Actually, that's not true. At least it's not the whole truth. I can easily see how this could work with the current rules.
Let's say that we'll have a contest about rescuing the children... Scratch that. It's about keeping your family together. The house is on fire and this scene represents a culmination point of the familys' trials. Let's keep it (a) simple (contest).
If I was the Narrator, I'd describe the lawn being singed by the heat, cries coming out of the second story window etc. I'd ask the player to describe his struggle to get in the house despite the flames. Then I'd probably ask how important the family is the the character and how far is he willing to go to save his family. I think that this is would be the real question - this is why I would frame the scene in the first place.
We'd narrate a bit and then I'd propose the contest and we'd fix what it would be about.
Ok, right now, I'm re-reading pages 62, 64 and 74-78 of HQ.
I'd say that if in the ebb and flow of the narration of the group, it becomes clear, that a character was burned, then the rules say that that acts as a circumstance / story modifier. That is to say, that if the group has established that the character suffered burns in the fiction, then the character in question can become "wounded" from the rules perspective too.
However, the contest was not about that. It was about the family, right? The rules state (page 64), that the player (not the narrator) will then describe the results according to to "Contests: Victory and Defeat" on page 62. I'd suggest that the player come up with more dramatic turns, the closer the success/failure was to the complete end of the spectrum.
Examples:
"I save the kids, but am tragically wounded. . . We cry and as I'm looking up to my wife on the ambulance, I see the woman I once loved for the first time in years." (a kid could get seriously hurt instead)
"I save the kids and after the house has burned down, me and my family look through the remains, it's a uniting experience."
"This painful experience unites us together for some time, but in the end, we can't go on pretending that something has changed."
"Our son dies, there is nothing for us put pain. I can't look at her without remembering him."
Each one of those would merit additional description, new scenes, more roleplaying, but in each case, playing by the rules can leave the characters, their relationships, possessions &such with negative consequences.
Clearly framing the contest is at the heart of this. If the contest would _really_ be about how many children can the character save and you're worried that the rules don't give out a clear answer, then I'm not surprised that you would not get optimal results.
"Can you save your children?" would be a much better contest. Nightterrors, getting teased in school, because your family's poor now, isn't as dramatic as getting killd in a fire. However, they are all valid interpretations of a failure to protect your children. As a side benefit, the player get's to create new meaningful content and conflict to the game (that he's presumably interrested in).
As a general guideline, I'd say that you should play the scene a while and work out what's it about etc., so that you can frame the contest in a meaningful and interresting way. Roll. Leave room for creativity. Play.
Olli Kantola
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
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