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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6098371" data-attributes="member: 42582">[MENTION=98255]Nemesis Destiny[/MENTION]Another comment on Beliefs: they occupy the same sort of game space as alignment in D&D, or as personality flaws in games like HERO or GURPS, but work in more-or-less the opposite way.Ron Edwards gets this pretty right, I think, <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/15/" target="_blank">here</a>:Consider the behavioral parameters of a samurai player-character in Sorcerer and in GURPS. On paper the sheets look pretty similar: bushido all over the place, honorable, blah blah. But what does this mean in terms of player decisions and events during play? I suggest that in Sorcerer (Narrativist), the expectation is that the character will encounter functional limits of his or her behavioral profile, and eventually, will necessarily break one or more of the formal tenets as an expression of who he or she "is," or suffer for failing to do so. No one knows how, or which one, or in relation to which other characters; that's what play is for. I suggest that in GURPS (Simulationist), the expectation is that the behavioral profile sets the parameters within which the character reliably acts, especially in the crunch - in other words, it formalizes the role the character will play in the upcoming events. Breaking that role in a Sorcerer-esque fashion would, in this case, constitute something very like a breach of contract. . . a character in Narrativist play is by definition a thematic time-bombIn D&D or GURPS, departing from your alignment (or violating your flaws), particularly at crunch-time, is tantamount to cheating - gaining an unfair advantage.Whereas BW takes for granted that the GM will be confronting the players with situations where they will feel the pressure to violate their Beliefs, and how the player repsonds to that - and whether the player decides to keep Beliefs despite violating them, or to change them in the fact of the new situation, is up to the player. And (as per my earlier post) Fate Points can be earned either way. BW doesn't care what the answer is - it is aimed at forcing the player to deliberately choose an answer!</blockquote>

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