Trust – Now You See It
Now, the solution to the Trust dilemma was simple. Stupid simple. Really.
You’re going to want to hit me when you realize how dumb I was before. And really, I deserve it. But here goes:
It became clear to me that tracking Trust separately from Confidence was broken. Badly broken. Trust was supposed to always be a value between 1 and Confidence -1, unless Confidence was 0, in which case Trust was 0, t00. That by itself is too complicated for Ultrablam! It is seriously lacking in Funzors. I should have known that the fact that I never felt satisfied when I explained it mean that it was broken. Mea culpa. On top of that, how are you supposed to keep track of it, exactly? Let’s say you start a session with 5 Confidence and 3 Trust. OK, no problem. But now you get hurt and spend 3 Points of Confidence to recover from Unconscious to Injured to Fine. Now, you’ve got 2 Confidence and 3 Trust. Which isn’t possible. And you’ve been following all the rules, tracking Confidence, and paying attention. Now you’re in an invalid state. That’s just wrong.
I envisioned Trust as Confidence you have in other people. That’s it. That’s all it is. The rules saying Trust had to be less than Confidence were arbitrary and prescriptive. It’s entirely possible for someone to have little Confidence in himself but lots of Trust in others. So coming to the conclusion that Trust and Confidence were the same thing in different places, meant that we were doing all the above tracking and calculating to figure out a number that we already knew. So, I’m getting rid of the box “Trust” on the character sheet, the rules for determining initial Trust, the rules for tracking consequences to Trust, and all that jazz.
I’m keeping the core component, which is; when you have Confidence in another Character, that’s Trust. All the rules apply. It’ll even be referred to as Trust, but it’s just Confidence that’s on loan.
Less work, fewer rules, same effect, more Funzors. Win.
I like it. No, I don’t want to hit you. But I like it.
Here’s my sole question. Is Trust simply removed like a bad tumor, or has it been absorbed by Confidence? In other words, does it work roughly like: Confidence(new version) = Trust(old version) + Confidence(old version)?
In other (good for Ultrablam, not so good for Zach) news, I’ve been in bed all week with tonsilitis. Which means I’ve been watching a lot of Buffy (thanks again!). Only this time, I’ve been applying what I know of Ultrablam to each episode, as if it were one sitting of the game. And really, they fit remarkably well — I don’t know what kind of metric that would be for you, but if Ultrablam is capable of producing a running game of the quality we had last summer, I’m more than sold.
@Zach
Glad you don’t wanna hit me. I felt like whacking my own head with a shovel, so naturally I assumed others would want to join in.
Here’s the deal: Trust was always a subset of Confidence. It was Confidence you risked on someone else. That’s the realization that drove the change. The mechanic of Trust is unchanged – secret bids and all. It may even still be called “Trust” – I’ll have to see how it shakes out in the text. But we won’t track it separately, you won’t have to remember to modify your current Trust after certain rolls, etc..
I wouldn’t get rid of it – it’s the players’ favorite Ultrablamtacular! mechanic so far – by a wide margin!
Sorry to hear that you have tonsillitis! What a drag! But I do appreciate the in-depth Buffy analysis you’ve performed on my behalf. Want in on a dirty little secret? When I’m working on mechanics, I imagine them as they apply to Buffy, The Princess Bride, and to a lesser extent, A Song of Ice and Fire. The Buffster is why you can Trust (still!) while Defending in combat!
@jason
That’s right — I’d forgotten that Trust was simply a subset of Confidence. (D’oh!) I liked the concept behind Trust, so I’m thrilled that’s staying put. But with simplicity as a goal, and as a player who prefers spending time *not* adjusting the stat sheet, I like that it’s not being tracked separately. I’ll hold off my absolute praise ’til I see it, but for now, good show!
And what would we do without Buffy?