I ask Vincent a bunch of questions like I was a horde of flying monkeys
Christopher Kubasik:
Hi Vincent,
I've thought it over. Let me track down a copy of the game from the L.A. crew. It's just too goofy to make you all explain it to me if it's right there in the book. Let me check it out and I'll get back to you.
I honestly think the shift from Goals to Best Interest is a huge one and that's going to inform my reading of the rules in a significant way.
CK
Alan:
Characters don't have to know what's in their best interests, but the player does. And I think there's opportunities to make best interests that are apparently irrational or point to an unusual solution -- eg one of mine was "It's in Zahir's best interest to yield to temptation" while there was a tempter demon in play. To rationalize through play how that's his best interest was a challenge.
lumpley:
Christopher - okay. I really am happy to answer questions either way, so if you can't chase a copy down, let me know.
-Vincent
Christopher Kubasik:
Dude,
If you want to go for it, I'm all ears. I just didn't want to put you on the spot.
lumpley:
Not at all!
So let's see. Here's how the game works. This is for players, not GMs; for GMs it works a little differently.
In a session, I presume that you have two goals for your character: to do well in this session, and to come back in future sessions. The game makes these goals mutually compatible, but in tension. Here's how.
1. To come back in a future session, you have to be on the owe list. To go on the owe list, you have to go up against people rolling better dice than yours.
2. To do well in this session, you have to win rolls. The most reliable way to win rolls is to go up against people rolling worse dice than yours. (You can still do well, by luck, if you go up against better dice - that's how the goals are compatible.)
3. Once you're on the owe list, you can scratch your name off for a bonus to your current roll - you can trade away your character's future for her success in this session.
So the purpose of your character's best interests is to throw you into action against other characters, so you get to roll dice. When you create your character's best interests, you're supposed to know the above tension, so you name best interests that put your character into conflict with other characters' strengths, so that you'll be rolling against them where their dice are better than yours. There's a section in the rules that's explicit about this.
Of course the other players know it too, so they're casting their characters' best interests against your character's strengths. Consequently, it's in the warrior's best interests to win the heart of the diplomat; it's in the diplomat's best interests to defeat the warrior in battle.
Now when those two characters come together, there's plenty for them to do to one another and plenty to be decided between them, not just who kills whom.
Making sense so far? I've barely talked about the dice, but if "best interests?" underlies your real question, this should help, I think?
-Vincent
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