ABSTRACT

Like soft game theory, drama theory is concerned with the pre-play interactions between characters. It provides a way of modelling the strategic conversations that occupy them at this stage as they seek to determine the game which must ultimately be played. Over a period of two decades drama theory has developed from early rhetorical and hortatory statements-such as that quoted above-to become a more rounded framework for supporting those tackling real-life confrontations in a wide variety of practical settings. During the course of this development process the original concepts have been extended and modifi ed in a number of ways and this can be confusing for those coming to the subject for the fi rst time and trying to make sense of interim reports or publications. Perhaps the most signifi cant change was that proposed by Howard in 2007 (Howard 2007) which both simplifi ed and made more analytically powerful the earlier formulation. For clarity,

the present text and the presentation below is based upon what is now generally referred to as ‘DT2’—the 2007 reformulation-so this needs to be borne in mind in any comparison with earlier texts or applications. This is not to say that the earlier (‘DT1’) version is in any way misleading-indeed some analysts still maintain that they prefer working with that version-but it would clearly be unhelpful to use both approaches within the confi nes of a single book.