Falling Star- A Burning Wheel Campaign idea
December 31, 2007Ok, I hacked out a quick pdf of some ideas I’ve been floating for about a week or so- Falling Star.
I wanted to play a game where there’s a cultural clash, where the player characters are negotiating between who they are, what their people want them to be, and what they become, a pretty common identity struggle for many people.
Pretty much the meat of the play is between the Sagara and the Ibal- this uncomfortable shifting line between colonizer and colonized peoples. The Kizo are the “orcs” of the setting- fanatical crusaders who exist to apply pressure and break up the power balance between the Sagara and the Ibal.
Thematically, the Sagarans are modeled after a lot of indigenous people, like the Khmu, Mien, or Hmong, though it’s just as easy to draw parallels with a lot of folks. For contrast, the Ibal just want your stuff, while the Kizo want your soul and identity.
Edit:
Naturally, less than a week later, I come across Bruce Cordell’s brilliant When the Sky Falls, which goes over what would happen in your D&D game if a meteorite hits… It’s also a free PDF download, so check it out!
Edit pt. 2:
Also, naturally, my copy of The Blossoms are Falling arrived a week after I wrote this, so I didn’t know about the awesome rules for dealing with spirits as a Circles test. I’ll probably digest that, play with it some, then revise this setting idea later.
