jchokey
03-13-2008, 04:42 PM
In the Can I Circle the NPC standing next to me? (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?p=55276#post55276) thread, Thor wrote something that threw me for a bit of a loop, as it seems to imply that my understanding of Circles may be flawed.
It's a bit of digression from the main point of that thread, bso I thought I'd start a separate thread here to make sure.
So, Thor wrote:
1. A character brought into play through your Circles is someone from your past. It establishes that you guys knew each other in one of your lifepaths. I do think it's fair, however, to use the Circles to bring someone in once you've met them in the fiction of the game.
But surely it's not *limited* to only bringing in characters known in the past (either one from a prior lifepath or one introduced after play started), is it?
Doesn't it also include the ability to find NPCs who you might not have previously known, but who you could reasonably *find* using existing social networks?
Let me given an example: I'm an itininerant/mendicant priest of the god Mubjub, an obscure deity with few worshippers and even fewer priests. I come to the city of Slobbor maybe once every two years, where there's a tiny shrine maintained by a small community of lay faithful. I want to do a Circles roll to see if I there are any new worshppers of Mubjub there since my last visit. The intent is "I want to find a worshipper of Mubjub in the city who I've never met before."
It seems to me that that ought to be possible, I mean, shouldn't the priest be able to find out about such a person,by asking those people he does know in the local Mubjub community, who might know of such a person even if he doesn't? Or is that really an inappropriate intent?
It's a bit of digression from the main point of that thread, bso I thought I'd start a separate thread here to make sure.
So, Thor wrote:
1. A character brought into play through your Circles is someone from your past. It establishes that you guys knew each other in one of your lifepaths. I do think it's fair, however, to use the Circles to bring someone in once you've met them in the fiction of the game.
But surely it's not *limited* to only bringing in characters known in the past (either one from a prior lifepath or one introduced after play started), is it?
Doesn't it also include the ability to find NPCs who you might not have previously known, but who you could reasonably *find* using existing social networks?
Let me given an example: I'm an itininerant/mendicant priest of the god Mubjub, an obscure deity with few worshippers and even fewer priests. I come to the city of Slobbor maybe once every two years, where there's a tiny shrine maintained by a small community of lay faithful. I want to do a Circles roll to see if I there are any new worshppers of Mubjub there since my last visit. The intent is "I want to find a worshipper of Mubjub in the city who I've never met before."
It seems to me that that ought to be possible, I mean, shouldn't the priest be able to find out about such a person,by asking those people he does know in the local Mubjub community, who might know of such a person even if he doesn't? Or is that really an inappropriate intent?