Beliefs

Allright, now, beliefs are something I've had a little trouble with myself. They're easy to approach. I mean, it's easy to imagine that your character does in fact believe in something. But, it takes a little something else to make them into Beliefs (can you hear the capital letter? What do you mean this is a textual medium?)

One of the most important things to consider is that the primary in-game use of beliefs is to generate Artha for your character. New to Artha? Well, in short Artha is something like a drama point system; you use them to do affect your rolls positively and to shrug off penalties from injury, stuff like that. Anyway, Artha is given to characters for a lot of reasons, but a big one comes from the Beliefs. If a character acts in a way that reflects their Beliefs, it nets them Artha. This is one of the reasons why the unimpeachable Mr. Naylor and I keep using the word 'actionable' in reference to a functional Belief; you have to know how and when they'll be able to generate bonus points. Something like "I believe in love, it's all we've got" might be fine for Elton John, but I'm not entirely sure what to do with it as a GM.

Now, with that in mind, it kind of irks me to think of Beliefs in strictly mechanical terms. For me, they're one of the tastiest, most delicious representations of character development, story advancement, etc., as well as being excellent sources for progressive role-playing and needlessly excessive drama. For that reason, I don't like to think of them as things that turn the Wheel and give you sweet Artha. Instead, I think of them as your character's primary motivations. Sure, a character will have all kinds of beliefs that shape them, but the motivations that really define them and affect every single thing they do will get the capital letter. Whenever something happens that causes your character to react (conflict) you would look to your Beliefs to guide your behavior. In such a fashion, don't get too worried about writing up a belief that doesn't have an immediately obvious mechanical breakdown. As long as you and the GM are clearly on the same page about what a belief means, the wording isn't as much of an issue. I mean, I'm lookin' at Monsieur O'Bedlam's beliefs here, and they're all written up with the same thought-action syntax. And that's fine, right, especially considering that he got them OKed on the BW forums, I'm just saying that it's not essential.

Anyway, another thing that I have had to think about a little bit is what Beliefs are not. Firstly, beliefs are not Instincts. Whenever I was looking through the Artha section, I was telling myself, "Okay, Beliefs are special because when you behave in a way that brings your Beliefs out onto the table, you're rewarded for it mechanically." If you get too specific about it, though, and start thinking like, "when this happens, my character does this in response." You're starting to get away from what Beliefs represent. That sort of if/then is the domain of the Instinct. Although Instincts are modeled to be extremely specific (If someone spits on me I flip them the bird), there's a broader difference. Beliefs are not intended to railroad your character into certain behavior sets; it's not good to have a Belief that's too vague, but it's not good to have one that's too specific, either. Also, Beliefs are not set in stone. Characters who find themselves in situations that force them to take a cold hard look at their Beliefs are free to modify them as they see fit, or drop out Beliefs for new ones. And, if these changes occur in-game in a dramatic and believable fashion, then you can get all kinds of fabulous Artha (talkin' 'bout those Persona points, hells yeah.)

This last point is another reminder; Beliefs are not Traits. Traits are intended to be somewhat more static, having more to do with the ingrained qualities of a character than their outlook or their life journey. So, okay, some Traits are like 'missing an eye' or whatever, and you'd never get that mixed up with a Belief. I'm not talking about those. ;P There's a part of the discussion in one of the links at the bottom of this post that talks about it a little more fully, but essentially if you write up a Belief that you never intend to change that represents only one facet of your character, then it might be better as a Trait.

Are you asking me why I'm talking about Beliefs when everyone already has their character's Beliefs all written up and done with? Well, you cynics, I've just been thinking a lot about Beliefs and their role in the game, and my responsibilities as a GM in interpreting them. I've been thinking about the marriage between the conceptual aspect of the Beliefs and their role in the process of playing one's character and the mechanical aspect of their generating these bonus points, and the way I ought to lean in my arbitration of such. Really, some gaming will help my thoughts to coalesce immensely, but I want to have a productive way of thinking about them beforehand.

So, what do you guys have to say about Beliefs? Do you want to tell me that everything I just said is wrong and that Beliefs are something totally different? Please do so! Do you just want to cry to the world that Beliefs are awesome? Go for it! Beliefs are something in BW that especially tickled and teased me, so I'd love to talk about them.

ps. Here are some serious links that Brent dug up like a beautiful truffle-smelling pig. If Beliefs are as exciting to you as they are to me, then these links might make you swoon. Make sure you're sitting down.

Belief Workshop
BTO and Abzo bash out Beliefs
Cawshis' Belief workshop
Luke and Thor brainstorm Beliefs