I’m using the PSR and have both variations (prereqs and preconditions) as separate scenes. But, I’m not clear on whether any particular illustration I come up with falls into one or the other bucket.
How should I make that distinction?
If you look at the gist list for each, you should be able to a get strong feel for these Variations that will help you distinguish them.
Preconditions has a very strong “imposed” aspect – being forced to follow someone else’s rules, play someone’s else’s game, etc. “Having to take one’s younger sibling everywhere” is a great one. Or think of the preconditions Buttercup imposes on the relationship at the beginning of The Princess Bride : “farm boy, fetch me that pitcher”. From some point of view, the preconditions seem dumb, silly, or unnecessary.
Prerequisites focuses more on something being a necessary step.
So it’s really the necessary/essential vs. unnecessary/non-essential axis that distinguishes these. However, I feel the gist lists give you a richer sense of the distinction.
Note that like many Dramatica elements, a particular illustration could seemingly fit both. Is a homework assignment Prerequisities or Preconditions? It depends on how it’s presented – where the focus is and where the conflict is coming from.
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Before we build the fire, a prerequisite is that we have some wood, since all that exists around us are wood and rocks.
However, one precondition before I let you have the wood, which I control: you must solve the Problem of the Four Sided Unicorn.
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