The 1/3 and 1/2/5 Keys

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

What's the difference between keys where the awards are in increments of 1/3 and 1/2/5?

I'm writing up new keys and would like some way to get my head around them.

Joe.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Motivations. When the motivation is fulfilled in play, gain an experience point. When the motivation is fulfilled against good odds, gain three experience points.

Everything else. When the Key comes up in play, gain an experience point. When the Key presents a minor problem, gain two experience points. When it presents a major problem, gain five experience points.

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

A response within 5 minutes. That's service. Cheers, Clinton.

Joe.

[Myrmidon]

Actually, I find that the definition provided in the text is not, in my opinion, really bourne out by the example keys.

For instance, once could consider both faith and conscience to be motivating factors (e.g. missionaries).  Yet both the Key of faith and the key of conscience are 1/2/5 (i.e. "Everything Else").

Do you think that faith and conscience could also be the basis of Motivational Keys?

I'm ask, not to split hairs, but to gain a better understanding of how Clinton sees this division.

[Eero Tuovinen]

I'm no Clinton, but I'll answer anyway: you're right that both of those keys represent concepts in the fiction that could be character motivations, too. And there's nothing wrong in writing a key like that. However, in practice you have to pick one or the other, and Clinton just happened to pick these examples into the book.

I call the "everything else" keys "dramaturgical" exactly because of the specific relationship the two key types have; you use the motivation keys when you want to gauge character motivations, and dramaturgical keys when you deal with external memes. This can be confusing, because even the motivation keys actually don't ask you to consider the hypothetical character psychology, only the acts the character takes based on that psychology. But otherwise the difference is clear: one key type concerns events in separation from motivation, the other in conjunction.

I'd also like to add one thing about the original question, a detail that's perhaps often ignored: the 1/3 motivation keys don't follow the rule of the least reward activating only three times per session. Unlike the other keys, you can score the 1-point motivation reward however many times you want. This can be important when the group utilizes the two key types and their distinctions in their most powerful manner. Some players consider the "everything else" keys more powerful exactly because they either limit both key types in this manner, or lift the limitation from the non-motivational keys.

[Glendower]

Could I trouble you for an example of the two different Keys in play Euro?  Like a mini AP or something.  Your explanation is interesting, but I'm having some problems visualizing. 

[Eero Tuovinen]

The difference is mostly in the means the player will utilize to trigger the key, obviously. Take my favourite example, vampires:

Key of vampire hate
1xp: the character acts on his hate
3xp: the character suffers because of vampires
buyoff: the character forgives a vampire

Key of the vampire hunter
1xp: the character is in a scene with vampires
2xp: the character fights vampires
5xp: the character destroys a vampire
buyoff: the character becomes a vampire or forgets their existence

Now, how do you score those keys? You'll note that while the motivation key directly concerns character experience (how the character views the world, specifically), the dramatic key is only interested in concrete events in the fiction. If you choose to have the motivational key, your best route is to open up your character to the other players and show how his actions are tied to his hate, how it's all part of it - even if there's no vampires in the story! The dramatic key, on the other hand, absolutely requires you to have vampires, and won't work without GM support. They're pretty different in what they do.

The natural question to ask is, of course, why the two key types have different reward profiles. For the most part you could well have them be identical, but I at least like the difference: motivations are ever-existing, so it's appropriate that their efficient use is predicated on constant harping and prodding of the motivation; I refer to the ability to activate the 1xp reward however many times you want, of course. Likewise, the big 5xp reward you get from a dramatic key is, indeed, dramatic. Those two differences give the key types their character.

Overall I'd like to emphasize that this key difference is not a big thing in the rules, at least to me. It's a nice additional option, but by no means crucial. I've been thinking that I probably should make the dramatic key the default type when playing with newbies, and introduce the motivation key as an "advanced option" after a couple of sessions. Usually it seems to me that new players have more difficulty in milking the motivations for xp, you see.

[Darren Hill]

Thanks for that explanation, Eero. I for one had missed some of the subtleties of the reward schemes, and thought the motivational one wasn't balanced compared to the other one.