If Samuel is a player in the story. Then who is the character?

questions
#1

Character elements are assigned to characters who I assume have names.

Aren’t those characters automatically players.

If I am a player Samuel then I can contain conflicting characters.

How would a player be named different from a character?

Does player refer to the entity/body that a character Samuel inhabits?

If conflicting character elements can inhabit a single player, then who’s the character.

How is the character different from the character elements.

Can Samuel be the character and the player at the same time?

If character elements are assigned to a single character, what is that character called and how does that differ from the player?

All I see is character elements are assigned to players who use them differently.

I would conclude character elements are assigned to players not characters meaning character elements and character are the same thing.

I think we’d need a quad describing how to assign characters
We have character elements
Characters
Players
And something else.

@jhull

#2

The player Samuel is the person in the story that the Audience would consider Samuel. This also coincides with the non-Dramatica usage of the word “character”, i.e. an actor might say “I play Samuel on the TV show XYZ” or a viewer might say “I love that Samuel character”. But that’s a non-Dramatica usage.

(Side note: it’s possible the same actor might play two Dramatica “players”, e.g. twins, or an actor who plays a grandson in one timeline and the grandfather in the 50-years-ago timeline.)

The Dramatica term character can refer to different story roles, such as Main Character, Influence Character, or a character in the OS. So “player Samuel” might be both the Main Character (part of the MC Throughline) and the Protagonist (part of the Overall Story). He might also have other OS elements assigned to him besides Consider and Pursuit.

For keeping them straight the general recommendation is to refer to the OS character by a role name, and the MC or IC by their actual name. Example of player Samuel:

  • bank manager (OS Protagonist: Consider, Pursuit; also Disbelief and Certainty)
  • Samuel (MC)

I think this is all a lot simpler than it sounds. It’s mostly an issue of reference/terminology and keeping things straight in your head.

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#3

Thanks. This gives me clarity.

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