First, let me preface with how much we are loving this game! We've decided to double-down on the theme and are running the game set in the "Hyborian Age" popularized by R.E.Howard's (and others') Conan stories. So far it has been an awful lot of fun.
A question has come up, however, regarding conflicts, and specifically the forms that are used within a conflict.
For example, say I (the dashing mercenary captain) am trying to sneak into the princess' chambers, while you (the head eunuch) are patrolling the palace grounds trying to catch just such interlopers. "Love" isn't strictly what I had in mind where the princess is concerned, so I decide I am acting covertly and for myself, whereas you decide you are acting directly and for others. We roll our dice, conflict proceeds as normal. Maybe in the first round I suffer a setback, giving you the advantage (which I narrate appropriately, perhaps as taking a wrong turn into an occupied room with some very surprised denizens).
But say halfway through the conflict, I decide I want to use different forms. How would it be handled if, for instance, I wanted to suddenly act with violence and club these people into unconsciousness before they could sound an alarm? Can I do this, or are the forms I'm using fixed?
In the example used in the rules it says, "Choose two forms, always two, that match what your character’s doing and why. If three or more apply, that’s okay, choose whichever two of them you like," which sort of implies that the specifics of the form are somewhat flexible. But it also says, "I say what Mekha does. Since I’ve rolled direct and for myself, it has to be direct and for himself. It can’t be violent, or I’d have rolled with violence instead." This implies that the form is important.
So in my example, I actually can't club the people to keep them from raising the alarm. Or can I, because my violence is not directed at the head eunuch, who is my real opponent in this conflict? Or at some point during the conflict can I just say, "nuts to all this sneaking business, I'm going to fight my way to the princess' chambers!" and substitute my d6 covertly die for my d12 with violence die?
This feels somehow wrong to me, especially considering the dice size of your first round forms determine whether or not you go on the owe list. My gut inclination is to say that this effectively opening a new conflict. So yeah, sure, I could draw my sword and start hacking my way toward the princess at any time - but doing so would be to concede defeat in my attempts to sneak, meaning we'd essentially be negotiating mid-conflict and immediately opening a new conflict, with all of the normal consequences that entails (e.g. you elect to "injure" me - which you narrate as having one of the surprised women in the occupied room I've just entered scream and heave a brass ewer at my head). We both pick new forms and away we go.
Thoughts?