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People The Commedia game is the first prototype instantiation of the Purgatory Engine, an engine supporting the new game genre of the first-person-actor. Commedia is an online improvisational role-playing game. Commedia is a three-character drama, with each character being played remotely via the Internet, with the drama unfolding within a proscenium arch (front-facing stage) presented via a web page. A player controls the gestures, postures, lateral movements, and facial expressions of their character. They can also type text dialog for their character, which is sent as text to the web-stage for all of the players to see. Background Vision Further description Forgive my sleeping compatriots, they are simple men and quite tired. I trust you not to step on Bhrigellas nose, he gets terribly upset when that happens. Yes, they look almost dead, don't they? Like marionettes with their strings cut. They are not human you know. Think of them as vessels, templates, archetypes, masks, roles. Characters. Perhaps you recognize a few of them. This fellow? You've seen him on playing cards, on chocolate packages, beer cans and in massive neon above the Nevada Desert. He never actually wore that stupid pointy jesters hat, he's been mixed up with all sorts of unsavoury characters over the years. All of them have. But they are still out there among you, in your masked rock-bands, your TV-shows and comic books - even in your computer games. But only shadows. Once they were alive. Men and women dedicated their lives to them. They "became" one of these sleeping beauties, adopting it as an alter ego on the stage and often off it as well. They were superstars in a time of plague and unimaginable beauty. From the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century the Italian Comedies had Europe roaring with laughter. From it's roots in antiquity it grew into a form all of its own. A simple stage, a handful of players, no script save a few hasty lines on a parchment and some simple props. That was all that was needed. And of course the masks - the characters. In the beginning there were only a couple of them but as the Commedia grew in popularity a whole family, a pantheon if you like, of unlikely individuals took to the tiles. The university city of Bologna gave us the stern Doctor and from the upper hills of Bergamo came the most popular of all the roles- wicked Arlechino, the Harlequin. They came from Italy, but now they belong to legend. You may not know it, but you have come here to reawaken them - to master a lost art. A game? Yes. Have I said anything else? It is very different from your real time strategies, your first person shooters and has nothing to do with your sorry excuses for role-playing. If there are shooters, fighters, sims and racers then this is an actor. A first person actor. Even though the character you play is visible on the screen you must learn to see the world through its eyes, talk as it would talk, move as it would move. And ultimately feel its emotions. Fear not. I will show you the ropes. The rules are simple because there are none. Your role, its objectives, a stage and a scenario is all you get. No more than we had. The tale on stage will unfold as you act it out, improvising lines and lazzi (the trade term we use for slapstick stunts) as you go along. If you have played a true roleplaying game you know what I'm talking about, if you haven't you still know how to do it. Everyone plays roles, at least when they are children. Improvised drama is the primal art of mankind and the Commedia it's pinnacle! Ultimately it is you and your friends from all the globe that must discover the art of Commedia, find your very own style and make it yours. Where our tales were marry, yours may be sad. Take care of the characters, respect their feelings and unique personalities. In time you may meld with one of them like the actors of old and gain the wit of a Harlequin or the grace of a Columbine. Gently rouse them from their centuries of sleep, the stage beckons - a renaissance awaits. Me? A simple actor like yourself. You may call me by my stage-name - Scaramouche. "The Italian comedians learn nothing by heart; they need but to glance at the subject of a play a moment or two before going upon the stage. It is this very ability to play at a moment?s notice which makes a good Italian actor so difficult to replace. Anyone can learn a part and recite it on the stage, but something else is required for Italian comedy. For a good Italian actor is a man of infinite resources, a man who plays more from imagination than from memory; he matches his words and actions perfectly with those of his colleague on the stage that he enters instantly into whatever acting and movements are required of him in such a manner as to give the impression that all they do has been prearranged." Scenario 1 - The Pleasure Garden of Duke Sartorius Background introduction At this time a hundred wars plague Tuscany and also the lands to the south. Hired Condottieri ravage the countryside, well paid by local Princes, Dukes,Marquises, Chamberlains and other dignitaries of impeccable character. This concerns us little, for in Vendora it is peacetime and her flowers in bloom. Merchants, alchemists, falconers, free-masons and miracle workers form all corners of the Holy Roman Empire gather to the court of enlightened Sartorius, the Golden Duke. Alas, with these paragons of civilization - like rats in the ballast of proud galleys - come ruffians, romantics, raconteurs, rapists and assorted rascals. The night-time streets and crooked byways are their homes. But let us tarry no longer, for Duke Sartorius is preparing to give his daughter, the fair Isabella, in marriage to a suitable man of station. For a woman of Isabelle's stature, beauty and learning, no less than a minor God of antiquity or the King of a continent, will do. Her two most ardent suitors are none of these things. In fact they both, on different merits, have earned a place in no court but that of fools, or perhaps that of wicked Belzeebub. This tale would be a tragedy if all things were as they appear. Luckily for us Isabelle herself has a few surprises up her voluminous skirts and voila, we have the trappings of a comedy in the Italian vein. Rouse the actors from their drunken stupor, for it is time for them to don their rags. Slap powder onto their faces and bleed them a pint for good measure while the crowd is gathering. Grease the ropes and silence the donkeys - the Commedia is about to begin. Dramatis Personae - public announcement Arlequino Sbruffadelli of Bergamo Captain Cocodrillo Isabelle de Sartorius AT THIS TIME Isabelle is alone in the palace garden, accompanied only by her guardian Captain Cocodrillo and they believe themselves unseen... Goals Deliverables Research aims Dissemination
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