tenet breadth?

[Christopher Weeks]

Hi all,

I'd be interested to hear what people think appropriate tenet breadth/size/coverage is.  Or is it just one of those things that a play group will define through challenge?

This seems OK:

"Every scene will take place in a prison."

This seems like too much:

"The game will mostly occur in Nazi Germany and will revolve around the exploration of Hitler's occult connections including: Devil Dogs, Stalin the Lich, the absurdly powerful necromantic token that is being cobbled together at Treblinka, and the faeries of the Schwartzwald."

Has any kind of standard evolved?  Is there a rule that I'm just forgetting?

Chris

[Valamir]

I don't have a book with me to give you a page reference, but this falls under the general guideline of 1 discrete thought (fact) per Coin.

By my count your second example consists of 2 seperate Tenets (Nazi Germany, and the occult). (2 Coins)

Plus The Creation of 4 Components (dogs, lich, token, faeries).  (4 Coins)

Plus at least two Traits for those Components (name for the Lich, absurdly powerful for the token, being made at Treblinka for the token) (3 Coins).

Being from the Schwartzwald could be a Trait for the Faeries or simply part of their role

Also Treblink and the Schwartzwald could be Created as Component Locations, or just remain as mentions

So, by my count your second example is 9-12 Coins

There is also the rule that you can only propose 1 tenet at a time on your turn, although its a rule that I rarely enforce and would be another that probably would not survive a second edition.


Edited to note:  the scope of a fact is also one of those dials that can be set by play group.  There's an example in the book (the one about "I shoot the bad guy" vs.  "I pull the trigger" "The gun shoots the bad guy" which discusses how narrowly or broadly the group wishes to define facts.

The above count should be taken to indicate the level at which I generally set the dial.  Not the "official correct setting".

[Mike Holmes]

Yeah, this gets worked out in play. For example, I only count about half of what Ralph does. When we play, he pushes for more rigorous accounting, and I push for open-endedness. In the end, we get something in the middle that the whole group can agree on.

As with a lot of Universalis, it's sorta "what you can get away with." :-)

Mike