Drama System: What Works Well With It and What Doesnt, and Other Considerations

#1

My face-to-face group is fairly trad-minded - they don’t mind playing PbtA or other more indie games I bring, but the other GMs mostly run D&D, FFG’s Star Wars, or games in that vein.

Now I’d like to try out Drama System with them as I think it’s something they would enjoy, but since one of the players shies away from games that focus on character-vs-character conflict (Smallville didn’t quite work out because of that) and I suspect pure Drama System would fall into that category for them, I’m looking to use it as a side dish with a more procedural system rather than the main course.

So my question is what I should look out for when I’m combining it with something else. I’m staying well away from anything that already has some kind of relationship mechanics, but is there anything else I should look out for? Does it work better or worse with games that have an explicit downtime phase? Does it matter if the game assumes all the characters go on their missions/adventures together? Are there things I should consider, either when picking a system or when doing the Drama System setup?

Any advice is welcome.

#2

I’m afraid DramaSystem isn’t going to work for you then.
You’ve got a player who’s going to reject the entire premise. DramaSystem works because it keeps players (and therefore characters) from digging in on a position without ever budging. But that position is in relation to other PCs.

In your shoes I would talk to the conflict-averse player and ask if they would like to give it a go for this series of sessions or if they would like to just skip it. I mean, it’s great to respect everyone but the members of your group have to each realize that they shouldn’t keep the rest of the group from enjoying something just because it’s not their cup of tea, too.

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#3

I’ve only ever played pure DramaSystem, so this is theoretical:

Maybe let them dip their toes in by just using the Petitioner/Granter structure - it’s the most important and powerful part of the game anyways. You could start with a NPC they have an emotional connection to. Then together look for and point out scenes where someone is petitioning for or granting an emotional reward. If they like it, they can work out PC/PC relationships and start using petitioner/granter more actively (See Hillfolk, p.34 “Soft Opens”).

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#4

I should clarify: The player in question isn’t completely averse to player character conflict, they just don’t want a game that is mainly about that. I believe that Drama System mixed in with something else, where Drama System is used as support rather than as the main focus of play, it would be fine.

#5

Maybe let them dip their toes in by just using the Petitioner/Granter structure - it’s the most important and powerful part of the game anyways. You could start with a NPC they have an emotional connection to. Then together look for and point out scenes where someone is petitioning for or granting an emotional reward. If they like it, they can work out PC/PC relationships and start using petitioner/granter more actively (See Hillfolk, p.34 “Soft Opens”).

That’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of introducing it gradually (which also shows I haven’t read up on the advice in the actual book recently - I’ll have to rectify that).

#6

That may be doable!

I know of one D&D group that used D&D5, by the book, but also used Dramatokens for inter-PC interactions.

Drama tokens were equivalent to Inspiration - when you got either, you’d take a token, and when you spent Inspiration, you’d give all the tokens away.

So there’s some precedent!

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#7

My primary idea is to use Drama System (or parts of it at least) interspersed with regular, more procedurally oriented play.

As a basic example, if we’re playing D&D with DS there could be an hour of dungeon exploration and combat followed by one or two dramatic scenes during a rest around the campfire, then some more exploration and combat, a couple more dramatic scenes during a quiet moment, a big fight, then a longer sequence of dramatic scenes back in town.

That sort of structure is what I think will make this work even for the player who is averse to characters-vs-character play, since the focus in playing time is still on the cooperative, procedural play with DS used to add some character conflicts and hopefully provide some depth to decisions that would otherwise be made based purely on expediency.

#8

You may want to follow the D&D actual play on the podcast, Asians Represent (@Agatha is one of the cohosts). In their session zero, they discussed using Drama System’s dramatic poles as an alternative to the regular alignment system. I have also heard Robin Laws (Drama System’s designer) say on an episode of RPG Design Panelcast that the most portable part of the Drama System is the paired questions: “what do you want from another PC? / why can’t that PC give it to you?” Adding both techniques should definitely ramp up the drama in your game without too much mechanical fiddling!

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#9

I’ll check that out for sure! Vacation combined with the general summer lull in podcast episodes has left me with a shortage of good listening material.

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