Just for ease of reference, I've broken down the types of conflicts into these seven groups. You don't have to specifically address these in the letter itself, but mixing and matching the following symbols might be useful for you as you construct a conflict.

• Heart: Affairs of love, passion, and jealousy.


• Pen: Affairs of curiosity, science, knowledge, mystery and discovery.


• Sword: Affairs of violence, war, and weaponry.


• Knot: Affairs of family, marriage, and ancestry.


• Flag: Affairs of property, nations and borders.


• Lotus: Affairs of the gods, their followers and faith.


• Tree: Affairs of nature, animals and resources.


• Book: Affairs of Tradition, Law and Custom

So let's say you have a Heart + Sword conflict. Some typical examples would include the Trojan War, Romeo & Juliet, and the love triangle between Cyclops, Wolverine and Jean Grey.

A Lotus + Tree + Knot conflict might be analogous to the diamond wars of Africa or the dynastic oil conflicts in the middle-east.

If you're more comfortable with movie references:

• Princess Mononoke = Tree + Sword


• Gladiator = Knot + Heart + Sword


• Pi = Pen + Lotus


• A Beautiful Mind = Pen + Knot +Flag

These symbols are also useful as a sort of rating system so players can get a quick sense of the letter's content and whether they would like to deal with those sorts of issues in that session.

These symbols are also used during the world-building process of gameplay. When you say there is a "Sword" conflict in your letter, that means players can expect to have a bit of violence in the session.

Whoops! Sorry, yeah. The symbol used to be "Blood," but I thought it was kind of macabre to have both sword and blood as symbols. With some help from folks on my LJ, I decided to change it to Knot. Unfortunately, "Blood" keeps sneaking in from older drafts. :P

I've edited the original post. Thanks for pointing that out!