The Chessboard of Life

Introduction

In the previous long-winded posts, I have taken us painfully through all four dimensions, and considered each of the sixteen elements contained in each one of those dimensions.  Dramatica makes us do all this legwork so that we have considered every aspect that a Story Mind needs in order to make a story, and the quads method means we have spread these necessary items around our characters.

By the end of this activity we should hopefully have some very complex and rounded characters which may have surprised even ourselves.  Now it's time to pluck the low-hanging fruit from this labour and make our characters real.


The Chessboard

Let's start by looking at what we have done so far, by putting all the dimensions together into what Dramatica calls the Character Chessboard.

Motivation Dimension Consider Jacob Logic Bobby Pursuit Jacob Control Thomas Feeling Thomas Reconsider Fiend Uncontrolled William Avoid Fiend Faith Peter Conscience Elaine Support Peter Help Katie Temptation Katie Disbelief William Hinder Elaine Oppose Bobby	Purpose Dimension Knowledge Thomas Ability William Actuality Katie Aware Peter Desire Jake Thought Katie Self Aware Fiend Perception Peter Order Thomas Equity Jake Inertia Elaine Projection Fiend Inequity Elaine Chaos Bobby Speculation William Change Bobby
Certainty Peter Probability Thomas Proaction Fiend Inaction Elaine Possibility William Potentiality Fiend Protection Bobby Reaction Jake Deduction Thomas Reduction William Acceptance Peter Evaluation Katie Production Jake Induction Katie Reevaluation Bobby Nonacceptance Elaine Methodology Dimension	Proven Thomas Theory Katie Effect Elaine Trust William Hunch Fiend Unproven Bobby Test Thomas Cause Peter Accurate Fiend Expectation Elaine Result Bobby Ending Jake  Determination Katie  Non-accurate Jake Unending William Process Peter Evaluation Dimension

As you can tell from the number of posts which went into producing it, there is a lot of work and detail in this chessboard.  At this point it would be possible to move some of them around, although I'm happy with where I put them for now.


Spread them around

Another important point to note is that I have spread my characters around evenly, choosing two elements per dimension for each of my characters.  But this is not absolutely necessary.  Dramatica only says that ALL of the 64 elements above must be represented somewhere in the character set.  It could be that one of your character has many of them, and some only one or two from the entire set.

It could be that some of your characters are not represented in some of the dimensions, making them appear more mysterious or less well-rounded - now and again a melodramatic baddie is all you want, and you have no desire to know about his complex internal states.  It's up to the writer to decide how many elements go where.


Three pairs

We've touched on it briefly, but the arrangements of the elements within each dimension is not accidental.  They contain pairs of elements which also display a level of relationship, as follows:

• Diagonal pairs
  These are called Dynamic Pairs, and show characters who are in greatest opposition with each other. So, for example, Pursuit and Avoid in the Motivation dimension are diagonally opposite, therefore the characters sitting in those positions are also in story opposition.  In the case of Fiend, this means that Jacob and Fiend have the greatest opposition on this pair of elements.
• Side by side pairs
  These are called Companion Pairs, and show characters who are most compatible with each other.  They will share resources but sometimes get in each other's way.  For example, Hinder and Oppose from the Motivation dimension are side by side, and obviously share similar outlooks on the main story. In Fiend this means that Elaine and Bobby are most compatible when it comes to Hindering and Opposing and a collaboration is suggested.
• Up and down pairs
  These are called Dependent Pairs, and show characters which are complementary to the other, in that they provide skills or experience that the other requires, and can compensate for their weaknesses.  When combined they can make a formidable team, or in the case of co-dependency, one requires the other to act in order to proceed.  For example, this could be Help and Oppose on the Motivation dimension. In Fiend, this would mean that Katie and Bobby need each other in order to do something.

In the next section

That has been quite a lot of theory to be going on with, so I thought I'd break out of the traditional Dramatica narrative at this point, and start to round out the characters that we have defined so far.  This will be more fun, and by bringing together all of the elements from the dimensions, we will start to get an idea of the sorts of people that are going to populate the story.