[MLwM] Starting Scores and Killing the Master: Data?

[Sean]

I'm curious about whether there's any correlation between starting choices for Weariness and Self-Loathing and winding up being the one who kills the Master (or gets the first attempt at least) in the endgame.

Any data? In the game I played it was the SL 3, W 0 starting character who wound up taking out our Master, a nefarious astrologer who ordered his minions to make sure his prophecies came true...

[Mike Holmes]

I won once with a 2,1 and once with a 1,2.

Mike

[Ron Edwards]

Freakin' Mike - "won." Uh-huh. You and your "winning."

Anyway, my character Augustin did not kill the Master, despite being the one successfully to begin Endgame, and he started at Weariness 3, Self-Loathing 0. In one of my campus club games, the killing-character started with Self-Loathing 3, Weariness 0.

I'm inclined to think that if there is a trend in this direction, that it's about the Weariness, 'cause all the characters have big ol' Self-Loathing by the time the potential for Endgame comes around, in my experience.

Best,
Ron

[Sean]

Hm. I don't know - I wanted more data.

Self-loathing means you need less love to 'win' (more on that in a second), but Weariness makes it easier to get love. (That's a superficial analysis - there are secondary effects as well.)

So I wonder if this has any effects. It seems like in a short game/one-shot Self-Loathing would be more correlated with being the one who brought about the endgame, but maybe in a longer campaign Weariness shows a higher correlation, or at least they average out.

As to the talk about 'winning', again, I don't have enough experience. I did sort of feel when I was playing that the goal was to get love fastest and best en route to being the one to kill the master, so that felt like winning in a sense. OTOH I know some people happily seize on an alternate ending for your character and play for that too. Interesting.

[Mike Holmes]

"won" is just shorthand for being the one to kill the master. I was in a rush.

That said, I do feel a certain gamist imperative. And what's certain is that players do compete to be the one to finish him off. Put it this way, killing the master is it's own reward, if you don't get it, you miss a little bit of that catharsis that comes with it. IMO.

Mike

[Victor Gijsbers]

My own experience (one game): the character that started out with 3 selfloathing and 0 weariness was the one who killed the master, whereas the character that started out with 1 selfloathing and 2 weariness never came close.

So, more evidence to reinforce the idea that high self-loating makes for better chances at being the one to kill the master.

[kwill]

in my recently wrapped up mini-campaign the character who started with Self-Loathing 2, Weariness 1 got to kill the Master

this had everything to do with his focus on Connections (i.e. gaining Love) rather than Violence and Villainy, and my eagerness to throw the Master at him once he was near Endgame

the other characters were SL 1, W 2, and SL 0, W 3

[Eric J. Boyd]

The three Minions in my recent game were SL 3 W 0; SL 2 W 1; SL 1 W 2. The SL 3 W 0 character began the Endgame and killed the Master.