Questions to Explore

I re-read the story so far and jotted down questions that haven't be answered yet. There's a bunch, so I'll narrow things down by saying my favorite topics at the moment are the Mystics, the political intrigue around Leviathan and following the clues about the Prince to get more info to be able to approach the King with solid evidence. Some of those might be related.

But I'm interested to hear what intrigues you and if there's any thing that you'd like to explore.

Open Questions:

What was that Crystal ship?

Who attacked the Leviathan and why?

Where did the prince go? can oril use the info about the prince to gain favor with the king? should he look for more info about the Prince before approaching the king?

What was Oril's first mystic encounter - i think it's where his visions come from - it was when he was a child ...

what did Movaril want with Arundy's notes? What is he plotting about in regards to the other Mystics, probably plotting against Nilla?

Why does oril still have remnants of the compulsion from Movaril?

Why did the knights of feather know about the fate of leviathan (they were wearing black arm bands of mourning before Oril broke the news)? Were they involved? Do they know who was involved?

Why is the artist advocating to include MCC in his painting commemorating leviathan. How will his work be affected by its demise? will it be worthless now, or will it be even more famous now since no other artist will be able to paint it first hand?

How will the crash affect the rivalry between MCC and A&S?

How does the town take the news of Leviathan?

Will this be a moment for the mayor to shine, being a leader during tradegy or will the blame be placed on her?

Oril was hoping now would be the time to leave Sellean to venture into the world (other then the local forest and waste), but with the mayor cancelling the flight of airships for now for safety, he might need to wait. Or will be try to leave anyways? what are other possible routes from Sellean to other parts of civilization? River? Road? or is Airship the only reasonable way other than long distance through the wilderness?

If he decides to wait, he might investigate this lingering compulsion from Movaril in the mean time. Or volunteer to help with the recovery effort since he knows the location of the crash and is familiar exploring the wastes. What would be gain from this?

The questions about the Prince, the crash of the Leviathan, and the political reasons behind that seem interesting to me. But would lead us to do some hefty world-building, (e.g., what is the King, exactly? How does he rule the various locations in the lands of the tempts? etc...)

I am also interested in Oril's visions.
But all of the questions you summarized pique my interest.

Oril's current belief is:

Oril believes the information from his vision is very valuable. If he could get it to the King, along with the mandolin as proof, he would be well rewarded.

I think we should expand on the world just enough so this belief is actionable. How is Oril going to act on this belief? What information can we establish that would help you tell us what Oril does toward this belief?

I can't remember, did you say you'd played Burning Wheel or Mouseguard before, with the belief mechanism? I suspect the technique of beliefs could help us here.

How about giving Oril two more beliefs? Does that sound fun? We don't have to use that technique-- as I know some players are not big fans-- and I am perfectly fine not using them, so no pressure.

I have seen a few things about Burning Wheel and I think it's a game I would really like to try but that was awhile ago and I haven't gotten around to it yet. I don't have the game myself and I haven't read the rules/system, so you'll have to let me know how the belief mechanic/system works. Sounds interesting though.

I think it'll be fun to come up with two more beliefs for Oril and maybe refine his current belief a bit too now that we have a bit more of the story fleshed out, but I'll wait to hear more about how these beliefs work first.

I'm definitely happy to help flesh out the world and factions with you more before we continue if that would be useful. I've played a bunch of Microscope, which is a collaborative world/history building game. It was a lot of fun, so I would enjoy that aspect of the game.

To keep it simple, I tried to go with this in the rules:
I see belief writing as a world-building prompt as well as communication from the player to the GM as to what they are interested in.
The player says, "Hey, my character believes this-- they might be mistaken, but, because they have this belief, they plan on doing things that drive them into adventure."

Burning Wheel makes beliefs the engine of the game - I don't think we need to take it that far.
But here, with the Irridecent Hack, we can lean on them or not. You can earn XP with them-- and spending XP allows your character to change their effectiveness and their chances of success...which then offers justification for changing or progressing Character Moves.

These resources do a pretty good job of summarizing.
https://www.indiegamereadingclub.com/indie-game-reading-club/burning-wheel-2/
https://dadosmisticos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Building-Belief.pdf

But examples often work best:

I'm a marketing and public relations genius, I can best serve in the army by doing that. I'll use my Charisma and PR skills to make sure I never see combat during this horrible invasion.
(Edge of Tomorrow at the start of the film).

BUT, I think John Harper has a really good point when he decided not to put formal Beliefs in Blades in the Dark. Basically, he says, just play, and figure out your character's beliefs after the fact during the XP phase. Did your character express their beliefs, maybe-- let's talk about the game we just played and decide together. There is a good interview with him about that somewhere.

I'm torn. I like both methods.

Also, Microscope is a game that really resonates with me. I seem to play it at least once or twice a year.
I like a bit of mystery and build-the-world-as-you-go feeling, though. I'll ponder, as the idea of running this through Microscope sounds fun too.

I like the idea of using beliefs as a guiding post for what the character is trying to achieve. I think it will help drive the story forward. We don't have to be too strict about them and I'm happy to keep them dynamic and flexible so we can discuss during the XP phase to look back and update and modify based on what actually happened in play.

I'll add two more belief, probably one about the Mystics and one about the local politics/crash. I'll think on the wording.

I definitely enjoy the world-buliding-as-we-go approach. And if we need to fill in some holes here and there, I don't think we actually need to play Microscope to fill things out, but it's good to know we both have that background and we could draw on some mechanics to help fill in world-building as we go. I like the "World Building Opportunities" that you've been using. It generates microscope-like content by prompting a question that I then need to answer, sort of like a "narrated scene" from microscope.

Is there anything you'd like to flush out in the world at this point? Maybe the nature of the royal families in the Kingdoms of Llorinth to make Oril's first belief more actionable?

Sorry I've been stuck here for so long. I've been struggling to find creative energy lately and unfortunately this game requires a little extra creativity in general and particularly at the moment as we world build a bit. Life has been busy lately and on top of that my wife is 9 months pregnant with our first, so my time and energy will likely be drained even more soon, so I'm a bit hesitant to continue. Having said that I've made a little progress tonight (see below).

I know you've said that you're okay with this progressing slowly, but if things are too slow or irregular for you then feel free to say so. I sort of like the idea of keeping this game available so if I do have some time to be creative I have somewhere to express that with the hope that it will become more regular eventually, but it might not be realistic to keep the game going at such a slow and sporadic pace, so let me know what you think.

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As the name suggests, the Seven Kingdoms of Llorinth are controlled by 7 relatively independent monarchs although one or two typically have more influence and power than the rest, but the leading kingdom has fluctuated a lot over the centuries. It's not unusual for at least two kingdoms to be hostile towards each other at any given period, or for one to conquer another at least temporarily.

The Kings themselves are only a little more real than a myth or legend to Oril. They never bother to grace the wild lands of Khist-Nolmriah such as the small industrial settlement of Sellean, sending lesser royalty when needed like the child, Prince Bedon, prior to the doomed voyage of the Spirit of Leviathan. But their influence is felt; the complex politics of the kingdoms can be felt in the shipyards because airships are such a critical infrastructure of trade, military might, and status in the high society of the kingdoms.

Sellean is ruled mostly by the ship building companies and local government and many in Sellean consider themselves independent of the kingdoms (whether or not the kingdoms think that). I think Oril believes he's independent, but wonders if citizenship in one of the kingdoms might bring more opportunity. Winning the king's favor might bring that type of opportunity.

MCC is based on the coast of Maltaph, one of the seven kingdoms, and for years had a near monopoly on airships (they originally built seafaring ships). But recently, Amez & Sons, based in the Quailing Heights, has not only entered the market but is successfully competing with MCC. Winning the "Spirit of Leviathan" contract was a huge win on this front. Both have their shipyards in or near Sellean because the northern forests of Khist-Nolmiarh are the only source of silkwood and featherweave. Other lesser airship companies also operate out of Sellean, but mainly focus on specialty ships, or are subcontracted by the two larger companies.

Your situation sounds familiar.
Years ago, I was quite active in PbP. But once my daughter was born, it was just one of those luxuries that had to go on the back burner. It took me months of scrambling to get posts out to finally just realize I couldn’t do it.

Let’s end this game here. I’m actually quite pleased with what we were able to accomplish! I found Oril an interesting character, and the world we built feels unique and full of potential.

Please reach out if anything changes. I’m totally down to spin up a Microscope game or another one-on-one, or whatever you think you could manage. But that first year is intense, so brace yourself.

Thanks for understanding! And thanks for running the game. It was a great experience and I agree, I think we created a nice vignette. I hope I can come back to pbp rpgs in the future once I get into a new rhythm. I'd definitely be interested to game with you again.

Cheers