JustJimAZ

Commedia Dell'haunt

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Commedia dell'arte, meaning "comedy of the profession" was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italy, characterized by masked "types".
Commedia dell'arte has four stock character groups: the servants or Zanni; the old men or vecchi; the lovers or innamorati ; and the captains or Capitani who can also be La Signora if a female.
Patrons know immediately who a character is by their mask or costume.



I'm just pondering what kind of stock characters haunting uses, and whether it is more beneficial to capitalize on the stereotypes or to break them! It seems to me that in Commedia dell'arte, the characters are tied to the roles they play. In haunting, I think roles would be different from characters.

What would the general role categories be?

Maybe:
The Master
This would be the chief bad guy. The master (or, yes, mistress) vampire. The spider queen. The circus ringmaster. Whoever is coordinating the other baddies is the master.
The Servants
The various minions in service of the master. Zombies, subordinate vampires, ghouls or other monsters.
The Victims
The ones being hunted, tormented, and/or killed by the master and the servants.
The Enemies
Enemies of the Master. Maybe there would even be a Master Enemy? The zombie killers. The police investigating the circus. The vampire hunter.
The Lawgiver
The one who literally telly you the rules, and maybe a bit of the backstory. This is often someone in the first room of the haunt, but it can be in the queue as well.
The Patron
The patron is the customer, but the customer can be a character as well. The Lawgiver may need to help the Patron understand her role. In reality, the patron is the reason for the whole production, but their in-story role should be to attain some goal. Maybe the goal is intangible, like to learn the story of what happened in this house. Maybe it's to deliver,protect, or destroy a thing. Maybe it's to solve a puzzle?

You can see how the same type of "character" may be fit into various "roles". A mad scientist may be any one of the roles listed - except possibly the patron. Likewise a witch, professor, etc.


In an entirely vampire themed haunt, I could see a master vampire, a bunch of servant vampires and ghouls, victims being turned to vampires, and a vampire lackey acting as lawgiver. The Enemy may be a vampire hunter, OR maybe vampires from a rival dynasty? Vampires everywhere! All playing different roles!

This is mostly a thought experiment to see if this is a useful way to think about and organize characters and roles.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic!
Happy haunting!
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