Burning Wheel: Shaping Beliefs

I’ve been putting together another BW scenario and thinking a bit about what makes Beliefs tough for new folks: they’re actually a pretty complicated mechanic.

Decisions to make, not already made

The first hurdle people usually trip over is this: a lot of rpgs have personality mechanics which are “set” – choose an alignment, choose a Demeanor, choose a Personality Disadvantage- and that’s basically set in stone. The choice of who your character is and how they operate is established and you’re going to stick with it.

Beliefs, on the other hand, what your character believes and acts on… but they’re still open to being challenged- the question isn’t fully resolved – there’s a “But will she really?” attached to any Belief.

You’re not choosing a finished choice, you’re choosing a topic or stance around which the character will make choices during play.

Roots or Seeds?

(ETA: Of course, the day after I write this, my Adventure Burner comes in the mail, and Luke basically says the same stuff on page 13 of the book…)

As a player, consider each Belief- is this something that will support the character? A good value to hold that should be defended? This is a “mature” Belief, a root to come back to. You will find yourself playing to support the Belief a lot, and challenging it rarely, mostly when external forces push on it hard enough.

The other possibility is that the Belief is something you think the character should outgrow. It’s a seed- it’s a starting point. It’s fun to pick a Belief that you feel is naive, mistaken, or ignorant to set up the drama and place for your character to eventually overcome her limitations and mature. This kind of Belief you’ll find leads to challenging easier, and often works better for playing out internal struggles.

I recommend at least one of each! It makes for very human characters.

Fall or Epiphany?

With the above in mind- you’re setting your character up to deal with any given Belief in one of two ways.

If the Belief is something you support and consider mature- the stories around that Belief will be about standing true to it, and the big turns will be where your character falls from upholding it, either because your character isn’t up to keeping the ideal or because the ideal is too simplistic to meet the situation. And then, of course, redemption in picking it back up again, perhaps with a more nuanced view or renewed determination.

If the Belief is something you see the character outgrowing, the big turns will be about where your character makes realizations and choices to grow. Where your character decides, “You know what? Maybe this isn’t the way…” This tends to push stronger for changing Beliefs, though you might have many ups and downs before you finally commit to the change of your character.

Refinement

Another complexity about Beliefs is the ability to change them. People who pick up on the ability to change them usually grasp the value of drastic changes for drama, but subtle changes are often overlooked when folks pick up the game.

Consider going from, “I support the king, always”, to, “I support the king in all things except the church”, to “I must turn the king away from blasphemy, for his soul”, to “The king has gone too far, I must stop him and have the priests re-educate him” to “I will commit cold murder and choose to rot in hell, to stop the king before God’s Wrath comes upon us all.” – look at what a fascinating arc you’ve got, compared to going from the first to the last one in a single jump.

Obviously, this depends on the length of your campaign and the situation, but there’s a lot to be had from the slow, subtle changes on a single subject. It makes things a lot more complex and the evolution of your character a lot more interesting.

The other nice thing about this, is that you can make Beliefs you partially agree with and aim your character to grow. “I will restore my honor, by damning the world for the sake of my father” can grow eventually into, “I will restore my honor by ending the mad rule of my father”… Just as often in life as in stories, people are doing the exact opposite methods of what they need to be doing to achieve their goals.

The Big Choice

When you’re picking out your Beliefs, consider if these could lead to big climax choices like at the end of a movie?

“I will uphold the honor of my people through justice” and “I will have my revenge, come hell or high water” are two Beliefs which are likely to conflict, very easily making for some climactic choices between revenge and justice.

The point is not to overthink what these scenes or situations would look like, or to have answers to them- you don’t know how the game will turn out – you’re just checking to see if they have the potential to be interesting in the long run.

From a game standpoint, this is where a character starts earning Deeds Artha, and making sure your Beliefs have this kind of interesting aspects to them is a good way to set yourself up from the beginning for great stories.

Advertisement