Beliefs before or after Character?

[gooderguy]

this might be an AdBu thread, but since it applies specifically to the Blossoms Clan Burner, I figured I'd post it here.

we burned up our situation and characters for a new Blossoms game last week. i'm running the game, so I asked all the questions in the Clan Burner. the situation is pretty tense, full of cool stuff to play with, but the players didn't seem ready to write beliefs before they burned their characters.

in the Clan Burner, when it says, "Write a Belief About it" - does that mean do it that second? as GM i can see that as being helpful, but I'm not sure every player is up to the task as the questions arise in the Clan Burner. having never actually used this new technology with a full group before, i'm not sure how literal we should be with it.

in a larger AdBu sort of question, is it still BW cannon to write beliefs after character burning, or have people adopted the BE style of writing beliefs first and tweaking them as you go?

[luke]

Use the standard Burning Wheel burning process, but note your requirements for stages like Beliefs, Instincts, Relationships and Resources.

[Paul B]

I forget: does BIG come first in MG?

I like the BE process but I can see how doing beliefs first sort of shuffles around character-creation priorities a little.

In BW AP we sort of fudge between those steps and do them all at once, kind of. Like we build a rough relationship map early on, and then sketch out very rough "this guy will probably be about taking over the merchant league, and this gal will be about avenging her dead brother" type stuff. Then burn. Then doodle up final first-sesh Beliefs.