So, in our game we’ve got a nice, rich cast of NPCs, centered around the family members of Clan Tyr (but also branching out into alliances and enmities with whole pantheons of other people in other clans, and in the imperial government). Lots and lots of NPCs.
My character, Roland, is pretty much standard Anvil-Lord. Not the most circle-rich of character types, especially once I invest in my units. There simply werent anywhere near enough circles points to connect him to all the people in his family … even the ones I did connect to, I had to universally make conflicted relationships, just to afford them. And I’m fine with that. I literally cannot call for an interstitial scene with Roland’s mother, or his fiance … both of them require a circles roll before he can see them. It’s a cool constraint. It’s very Victorian
What I’m wondering, though, is whether GMCs should also be operating under the same constraint? It’s not clear, from the book, whether the GMCs should get free access to the PCs (and each other) or whether they should have to pay for it out of either their starting circles or their building scenes.
Almost everything in the game cuts both ways, including Circles.
The GMFoNs are assumed to know each other, gain a free relationship, have to pay 2 for a friendly and 1 for a complicated, etc. If they don’t have a link back to you they need to Circle you up.
My take (not, of course, being Luke, or even very well versed with the rules):
[QUOTE]Any GM character you have a relationship with gets a free relationship back at you.
Is that symmetric? If a GMC has a relationship with my character, do I get a free relationship back to them?[/QUOTE]
NO. That’s described as a special “perk for the GM” (see p. 126-127).
[QUOTE]Of course, Syd can always “say yes” to a Circles test of yours and move right to an interstitial.
Does that cost me a building scene?[/QUOTE]
NO. You get to make up to three rolls in your Building scene (p. 289), and I as GM have no right to cheat you out of them: If I just “say yes” to something, that doesn’t count as a roll!
So if I “say yes” to your proposed contact, and that was the only thing you wanted to do in your Building scene, we just skip to an interstitial instead: You don’t spend your Building scene at all and can use it later. If you had other things you were trying in your Building scene, and you actually made some rolls for whatever they were, those naturally still count.
A thought that struck me: Just as Circles cut both ways – the GM has to roll Circles to make contact with characters he’s not bought as Relationships, same as the players – presumably “say yes or roll dice” cuts both ways. That is, if I as GM say, “Hey, I really want to have a scene with your character and this NPC of mine, but he doesn’t have you as a relationship,” the player can “say yes” and jump straight to an interstitial, or say “roll dice” and force me to spend Building scene rolls on it. The power there is in the player’s hands, depending on whether s/he thinks the cool of going to the Interstitial now is more important than forcing me to spend precious Building scene rolls. Correct?
…If I just “say yes” to something, that doesn’t count as a roll!
You know, I didn’t even think of allowing this. I was in such an adversarial mode that I really didn’t think of allowing folks to gain stuff for free. Not that I would rob them of chances to have conflict but it may help with my players sometimes feeling a little overwhelmed.
On the otherhand I guess there is some pride in that my players often ask for stuff I don’t want to give them.
