Tackling beliefs

[Bastoche]

The CB thread first was spread out and at this point, we have to focus on beliefs until moving on further (to instincts mostly).

I thought it deserved a new thread focused on beliefs only.





I have a hard time getting an idea for a "personnal goal" for the 3rd belief... Maybe something about a murdered (unsolved murder of course) soul mate (fiancee or wife?).

This might be a good thing to do amongst the group - everyone hammer out some personal goals. Every player should have something so that I doesn't become all about the player with the best written beliefs and most will to follow them.

Actually everyone has one but me. The peasant wants to fullfill himself through loyalty (and maybe something related to owning a religious artefact). One wants to free herself from the order in which she was forced to join. And the other wants to show her father and every man that shes is their equal.

So maybe the peasant should have something more personnal less trivially locked to the situation at hand and the other two maybe aren't focused enough?

To sum things up...

The pious knight's beliefs would end up being:

- I have been chosen by God to find my master - I will suffer no challenge to my divine authority.

- I am the sword of God. I will spill blood to protect the weak I swore to protect.

- I shall avenge my true love by finding the "man with the mark" involved in the murder.

The forced to the order's beliefs would end up being:

- In order to be free from the order I shall do everything in my power to find my master.

- Everyone deserves respect. I shall let it know to anyone who isn't respectful (Marune, does this one stays?)

- ?

The Lady who wants to be the equal of man's belief would be:

- To show my father I'm as good as the son he never had, I shall find my master.

- I shall show to men that I'm their equal through battle prowess.

- ?

The peasant's beliefs:

- I'm utterly loyal to the figure of authority I finally found therefore I shall find him

- I'm the protector of the holy relic. I shall find a safe haven from that guy (to be named and who probably already tried to steal the relic) in the (name to chose) Abbey it at all costs.

- ?

Suggestions?

[edit: I update the beliefs in this post as we go along]

[mtiru]

Here's a link to a wiki article on beliefs.

http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Belief_workshop

# A belief should contain an ideological stance of some sort.
# A belief should contain a goal in the "I achieve this goal and earn a Persona point" sense.
# A belief should express how the ideological stance drives the character to achieve the goal.

[Bastoche]

I believe those written above are fine. Right?

[ChrisG]

Not quite, but they're strong beginnings. Beliefs need to be able to change, and work better when they show how the player intends to resolve them.

Take: I'm the protector of the holy relic. I shall defend it at all costs.

That's a great start--this player is saying "I want you to threaten the holy relic, and I want my character to have to make painful decisions to protect it."

So it's a Fate Artha factory. Every scene the relic is in trouble, this player can earn Artha. But what's missing are some specifics on the Belief. What's the first step? If the relic is sitting in a locked chest in the basement of the abbey, surrounded by enchantments and supernatural guardians... this Belief ain't going to do much. So help the GM out and give him some pointers as to what kind of danger it's in, and what you want to do next session to protect it.

I'm the protector of the holy relic. I shall see it safely to Roquefort Abbey at all costs!

Now we've got a first step--arduous journey on the road, hunted by those who want to destroy it, etc. If you want to kick it up another notch, let the GM know what kind of enemy is after it.

I'm the protector of the holy relic. I must reach Roquefort Abbey before Inquisitor Malvey's sorcery destroys it, no matter what the cost!

If I'm the GM, that's the kind of Belief that makes me happy. I've got all kinds of things to work with. A focus for the first few sessions: a desperate race to the abbey. A bad guy: the freakin' Inquisistion, with sorcerous powers! And the core of the Belief, the ideological statement "at all costs" is still in there, daring the GM to push the player. And once you get to the abbey, you can decide it's resolved and get a Persona, or you can rewrite it in light of current events.

[Bastoche]

beliefs updated in the first post.

[JamesDJIII]

You may also want to look up on the internet for "flags" in an RPG context.

Beliefs are, essentially, flags. They act as signals to the GM, just as the text suggests - "This is how and when I want to be rewarded."