Johnstone's "When you reset Hx, learn a secret"

[hobbesque]

I considered posting to the original thread, but didn't want to necrotize.

I really liked this rule when I saw it. We've been using it in our game as it's written in the first post, without a specific list of options or mechanical bonuses.

I was wondering if and how people have been using it in play. Thus far, everything we've revealed has been backstory stuff, either that the player's worked out beforehand or on the spot, and the knowledge of it is sort of retroactive; "You've always known this thing/have heard the rumor before, but it hasn't come to light/seemed relevant before now." I'd love to hear specifically what sort of secrets you've revealed, and also how that revelation's been worked in to the fiction.

When you reset Hx to +1...

When your Hx with a character goes to +4 and you reset it to +1, have that character's player tell you a secret about their character.

When you tell a secret about your character, tell the other player something their character did not already know, either some weakness or habit, or some psychology they manage to puzzle out. This should be something more than trivial; if it can be used against your character in some way, if it's something the MC didn't know, or if it paints your character in a radically different light all of a sudden, all the better.

If you're using Hx (or bonds or the equivalent) with NPCs, and you reset from +4 to +1, the MC will tell you a secret about that character.

[Silerias]

I'm using it too in my own campaign with great enthusiasm.

What kind of secrets?

- Snake (mindfucker) is the father of Key's (angel) child.
- Izzy (maestro'd) and Maddox (gunlugger) are going to get married.
- Beasty (faceless) is no one else than Absinthe (battlebabe).
- Wolf the sniper, Steed's (operator) friend, killed Maddox former wife.

[help im a bug]

For the last 3 campaigns, we've been using the version that goes

Tell them a secret, a habit, or what you think about something they care about.

Habits are *great*, by the way.

Umm... one secret I revealed was that Kim, my Driver, kept a drawn photograph of her parents in a secret panel of her submarine.

It turned into a whole crusade about parenthood--setting up a home for all the orphaned kids around.