I now have the opportunity to include an outright test of Arthur’s False_Honest personality trait. The situation is as follows: Arthur has directed Atrectus (the blacksmith) to divert all iron scraps and repairs to the manufacture of stirrups and heavy lances. Later a farmer accosts Arthur. The farmer had broken the blade to his ard (a simple form of plow) and brought it to Atrectus for repairs. Atrectus had promised it to the farmer before planting time, but then Arthur’s new order contravened Atrectus’ plan. The farmer is furious because he won’t have the ard in time for spring planting.
Arthur will have the option to dismiss the farmer with a simple “Tough luck”, but he’ll also have an option to promise that he’ll have Atrectus make a new ard for him immediately. If Arthur makes that promise, how do we proceed? How do I give him the opportunity to make good on his promise, and how do we check on that promise later?
The ‘promise’ option must take as a consequence the actual promise, but how do we prevent that promise encounter from taking place even if Arthur does not take the ‘promise’ option? The ‘not promise’ option would have to take as a consequence a placeholder encounter that is scheduled for earlier than the promise encounter and acts as a disqualifier for the latter. Nope, that won’t work, either. The only way to make this happen is to have Arthur make the promise no matter what.
But why shouldn’t he honor his promise? It won’t cost him anything. In order for this to work, there must be a trade-off between the promise and something else. But this is not a resource-management game; there’s nothing to trade off.
Therefore, if I am to include the Faithless_Honest personality trait, I must find some way to test Arthur’s promises. I could perhaps have some ceremony where he recites standard declarations of principles of governance, which are treated as promises, and then give him dilemmas that pit such a principle against a more immediate problem. But that seems a stretch.
This does not look good.
