Mechanics, pt 0: How People Work
Her Mantle is Love uses a freeform system tempered by dice rolls. Many updates have this dice system somewhat elided, to a greater or lesser degree: it should be treated as descriptive, not prescriptive, as it is used more often to concretely describe a potential consequence or a character's current state than to directly determine outcomes.
As such, it's more important to understand
how I model people in this quest than
how I mechanically represent that model.
The following is Mantle's model of human behavior, before any numbers or dice get involved:
Human Nature:
1: Everyone has the same basic emotional drives.
2: However, individuals attach different
value and meaning to these same emotional drives.
3: Emotional drives aren't constantly active: something has to make that drive relevant to the current situation.
4: Once a drive "wakes up", it won't go back to sleep until it's either satisfied or deliberately suppressed.
5: Sometimes this means persistent drives get in the way of useful work.
6: Suppressing inconvenient drives takes willpower.
7: You can also use willpower to deliberately wake a useful drive, also known as "motivating yourself."
8: People have a limited reserve of willpower to spend from.
9: Willpower primarily regenerates during sleep.
10: Obeying your drives takes no willpower at all.
Human Conflict:
1: When people get into a conflict, it's because there's some goal at stake.
2: Goals are more commonly emotional than practical.
3: You win a conflict when your opponent allows you to complete your goal.
4: This may be accomplished in the following ways:
I. Make them want you to achieve your goal. (Persuade them.)
II. Form a mutual compromise with them. (Barter with them.)
III. Deal with whatever obstacles they produce. (Ignore them.)
IV. Escalate the conflict until they give in. (Bully them.)
V. Render them unable to object. (Destroy them.)
5: The following techniques are commonly used towards this purpose:
I. Convince them that your goal is good. (Teach them.)
II. Convince them to make an exception for you. (Appeal to them.)
III. Offer them something else they value in exchange. (Tempt them.)
IV. Give them something more interesting to do. (Distract them.)
V. Wear them down through persistence. (Exhaust them.)
VI. Make them worry for something they care about. (Threaten them.)
VII. Hurt them until they can no longer resist you. (Attack them.)
6: Options higher up these lists are generally preferred.
7: The more someone cares about a goal, the further down each of these lists they will go in order to achieve it.
Human Suffering:
1: People become stressed when their goals can't be achieved through willpower.
2: As people become more stressed, everything else seems less important.
3: When people are highly stressed, their will becomes unable to control their drives.
4: Chronic or intense stress produces coping mechanisms.
5: These coping mechanisms often take the form of dangerously untrue beliefs.
6: Once learned, these untrue beliefs are as hard to unlearn as any honestly held value.
Details:
These are the fifteen common human drives, organized into groups of three simply because my brain likes organizing things into groups. (It helps me remember them on the spot.)
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Primal Drives
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Satiation Drives
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Self-Image Drives
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Resource Drives
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Empathic Drives
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Survival
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Sex
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Companionship
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Wealth
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Retribution
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Safety
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Fun
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Belonging
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Power
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Duty
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Freedom
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Relaxation
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Respect
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Knowledge
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Compassion
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