2.3.1 To learn stuff and get ahead in life, you have to have goals
When you get a quest, decide to take on the bad guy, swear revenge, find a mystery or any of the other stuff that a typical hero do in a day’s work, you get a goal.
You can get goals by finding your own challenges or they may be given or imposed by the game master. Not all goals may be known by the players, the game master may keep them secret. Some goals may be known only to certain players. Goals can be assigned to characters or groups.
The game master should encourage the players to find their own goals, as this creates more interesting games and amusing sidetracks.
The players may have a goal to get a spaceship through a blockade with important information. This is a goal that all players know.
One character has stolen some valuable gems, which he intends to get off the blockaded planet without anyone knowing it. Only he knows this goal.
Aboard the ship is also a spy. None of the characters knows anything about this so the game master assigns the secret goal ‘Find out there is a spy on the ship’ to the group. None of the players knows about this, since it would defeat the purpose of having an unknown spy.
Goals have a point value, called IMPROVEMENT POINTS. This value is greater the bigger the task. Long-term tasks are also worth more or divided into several smaller goals. The player gets these points when the goal is completed, at which point they can be used to improve the character. The game master may decide that some or all of the IMPROVEMENT POINTS may only be used on a specific area (for example wilderness skills) or even a specific skill.
A goal is a large emotional investment for a character and failing to achieve it may have effects. A failed goal may, at the discretion of the game master and the player, cause some suitable disadvantage for the character who failed. For instance, a character who fails to rescue his childhood friend might get the children of the friend as dependents, as well as a new goal of avenging the death of his friend. Remember, these disadvantages are not meant to be punishments, they are meant to be a way of changing the character as a result of the failure in such a way to give it more depths. The aim should always be to make the game more interesting and fun.