thread: 2009-06-17 : Secrets
On 2009-06-18, Vincent wrote:
Oh. Yeah, the number on your sheet next to "Sorcery skill," being a real thing, is not subject to the laws of consensual fiction. It can be a secret, you can keep it secret from the other players. It can even, yes, have a direct effect on how the fiction goes, without your revealing it. That doesn't make it a true-but-unknown in the fiction (it being a real thing, not fictional).
Similarly, you can keep secret what's written on your fate card in The Mountain Witch.
Ah! I thought of an illustration. See if this explains it.
You're sitting down to play The Mountain Witch. On your fate card it says "Worst Fear." During the first session, you decide that your character's worst fear is that he'll recognize the Mountain Witch as his father, but you don't really have any opportunity to hint at it. "Next session," you think, and you start to plan hints and revelations.
Sadly, before session 2, three of your fellow players have a gigantic falling-out unrelated to the game, and you never play again.
Was the Mountain Witch really your character's father?
No! There's no "really" about it. The Mountain Witch, your character - not real.
You planned to make the Mountain Witch be your character's father, and intended to play as though he were, and fully expected the group to immediately and viscerally (and retroactively!) go along with it, the instant you put it into action. With good reason. Of course they would have. But without your actually bringing it before them and without their actually assenting to it, it wasn't part of the game's consensual fiction. Now it never can be.
Again, again, for examples at this end of the spectrum, the distinction is technical and it doesn't matter a bit. If you treat them as real secrets, it's wicked unlikely to ever come back to bite you. It's when you don't have such a rock-solid systemic backing that the distinction matters.
