I’m confused by Sadie’s belief: A guardmouse needs to be able to think with her head and act with her heart.
I puzzled for a moment over how that works out in game terms. I decided that it meant a guardmouse should consider situations carefully and rationally, but when it came time to ACT, s/he should follow her heart instead of her head if the two conflict. So in game terms she would act in accordance with her belief if she did the thing that ‘felt’ right regardless of what logic suggested was ‘best’, i.e. helping Conrad when he was in danger even if it endangered the mission. On the other hand, following her head instead of her heart when it came time to act would go against her belief.
However, the rule manual says on page 50:
If Sadie had stayed and fought with Conrad, she would have been playing against her Belief.
That would be ‘acting with her heart’; how could it go against her belief?
“Acting with one’s heart” is usually seen as a synonym for “show compassion” rather than “act with emotion”… Especially since anger was classicly thought to originate elsewhere. (Spleen, IIRC.)
I agree with Ian’s interpretation that this Belief seems to be about logic vs. emotion. However, more important than the specific example is probably just the idea that the GM should be providing opportunities in play for Sadie’s player to make these kinds of decisions. It will be important that the GM and players are all on the same page about what all the players’ beliefs are, and what they actually mean.
“Acting with one’s heart” is usually seen as a synonym for “show compassion” rather than “act with emotion”… Especially since anger was classicly thought to originate elsewhere.
So the belief should be interpreted as “A guardmouse must make rational decisions and be compassionate”? That makes a lot of sense, given the example . . . but I still think that when Conrad’s life was on the line, the ‘compassionate’ thing to do would have been to stay and fight with him.
I agree with Ian’s interpretation that this Belief seems to be about logic vs. emotion.
I guess this is what my question is really about - when you have a multi-part belief like this, and you are violating one part of it (to show compassion and defend your friend), aren’t you violating the belief as a whole even if you are following another part of it (to make rational decisions)?
The nice thing about beliefs like this is that they earn you Fate point either way. If Sadie had stayed with Conrad, she could have said “My head is telling me to complete the mission, but my heart won’t let me leave a friend in need” and I would have handed over the Fate chip just the same.