[Burning Wheel] Burning Carnivale

[Robert Bohl]

I'm running an ongoing game of Burning Wheel set in a medieval carnival.  You can find the world planning thread here and I also created a Carnival Sub-setting.

So we had about 3/4ths of the character creation last night.  Details:

"World" details:

Story tropes:  Carnies vs. Towners, Carnies vs. Church, falling into conflicts in situ, Feaks vs. Norms, False Accusations, Gypsy/Jew/Outcast feel, Heirarchy vs. Egalitarianism

Cooperation dial:  Cooperative with room for sparks (Deep Space 9)

Setting:  Medieval Spain (James and Ginger have or are working on graduate degrees in history, Ginger's is in in medieval history, and Michael did his BA in medieval Spanish history)

Carnival details:

33 staff, 3 low wolves, 1 bear

Attractions: Freakshow, Animal act, Acrobats/Actors, Fortune Teller, Prostitutes

Major NPCs:  Great Wolf animal trainer, Hairless dwarvish Gaffer (carnival manager), Ringmaster (boss of the performers), The Cook

Political groups in the carnival:  The poor people, the freaks, the talented or pretty, the religious, the profane

Antagonists:  Revival preacher carnival, The Catholic Church (first two are in opposition), foreigners, government, internal antagonists to be determined.

The animal act is a Great Wolf with 3 lower wolves and a bear, and they have a pretty emptyhead who looks to the crowd like she's the one in charge of the animals during the act.

There's one full-time hooker and 2-3 women who sometimes engage in the oldest profession.

There are 4-5 freak acts, of which the only one we've detailed yet is the Strongman who fights challengers.

There are 5 Acrobat/actors.

There are 12 Roustabouts and 2 food vendors with two support people for them.

33 people live and work in the carnival.

The PCs:

Ginger is playing a mad fortune teller who has Ophidian blood (and the perversely beautiful trait as a result).  Born Noble, Young Lady, Crazy Witch, Fortune Teller.  She's got an Affiliation with the carnival, so rather than just being an employee, she's got some juice.  Her brother is a local baron who hates (or is maybe afraid of) her; she is a living example of the family's secret.

Michael is playing a dashing acrobat with a storied past.  Born Noble, Pirate, Duelist, Acrobat.  He's friends with the Strongman, who was tricked by James's Grafter into putting his girlfriend on the table in a hand of poker.  The girlfriend is the Wolf's stooge and also works as a part-time hooker.  Michael's character has a brother who's a Bishop, and ashamed of his current degraded state, if I remember correctly.

James is playing a Grafter (gambler) who follows the carnival but is not officially a carny.  Born City, Criminal, Con Man, Grafter.  He's got a small cottage and is friends with Ginger's character's brother.  He never makes the baron pay his debts--at least, not with money.  Also, his sister is the carnival's sole full-time whore.

--

NONE of the characters even has a POINT of resources.

Full sheets to come later.

We did not get to do beliefs and instincts yet.

Next session, we finish up the odds and ends (and cores) of the characters, and then I teach them how to play the game (after I finish learning myself).

[Judd]

Rob,

I would really like to know more on how you arrived at those world details.  I know from e-mails with you that they came from group concensus but I'd like to know more about that process of world burning, as the BW folk call it.

Judd

[Robert Bohl]

Rob,

I would really like to know more on how you arrived at those world details. I know from e-mails with you that they came from group concensus but I'd like to know more about that process of world burning, as the BW folk call it.

Judd

We all sat around and I had a post from Thor (early in the "planning thread" mentioned before) and I asked them questions from that list.  For ease of reference, I'll reproduce them here:

* The important personalities in the carnival and their roles.
* Any political struggles/factions in the carnival
* The conflicts facing the carnival
* The angatonists escalating the conflicts facing the carnival (either extranal threats or factions within the carnival or both).

We just sort of went from there.  We didn't take a straight line to hitting all those points one after the other.  We tended to meander here and there.  One of the things that got things going was when I said I wanted a fairly realistic medieval world.  That was how I found out about all the historical expertise there (and I told them, "You will be correcting me frequently.") and also why we went with literally the Catholic Church, and Spain, rather than just some allegory or cognate. 

I addressed the cooperation vs. friction thing because that's a big one to me.

Anything in particular you want to know how we got there?

[Judd]

Anything in particular you want to know how we got there?

Yes, you created this group through sheer will.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

What fascinated me about this game is that you came home from Gen Con revved to game, your old group, the same guys we played with since junior high had really disintegrated and gone their seperate ways.  You could have made those easy phone calls and gotten them back together for one or two frustrating sessions but you didn't.

You e-mailed and posted and posted and e-mailed until you had a new group of like-minded gamers around you.

I'd like you to post about that process.  That's heroic.

I watn someone out there twiddling their thumbs and bemoaning that they have no group to see you and be inspired.

Shit, I'm inspired.  I've only gamed in Jersey, where I grew up and in Ithaca, where I worked at a game store when I was 19 and found a ludicrous pool of gamers.  The pool has grown and I've tended to it but when I've left town and gone to Tampa or Tokyo, I shyed away from gaming.

I want to know how you gathered these people together, how you worded it, where you went, who e-mailed whom.

The whole shebang.

[Robert Bohl]

An email to the players:

Any ideas on beliefs and instincts?  You should ideally have three of each, but must have at least one.  Here's a brief on what they're "supposed" to be from the book.  To help you, I'm going to work out one of the Wolf's beliefs and instincts:

Beliefs:  Explicitly stated drives that tie directly into the world and setting of play.  When sculpting your character's beliefs, think: What do I want out of this character and this situation?  How can my character's Beliefs reflect that?  Then bend your character's Beliefs to reflect these priorities.

The Wolf is used to people assuming he's a dumb beast, and it bothers him. Therefore, I want him to always show his intelligence at the ideal and most entertaining possible time.  Therefore, one of in Beliefs will be: "Men think I am a beast; for this I must shame them."

Instincts:  Ratehr than reflect who or what the character is, Instincts help define how the character acts.  What's been drilled into the character's head?  What life lessons has he been forced to learn?  What has he taught himself in order to survive?  The best Instincts are defined as clear statments--either "Always do X," or "Never do Y," or as, "If A happens, then do B."  These are like programmed actions.  "Macros" if you will.  They should be very concrete and specific and ideally will have a mechanical role.

I want the Wolf to have issues over the Men respecting him, and also to be gruff about it, so one of his Instincts will be:  "When Men threaten, Intimidate them."  This means that whenever he's in a threatening conflict (that is where violence is about to happen or there's the threat of violence), the Wolf gets to do an Intimidate action first.

--

Try to make your Beliefs and Instincts not one-line.  Make them about different things or make them in some was oppositional so that you find yourself having to choose which one to follow.

[Robert Bohl]

I want to know how you gathered these people together, how you worded it, where you went, who e-mailed whom.

The whole shebang.

Well, I'm afraid I can't take all the credit.  Actually my biggest kick was after DexCon.  GenCon was disappointing by comparison and I am not being ironic in saying that.  DexCon taught me Burning Wheel and gave me the idea for about a half dozen games to write.

Anyway, the tale.  A year or two ago I was wanting to have a regular weeknight game, so that I had two games a week, the aformentioned high school group and one near my home.  I went through two phases of this, both of which were terrible.  Utterly without merit.  Groups that just made me want to cheese-grater my face for a while.  However, in the second (or maybe third? yeah, third) attempt, I met James.  James is a grad student in the history of science at Princeton.  James and I spent most of that 3rd attempt rolling our eyes at one another at the other people at the table.  I broke up the group, and told James that if I ever had a nucleus of good people again, I wanted to try to get a regular game going with him.

just before I went to GenCon, James emailed me and told me he was moving to New Brunswick.  He said he was looking for a group, and asked if I knew anyone.  With that, I posted at nerdnyc.com's forums, to no effect at first.  When I got back from Gen Con, I decided I was going to go at this in earnest and posted on rpg.net and burningwheel.org.  Ironically, Ginger and Michael got in contact via the first post, the nerdnyc one.  They have a friend they may be getting into our game, and if that doesn't work out, there's someone from Princeton who posted to the RPG.net thread.

--

By the way, Brennan, the offer is open to come and play an NPC once a month.  I'm sure the group won't mind.

[Robert Bohl]

I created a little page on my account that gives Spanish and Arab names appropriate to the time period.  The list includes first names and surnames.

[elgorade]

Hey Rob,
   
Sounds like you have more players than you need right now, but I wish I had seen your gathering posts earlier.  We met briefly at DexCon, in Judd's Dogs game and the BW game.  From those games and the description above,  this game sounds like it could be unique and a lot of fun. 

Doug

[Robert Bohl]

Well, if we have any openings I'll keep you in mind.  Thanks for the compliment.

[Robert Bohl]

So we just finished character creation for the first 3 players and also came up with a Kicker for the carnival as a whole.  I will produce the character sheets in due time, but for now, I will present the kicker and the B&Is.

The way I constructed B&Is in this case was I asked them to reserve one Belief each to construct so that it ties in to the carnival's kicker.  2 out of the 3 players were resistant to coming up with individual character kickers.  The 3rd is still thinking of his, though I have a notion of where it might go.

Carnival kicker:  The village's Don has a son.  That son has "fallen in love" with Florinda* and means to claim her for his own.

Rodrigo Barbero the Grafter (City Born, Criminal, Con Man, Grafter):

Beliefs:  Nothing's too valuable to gamble if the odds are right.  My sister** is my only family, we have to stick together.  What's mine is mine.

Instincts:  Always keep an ace up your sleeve.  Draw your knife when accused of cheating.  Keep the lie simple.

Diego Diaz-Mondragon the Acrobat (Born Noble, Pirate, Duelist, Acrobat):

Beliefs:  No one deserves wealth.  Anything worth doing is worth doing with style.  With great responsibility comes great power.

Instincts:  Always take the high path.  Always know where the exits are.  Always satisfy my curiosity.

Elena del Castilly y Ximenes the Fortune Teller (Born NOble, Young Lady, Mad Witch, Fortune Teller):

Beliefs: Frauds who trifle with power come to bad ends.  The freaks are my brothers too.  The powerful have obligations to the weak.

Instincts: Always conceal your differences***.  Never lie about a seeing.  Never do for myself what my spirit servant can do for me.

* Florinda is the pretty girl who works in the Wolf's animal act.  The audience thinks she's the trainer, but it's the Wolf who's in charge.  She also sidelines as a prostitute.  Finally, Rodrigo the Grafter just won her off Petro the Strongman in a game of cards.

** Rodrigo's sister is the head (and only full-time) prostitute.

*** Elena's family is tainted by the blood of Ophidians.  If it doesn't come out physically (as it does with her), it comes out socially (as with her brother, Lazaro del Castillo y Ximines).  In Elena's case, her eyes are entirely black, and the effect is both disturbing and captivatingly beautiful.

[Robert Bohl]

Email from Derek, the 4th player whose character we will be making up on Saturday:

Character:

Gonsalvo Pedrosa: "La Vaina"  He's a freak. (Human blockhead, (drives spikes into his head through his nose), sword swallowing, bed of nails, chest piercings, etc)

Beliefs: You can always push just a little bit deeper. Pain to others is sin; pain to self is blessing. You can't walk alone; Even christ needed others to nail him to the cross.

Instincts: If they watch too closely, give them a show. Never rest comfortably. Keep track of the nails.

[Robert Bohl]

I created a series website which for now only has the character sheets and the Carnival sub-setting I created.  I'll reproduce the characters here in squished form for those of you who are PDF-phobic.

Diego Diaz-Mondragon, flamboyant acrobat
Lifepaths: Born Noble, Pirate, Duelist, Acrobat
Age: 27
Stats: Wi B4, Pe B4, Po B3, Fo B3, Ag B5, Sp B6
Attributes: Hea B4, Ste B5, Hesitation 6, Ref B5, MW B9
Circles: B2 (+1D affiliation with the carnival)
Reputation: None.
Resources: 0B
Skills: Pirate cove-wise B2, Sword B5, Acrobatics B6, Conspicuous B5, Streetwise B2, Knives B3, Sex-wise B2, Climbing B4, Latin B2, Stealth B3, Reading B2, Locksmith B2, Theatrics B2, Two-Fisted Fighting Training
Gear: Shoes, clothes, superior sword, finery, travel gear, locksmith tools, performer's wagon.
Traits: Mark of Privilege, Problems with Authority, Dexterity of the Cat, Graceful, Carney
Relationships: The Bishop of Barcelona, Immaculatus IV (nee Micael Mondragon), my cousin.  Lorenzo Dural, my apprentice.
Beliefs: No one deserves wealth.  Anything worth doing is worth doing with style.  With great responsibility comes great power.
Instincts: Always take the high path.  Always know where the exits are.  Always satisfy my curiosity.

Elena del Castillo y Ximines, a troubled fortune teller
Lifepaths: Born Noble, Young Lady, Crazy Witch, Fortune Teller
Age: 36
Stats: Wi B5, Pe B5, Po B3, Fo B4, Ag B4, Sp B3
Attributes: Hea B4, Ste B5, Hesitation 5, Ref B4, MW B10
Circles: B2 (+1D affiliation with the carnival)
Reputation: 1D reputation as a true seer.
Resources: B0
Skills: Read B3, Herbalism B5, Folklore B4, Write B3, Astrology B4, Sorcery B6, Soothing Platitudes B5, Intimidation B3, Throwing B3, Theatrics B2
Gear: Clothes, Finery, Travel Gear, Herbalism Kit, Performer's Wagon
Spells: Persuasion, Phantasmagoria, Spirit Servant
Traits: Mark of Privilege, A Little Crazy, The Story, Gifted, Tainted Legacy (Ophidian), Perversely Beautiful, Dreamer, Carney, Regal Bearing
Relationships: Baron Lazaro del Castillo y Ximenes, my Machiavellian brother who spurns me for bearing physical witness to the family's stain of impurity.
Beliefs: Frauds who trifle with Power come to bad ends.  The freaks are my brothers too.  The powerful have obligations to the weak.
Instincts: Always conceal your differences.  Never lie about a seeing.  Never do for myself what my spirit servant can do for me.

Rodrigo Barbero, a rakish grafter and con man.
Lifepaths: City Born, Criminal, Con Man, Grafter
Age: 29
Stats: Wi B5, Pe B4, Po B3, Fo B3, Ag B5, Sp B4
Attributes: Hea B4, Ste B4, Hesitation 5, Ref B4, MW B9
Circles: B2 (+1D Affiliation with the Baron's household)
Reputation: 1D card cheat
Resources: B1 (gambling)
Skills: Gambling B5, Sleight of Hand B4, Falsehood B4, Knives B4, Persuasion B3, Observation B3, Inconspicuous B2, Mark-wise B2, Streetwise B2, Reading B2
Gear: Finery, Knife, Clothes, Traveling Gear
Traits: Cynical, Rainman, Tidy Aspect, Poker Face, Glib
Relationships: Placia Barbero, younger sister, chief hooker at carnival.  Baron Lazaro del Castillo y Ximenes, gambling buddy.
Beliefs: Nothing's too valuable to gamble with--if the odds are right.  My sister is my only family.  We have to stick together.  What's mine is mine.
Instincts: Always keep an ace up your sleeve.  Draw a knife when accused of cheating.  Keep the lie simple.

[Robert Bohl]

So as the above might indicate, we completed characters last night.  When all was said and done, the vibe in the room wasn't "let's play now!" because one of the players had had to wake up at 5 am that day and we didn't have enough time to really get into anything.  Instead, we decided to demo some of the rules, so we went with doing a Duel of Wits.  The DoW wound up also "forking" in some stuff about advancement and helping, as it obviously would do.

The scene was this:  Long after the carnival shut down, Rodrigo, Diego and the roustabouts were sitting around shooting the shit.  Rodrigo had just finished the card game with Petros the Strongman wherein he won Petros's girlfriend, Florinda the "front" for the Wolf's animal act, and a part-time prostitute (thus tying in with Rodrigo's sister).  Elena was walking by and overheard his boasting.

Rodrigo's Body of Argument used his Persuasion and FoRKed his Falsehood in, and centered around the Council of Seville having declaired involate the spoils of gambling.

Elena's Body of Argument used an untrained Interrogation skill, and FoRKed in her Intimidation skill and Regal Bearing character trait.  In her view, this "ownership" Rodrigo spoke of was tantamount to slavery, and Florinda was a Christian woman and enslaving her would be illegal.

The terms were if Rodrigo won, Elena would have to admit that a woman could be won in a card game and if Elena won, Rodrigo would have to admit that claiming a woman won in a game of cards was tantamount to slavery, and illegitimate.

Ginger (Elena's player) briefly considered using her Persuasion spell.  I deemed that if she cast it before her Body of Argument was reduced to 0 (which casting would take 4 volleys), and her roll succeeded, then she can have reduced his BoA to 0 with the spell.  In the end, she decided since we were learning the DoW rules, bypassing them by casting a spell wouldn't be helpful.

Ginger's scripting style was very aggressive, where James (Rodrigo's player) was much more cautious.  Also, Diego was offended by Rodrigo's argument, and was backing up Elena's position with frequent use of his conspicuous.  Between his better skill and his cautious style, he managed to destroy Elena's BoA by the 1st volley of the 2nd exchange.  However, Elena was right to be so aggressive because she probably wouldn't have survived a longer exchange and she managed to hack Rodrigo down to a legitimate compromise (his BoA was exactly halved).

In the end, Elena had to admit that he had the exclusive right to woo Flordina, but Rodrigo had to say that that didn't necessarily mean he owned her.

Elena earned a test toward opening Interrogation as did Diego.  Rodrigo earned a Challenging test for his Persuasion skill and a Routine test for his Falsehood skill.

[Robert Bohl]

You can see a player's perspective on this on the Burning Wheel forum thread about this game.

[Robert Bohl]

We're mostly done with the final PC.  I have some concerns about the B&Is, but they're minor and one of the Beliefs really kicks my ass ragged (that means I like it).  It's up on the series' website, and reproduced here:

Gonsalvo Pedrosa, aka "La Vaina", devout Catholic expaitiory side-show freak
Lifepaths: Born Village, Grave Digger, Roustabout, Itinerant Performer
Age: 24
Stats: Wi B5, Pe B2, Po B4, Fo B6, Ag B4, Sp B3
Attributes: Hea B5, Ste B5, Hesitation 5, Ref B3, MW B11
Circles: B2
Reputation: Beset by demons, 1D
Resources: B0
Skills: Acting B3, Carnival-wise B1, Conspicuous B5, Disguise B3, Ditch Digging B2, Doctrine (Catholic) B3, Hauling B4, Sleight of Hand B4, Torture B3.
Gear: Clothing, torturer's kit.
Traits: Superstitious, Lifting Heavy Things, Odd, Iron Will, Flagellant
Relationships: Father Dominico Pedrosa, my uncle, who wants me out of the carnival and brought to the family's church and exorcised for the sake of my soul and the family name.
Beliefs: You can always push just a little bit deeper. Pain to others is sin; pain to self is blessing. You can't walk alone; even Christ needed others to nail him to the cross.
Instincts: If they watch too closely, give them a show. Never rest comfortably. Keep track of the nails.