DramaSystem rewards the players who most consistently and entertainingly enact their dramatic poles.

Gaining Bennies

At the end of each session, each player in turn (in seating order) makes a brief statement, highlighting how he entertainingly brought out his character’s dramatic poles over the course of the session, in relation to the episode’s theme.

When a player is unable to articulate a case, the GM makes it for him.

All participants then vote, ranking the other players in order, with #1 the best score, #2 second best and so on. The argument is just a reminder: voters base their rankings on how well the players brought out their dramatic poles in relation to the theme, not how skillfully they made their cases. Moving from one pole to another in the course of an episode is a good thing. Vote against players who, episode in and episode out, stress a particular pole and ignore the other. Players do not rank themselves. No one ranks the GM, who never gets Bennies. The GM votes, too, ranking all of the players.

The GM then totals each player’s vote tally. The number of drama Tokens a player has in hand is then subtracted from this number.

The two players with the lowest scores gain one bennie each. 

For portable computer users, a simple spreadsheet speeds the tallying.

Tied Results

If two players are tied for the lowest score, each gets a bennie. The second place finisher(s) does not.

If two players tie for second place, both of them gain Bennies, as does the player in first. 

If three or more players tie for first, all gain Bennies.

Spending Bennies

When you have a bennie, you can spend it on narrative benefits that kick in during play. Once spent, you remove the bennie from your character sheet. They don’t refresh; you can replace a spent bennie only by earning a new one, as above.

Cash in a bennie for any one of the following:

• a dramatic token 
• a procedural token
• to draw an additional card in a procedural scene
• the right to jump the queue and call a scene immediately after any other scene. The queue-jumper’s next scene is skipped, after which the existing Calling Order is observed as per usual.
• to jump into a scene the caller wants to keep you out of
• to block another player’s attempt to jump into a scene you’ve called. (Blocked players keep the Bennies they would have spent.)
• the right to burn any 1 token held by another player. A dramatic token returns to the kitty; a procedural token is treated as spent. 

You may spend only one bennie per scene.

Note: Low score looks counter-intuitive on the page but is entirely natural in practice. It allows players to rank each other from 1 on down, with #1 being the best. Only the GM ever sees the low score.