Forewarnings and requirements

scsmyth · January 22, 2015, 5:30pm

I have been looking over Dramatica for Screenwriters, Chapter 4, and wondered where it is, in the Story Engine settings that one may find the options for forewarnings and requirements. If not in the Story Engine settings are they some place else?

actingpower · January 22, 2015, 10:08pm

The Forewarnings are always the Benchmarks of the Main Character Throughline, and the Requirements are always the Benchmarks of the Overall Throughline. The Story Engine can’t control them directly, but you can mess with them in the Query System (under Storyforming/Plot for the Overall Dynamics and Storyforming/Theme for the Benchmarks).

Alternatively, you can just memorize the Benchmark table I gave you guys! So, off the top of my head, Change/Start/Logical/Decision/Failure/Good/Situation/Future has a Forewarning of… Planning, I believe. But now I’m just showing off.

scsmyth · January 22, 2015, 10:27pm

Thanks for that The parts of method that Armando was describing were all in the Story Engine settings, but I could not find any reference to the Forewarnings and Requirements.

actingpower · January 22, 2015, 10:30pm

Yup, they and Prerequisites/Preconditions are less important than the main four, so they get pushed to the back. They’re based off of the Benchmarks instead of the Concerns. (For the record, Prerequisites is the Benchmark of the Relationship Throughline, and Preconditions is the Benchmark of the Impact Character Throughline.)

MWollaeger · January 23, 2015, 4:38pm

What you are looking for is on the left side of the Story Engine, towards the bottom (on a Mac.)

Or, you can go into StoryGuide and do it there.

MWollaeger · January 23, 2015, 4:40pm

Close!

(Be careful thinking of “Developing a Plan” as “Planning”.)

chuntley · January 23, 2015, 6:55pm

For clarification, the eight Overall Story Static Plot Points, of which Forewarnings and Requirements are two of them, may be found in the Master Story Engine in Dramatica Story Expert for Mac. Dramatica Pro for Windows only has four of the eight static plot points in the story engine window: Goal, Consequence, Costs, and Dividends.

(Still no E.T.A. on Dramatica Story Expert for Windows .)

scsmyth · January 23, 2015, 7:36pm

I had a look at the Story Expert screenshots, and yes, the other 4-options are present Is there the possibility of a patch for Pro 4 windows?

FancyRW · January 25, 2015, 3:00am

frowning with you!

scsmyth · January 25, 2015, 1:01pm

Except for a particular approach taken by Armando, to describe to noobs how to utilise Dramatica, I wouldn’t ordinarily have noticed the deficit

jhull · January 26, 2015, 7:49pm

I moved 4 posts to an existing topic: The PC Version of Dramatica Story Expert

Chadwick · February 16, 2015, 3:46pm

@scsmyth I feel your pain

Well, as much as story engine in DP goes when using Instant Dramatica. But the easiest way I have found to use Instant Dramatica for choosing Forewarnings and Benchmarks - or all of them at once from the Brief Synopsis is to either go to Query System -> Storyforming Complete and open Plot Dynamics and More OS Appreciations, or to open the Theme Browser and since only working in Types, they are all visible and I can just select which one I want to be Consequence and which Goal, etc. Easier than Pie.