When posed without examining the examples (moved to below this question), I tend to agree with the naysayers, but:
> For example, having humiliated your foes with words, and escaped their ambush, you know you are heading for a formal trial by combat with them. You've been winning, so upcoming contests should be harder for you....do you go straight to the trial-by-combat, or do you go and ask your clan for their blessing? Perhaps you know your heroes will soon be heading off for some years on a mission elsewhere, so damaged clan relationships right now don't bother you much, so you could lead with your relatively weak 'member of clan' ability rather than one of your stronger attributes, expecting that you may well lose.
This seems like the weaker of the two examples, but as long as the damaged relationship causes complications later, it sounds viable to me.
> Or, more cunning, knowing that an ultimate confrontation will be coming, do you try to ignore your foes taunts with your 'patient 13' instead of replying to them with your 'sharp tongued 5W'?
This I like. It's a meta-game reason to do something non-optimal, but it's an interesting choice for the character to make - and that can enhance the story.
I'm sure there will be some players who will seek to "win" by manipulating the system, but that is the player, not the system, and HQ seems to have plenty of metagaming already, so I don't see the harm if the group likes it, and it leads to enjoyable play.
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