Theatrix actual play advice?

[johnmarron]

I recently read Paul Czege's threads about the Theatrix Supers game he played in, which inspired me to pick up a copy of Theatrix again.  I originally bought the game back when it first came out (94 or 95, if I recall), and at the time found the flowcharts offputting and a lot of the concepts hard to grok.  On rereading the book, I find it is pretty much just a more formalized version of the style I run in anyway, and I'd like to actually run a game of it.
    So, I'm putting out a call for any other actual play of Theatrix experiences or advice from any of you who have tried the game.

Thanks,
John Marron

[Fabrice G.]

Hi John,

I've no advices, as I haven't play the game....

But browsing the fora I found this, that might be of interest to you.


Take care,

Fabrice.

[Alan]

Hi John,

Theatrix is an interest of mine.  I was going to run a game for the first time last month, but had to delay the game due to work demands on interested players.  So I have yet to have real play experience to pass on.

I think I noticed your name on the Theatrix email group.  That group's been disapointing lately, as it has little traffic about the system itself right now.

Maybe we could liven it up by having a conversation there?  Or maybe we want to stay here so Paul has a chance to read and perhaps contribute?

I have some Theatrix material at

http://www.seanet.com/~alanb/theatrix">http://www.seanet.com/~alanb/theatrix

I first found the Forge when I was planning to play Theatrix and I devoured much of Ron's narrativist theory and other play techniques I found here.  I've had time to think about how they apply to Theatrix, so maybe I'll have something to say, despite never having played.  

What would you like to talk about?

[johnmarron]

Fabrice - Thanks for the lead, I had already scoured the forge posts related to Theatrix, and read Alan's thread yesterday.

Alan - I just joined the Theatrix list, and have to agree that it is fairly quiet...  I'd be happy to instigate some kind of discussion over there, if you think it would elicit some responses from folks more experienced with the game.

     In general, I was just curious to hear about peoples experiences with the actual mechanics of player introduced subplots and scenes, more examples of player steering of plot, and other elements that are somewhat specific to Theatrix.  The authorial power of players in the system seems to go up against the detailed three-act model of plot development laid out, but I guess if the articulation of your plot elements is flexible enough, you can shift around scenes and characters to adapt to the player input.
     As I noted, I realized recently that the Theatrix basic resolution flowchart is just a more detailed and formalized model of my own task resolution scheme (derived from Everway), in which I consider Drama first, then Karma, then Fortune if no solid outcome appears in my mind from the first two steps.  I've always held that my own games derive much more inspiration form visual media (Movies, TV) than literature, and like an overtly "cinematic" (in this sense) take on gaming.  After reading the core book a few times lately, I find myself noticing examples of foreshadowing, cut scenes, flashbacks, and scene framing while watching movies, and I think this can only improve my games.

     Anyway, I was just fishing for some Theatrix War Stories to try to anticipate problems I might bump up against while trying out the game for the first time.

John