Musings on Debt.
Something about the way Debts are phrased seems to confuse me, because it’s nothing like how we talk about owing people. I think things like “If you cash in a Debt you have with them” would be clearer if they said “If you cash in a Debt they owe you”.
“Take a Debt against X” is even less clear. It seems to mean “X owes you a Debt” but it’s a really awkward construction.
There’s a couple of specific instances where I’m not clear on the intent, though.
If you get mixed up in another PC’s affairs, you can cash in a Debt to get a 10+ (and give them a +1 or a -2). I can see the rationale for cashing in a debt to give someone a penalty: “I don’t owe you anything, you nearly got me killed back there!” But if I decide to help them out instead, they still wind up owing me less? I’m not sure how that is supposed to work in the fiction or the rules.
Another debt question, from The Hunter: “When you reset your Mortality Faction score, take a Debt against all Mortals in play (if any), otherwise mark experience.”
Since NPCs can be mortal and owe you a Debt I’m not 100% sure what “in play” covers. Active as PCs? Major NPCs? Is this one Debt that can be used against any Mortal, or do you get a debt against each Mortal?
I have to admit, the phrasing on Debt confused me as well. ‘you owe a Debt’ and ‘they owe you a Debt’ does sound more natural to me. YMMV, of course.
Pretty much all these concerns will be addressed in the final rules. We found them to be problematic too. Thanks!!
I think we’re a bit worried that “They owe you a Debt” sounds great in conversation but doesn’t really encourage someone to write down something on their actual sheet…
I was writing “_____ owes me X” on my sheet because it made the most sense to me. Sometimes with a note of “for _______” after so I could do the move “right” (although I mostly spent debt teleporting and ignoring when other people tried to call in debt because fuck them so I don’t think that ever came up.)
Yeah, I think the final layout might say something like:
Character:
owes me for _____________ [ ] [ ] [ ]
So it could be:
Eric, The Wolf
– owes me for saving his life [ ] [ ]
– owes me for bailing him out with the Red Queen [ ]
That would be much clearer.
I agree with your first statement, but as I have been playing thsi awhile …. it just makes sense now. But when I first started US, I was asking the same questions about how debt is phrased.
To your second question, I always took it as Active PCs …. not saying that is correct.