The Heinig Defense
During playtest, the Mighty Mighty Jess Heinig came up with a brilliant pair of Aspects. “I Love My Wife,” coupled with “…and My Wife Loves Me.”
Now, some GMs may see this as a kind of safety precaution. Protecting himself against drama. If he’s in love with his wife and his wife is in love with him, how in the world can that not be min-max tweak wankerism?
I’ll tell you why. Because Jess is a game designer himself, a great GM, and a brilliant player. Most importantly, Jess knows exactly the kind of games I run. He came up with the phrase “The Wick Social Meatgrinder.” Throwing players into difficult social situations that violence doesn’t solve. In fact, violence just makes it worse.
What Jess handed me was a seven course feast on silver platters, complete with those nifty glass toppers that let you see the food inside. Because those two Aspects let me screw with Jess’s character in ways other Aspects don’t.
Baron Heinig is in love with his wife. That means he’ll do anything to protect her. His wife? Same thing. Throw one of them in the pot, the other jumps in with a length of rope and a life preserver, no matter what the temperature is.
These two Aspects also communicate to me what kind of stories Jess wants for his character. He wants his wife involved. He wants dramatic and romantic trouble. And this gives me so many ideas what to do, all I can do is thank him.
And I do that by putting his name in the book.