"You Ask Far Too Much"-Question

[Nicolas Crost]

Hi,

the following question arose during our game of Polaris: When faced with an "You Ask Far Too Much"-statement as a player, do I

a) revise the content of my statement but keep the initial conflict statement as is? This would mean, that a "But Only If" countered by an "You Ask Far Too Much" would have to be replaced by another "But Only If". Also an "And Furthermore" would be replaced by anothe "And Furthermore"-statement at no additional cost of crossing of an aspect.

-or-

b) answer the "You Ask Far Too Much" with any other conflict statement of my choice. This would mean, that a "But Only If" countered by a "You Ask Far Too Much" could then be revised to be another "But only If", but could also become a "And Furthermore" or something else entirely. This would also mean, that you would have to pay for another "And Furthermore" after a "You Ask Far Too Much" with crossing off another aspect.

I was under the impression, that the rules advised a), but some other players argued for b). So, what is the "official" version?

Nicolas

[Ben Lehman]

Good question.

The rules as intended provide for a)

Playing with b) probably won't hurt anything, though provided:
1) You don't "double charge" for revising "And furthermore" into another "And furthermore."
2) You don't let people revise into their own "You ask far too much."

So, I guess, you're right, but there's nothing wrong with house-ruling it the other way (that I can see) except for it makes an already somewhat-strong phrase a little stronger.

yrs--
--Ben

[Nicolas Crost]

Great! Thanks for the clarification. I will discuss both options with my group, but we will probably stick with the original version.

[Valamir]

I had a question on this as well.

is the intention for the second statement to be less than the first -OR- different (in any way).
or is the intention for the second statement to be less than the first, or different, but no greater than the first.

ex.
"Your starlight sword breaks"
"you ask far too much"
"ok, either your starlight sword breaks, or your family dies horrible deaths and you are accused of the crime and banished from the remnant"
"gee...I guess my sword breaks"

Point being that if there is no expectation for the second statement to be on the same scale as the first, that you can pretty much force the player to accept the first by just saying something completely outrageous for the second that you know the player will never accept...which possibly undermines the utility of the "you ask far too much" statement.

When the moons are judgeing the suitability of the second statement are they judgeing that the second statement is reasonable relative to the first statement or are they just judging that its "different"...which in the above example clearly the second statement is different from the first.

[Ben Lehman]

Hey, Ralph.

The rules read "lesser or different" with no ifs, ands, or buts following that.

So, you're right, in terms of "I want to get my way, now" a sharply escalating "different" phrase is clearly the way to go.  But you'd be surprised how often such phrases are accepted (or maybe not, you've played a fair amount now.)  For instance, depending on the character of course, I might very well accept the deal you offered below, even without my own "but only if" on top of it.

What is not okay -- what is never okay -- is a tone-breaking or game-breaking statement (in any context, not just you ask far too much).  I thought about having rules for this, but it is really best resolved with sharp looks from the other three players.

yrs--
--Ben