The Capes Mindset

[Vaxalon]

Sure.  

Immediately undoing something, in narration, that someone has just accomplished via a goal.  

(sorry to keep harping on this, but it's a big crawsticker for me)

It's certainly an application of the rules... the system allows you to do it.  Is it "legitimate"?  Is it good sportsmanship?

To me, it comes across as snarky and unsportsmanlike, but nothing in the rules of sportsmanship or the rules of the game forbids it.

The two questions there (what is legitimate?  What is graceful?) go together.  I know that it would be easier for you to answer the first and ignore the second, but to me they're closely related, when it comes to Capes.

[Larry L.]

Immediately undoing something, in narration, that someone has just accomplished via a goal.
...
It's certainly an application of the rules... the system allows you to do it. Is it "legitimate"? Is it good sportsmanship?

Depends why you're doing it.

If you're just undoing someone's victory just for the sake taking the wind out of their sails, then yeah, that is poor sportsmanship. The rules will not stop you from being a dick. We've covered this.

But perhaps you've come up with some cool way to up the ante and it will creatively add to the game, but it just so happens to require you to re-present a potential conflict situation, then the rules won't stop you from doing it.

Where should you draw the line? Maybe the game forces you to explore that. Maybe some people are uncomfortable with excercising such discretion, or with entertaining the same discretion of others. I dunno, that's not for me to say.

What do you do in any other social situation where it is unclear to you whether an action will or will not be perceived as rude?

[TonyLB]

There is no question at all about whether such action is a legitimate use of the rule.  It is.  You know that.

Whether it's poor sportsmanship?  That's trickier.  Is that player "congratulating other players when they do well, even when it's to their detriment"?  That probably depends (as Larry says) on context and what they offer.

But unsportsmanlike actions can still be legitimate under the rules.  If you complain about a legitimate use of the rules, it doesn't matter whether the other person was being unsportsmanlike.  You definitely are.

[Brennan Taylor]

It occurs to me that Capes is like an unmoderated Wiki. The only contribution to the SIS that sticks is one that has buy-in from the other players at the table. Since everyone has free narration (an unlimited ability to overwrite other people's contributions), unless you can sell your ideas to the other folks at the table, it goes away.