Am I right in understanding that (stepping into PC's shoes for clarity) every PC you like hates you, and every PC you hate likes you? That's what I get from p21. I can see how you can work that, but wanted to check it.

That seems to be correct. Assume four players Adam, Bessie, Charles, and Doris, seated clockwise around a table in that order:

Adam likes Bessie (to his left), but hates Doris (to his right).

Bessie likes Charles (to her left), but hates Adam (to her right).

Charles likes Doris (to his left), but hates Bessie (to his right).

Doris likes Adam (to her left), but hates Charles (to her right).

This trips up a lot of people and I'm re-wording it slightly for the second printing.  The whole idea is to kick-start conflict by making you love someone who hates you, and vice-versa.  It is counter-intuitive in real life but works great in play.

Thanks Jason. Playing tomorrow...

I can't wait to hear how it goes, Alex!  Good luck and have fun.

Yeah, and it's important to realize that those relationships are just to get you out of the starting gate.  You can change those alliances and enmities as fast as the players allow.  Most of the times I've played, I immediately send my character after Jason's character, no matter where we're sitting...

Right - I think it actually states that in the rules, about all bets being off after the first set of scenes.  And it's absolutely true, Steve consistently throws his character's at me like a rapid dog, only to be utterly demolished by my superior card-drawing and die-rolling skillz.