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Temperance Versus Patience


89157Z

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For no obvious reason, I've been thinking this morning about the divide drawn by the game between the similar skills of Temperance and Patience. I think I've come up with an understanding of them, and more importantly of how you can have one but not the other.

 

Temperance is waiting for something bad to pass. Patience is waiting for something good to happen. A Patient but inTemperant individual is in some respects the classic 'chessmaster' villain. They plot, scheme, and wait, but then they explode when something messes with their plans. A Temperant but imPatient individual on the other hand accepts misfortune calmly but has trouble building plans that involve waiting. The Patient individual will wait deliberately and seek out situations where waiting will give them the rewards they seek; the Temperant individual will accept waiting the way they accept other misfortunes. (An individual who has mastered both skills simply doesn't consider waiting to be a cost at all.)

 

Since nobody's perfect and tolerating people's flaws and foibles is critical to being a good friend, Temperance is a friendly skill. Patience is much more manipulative. When someone is said to be 'a patient and understanding friend', that would translate to the Temperance skill in Academagia. When someone is said to 'always get their way eventually', that's the Patience skill in action.

 

Some confusion is justified, of course. These two skills both do a lot to keep someone sane when they're inactive. They can be similar in application. Any bad situation that is likely to improve on its own will garner the same response from both example characters. If a storm forces everyone to wait indoors, either of these attributes will keep someone calm and patient. The storm is just a passing irritant. That said, if the storm threatens to wreck something you've built, the Temperant person will still be able to keep calm, but the Patient one won't. The only thing to do is fix it afterwards. This is perfectly in line with waiting for something bad to pass and terribly inappropriate for when you're waiting for something good to happen.

 

 

(Part of Academagia's value lies in the claims implied by its skill system. I've also found that discussing issues like this can help improve the consistency with which the game handles its own skills. Similar discussions regarding the differences between Perception, Awareness, and Observation resulted in many events being rewritten.)

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My two cents:

 

An example would be someone stepping on your feet. You tell them you don't mind.

 

Temperance lets you actually not mind - that it is too trivial, that it isn't his fault, that there's no point in pursuing this matter further... unconditionally. Without other matters in mind.

 

Patience, on the other hand, can means you hold a grudge.... but you don't explode, maybe because you have an image to protect, maybe you want to be this person's friend, or some other goals in mind.

 

A patient person will be angry in the inside but did not do anything outwardly. A really, really patient person will just have the same reaction as a temperant person inside - once you get to a certain point you just learn to recognize what is too trivial and should wait for it to pass instead of taking actions, and eventually have the same "immunity". (Don't make fun of my poor wording I am impatient ok please)

 

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Both skills, as you put it, are about enduring wait and loss, except Patience is more goal-oriented than Temperance

 

Temperance, on the other hand, is mainly about accepting loss and keep moving on, although it does sometime create opportunities that are easily mistakable for Patience if you take it far enough.

 

Say, Giars took a sandwich from you because he want to promote Vegetarianism. You can simply accept your loss of sandwich and move on.... but something along the lines of "An animal has died for this sandwich, might as well not let it go to waste" is also a possibility that just couldn't come from Patience, at least sincerely.

 

A Patient person would instead wait for Giars to collapse after droning ten hours about animal cruelty (possibly gaining a step in Temperance as she try to swallow the lost of 10 hours and move on).

 

Errr sorry if this looks like a mess.

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I was trying to find some way of describing how having both would be different than being really good at just one of them.

 

 

Let's see....

 

A patient person can wait, plan, and capable of not being swayed by short term rewards. Being really patient can enable you to accept loss/humilation/etc. and keep going, like Temperance... but the difference lies in that you still... er... care?

 

As in, say, you are delivering something when you step on an oil slick and fall over. Someone come over to apologize and want to warn you that she spilled a lot of oil on the road ahead.

 

Both skill can let you keep going instead of throwing a tantrum about it... but patience, in this case, doesn't exempt you from anger or blaming others or any negativity. You might still want to take action... but you don't (at least for the moment), for your own benefits. And then you will listen to their apology and their warning instead of hastily running ahead. Although you might hold a grudge. You might blame the heavens for making you slip. Or something stressful.

 

You are patient enough to look and act Temperant (Is that the correct word anyway!?)... but it doesn't stop someone getting angry and mopey and stressed about misfortune inside.

 

Temperance, on the other hand, is more along the lines of forgiveness and "there's no point in getting angry". So you might not get angry and you won't even think to take revenge in the first place. But you might be agitated and in a hurry that you just keep on running without listening to her warning.... if you are not patient. No matter how "Temperant" you are, you will still be hasty and rush forward.

 

 

 

Still find what I type to look a bit off, but eh, I am not patient enough to ponder forever about this. :)

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Temperance is the ability to let other people speak their mind instead of cutting them of, or knowing when it's best to not say something that might make the situation worse. It's more of a basic social etiqete skill, a more basic understanding of functional social interactions which is nessesary for sucessful mingling.

 

Patience is the skill of waiting for the right moment to take action instead of jumping in too early and fail, or get caught or screw everything up by being over zealous. It usualy applies when you got a plot or an agenda to protect, practical joke or sensitive intreague where your timing has to be right so that noone catches on to what you're up to.

 

With patience you can do something but due to flawless timing none will be any wiser to your involvement and your action will be the best optimal response, carefully planned even if it might look like you're merely reacting on a gut feeling and instinct. It entierly depends on the situation. It's the skill of waitign for the right moment to take action.

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