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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7638217" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Forget for a minute what you feel about my analysis of your excerpt.  Do you not think, for better or for worse, this would have changed the cognitive space you were occupying and the play experience of the other participants who bore witness to your PC's sacrifice?1)  Your character had a feedback loop (lets call it Nature) with 3 descriptors attached to it and both a positive and a negative mechanical aspect:* If paranoia or fear of the arcane and occult interferes with your effort to save an ally, increase your Nature by 1. * If your appetite for destruction is overcome by your appetite for a meal, increase your Nature by 1.* If you show fearlessness in dire circumstances while knowing you must live with the consequences, change (mundane, but defining trait) Dense to Reflective.2)  Nature goes from 0 to 7.  You can recover it and you can tax it.  If you ever end a session at 0 or 7, your character retires for whatever reason seems relevant given the fiction (eg the character becomes lost, broken, weary, fulfilled, or resolved to a new path).3)  You can tax your Nature (lowering it by 1) when either (a) heroism calls or (b) a situation is outside of your niche but it makes sense for your character to act and be effective (say that you should make a Charisma/Intimidate check, but you don't have the Skill and a -1 Charisma, for when a parley is going south, but the result means something serious to your character).  If you do, you have Advantage and sub your current Nature for your modifier.[HR][/HR]So, lets take your excerpt but add this.- Your decision-points include the understanding that (a) you're facing something that afflicts you which will intensify who you are...but (b) you'll never be the same afterward (in self-perception, in the way others invariably perceive you, and that no eternal life with your ancestors awaits you).- Lets say your Nature was at 1.  You can either increase it to bulwark your Nature (recovering 1) by not sacrificing your character...or...you can tax it and put it to 0.  If it doesn't increase before the end of session...your character will be removed from the game (perhaps fittingly).You don't think this will change your cognitive workspace?  It won't resemble the mental arithmetic that real humans do in a moment of desperate choice (run to or shrink from danger and possible extreme cost)?  You don't think the other participants at the table wouldn't have their heart-rates uptick as this decision looms?</blockquote>

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