[Circle of Hands] Trouble at home?

[Moreno R.]

Hi Ron!

Reading the chapter about venture creation (we will play again this evening), I noticed this possible component:

2. Ordinary local-power tensions at a crisis point
      Family, ambition, wealth, status, romance
      Circle Knights have family and other ties to people

If this component come out, I can tie that component to a specific knight? For example, choosing a Knight native of the land that was rolled and saying that it's his family that is at the center of the crisis, or that one of the knights has ties to some people there? The "Knights have family and other ties to people" bit makes me think so.

If I read the rules correctly, this still would leave the choice of PG open to the players, so it's possible that that specific character will not be in play, but if he/she is played by someone in that session: the character would play the venture in a known terrain and with ties to the NPCs, or in any case I have to create "Confusing and potentially dangerous locations" that he/she doesn't know?

[Ron Edwards]

My thinking for that idea was player-driven. The GM announces that local power-tensions in Spurr are the prompting information for the adventure, and if a player speaks up and says, "Hey, I'm choosing Rambert, he's from Spurr, and let's say he's from that area," then it's established that this is indeed the case. It's also implicit, I think, that this character is involving himself or herself on the adventure specifically because of these ties: "This one is personal."

Aside from the player volunteering, I don't see him or her having much control over the back-story and specific ties. The GM is now empowered to provide such things. The Key Event should certainly be involved, so volunteering in this way is obviously asking for the GM to provide information for the player to use. I'm also thinking that the Key Event's exact phrasing should operate as a hard constraint, so the GM can't do stuff like have a character walk into the room during play and say, "This is your ex-spouse," when no such character was included or implied in the Key Event.