“The game master does not construct the story but a dramaturgically qualified space of possibility.”
There is no breaking the plot
You cannot break the plot – because there are no rails for you to go off.
The node web to try out
- ○ circle – friendly
- △ triangle – hostile
- □ square – neutral
I don’t prepare a fixed sequence of scenes but a web: people with their own goals, places, secrets, conflicts. You decide which node lights up when. Only in hindsight does it become a story with a beginning, a climax and an end.
This principle is called inductive dramaturgy; it is the core of my doctoral thesis and proved itself at the LARP “Der Thron des Falken IV” (2018), among others. The symbols come from the relationship map: circle friendly, triangle hostile, square neutral.
“The common catchphrase of ‘shooting the plot to pieces’ therefore describes less a misconduct of players than an incompatibility between linear preparation and autonomous action.”
The hero’s journey
Nobody starts out as a hero. Your character climbs step by step – from humble beginnings to the heroic epic.
The four steps are named after the old levels of style: rhetoric in antiquity already distinguished a low, a middle and a high tone – depending on whose story is being told. In DRAMATRIX they describe the world your character is acting in right now, and what is at stake for them there. The higher they climb, the further they can fall.
- I
Genus humile
The simple life
The village, the harbour, the neighbourhood. Your character helps the neighbours, looks for what went missing, picks a fight with the bailiff. It is about bread, honour and family – small in scale, huge for them.
- II
Genus medium
The world of the townsfolk
Markets, guilds, councillors. Your character leaves home, strikes deals, wins patrons and rivals. Now their name is spoken even where nobody knows them.
- III
Genus grande
At the court of the powerful
Princes, orders, intrigues. What your character decides changes cities and alliances. Whoever stumbles here falls hard – which is exactly what makes every step thrilling.
- IV
Genus heroicum
The heroic epic
Deeds that songs are sung about. At the end of the road your character stands at the emperor’s court or before the fate of an entire world – and still remembers where they came from.
“Any citizen can potentially become a hero.”
The rule system
No rulebook doorstop – the rules fit on a single page, combinatorics does the rest.
DRAMATRIX is a rule system of its own, developed for play with depth. It is meant to be learnable in minutes and to work in any world. At its heart are not columns of numbers but personality and development.
- One page of rules.Instead of three hundred pages of character creation: one sheet, and you only learn what your character needs.
- Die plus value.Every test adds two numbers. There is no more maths at the table.
- Personality as foundation.Attributes are based on the Big Five of psychology – turned into strengths: stability instead of neuroticism.
- Four areas of life.Soul, mind, body, society. Wounds exist in all four as well: a doubt, a confusion, a bruise, an insult.
- Talents as combinations.Every talent combines several abilities – singing, for instance, draws on empathy, motor skills, charisma, presence and stamina. Whoever sings also practises a bit of empathy.
- Open, not closed.Skills are not a finished list; magic arises freely from features such as heat, water, shadow or emotion.
- Failure is not the end.What doesn’t succeed at once can still succeed with time and concentration.
- Any era, any genre.Medieval fantasy, cyberpunk, space or the present day – the same system.
“As in cooking, the features are the ingredients for creating a spell.”
Free doesn’t mean without consequence.
The world responds to everything you do. Pick a fight with the city watch and you’ll have enemies in town; help a stranger and you may gain a friend. That is exactly why your decisions matter.
“DRAMATRIX […] does not manage the story that is supposed to happen, but the conditions from which a responsible, coherent and surprising story can happen.”