> The mechanic I'm looking for
> should -- in a single roll, ideally -- represent an
> individual's personal mastery over two opposed and
> uncontrolled emotional states, or personality traits.
This does sound like the sort of contest that's huge role-playing fun. (and can you imagine even trying it in D20?? Or RQ?)
But I'm a bit puzzled about why you want to restrict it to a single roll?
> My first thought was to simply pit one personality trait
> against the other in a simple contest, say, a person's
> Foolhardy impulses versus his Cowardly impulses.
And even that would be two rolls under the standard rules, unless I'm completely misunderstanding something. (The label on the beer bottle did say 10.5%, so this is even more likely than normal!)
> However, this doesn't take the person's mastery over the two into
> account, particularly the mastery getting pinched between the
> two.
Can we call that "self-control" for a bit, as otherwise I suspect the use of the word "mastery" will cause confusion later on?
Presumably the character (or the player?) wants their self-control to aid victory for one of the two opposing traits? If so, I'd suggest that you use the self-control to roll for an augment. Apply the augment to the appropriate opposed trait. Then make that simple contest. If you want to have even less rolling, make it an auto-augment rather than a rolled one.
But, you mentioned "the mastery getting pinched between the two" - and if I understand what you're getting at, it's the idea that being torn between two opposing traits is painful. Suppose it was "loves sister" and "loves husband" - you can rescue one or the other from certain death, but not both. Aargh! Tragedy!
At this point I'd feel very inclined to have some mechanism for converting APs to "hurts", were it not that you're trying to minimise rolling and so presumably don't want an extended contest. Maybe acquire a "feels guilty about..." flaw that can be used to auto-augment *right now* but thereafter you have to keep it?
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