Integration

Growth is finding out you have a problem (i.e. your Old Way isn’t cutting it anymore), learning a New Way, becoming comfortable and proficient with it and eventually mastering it. At this point you’re so good at it it becomes something you can do without thinking about it. You can now do it on subconscious autopilot.

For example let’s say our hero is on a journey from being overly confident to the point of arrogance, through to finding humility and thus a deeper more genuine connection with himself and humanity.

So on the surface growth is a journey from doing things the Old Way (Confidence) to doing things the New Way (Humility). And yet on a deeper level you’re actually reprogramming your subconscious so it can autopilot you in a more sophisticated way. Because sometimes the Old Way is still best, depending on the situation, often it still pays to be highly-confident. Not to mention being overly-humble and self-deprecating can be just as problematic as being too confident.

Now I know what you’re thinking, but no, ‘balance’ is not the answer. We don’t want to be sorta’ confident and kinda’ humble, gross. The good news is, you can get the best of both worlds. In other words, it’s possible to be both confident and humble at the same time, in fact we see many charming and influential people do this really well.

This process of taking the best from seemingly opposite qualities is known as Integration and it’s at the heart of the Hero’s Journey, this is why the final step of Joseph Campbell’s formula for the Journey is called “Master of Both Worlds”. After analysing many thousands of stories, Joseph knew it’s not a linear journey from Old Way to New where the Old Way gets left behind. It’s an Integration of the best of both, mastering both, such that your subconscious autopilot can call on each when they’re most useful and even at the same time.

First things first, you need to choose a pair of qualities for your Character that on the surface level seem like opposing strategies.

These could be physical things you do, like ‘Melee combat’ vs ‘Projectile combat’, otherwise known as an ‘Outer Journey’. Or they could be much more metaphysical qualities or character traits like ‘Introversion’ vs ‘Extraversion’ or ‘Follower’ vs ‘Leader’, i.e. more of an ‘Inner Journey’. This pair will form your ‘Old Way’ which you are already proficient at and your ‘New Way’ which you are working towards. Ultimately you’ll master both.

How to pick? Either mine your backstory to find hints of what your Old Way might be, then pick your New Way. Or once you’ve decided on your paradox pair, work out what in your backstory led to this, and add it as an Aspect on your Character Sheet. Your backstory should answer this question: Why does your Character lean so heavily on your Old Way? In our example the backstory aspect could be as simple as “Mommy’s little prince” (which led to a sense of superiority, and thus lack of humility).

You get a new Skill Threshold for each of your Old Way and New Way.

Your New Way Threshold starts at 18 (which is a weak Threshold because it’s hard to roll above and hence be successful).

Your Old Way Threshold is always whatever your strongest other Threshold happens to be, even if it’s a Level 2 or higher. Because when you’re using your Old Way, all your existing subconscious autopilot Skills come to bear.

You may choose to roll Against your New Way Threshold instead of any other Threshold whenever you can justify it as a relevant substitution. For example, if your Integration pair was ‘Confidence vs Humility’, you could roll for Humility instead of EQ or SQ rolls.

If your roll does not succeed, choose Win or Learn:

• Win: Without re-rolling, change your Threshold on-the-fly to your Old Way (i.e. your highest other Threshold). This may require you to roll additional dice if your highest Threshold is a higher Level than your New Way. Did you Succeed this time?
  • If yes, update your narration / roleplay of your Action to reflect that under pressure your Character reverted back to their tried-and-true Old Way behaviour to ensure Success. If in doubt, the GM can narrate this for you.
  • If no, do not update any Threshold value, you do not learn from this.
• Learn: You do not succeed, however you lower your New Way Threshold by 1 (no lower than 4 total before levelling up as usual, until you reach your New Way Threshold).

Once your New Way Threshold catches up to your Old Way Threshold, those Thresholds merge into an ‘Integration Threshold’ which continues to work and Level-Up like any other Threshold.

The Integration Threshold is more powerful however because it can be used for either situations that call for your Old Way, New Way or any of the other Skill Thresholds that are related. Over time you’ll use it more often as a result so it will level-up quickly!

For example, once you master both Confidence and Humility it will become a new Integration Threshold on your Character Sheet labelled “Integration (Confidence, Humility, EQ and SQ)”.

At this point you can pick a new paradox pair and start again. Yes, you can create incredibly powerful Characters this way that level-up very fast and use only a couple of high-level Integration Thresholds for most rolls. After all, rapid growth is a by-product of Integration!

But more than that, it’s a way to meaningfully tie your Character’s development and how you represent that through your narration and roleplay into game mechanics and vice versa. As your Integration Thresholds mature, let that guide and change how you play your Character, how they show up in the world, the choices they make and how they relate to others. That’s what will make for a truly engaging, compelling and meaningful game.