The Burning Wheel - Setting Creation
Posted by: Shaun in Gaming, Role-Playing Games, tags: building, Burning Wheel, Deadwood, Gaming, RPG, settingI’ve got multiple gaming groups. Occasionally they merge, but some of us have more interest in particular games than others. On Fridays, a group of four of us are going to be getting together to play a real, honest to Joe Pesci Burning Wheel campaign. To that end, we’ve started building the setting over on the This Modern Death Forum, but I figured that I could write up the condensed version over here.
Just to warn y’all, this is still a work in progress. Things are still unnamed, unclear, and undeveloped. But it’s a damn good start. We’ve been referring to the game so far as Burning Deadwood, but I believe it’s gone slightly beyond that by now.
So, here’s the setting as it stands. Special thanks to Xenith, who posted this excellent summary on the forums. Also, I’d like to thank Babe and Randy, my other two players, for their contributions.
A map of the immediate area, from the Field Roden perspective
What’s the Big Picture? What’s going on in this setting that makes it ripe for adventure. What’s changing, evolving, declining?
The Dwarves have found a mineral-rich stretch of low, old mountains which they have been raping for a couple decades in secret (as those greedy little fucks do). But, given emergent technology, word traveled fast. Men came from the east in wagon-loads to fill their pockets and make a name for themselves. They are motivated by their internal clocks. They know their time on the planet is comparatively short, so they take advantage of any opportunity. A fringe group of elves settled much of the area north of the rich mountains thousands of years ago. Settled is a light term, they conquered it. They think they have a right to land and don’t like others encroaching on it. Men and Dwarves used Orc slave labor to build their cities and railroads, but cast them aside once the work was done. If the Orcs ever rally it could get messy. The Roden and Orcs occupied the land long before the Elves, but were pushed out of their land by the other races.
But the land, having been raped for as long as it has, it’s definitely not producing except for a fortunate few. The good veins have been monopolized and everyone else is just trying to squeeze in where they can. The dwarves still own most of the proven veins, but the increase in people brings many problems. Quite a few dwarves who didn’t keep up with the times lost their claims through legal trickery. They try to find support, but the lawless, unclaimed land grants them no safe harbor. Once man put his name on the paper for the claim, he protects it with might, muscle, and gun.
But man is stupid at the same time he is crafty. The vices that attract men in such towns-the alcohol, the camp women-strip them of what they gain as soon as it lands in their pocket. Elves, unhappy with the degree of land desecration, run brothels and saloons and tobacconists, trading minuscule claims for a week’s worth of dick stink between the legs of a jaded woman. Their goal is to gain enough to have sway, like being a majority stakeholder somewhere.
Dwarves have changed tunes as well. As man begins to take over their claims, they too figure out ways to put their hand in man’s pocket as he did to them. Dwarves have started working procurement trades, getting man to pass back the money he stole in the form of exuberant mark-ups on mining gear. There’s a large band of them, too, that control trade. They’re an alliance, because they found out pretty quickly they couldn’t defeat man on a mono a mono basis, and they have to band together.
Rural life is declining. “Place” is devolving from sacred to commodity. People are favoring pidgin over their native tongue. Material is valued over action. All of the worst parts of capitalism are destroying the serenity of peasant/agrarian life. True belief is declining. It has become a convenient excuse for conquest and persecution. Most people out in the frontier do little more than pay it lip service, but otherwise it has become unimportant in day-to-day lives.
There’s an entire band of settlers who came out for this very purpose. They only come into the main bits of town and such during the day, before all the philandering and drinking begins, to preach, but a few battered women and a dead preacher was all it took to realize they weren’t welcome after dark. And the women fit the cult of “true womanhood” to a T - Piety, submission, purity and domesticity. They will follow their men, they will venture in to town after dark if a father or husband asks to prove the true godlessness and sinful ways of the other settlers. They will not raise their voice to the men nor a hand to protect themselves if one should get upset, for it’s a woman’s place to be subservient and accepting of the whims of the superior men. However, to the “camp women”, they are nothing but fire and brimstone. Half the whores go to church because they want some solace. The other half go to rile the believers during service.
What’s the world’s culture? What are the cultural analogs? Analogs can be taken from historical earth, current events or fantasy works.
Dwarves - Very traditional Tolkein-esque, but tone down the merriment and up the corporate capitalist.
Orcs - Nomads. Savage beasts. Hatred with a capital H.
Roden - Farmers, peasant-folk, “Agrarian”
Humans - What *aren’t* they like? Greedy, opportunistic, technological, frantic (short life spans)
Elves - What a sad little boy you are
What’s the conflict in which the characters are involved? What are the sides? What’s wrong?
The characters have recently…ah…”stumbled” upon an unmanned claim. Orlan, the big boy of Halcyon Falls, has a significant stake in the claim and does not take kindly to the characters sitting on it.
What physical place does the conflict take place in? What’s the ecology, environment, location?
Halcyon Falls is settled in the middle of a lush valley nestled up against the craigs of the Badlands. There is a big river running about 1/2mi east of of town. The area gets really wet winters, which usually floods the river and threatens outlying houses and settlements.
What’s the name of the most important place in this setting? Not the capital or any dumb shit like that, but The Place where all the action goes down?
Halcyon Falls, the claim the characters find themselves in possession of, and the surrounding area.
What’s the name of a faraway place that folks talk about, dream about or mutter under their breath about?
Sunday City lies further yet to the west. Halcyon Falls is many people’s hope of gaining enough wealth to be able to afford that final push to Sunday City. It’s what people talk about, what people toil in the mines for, what people mutter in their sleep during their most pleasant dreams. No one’s been there, but the stories of that friend who had a friend who went and returned are enough to turn the sourest of souls, the most pessimistic of men west as the sun sets over those high, cold crags. (I believe we came up with a different name during the first session, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.)
Who are the antagonists? Who is opposing the goals of the characters?
Orlan, the big bad businessman in town.
The next two questions don’t have answers yet:
Imagine all of the characters are standing in a room/ruin/field with the antagonists or their minions. What do the antagonists want from that meeting? What do the character want from that meeting? That’s where your game begins.
Alternately, imagine the characters standing at the scene of some great disaster or calamity clearly caused by one of the antagonists. What’s the disaster? How did it happen? What are the characters going to do about it right now?
What type of magic exists in this world? Pick one or two of the magic systems: Faith (and Blasphemous Hatred), Sorcery (and Abstraction), Natural Magic, Spirit Binding, Summoning, or Enchanting.
Sorcery still exists, but is falling behind the surge of technology in the eyes of man. The other races, moving slower as a result of their different lifespans, still rely heavily on magic. Elves with their spell songs, dwarves with their arts, and orcs with their blasphemous chants.
Faith is powerful, but failing. Other races have their own versions of Faith…the Immortal Elves with their wearisome Grief, the Dwarves and their endless Greed, and the Orcs, with the deep and boundless Hatred.
Some of this may change when the Magic Burner is available.
If Sorcery is used, what’s its idiom? Does it require speech? Gestures?
Sorcery requires speech, and then gestures are a character idiom. Some sorcerers use them, some don’t.
If Sorcery is used, what spells are available? Which spells are inappropriate to the game world?
So far, all spells are available for use.
If is Faith used, what is the Faith idiom? What are the religions? Is Faith universal or does it only affect believers?
There are two major gods worshipped: Zoltec, the Sun and Turkis, the Earth. The names came from older cultures, but have managed to stick around. Many people just refer to them as The Sun or The Earth, so phrases such as “Sunblessed” and “The Earth take you!” are fairly common. As mentioned, most of the common folk simply pay lip-service to the gods. Some of the zealots claim miracles, but, as is common for that sort of thing, the doubters tend to see them simply as happy coincidences.
What character stocks are in play in this world? Which are restricted and why?
Men, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, and Roden. Possibly Great Wolves at some time in the future.
What Cultural Traits apply to the characters of this game world? Pick three Character Traits for each culture.
Intrepid, Risk-taker and Cocksure for Men. The other stocks get their standard Common Traits.
