by rmsgrey
Vetinari wrote:
We're starting the game tonight. Is it more accurate to say that the ultimate object is to lose as few times as possible or is it to win the final game in December?
The goal of each individual game is to win, and the overall campaign goal is to "save humanity" or, failing that, at least to survive the year's events (or so the back of the box tells you).
As the campaign progresses and the story unfolds, you will find that some optional objectives link more closely to the plot than others - you may decide that it's worth risking losing a game in order to complete one of those rather than taking an easy win when it's available.
As the plot unfolds, it becomes reasonably clear what needs to happen for a happy ending - whether the game passes judgement on your performance or not, you know whether you've succeeded or not, and how much you've lost in the process - the fallen cities; the lost comrades; the untold millions of disease victims...
Even going into December, with the Legacy Deck down to a few cards, the secret dossiers stripped of their secrets, the packages plundered, and only the last chapter of the story yet unwritten, all you know of your goal is that, in order to win December, you need to complete all the mandatory objectives you have, and enough optional objectives to bring your total to 2 (obviously, by that point, barring any mid-game twists, you know what the available objectives are).
The game deliberately doesn't reveal your ultimate goal (unless, maybe, in a final twist, after the final game is lost or won, the final cards of the Legacy Deck pull back one final curtain) - you never know exactly what's coming (though sometimes you can guess), so all you know for sure is how to win the current game, and some of the potential long-term consequences. Is it better to let a Rioting city Fall or let a virgin city Riot? The former will cost cards any time you want to enter that city; the latter cuts off direct, chartered and shuttle flights in and out of that city. Which is more significant depends on the wider situation - including things you don't know about at the start of the campaign - so it comes down to a judgement call based on imperfect information.
Your aim is to save the world. Figuring out how to do that is up to you.
