less than 2 tokens, the deficit is made up from the kitty.

Two-way exchanges may prove particularly common in scenes started with a soft open (p. 13).

Multiple Petitioners

Sometimes more than two characters will take part in one dramatic exchange—or several dramatic exchanges will overlap and interweave with one another. This might happen when:

a player jumps into a dramatic scene

a dramatic scene arises organically from a conference scene (p. 13.)

Where possible, the GM avoids having recurring characters take major roles in these multi-layered dramatic scenes. Ideally, they act only in a supporting capacity, answering questions or offering opinions without seeking emotional rewards of their own. Sometimes the story demands that they take part as granters. The GM can almost always ensure that they don’t act as petitioners.

After the various discussions come to a head and appear to resolve themselves, ask whether this was a dramatic scene at all. Do one or more players feel that their characters sought an emotional payoff?

If not, it was an expository scene setting up future events, probably of a procedural nature. No drama tokens are exchanged. Call the next scene.

If only one player answers in the affirmative, this is an ordinary drama scene with onlookers. Determine the distribution of tokens as usual. This is the most common case: even in a group scene, one character’s petition usually dominates, to a degree that all participants instinctively acknowledge.

If multiple players feel they sought emotional reward, the group, led by the GM, continue as follows.

The GM quizzes each participating player, in a newly drawn precedence order, asking:

what they most wanted, emotionally, in the scene

who they wanted it from

and whether they got it

If they got what they wanted, the specified player granted their petition and earns a drama token—from the petitioning player if he or she has one, or from the kitty if not.

If they didn’t get what they wanted, the specified player refused their petition. The petitioner earns a drama token—from the refuser of the grant if he or she has one, or from the kitty if not.

A group scene might easily come to one overall conclusion about a practical course of action, with various different emotional ramifications for the those taking part.

Petitioning For Practical Favors

Any scene involving a main cast member or recurring character is by definition dramatic. Even if the granter seems to be asking for a practical favor, the subtext of the scene is always emotional. Depending on how self-aware the characters are, they may or may not realize this, but it’s true all the same.

The scene counts as a grant if the promise to perform the favor feels like a significant concession to either the petitioner, or to the group at large. Whether the favor is later performed to the petitioner’s satisfaction does not retroactively alter the outcome of the scene—but probably provokes a new scene in which the disappointed petitioner returns to the granter to express a grievance.

Drama With Recurring Characters

The GM plays all recurring characters drawing on a single pool of drama tokens. Like any player, the GM must earn drama points by granting or by losing petitions.

Soft Opens

You can start a scene without specifying a situation. Instead the characters cast in the scene simply start talking to one another, and the scene works organically toward a dramatic conflict. This is called a soft open.

Conference Scenes

On occasion you’ll want to call a particular type of soft open, the conference scene, in which all or most of the main characters discuss the issues currently before them. This might or might not resolve into a dramatic scene. It may instead simply work as an establishing scene, setting up subsequent dramatic and/or procedural scenes.

Procedural Scenes

In procedural scenes, characters pursue practical, external goals. These may allow them to petition for emotional rewards in subsequent scenes, but at the moment of success or failure are matters of practical effort.

Drama vs. Talking

Where any scene between a PC and either another PC or a recurring character is by definition dramatic, with emotional stakes at play, all dialogue interactions with minor characters are procedural, and resolved with the Talking ability. They can never grant meaningful dramatic concessions, because the PCs have no emotional investment in them. They can only grant—or refuse—practical favors. Drama tokens are never awarded or spent as the result of a Talking scene.

Procedural Resolution

Each player, and the GM, starts the first session with three procedural tokens: one green, one yellow, one red. When you spend a token, set it aside. The others remain unspent. When you’ve spent all three of them, they immediately refresh. All three of them return to your pile of unspent tokens, and become once again available for use.

Your pile of available tokens carries over to the next game session / episode of play. It does not refresh between sessions.

Playing Cards

For procedural resolutions, you’ll also require a deck of standard playing cards, from which the jokers are removed. The GM always shuffles the deck before launching into any new resolution.

Calling a Procedural Scene

To establish a procedural scene, the caller describes the basic situation. While adding as much evocative narration as possible, she specifies:

The scene’s location

Which characters are present

What they’re trying to achieve, and how

To call a procedural scene your character is not in, spend a green token. (This requirement does not apply to the GM.)

Step One: The GM Spends For the Opposition

The GM secretly spends one of her available tokens, concealing it so that it can be revealed with a flourish at the conclusion of a scene: she might pull it from a purse, pocket, or move aside a piece of paper.

The color of the token reflects the strength of the obstacle standing between the players and success, whatever that may be. The better the token you spend, the more powerful the force arrayed against them.

Opposing Force | GM's Token | Match Needed
Great | Green | Same value as target
Middling | Yellow | Same suit as target
Puny | Red | Same color as target

Step Two: The Target Card

After shuffling the deck, you cut it and draw a card, which you show to the group. This is the target card.

Step Three: Players Spend and Draw

In turn, according to a freshly-determined precedence order, each player may now spend a procedural token and draw a corresponding number of cards. To succeed, at least one of the players must, when all cards have been played, have a card that matches the target. Depending on the strength of the opposing force—which the players do not yet know—they may need to match only its color, or perhaps its suit, or even its number.

So if the target card is a King of Clubs, they know that black cards are good, clubs are better, but kings of the other three suits are the best of all.

A player spending a green token draws two cards.

A player spending a yellow token draws one card.

A player spending a red token draws one card—after which the GM removes from play a single card held by any player. If none of the cards on the table match the target’s color, suit or value, the GM waits, instead knocking out the next card that does, as soon as a player draws it.

Players whose characters are present must spend a token and make the corresponding card draw.

Players whose characters are not present may alter the odds in the group’s favor by spending a yellow or green token. If they have neither of these tokens to spend, they can’t influence the outcome.

Knocking Out Cards

When a player spends a red token, the GM always removes from play the best available match, prioritizing as follows:

cards with the same number

cards of the same suit

cards of the same color

If two or more cards are equally good matches, it doesn’t matter which of them the GM chooses. She does so based on what seems easiest to narrate.

Step Four: Final Result

When all of the players have acted or (if absent) passed on acting, the GM checks to see if any of their cards match the target card.

Opposing Force | GM's Token | Match Needed
Great | Green | Same value as target
Middling | Yellow | Same suit as target
Puny | Red | Same color as target

On a match, the characters prevail. Without one, they fail.

A card matching the target’s value always wins, no matter what token the GM spent.

Step Five: Personal Consequences

Players who drew face cards (even if they were later knocked out by the GM) may take on a personal consequence which matters in a future scene.

If you drew the face card when playing a green token, introduce an advantage your character can benefit from in an upcoming scene.

If you drew the face card when playing a red token, introduce an additional obstacle your character must resolve in an upcoming scene.

Face Cards Include the Ace

In DramaSystem, aces always count as face cards, along with the Jack, Queen and King.

Narrating the Ups and Downs

While performing the rules actions described above, the GM and the players describe the smaller advances and setbacks the participants undergo on their way to victory or defeat.

Here’s how it all fits together:

The players kick off the scene by describing what their characters are trying to do.

The GM describes whatever it is they’re trying to overcome. She may choose to accurately portray the strength of the opposing force, or set up the players for a surprise by making a tough obstacle seem initially easy, or a weak one strong.

With each card drawn, the relevant player (encouraged as necessary by the GM) describes his character taking action. The extent of the match colors the description:

Match | Describe the action as ... 
Value | Seemingly decisive
Suit | Impressive
Color | Solid
None | Ineffectual

When the GM knocks out a card, the player who spent the red token has suffered a reversal that erases a previous advantage.

Multiple Resolutions

Scenes never include more than one procedural resolution. Fold additional or side actions into the main narrative, or wait and call a new scene, making it a flashback where necessary.

Success By Narration

Often you can describe your characters, in concert with others or alone, as undertaking successful practical action, without submitting yourself to the vagaries of procedural resolution. You can do this at the top of a scene, while setting the scene, or as it unfolds. You needn’t be the caller to describe your character’s practical successes.

If no participant objects to your narration, what you describe becomes part of the narrative.

If any participant objects, you must play out a procedural to see if your pursuit of a practical goal succeeds. You aren’t obligated to start a procedural when an objection is raised. Instead you can delay the attempt, or give up on it entirely. In the second case, your character probably sees that the action is more difficult than it at first appeared. In the first, you’ll likely go on to bring other players in on your action—which is the best assurance of success under the simple procedural system.

When you call a procedural scene, and the GM doesn’t see any good story reason for you to face resistance, she’ll ask if anyone else objects to your success. If not, you describe your action as having succeeded, and then call a reframed scene arising from that.

Player vs. Player

Check the two contesting characters’ action types. If one primary is using a Strong ability and another a Weak ability, the Strong character automatically wins, no resolution system required.

Each player announces the ability his character is using and what he is trying to achieve.

Players may challenge stated goals on the grounds that they are implausible or move the story too far forward in a single action. In the event of a successful challenge, the GM suggests a modified goal that satisfies all c0ncerned.

Otherwise, each player spends a procedural token. The outcome is then decided through a series of card draws. The maximum number of cards the player draws depends on the token spent: 3 for green, 2 for yellow, 1 for red.

A player using a strong ability may draw an additional card if his opponent is using a middling ability.

The GM decides which of the characters seems to have started the contest, whatever it may be.

That player draws the first card.

The other player draws the second.

The first player may then draw an additional card, if he has one left.

Then the second player may do the same.

This continues until both players have either run out of card draws, or choose not to draw any more.

The player with the highest card overcomes the other, achieving his goal.

To resolve ties between cards of the same value, use the suit order (from best to worst): spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.

Players who at any time drew a face card and spent a green token introduce an advantage their characters can take advantage of in an upcoming scene.

Players who at any time drew a face card and spent a red token introduce an additional obstacle their characters must resolve in an upcoming scene.

Solo Actions

The standard procedural rules make it easier to succeed by bringing other players into your action attempt. Where it makes sense for a player to act on his own without undue risk of failure, the GM may decide to instead use the Player vs. Player rules, acting as the opposing supporting character or impersonal obstacles. The GM spends a procedural token, getting the usual 3 redraws for green, 2 for yellow, and 1 for red. If the supporting character has been established as being especially formidable in the action type used to oppose the PC, the GM gains an additional redraw.

Narrating

The player drawing the first card describes what his character is doing to win the contest.

From then on, players describe their characters either taking a step toward victory (when they draw a card better than their opponent’s) or suffering a setback (when they draw worse cards.)

When all cards have been drawn, the player with the best card describes his character achieving the agreed-upon goal.

Assisting in Player vs. Player Contests

Player vs. player contests may involve more than two main characters.

The assisting player announces which contestant his character is trying to help, how he’s doing that, and what ability he’s using. Players can intervene at any time, and don’t have to announce this at the top of a contest.

He spends a token, allowing the assisted character a number of redraws equivalent to the token spend: 3 for green, 2 for yellow, 1 for red. If he’s using a strong ability and everyone acting on the other side is using a weak ability, he adds an additional draw to that number.

The assisting player draws those extra cards, as necessary, and narrates what his character is doing to bring victory for his chosen side.

Even in what seems like a disorganized rumble between two sets of main characters, it’s always neatest to designate a primary contestant on each side. When it’s not clear who this might be, the GM chooses. Usually this will be obvious—the first character to act on one side, and the first character acted upon on the other.

Consequences are handed out by the winning original contestant, regardless of whose token paid for the final card drawn.

Resolving Consequences

When a character earns or suffers a consequence during a procedural scene, GM and player each make a note of it. Consequences are typically too ephemeral to include on the character sheet.

Players should then attempt to work their consequences into an upcoming scene. If they don’t, the GM will. You can invoke a consequence in more than one scene. Eventually some new consequence will arise, and the old one will fade into the background.

Supporting Characters

Supporting characters are created and fleshed out during the game by any participant, and portrayed by the GM.

They break into two types: minor and recurring. This is mostly a bookkeeping distinction, sorting the tangential figures from those who will play an important ongoing role in the series.

The GM, or a player given bookkeeping responsibilities, should keep a list of characters appearing in the series, updating it as necessary. Separate them into the two categories, with special attention paid to the recurring characters.

Minor Characters

Minor characters provide obstacles during procedural scenes. They do not tie into the desires of main cast members or satisfy their emotional needs.

Alternately, they may be mentioned in passing, without taking a central role in the scene. They’re the equivalent of Shakespearean spear-carriers.

Many recurring characters start out as minor, then become more important when a PC develops an emotional need they can fulfill.

Introducing Minor Characters

Characters are introduced for the first time either by the caller, at the top of a scene, or by any participant, while a scene is already in progress.

When bringing in a new character, give him or her a name and a brief description, no more than two or three clauses long. The brief description indicates the minor character’s role in the world or story, giving the GM enough of a starting point to portray him.

Recurring Characters

A player can promote a minor character to recurring status by making him or her the object of his character’s emotional needs.

Some characters start out as recurring, when their first appearance is a dramatic scene in which they are called upon to grant a PCs’ petition.

Players may establish relationships to recurring characters promoted by other players. Do this during any scene featuring both your character and the recurring character.

Recurring characters may act as petitioners, seeking grants from players, but never other recurring characters.

The GM keeps a single pool of drama tokens which represents all of the recurring characters. This is distinct from the kitty. It is possible, for example, to make a force for one recurring character using two tokens garnered by granting on behalf of two other recurring characters in two separate previous scenes.

Introducing Locations

Any participant can introduce a new location in which a scene can take place, or to which a scene in progress can logically shift. (For example, a scene that takes place during a journey might start on a road and end up in a swamp.) The caller, or any participant during a shift in location, provides an introductory description of the place, which other participants can then elaborate on. They can do this as the scene progresses, or in a later scene set in the same place.

Once you establish a few basic locations, you'll find the story often returning to them, like the regular sets in a TV show.

A participant who feels that an introduced location detail is out of bounds can challenge it on one of the following grounds:

Consistency: The description is anachronistic or otherwise unsuited to the established setting and genre.

Continuity: The description is inconsistent with what has already been established.

Tone: The description is somehow ridiculous.

Believability: The description defies common sense.

If the GM agrees that the detail fails one of the above tests, she allows a challenge, as per the standard rules on p. 8. 

Bennies

DramaSystem rewards the players who most consistently and entertainingly enact their dramatic poles.

Gaining Bennies

At the end of each session, each player in turn (in seating order) makes a brief statement, highlighting how he entertainingly brought out his character’s dramatic poles over the course of the session, in relation to the episode’s theme.

When a player is unable to articulate a case, the GM makes it for him.

All participants then vote, ranking the other players in order, with #1 the best score, #2 second best and so on. The argument is just a reminder: voters base their rankings on how well the players brought out their dramatic poles in relation to the theme, not how skillfully they made their cases. Moving from one pole to another in the course of an episode is a good thing. Vote against players who, episode in and episode out, stress a particular pole and ignore the other. Players do not rank themselves. No one ranks the GM, who never gets bennies. The GM votes, too, ranking all of the players.

The GM then totals each player’s vote tally. The number of drama tokens a player has in hand is then subtracted from this number.

The two players with the lowest scores gain one bennie each. 

Low score looks counter-intuitive on the page but is entirely natural in practice. It allows players to rank each other from 1 on down, with #1 being the best. Only the GM ever sees the low score.

For portable computer users, a simple spreadsheet speeds the tallying.

Tied Results

If two players are tied for the lowest score, each gets a bennie. The second place finisher(s) does not.

If two players tie for second place, both of them gain bennies, as does the player in first.

If three or more players tie for first, all gain bennies.

Spending Bennies

When you have a bennie, you can spend it on narrative benefits that kick in during play. Once spent, you remove the bennie from your character sheet. They don’t refresh; you can replace a spent bennie only by earning a new one, as above.

Cash in a bennie for any one of the following:

a dramatic token

a procedural token

to draw an additional card in a procedural scene

the right to jump the queue and call a scene immediately after any other scene. The queue-jumper’s next scene is skipped, after which the existing calling order is observed as per usual.

to jump into a scene the caller wants to keep you out of

to block another player’s attempt to jump into a scene you’ve called. (Blocked players keep the bennies they would have spent.)

the right to burn any 1 token held by another player. A dramatic token returns to the kitty; a procedural token is treated as spent.

You may spend only one bennie per scene.

Series Pitches

A Series Pitches is a common format for presenting DramaSystem settings. The key entries are:

Nutshell

The exciting and dynamic one-sentence logline you'll use to introduce your series to players.

Characters

Indicate to players the sorts of roles the characters might take on within the ensemble cast.

Setting

Describe the qualities of your pitch’s time and place that will most directly impact the action.

Themes

In bullet points, list likely themes for episodes of your series, with or without explanatory notes indicating how they might be expressed in play.

Tightening the Screws

List a number of possible complications participants might introduce to reignite tensions within the main cast.

Names

Provide a list of sample names for people, places, and (where appropriate) things in the series. Participants use these when stumped for suitable names when inventing people and places on the fly.

Additional Elements

If you need to add another element to this format to make your Series Pitch work, do it.

Advanced Procedural System

The last card drawn in a procedural scene determines the outcome and is called the clincher.

Calling the Scene

To establish a procedural scene, the caller describes the basic situation. While adding as much evocative narration as possible, she specifies:

The scene’s location

Which characters are present

What they’re trying to achieve, and how

(If more than one character is present) Which of them is taking the lead in performing the action. This is the primary character; others present are secondaries.

To call a procedural scene your character is not in, spend a green token. (This requirement does not apply to the GM.)

Step One: The GM Declares Difficulty

The GM then spends one of her procedural tokens. This determines what kind of clincher the primary needs in order to succeed at his objective.

A red token indicates that the task at hand is unusually easy. The primary succeeds if the clincher comes up spades, hearts, or diamonds. These become the up cards for the coming contest. Cards from the clubs suit are down cards.

A yellow says that it is a run-of-the-mill problem. The primary succeeds if the clincher comes up spades or hearts. These are the up cards; diamonds and clubs are down cards.

Green means that it is especially hard. The primary succeeds only if the clincher comes up spades. Only spades are treated as up cards; hearts, diamonds and clubs are down cards.

Chance of Failure | GM's Token | Up Cards | Down Cards
Low | Red | ♠♥♦ | ♣
Moderate | Yellow | ♠♥ | ♦♣
High | Green | ♠ | ♥♦♣

Joint Narration

With the situation established, the group proceeds to jointly narrate the action, with:

the primary’s player describing what her character is doing

players of secondaries describing what their characters are doing

the GM describing the various mini-obstacles that present themselves on their way to their desired gain, or a conclusive setback.

The GM starts by drawing from the card deck, and keeps drawing until a down card comes up. Only then does the scene begin, with a description by the GM of the first obstacle standing between the participating characters and their goal.

Throughout the action, participants may by various means force the GM to redraw. Each redraw reflects a new wrinkle that pops up as the primary and secondaries address their task. Up cards represent hopeful moments, in which events turn in their favor. Down cards indicate setbacks, in which their final victory seems imperiled.

A down face card indicates a really nasty negative development. An up face card signals a major, impressive breakthrough on the part of one or more active characters. Aces count as face cards.

The GM narrates the setbacks or ominous developments indicated by down cards, and the players describe themselves overcoming obstacles whenever up cards are drawn.

Step Two: The Primary Acts

The primary’s player describes what the character is doing to kick off the sequence of events.

If the primary actor is using a Strong ability, the GM draws two cards, discarding the worst and treating the other as the new active card.

When the primary actor uses a Middling ability, the GM draws a single card.

If the primary actor is using a Weak ability, the GM draws two cards, discarding the best and treating the other as the new active card.

Better or Worse Cards

During a standard procedural resolution, cards rank in the following order, from best to worst:

A face card in an up suit

A numbered card in an up suit.

A numbered card in a down suit.

A face card in a down suit.

Step Three: Player Redraws

After the primary acts, players may force redraws of down cards (to help the primary succeed) or up cards (if they want the attempt to go awry.)

Involved Characters

If a player’s character is present in the scene, the player may force one redraw by spending a procedural token. Players may only do this once per scene.

The primary actor’s player is always among those eligible to make this redraw. It makes sense for the primary actor to get another kick at the can, as he is the focus of the scene.

Depending on the token spent, the player may be called on to draw an additional card, called a consequence card. This does not affect the overall outcome of the procedural action, but may present the player’s character with an additional result, for good or ill.

On a red token, the player draws a consequence card. If it is down card, something bad will happen to that character as a result of this incident.

On a yellow token, the player does not draw a consequence card.

On a green token, the player draws a consequence card. If it is an up card, something good will happen to that character as a result of this incident.

Absent Characters

Players whose characters are not present may force redraws by spending a green token.

If they’re having a down card redrawn, they describe a new advantage that presents itself to the acting characters. If they’re having an up card redrawn (and are thus working to thwart the acting characters) they describe a new obstacle. This development needn’t (and generally won’t) be caused by their characters. They are usually best envisioned as chance events.

Spending a green token when your character is absent does not entitle that character to a personal benefit.

Cashing In a Positive Consequence

A player can call for a redraw if she can justify it, to the general satisfaction of GM and group, as the result of a positive consequence acquired in a previous scene. This is only possible if the character has yet to gain from that consequence, in or out of a procedural scene.

Order of Action

Usually the order in which participants respond to new card draws resolves itself organically. If two players want to act at the same time, the GM chooses a fresh precedence order, which establishes the order they act in. Players may withdraw after precedence is established.

Players may occasionally jockey to encourage others to go first, so they don’t have to spend valuable tokens or accept negative story consequences. If this doesn’t quickly sort itself out, the GM declares the action resolved: the situation came to a head while they dithered.

Step Four: Resolution

When no player is willing or able to call for further redraws, the current card stands and becomes the clincher.

If it is an up face card, the primary’s player describes the event resolving itself in an especially impressive fashion.

If it is a numbered up card, that player describes the final resolution as a thrilling squeaker victory, won by the narrowest of margins.

If it is a down face card, the GM describes the outcome as a disastrous setback.

If it is a down numbered card, the GM describes the outcome as a heart-breaking near miss, in which the characters nearly prevailed over their obstacles, but fell short at the last moment.

The omission of middling results is intentional. The system encourages gripping storytelling, leaving unremarkable outcomes to the unheightened world of real life.

Player vs. Player

The caller, with input from the group, specifies:

The scene’s location

Which characters are present

What they’re trying to achieve, and how.

Who the most important contestant on each side of the contest is. These are the primaries. Others also present are secondaries.

What will happen, more or less, if Primary A wins, and what will happen if Primary B wins. Sometimes the possible outcomes mirror one another, as when two characters compete in a race. In other cases, they’re quite different: a supporting character lives if A wins, and dies if B wins.

Before proceeding, check the primaries’ action grades. If one primary is using a Strong ability and another a Weak ability, the Strong character automatically wins, no resolution system required.

Otherwise, the scene proceeds. If one character has a better grade in the ability he’s using than another, he gets an additional redraw (see below.)

Step One: Order Of Action

Decide who acts first. Where one character is trying to do one thing, and another tries to stop him, the former’s player goes first. If both characters are acting at once, or the situation is otherwise unclear, the GM draws a fresh precedence order to see who acts first.

Step Two: Spend Tokens

Each contestant spends a procedural token to gain a number of redraws. A green token buys three redraws, yellow, two, red, one.

Step Three: Draw Cards

The contestants now draw cards. The one who ends the sequence with the highest card in hand wins. As always, any card drawn is placed face up, for all participants to see.

The first player draws a card, followed by the second.

The first player may now use one of her redraws to either draw a new card for herself, or force her opponent to redraw.

Then the second player may use one of his redraws to either draw a new card for himself, or force his opponent to redraw.

This continues until neither contestant can, or wishes to, use further redraws.

The GM may then require one contestant to redraw, once. She describes a change in fortune tipping the balance against the player who redraws. If the player gets a higher card than he had before, he describes his triumph over that difficulty, and the improved situation resulting from it.

Narrate the ups and downs of the contest with each card draw. When a character draws a card lower than his opponent’s current card, his opponent describes him falling behind in the contest. When he draws a card higher than his opponent’s, he describes his own character seizing advantage.

Players of other characters present in the scene can then spend green tokens to interfere on one side or the other. Each interfering player requires a chosen contestant to redraw, once. They describe what they’re doing to change the outcome. Where two interfering players wish to act at the same time, the GM uses the precedence established in the Order of Action stage to see who acts first.

After the GM and interfering players have finished mucking about with the result, and one or more of the contestants still has redraws left, they may now make them. If both still have redraws left, the first player gets first crack, but may elect to pass.

Step Five: Resolution

When no contestant has or wants to use a remaining redraw, the one with the highest card wins, and describes the outcome mooted during the stakes step coming to pass, in a manner possibly colored by the intervening narration.

When the participants end on equal cards from different suits, see if they can agree on a surprise outcome that gives them both what they wanted. If not, choose a winner according to this suit order, from best to worst: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.

I. Suit Order

Spades

Heart

Diamonds

Clubs

II: Glossary of Game Terms

Bennie: a game reward you can exchange for various advantages in play

Clincher: the final, determining card in advanced procedural resolution

Dramatic scene: a scene of verbal conflict over an emotional objective

Drama token: a game currency encouraging players to strike a balance between rebuffing and granting petitions

Down Card: a card denoting a negative development in advanced procedural resolution

Face card: the Jack, Queen, King and Ace

Episode: a single storyline featuring your continuing characters

Fraught relationships: The first and second PCs you name as your desired source of emotional reward

Game Moderator: a single participant who takes a guiding role in shaping the pace of the narrative and facilitating collaboration between players

Grade: the measure of your ability with an Action. The three grades, from best to worst, are Strong, Middling, and Weak.

Granter: the character in a dramatic scene who can either give the petitioner what he wants, or withhold it; can be seen as the object of the scene

Minor character: a named supporting character to whom no PC has an emotional relationship

Petitioner: the character who initiates a dramatic scene in pursuit of an emotional goal; can be seen as the subject of the scene

Player: one of several participants who takes on the role of one protagonist in the ensemble cast

Procedural scene: a scene in which a PC or PCs strive for an external or practical goal

Procedural token: a game currency allowing players to influence their success or failure in procedural scenes

Recurring character: important supporting characters who can take part in dramatic scenes with PCs

Session: a single meeting of your game group

Up Card: a card denoting a positive development in advanced procedural resolution