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--- nate:tgimh [2025/11/15 10:24] – [Scene Descriptors] paganini
+++ nate:tgimh [2025/11/27 21:22] (current) – [Keys] paganini
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 ==== Effect on Power Track ====
-Third, the loser crosses off the box on their Power track equal to the number of successes that the winner rolled. If the loser would rather not cross off a box, they can create an Injury for their character instead. If the box is already crossed off, cross off the next highest available box AND create an Injury equal to the box that was crossed off! If the last (highest) box of the Power track is crossed off, you're out of the scene.
+Third, the loser crosses off the box on their Power track equal to the number of successes that the winner rolled. If the loser would rather not cross off a box, they can create an Injury for their character instead. If the box is already crossed off, cross off the next highest available box AND create an Injury equal to the box that was crossed off! If the last (highest) box of the Power track is crossed off, the character is out of the scene.
 ==== Recovery From Injury ====
@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 I like Eero's rule that when you have a refreshment scene you're letting your guard down. So you get to heal up whenever you want, but when you do the GM gets to escalate the situation.
-====== XP ======
+===== XP =====
 XP comes from Keys, and is used to buy Advances.
-===== Keys =====
+===== Keys ====
 There are two kinds of Keys:
-Dramatic Key Framework:
+Dramatic Key Framework: \\
- Keys of this type describe dramatic motifs
+(Keys of this type describe dramatic motifs)\\
+\\
+XP - The dramatic issue is involved in a scene\\
+XP - The character encounters significant challenges related to the theme.\\
+XP - The motif progresses.\\
+Buyoff (10XP) - The theme is discarded from the game.\\
-XP - The dramatic issue is involved in a scene
+Motivation Key Framework: \\
-XP - The character encounters significant challenges related to the theme.
+(Keys of this type describe psychology)\\
-XP - The motif progresses.
+\\
-Buyoff (10XP) - The theme is discarded from the game.
+XP - The character expresses the motivation\\
+XP - The character follows the motivation despite risk, personal cost, or other considerations\\
-Motivation Key Framework:
+Buyoff (10XP) - The character opts to let go of the trait represented by the Key\\
- Keys of this type describe psychology
-XP - The character expresses the motivation
-XP - The character follows the motivation despite risk, personal cost, or other considerations
-Buyoff (10XP) - The character opts to let go of the trait represented by the Key
 ===== Advances =====
@@ Line 84: / Line 84: @@
 It costs 2 Advances to raise or lower a 2D Descriptor one die, 3 Advances to raise or lower a 3D Descriptor one die, and so on.
 You can spend an advance to move a 1D Descriptor to your Background.
+===== Character Creation =====
+==== Game Design Wibble ====
+One of my "best practices / favorite techniques" is that the natural language (fictional) description of a character and the mechanical description of that character should be mirrors of each other. I first learned how to do this from playing The Pool, where character creation is a little writing exercise (describe your character in exactly 50 words - not one word more or less) followed by underlining the important bits, extracting them, and rating them with dice, effectively rendering them what we nowadays call "freeform traits." The text of the Pool itself does not give you a lot of help in terms of effective use of this tool; beginning Pool players coming from a background of That Game or Vampire tend to produce characters that resemble lists of equipment and powerz. These days I find the exactly 50 words restriction to be overly fussy, but the underlying concept of creative constraint is really important. You do not want to write 5 pages of play-killing backstory (the way RISUS suggests you should), but you do need enough contextualizing information to clearly visualize the character and get them moving in the first scene. I also think it works better if you evolve the character by creating the backstory fiction and the mechanical description organically. Don't just write a backstory then translate it into numbers, or fill out a character sheet and then try to write a story to justify it. Go back and forth.
+==== Abilities ====
+In this game, you have "Abilities," which are Descriptors. An Ability is not something super broad ("Strength" or "Intelligence"), nor is it something super specific ("Drawing with Crayons"). An Ability is about like a character class, or an AW playbook. Abilities are not chosen from a menu, but are invented by the player at character creation. Abilities define the arenas of conflict that the character will operate in. Think in terms of opposed actions - the character is, right now, acting at cross purposes with some other character. What sort of situation is it that makes you reach for the dice and roll this Ability?
+Your first ability is rated at 3 dice (Expert). Write  a couple three sentences that demonstrate, justify, or explain the ability by depicting a Significant Event in the character's life. Think of it like a teaser trailer for the character - we get to see them in motion, doing their thing, for the first time.
+Every character also has a Personal History, which describes their general lifestyle, place in the setting, and important life events. The Personal History provides context for the Significant Event that we saw a flash of earlier. How did the character get into that situation?
+In mechanical terms, the Personal History provides three abilities each rated at 2 dice (Competent).
+Next, the character's Cultural Identity is rated at 1 die (Mediocre). The Significant Event and Personal History are all about deeds. The Cultural Identity is about origin. Where did the character come from, in terms of family, tribe, class, religion, or whatever.
+Eero says: characters are not fatherless pawns, but beings "with values, beliefs, social ties and a whole range of peculiarities drawn from the particulars of the setting."
+The Cultural Identity is used in play whenever the character wants to enter an arena of conflict that their other abilities seem unsuited for. If it makes sense that the character's Cultural Identity would give them at least a passing familiarity with whatever it is they're trying to do, they can roll 1 die, indicating a reliance on luck to get good results (unless they want to use other interesting parts of the system to improve their odds! 🙂 ). Otherwise, they're simply unable to compete in that contest.
+If the player wants, specific Cultural Identity abilities may be enumerated (each rated at 1 die) before play begins.
+Also, during play, when Cultural Identity abilities come up as previously described, the player can add them to the character sheet, rated at 1 die. This is how you can add new abilities during play that can then be improved.
+Background is the last Ability-related category. Backgrounds do not have ratings. They define arenas that the character is good at, but that the player specifically does not want to see in the game. They are activities that the character may in fact do at times, but this always happens offscreen (in the background!) and is unconnected from the emergent story. They are, therefore, sort of the opposite of Abilities.
+In addition to abilities, each character has one general-purpose Descriptor (an "Aspect" in FATE terms) that can be anything the player wants. This is rated 2D.
+They also have three Connections. A Connection is an NPC that the character knows and is more or less friendly with. Each Connection owes the character a favor, or the character owes the Connection one.
+Connections are what connect the PCs to the emergent story; when you create a Connection, you're creating an NPC relationship that will be important and might be featured right away in play.
+Even though they have a special application, Connections are still Descriptors, and therefore can contribute dice to pools if it seems appropriate. (Basically, whenever the Connection is either present in the scene, or if the Connection is the focus of the conflict.)
+I'm also importing Keys whole cloth from TSOY/SolarSystem. Literary characters are always a bit monomaniacal. A Key is something that the character just can't let go of, an attachment that requires them to act. In psychology speak, they are "captured" by it. Every Key has 2 or 3 specific actions that, when performed, net XP for the character. Each Key also has a "buyoff" condition, which nets a one-time jackpot of XP and removes the Key from the character. In this way characters can change and grow (and overcome their obsessions).
+A beginning character starts with one Key, but characters can have more than one Key at a time.
+Each character has a Will pool (which starts at 9 for everyone, I think) and a Power track (which has 9 boxes on it for everyone, I think).
+In summary, when play begins, each PC should have a backstory of at least 50, but not more than 100 words, which reflects their Abilities (One Expert (3d), three Competent (2d), and any number of Cultural Identity Abilities (1d)), one player-authored aspect and three Connections, one Key, a Pool of 9 Will points, and a 9-step Power track.
+Each character also starts with a number of Advancements (5 by default), which the player can immediately use to flesh out the character, or which can be saved to develop the character during play as the game unfolds.

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