Aaron Berger​​ sorry! I didn’t realize you had asked questions. Okay:

Encounter rules: they ended up very gently drifted in the end. Also we had a actual failed Encounter, and it’s put my players on notice (since the consequence was getting banned from the Black Tarn). I can go through it all once more if you’re curious.

Player goals: actually this was a really interesting evolution. The game really emphasizes The Company, and you only get xps for pushing the Company’s agenda. It’s the game’s fruitful void: there really aren’t rules for forcing your agenda onto the group, so they’re forced to talk things through. They pursue their own stuff mostly in Fellowship and everyone tries to do a little of their own stuff as long as it doesn’t jack up their XPs.

Roleplaying: at this point I think the system is giving the players all the right prompts. The chain of Shadow Traits is really potent, for example. Traits in general are quite effective. The Hope/Shadow struggle is perfect and very difficult. I’d say my players are largely being prompted in ways they respond well to, if that makes sense. By comparison, at least one of my players just cannot connect with a PbtA type character at all.

Getting the players to own the madness is awesome. Not every player will want to own that, but if they want to chew the scenery, there’s no better chance. The Darkest Self rules from Monsterhearts produce a very similar vibe.