Yay! That’s what was lurking in the back of my mind! Thanks Luke!!!
Players to Luke: “But what about XYZABC!?!?!?!?!”
Luke: “You guys are thinking too hard.”
My player Greg had a nice, concise reply to Luke’s post in an email to me:
That makes more sense to me now. For some reason the idea that you could spend Artha on a Maneuver to directly influence the die roll didn’t come off in the book very clearly. Per Luke’s reply, though, although you can win your scenes, the purpose of those scenes is to justify who can help you in a Maneuver roll, who makes the roll and also to earn Artha for the purpose of either A) improving your character or B) spending it to save the world. Pretty neat choice, actually. And because you can’t get Artha by doing anything other than playing through your scenes, unless you do those scenes and get Artha to spend on the Maneuver, the GM is going to steamroll you in the Maneuver roll.
That’s a good way to look at it, Paul. Per Luke’s reply above and your comments, I think I’ll keep it a lot looser the 1st time we play.
If we play it again, I might make it a little more “hardcore,” but only because it’d add a little more strategy to making characters.
Also, having your FoN have to focus on some spec skills really means you need to Circles up lots of help for other skills, which is a cool way to get more NPCs/helping dice/get into Circles trouble, etc.
It’s all good! 
The thing to be firm about is intents and actual helping. Don’t sweat the specific skill so much.
Don’t let them figure out how to game the dice roll, and otherwise ignore it through the session.
I’d make dueling pistols part of a skill toolkit for a Dueling skill, actually. The kit would also include épées for the traditionalist.
Dang! I think you spent more time on that than I did!
Looks awesome, Rob. Hopefully it’ll be helpful to someone.
p.
Thanks for doing this, guys. I really, truly appreciate it. It’s a boon for the whole community.
Paul, Luke, you’re welcome.
All I want now is a chance to put this material into fucking practice. Dunno when that’ll be, though.
Very handy guide Paul (and great work IMAGinES). Got hung up on this one though: “Every character should have a Belief that can be resolved in the next Maneuver, a Belief that can be resolved in the next Session, and a Belief that isn’t intended to be solved.” Could you please explain what you mean by “isn’t intended to be solved”? What is the function of that belief? An example perhaps?
That belief is something like the over-arching ethos of the character that drives him to make particular choices. Not intended to be solved might be the wrong wording - because he could fulfill this belief in some way - it could be the overarching motivation throughout the phase, for example.
However, it is distinctly different from the goal oriented beliefs - because it gives a method for the player to make choices with his character.
see pg. 85: “Nothing matters anymore, I may as well work for the enemy when it suits me” was Chris’s belief for Mal Nenox, a security rigger, who had been brainwashed (prior to play) by the Inquisition.
I rather like the ethos-style Beliefs.
What’s worked for me in practice is taking a belief that’s got the principle but not the to-do attached to it – or at least the urgent to-do that your “SOLVE RIGHT NOW” Belief needs. And since the point of the unsolveable belief is to a) give you Fate for incorporating it into the story and b) give you Persona for when it comes into conflict, it’s helpful from a narrative-continuity POV if it sticks around.
My all-time favorite to play is one of the 4th beliefs (Loyal, etc.) because you can just come up with your three to-dos and then the 4th can be the one that screws them all up. Since I called it out, Loyalty:
Belief: I’m the only noble worthy of the throne; to take the throne from my brother, I must make the court see his incompetence.
Belief: I am loyal to my brother and will protect him with my life.
That first one is solved with a DOW, fate and persona please. The second one drives play but the only time I’ll scratch it off is if bro dies.
One Belief I’m using right now is, “I’m a dirty junkie and I must do whatever I can to hide my habit.” That’s an ongoing condition that constantly conflicts with his higher-minded goals.
There’s a Cyrean Heretic character in my game with a Belief along the lines of, “To save their souls, I must evangelize more members into my faith.” It doesn’t come up much because that player is still wrapping his head around deliberately suboptimal play, but when it does I make sure he gets paid.
But, yeah, I could probably word that passage better. I’ll put my thinking cap on and see if I can’t explain it better. Maybe “ongoing condition” works?
p.
p.s. I edited the wiki – how awesome is that? My first-ever wikification. Great point, guys, thanks for bringing it up.
Hey, Paul, nice work! It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it, eh? 
(lightbulb switches on) So, basically, the Infection mechanics are a handy-dandy metaplot generator?
Among other things, I believe so. That’s at least how it’s expressed itself in my own group. Basically, if you buy that you need your scenes to be (at least) thematically related to the skill you end up rolling in the Maneuver, you can see the game prompts you to do certain things at certain points in the story arc.
The metaplot is fairly clear: During the first bit of the arc, you start out gathering information about your enemies in sneaky ways (research, streetwise, etc. in Assess) and then engage in an abstract battle of ideas (rhetoric, suasion, inv. logic etc. in Take Action). Direct combat in this Phase is punished (-3 Dispo for using Gambit, the only attack that uses Tactics), unless it’s a setup for a further sneaky action (Command to Pin). Yelling at each other is also suboptimal (all the Flak skills). If you get in trouble, the ways you get out of trouble are institutionally oriented (estate mgmt and ship mgmt in Conserve), and so on and so forth.
What I found enlightening is the comparison/contrast of Maneuvers across Phases. Signals is used every phase to Assess, but Journalism transforms from a Take Action to an Assess skill in the first and third Phases. Interesting! Strategy is the all-important skill of the Invasion, of course, while Propaganda is the Usurpation skill of choice. The function of Psychology shifts around from Phase to Phase (Gambit in the Infiltration; all the attacks in Usurpation; curiously absent in Invasion).
You can kind of eyeball how a BE game is “supposed” to go, assuming you play all your Phases, by the Maneuver skills.
p.
I like the idea of using the “metaplot” angle when explaining the Infection mechanics to experienced roleplayers. Of course, as you mention, that’s not all it does, so I’d flavour my explanation liberally with “pacing tool”.
In that regard, I couldn’t help comparing Infection Dispo to Sorcerer’s Humanity in my mind yesterday; the text of that game discusses the score in terms of overall story pace, i.e. “backing music”.
Thanks for discussing skills! I don’t think I’d considered how they can morph between phases.