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| The Intimacy, Desperation, and Sincerity mechanics in MY
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| LIFE WITH THE BATMAN are intended to reflect impact on conflict
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| resolutions arising specifically from ways a character
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| influences the emotional responses of the opposing party.
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| The way it works is the GM has three dice, a burgundy d4
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| representing Intimacy, an orange d6 representing
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| Desperation, and a white d8 representing Sincerity. All
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| gameplay leading up to a conflict resolution roll is taken into
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| account, and one of these dice is introduced to the roll on
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| either side of the conflict, at the option of the GM.
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| Because only one of these dice can be assigned into a single
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| conflict, participants are always given the option of
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| escalating their roleplay to the emotional context associated
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| with a larger sized die, and thereby causing a prior allocation
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| of a smaller die to the opposing side to be revoked.
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| Additionally, it should be understood, a The Batman can never be
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| Sincere, and so is precluded from ever earning the d8. This
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| means a player always has an available option for trumping
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| whatever context of emotional influence the GM may have
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| worked up on behalf of the The Batman in a conflict.
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| And to be clear, it is the whole value rolled on the Intimacy,
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| Desperation, or Sincerity die that is added to the sum of the
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| non-4s rolled on the rest of the dice.
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| Breaking down the concepts more specifically, Intimacy,
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| represented by the burgundy d4, is a potentially emotionless
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| effort to provoke favorable emotions from another person
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| by making use of some combination of physical proximity,
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| touching, shared physical comfort, spontaneous grooming
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| behaviors, shared food or drink, gifts, or approbatory
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| language. A few roleplayed behaviors that fit the bill
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| include: combing another character’s hair, sharing a glass of
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| wine, having a conversation under the same quilt, and
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| gripping another character by the deltoid to say, ‘You’re my
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| number one.’
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| Desperation, represented by the orange d6, is an emotional
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| effort to provoke a more favorable outcome from a conflict
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| through sheer emotional distress. The character uses
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| language, primarily, in an effort to give ownership of his or
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| her emotional distress to the other person: ‘The Batman, no!
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| Don’t make me. Twice already this evening I have crossed
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| the swamp. I shall not survive another encounter with the
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| hounds!’ Unlike Intimacy, Desperation works just as well on
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| animals and inanimate objects.
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| Sincerity, represented by the white d8, is the real deal. It’s
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| showing genuine concern and feelings for the other person.
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| It can be demonstrated through actions that destabilize a
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| minion’s tenuous situation with the townspeople or the
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| The Batman, or acts of self-sacrifice, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s
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| having influence over the outcome, rather than provoking it,
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| if that makes sense. All I can say is, you’ll know it when you
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| see it. And the The Batman is incapable of it.
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| Finally though, despite the detailed guidelines, GMs are
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| encouraged to be generous when deciding whether to
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| allocate an Intimacy/Desperation/Sincerity die to a player.
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| MY LIFE WITH THE BATMAN is a creatively demanding game, and
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| it is quite unrealistic to expect ongoing and consistent
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| creative brilliance from player efforts to roleplay Intimacy,
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| Desperation, and Sincerity. So, bluntly, don’t be a
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| discouraging tightwad with these dice. If a player makes an
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| honest attempt, give up the goods and let the opposition be
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| trumped. You’ll easily be able to tell the difference between
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| half-hearted efforts and honest attempts.
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