[BW] World Burning - last minute advice

[reedu21]

Hey all,

I'm getting together with my group tonight for world and character burning. There are 4 players plus myself GMing. I've got the list of questions Luke posted (too lazy to look for the link now, but see the sticky Burning Sherwood (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4298) in the Actual Play forum for an example). I've given the players an idea of what to expect.

I plan to start with a quick brainstorming so people can get out any big ideas they have - elements, themes, concepts, etc. - that are currently burning them up. Then I'll try to guide the world burning using the questions and what I know of the character burner. My goal is to have a beginning/ongoing conflict that grabs all the players and is conducive to involving the character concepts they are interested in.

Anyone have any last minute advice or examples of how they approached collaborative world burning? Nothing too in-depth at this point, I'm just looking for any brief, easily remembered tips to help make it go smoothly and result in a fun setting.

Thanks in advance,
-Reed

[vikingmonkey]

Not that I'm a sage or anything, but it's something I've had to deal with a lot in my group: don't let any one person dominate the discussion - make sure you get input from everyone, even if you have to single someone out and ask them what they think.

[artellan]

After you've got your main ideas ironed out and maybe some vague character concepts... One question that seems to spur a lot of good discussion is to ask yourselves what kinds of things you see the PCs doing over the campaign, especially the first several sessions. Back-room deals and political maneuvering at court? Exploring ancient ruins for a lost secret or artifact? Hunting down traitors in the name of the king? All of the above?

Leave the answers vague since you want to work the details out in play, but I think it's cool for everyone to get on the same page. And these kinds of ideas can help with character burning especially when deciding on relationships and how to spend resource points.

For example, we wanted our Burning Greece game to be about an epic voyage from Athens beyond the Pillars of Hercules ... but asking this question made us realize we wanted the first phase of the campaign to be about getting the voyage off the ground. Garnering support from various factions, big political speeches, trying to piece together resources, etc. So I built my character with relationshiops, reps and afilliations specific to Athens, which I probably wouldn't have done if we'd started the game at sea.

Good luck!

[TimP]

As a Burning Wheel GM, I always make sure that I know exactly what the opening scene of the campaign is going to be before we every leave the table after world burning. As a group we try to come up with an introductory scene that requires some sort of tough choice or otherwise significant decision that affects all of the characters and is based on whatever premise we've come up with for the game.

This method gives your game immediate focus and impact and you really hit the ground running.

[luke]

Make sure the process is fully collaborative -- meaning you, the GM, get input, too. If you don't have an agenda, you're not doing your job.

[reedu21]

Thanks for all the great ideas and tips, everyone. I'll keep them in mind and I'll probably report back the results in the Playing the Game forum later this week.

-Reed