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Old 11-25-2003, 09:36 PM   #1
the_logos
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mill Valley, California
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the_logos will become famous soon enough
** LONG POST: Consider yourself warned. **
Also, I apologize for all the Achaea threads on the latest discussions but the only reason they're still up there is that other people responded to them repeatedly.

Another Year 350 addition and another reason to play Achaea! The Great Bard, Scarlatti, has gifted the world with the Scarlattan Theatre which is, if I do say so myself, one cool little addition scripted only with our mobprog system. Help file follows.

The theatre is designed to allow the staging of plays by troupes of performers. It's fairly flexible and with a little effort on your part can be used to produce some high-quality performances with props, costumes, backdrops, and some special effects.


Director
--------

The first step in using it is to have an Immortal appoint a director. The director has overall responsibility for the production which includes casting and appointing people to other positions of responsibility. The director is also responsible for the vision of the production.

The director may (via tells to Spalding, the stage manager):
* APPOINT people to the positions of designer, conductor, or promoter.
* TITLE the current production.
* APPOINT a replacement as director.
* CAST a player into a particular role, or UNCAST a player.
* Put the theatre into REHEARSAL mode (see Acting, below).
* Open the CURTAIN on the current play, and close it again at the end.

In addition, the director may use most of the commands available to the other office holders. A reference to all commands appears at the end of this file.


Designer
--------

The designer is responsible for the props, costumes, and backdrops used in the production. The designer may also operate the effects machine, located just offstage. Props and backdrops are modified by giving them to Joshua, the head carpenter, and telling him what's required. Costumes are modified by giving them to Rose, the costumes mistress, and telling her what the costume is to look like.

Props
* Give prop to Joshua.
* Joshua will ask you what you want it to look like; answer with a short description, such as 'a shining longsword' or 'the eye of Proteus.'
* Joshua will then modify it and hand you the modified prop.
* Props are used on stage; selected actions performed on them are visible throughout the theatre.

Backdrops
* Give backdrop to Joshua.
* Joshua will ask you what you want it to look like; answer with the description of a scene (ideally one you've written earlier), of a few hundred words (minimum 50 words).
* Joshua will hand you the painted backdrop.
* Backdrops are used by being taken up to the rigging above the stage and DROPping them into place at the appropriate cues.

Costumes
* Give costume to Rose.
* She will ask you who it's to be a costume of. Give her a one-word name such as "Nicator."
* She will then ask you to give a description of the person, such as, "He is a human and is (etc.)." If you have no description to give her, say 'no', and she will improvise.
* She will then hand you the modified costume.

Effects machine
* Recognised effects are: rain, wind, thunder, lightning, waves, smoke, fog, rainbow.
* Say the name of the effect while in the same room as the machine to play it once.
* Say '<effect name> on' to have the effect repeat periodically; '<effect name> off' to turn it off again.
* Say 'Storm on' to switch on rain, wind, thunder and lightning with the one command, 'Storm off' to switch them all off again.
* Say 'set custom <effect name> <text>' to associate a custom effect with a one-word name; say 'custom <effect name>' to play the custom effect.


Conductor
---------

The conductor has control of the orchestra, located in a pit below the level of the stage.

* The orchestra recognizes the following preset pieces: fanfare, requiem, fugue, march, minuet, aubade. Saying the name of the preset while in the orchestra pit will cause the   orchestra to play it.
* The conductor may say 'play <text>' to have the orchestra play custom text.
* The orchestra responds to emotes from the conductor. If it has not yet been taught how to play a particular emote it will associate the text from the next 'play' command with the emote.


Promoter
--------

The promoter is responsible for the selling and pricing of tickets and the allocating of private boxes. All promoter commands are carried out via tells to Roderick, the Usher.

Promoter commands
* 'set price gallery <amount>' and 'set price balcony <amount>' set the ticket prices for gallery and balcony seats, respectively. This must be done before the box office can be opened (see below).
* 'Allocate box <person>' will allocate the next available private box to an individual. 'Unallocate box <person>' will remove that privilege.
* 'Open' will open the box office. Tickets may now be bought from the usher; anyone entering an audience room without the correct ticket, will be taken to the correct place by the ushers.
* The box office closes automatically when the director closes the curtain on the production. Takings will then be placed in the inventory of the promoter (or director, if there is no promoter).

Boxholder commands
* Anyone holding a private box may tell the usher 'Invite <person>'.
 That person will now be seated in the private box for the next show.
* 'Uninvite <person>' withdraws the invitation.

Seatholder commands
* Tickets may be bought after the box office opens, but before the curtain rises on the show.
* Greet the usher. If you have a seat in the theatre, you will be shown to it. If not, you will be told ticket prices.
* Give gold to usher. The amount should correspond to either the price of a gallery ticket, or the price of a balcony ticket. You will be marked as seated accordingly. Greeting the usher will take you to the correct room.


Acting
------
Words and certain actions on stage will be repeated throughout the entire theatre, eg.:

Thespis, the drama teacher says, "Good evening, lords, ladies and gentlemen!"
Thespis picks up a prop resembling a shining longsword.

The rest of the theatre sees:
[ONSTAGE] Thespis says, "Good evening, lords, ladies and gentlemen!"
[ONSTAGE] Thespis picks up a shining longsword.

Things said can be formatted by starting them with modifiers.
Recognized modifiers are: shrieks, shouts, cries, announces, intones, declaims, sings, trills, croons, exclaims, gasps, asks, begs, pleads, ponders, sighs, whines, muses, mutters, rasps, murmurs, whispers, mouths. Example:

Thespis, the drama teacher says, "Declaims and welcome, to tonights' performance!"

The rest of the theatre sees:
[ONSTAGE] Thespis declaims, "And welcome, to tonights' performance!"

Emotes are performed by saying the intended text, prefixed by the word 'emote'. Example:

Thespis, the drama teacher says, "Emote flourishes his longsword, and performs a low bow."

The rest of the theatre sees:
[ONSTAGE] Thespis flourishes his longsword, and performs a low bow.

When the theatre is put into rehearsal mode by the director, actors' names will be replaced by the names of the characters they are playing, and props will appear as the actual items. People not cast will not be affected. Example:

Thespis, the drama teacher says, "Announces tonight, I will be playing Callisto."
Thespis drops a prop resembling a shining longsword.
Bruce the stagehand says, "Did you mean to drop that?"

The rest of the theatre sees:
[ONSTAGE] Callisto announces, "Tonight, I will be playing Callisto."
[ONSTAGE] Callisto drops a shining longsword.
[ONSTAGE] Bruce says, "Did you mean to drop that?"

Once the curtain goes up people not cast will be ignored. The theatre returns to rehearsal mode when the curtain goes down. Example:

Bruce drops a hammer.
Bruce the stagehand says, "Oops."
Bruce leaves to the west.

The rest of the theatre sees:
[ONSTAGE] A hammer falls to the stage.


Theatre Commands Reference
--------------------------

Syntax: tell Spalding appoint director <person>
Who: Director, Immortal
Appoints a new director. There can only be one director at a time.

Syntax: tell Spalding appoint designer | conductor | promoter <person>
Who: Director
Appoints a person to the given position.

Syntax: tell Spalding Title play <title>
Who: Director
Sets the title of the current production.

Syntax: tell Spalding Cast <person> as <character>
Who: Director
Sets the actor playing a character.

Syntax: tell Spalding Uncast <person>
Who: Director
Removes an actor from the playlist.

Syntax: tell Spalding Rehearsals
Who: Director
Puts the theatre into rehearsal mode.

Syntax: tell Spalding Curtain
Who: Director
Starts performance of the play, and marks the end of the performance.

Syntax: tell Spalding Close production
Who: Director
Closes down the current production.

Carpenter
---------

Syntax: give prop to Joshua
  say <short description>
  [while onstage] take | drop | push | pull | turn | touch | drink from
| put <item> in prop | take <item> from prop | put prop in <item> | take
prop from <item>
Who: Director, designer
Used on the stage, props will appear to be the items they have been crafted to resemble. The actions above, when performed on them, will be visible throughout the theatre.

Syntax: give backdrop to Joshua
  say <long description>
  drop backdrop
Who: Director, designer
Take backdrops into the rigging above the stage, and drop them at the appropriate cues. Backdrops will signal scene changes and alter the appearance of the stage.

Costumes mistress
-----------------

Syntax: give costume to Rose
  say <character name>
  [say <character description>]
Who: Director, designer
Will customize costumes.

Acting (while onstage)

Syntax: say emote <text>
  say [modifier] <text>
Who: any cast member
If the first word of an utterance a cast member makes on stage is 'emote', the remainder will be seen by the audience as if the character were emoting. Otherwise, anything a cast member says on stage will be heard by the audience as if their character had said it. If the first word of the utterance is a modifier, what the audience hears will be modified accordingly. Recognized modifiers are: shrieks,
shouts, cries, announces, intones, declaims, sings, trills, croons, exclaims, gasps, asks, begs, pleads, ponders, sighs, whines, muses, mutters, rasps, murmurs, whispers, mouths.

For example, Laurence, playing Hamlet, says: "Emote lifts the skull to eye level and ponders it", then "Declaims Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well."
The audience would see:
Hamlet lifts the skull to eye level and ponders it.
Hamlet declaims, "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well."

Effects machine
---------------

Syntax: say <effect name> [on | off]
  say set custom <custom name> <text>
  say custom <custom name>
Who: Director, designer
The effects machine will recognize the following commands from the designer, echoing the corresponding effects to the entire theatre:
lightning, thunder, wind, rain, smoke, fog, rainbow, waves, storm.

Conductor
---------

Syntax: say <preset>
Who: Director, conductor
Syntax: say play <text>
Who: Conductor
Syntax: <emote> orchestra
Who: Conductor
The orchestra will recognize certain preset commands from the conductor and produce custom effects using the command 'play <text>'. Current presets are: fanfare, requiem, fugue, march, minuet, aubade. It can be taught to
associate particular emotes with particular musical effects.

Usher
-----

Syntax: tell usher Set price gallery | balcony <amount>
Who: Director, promoter
Sets ticket prices for the gallery and balconies.

Syntax: tell usher Allocate | Unallocate box <person>
Who: Director, promoter
Allocates or unallocates a private box for the next show.

Syntax: tell usher Open
Who: Director, promoter
Opens the box office for the next show, commences selling tickets.

Syntax: tell usher Invite | Uninvite <person>
Who: Box holder
Holders of private boxes may invite anyone to share their box with them, or withdraw the invitation.

Syntax: Give <ticket price> gold to usher
Who: Anyone not already allocated a seat
Buys a ticket for the next performance of the current production.

Syntax: Greet usher
Who: Ticketholders, boxholders, guests
Usher will take ticketholders, owners of private boxes, and their guests, to the correct seat.


--matt
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