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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6114272" data-attributes="member: 42582">OK. I don't agree with this. [MENTION=386]LostSoul[/MENTION] has given a lengthy example from actual BW play.I'll try and give an example from a Rolemaster campaign I GMed. There were not formal Beliefs in that game, but there were informal flags playing some of the same roles. One of the PCs was a paladin, and the paladin's goal was to do justice under heaven. At first, this PC (as played by the player) took that to mean upholding the laws of heaven. But then he discovered that, due to heaven's refusal to challenge certain karmic pacts that had been made at the beginning of time, upholding the laws of heaven was going to bring suffering to many whom, in the PC's view, didn't deserve it, whatever the laws of karma might dictate. So the paladin (together with the other PCs, who had their own motivations) started contesting the will of heaven. He (and the other PCs) joined forces with an exiled god and a dead god who had been driven mad through suffering, and whose mad shards still manifested in the world from time to time, to achieve a result different from those dictated by the laws of karma - which included imprisoning one of the ancient lords of karma in the very place that had driven the dead god mad.So, in order to play a PC whos goal is to do justice under heaven, do we have to know in advance what would count as justice under heaven. I don't think so. It's a staple of film and literature, as well as (in my view) RPGing, that one cosequence of the pursuit of a goal or value can be coming to realise that what it demans is something different from what one thought at first.Luke Crane gives an example of this sort of thing in the Adventure Burner. From memory, it goes something like this: The Belief is "I I will liberate Dro of his burdens." At first, the player has the following in mind - Dro is not a nice person, doesn't deserve his goodies, and I'm going to steal them. Then, as part of this, the PC insinuates himself into Dro's confidences, and comes to know Dro. He's got troubles to. So may "I will liberate Dro of his burdens" comes to mean that I will help Dro deal with his troubles. But then, as the PC and Dro get closer, the PC learns that Dro's biggest burden, most troubling memory, is that he is the one who had the PC's family enslaved and killed, all those many years ago (in the realm of backstory). And now the interpretation of the Belief changes again - the burden from which the PC will liberate Dro is his guilt-ridden soul. So the PC's orientation towards Dro shifts from theft, to sympathetic support, to assassination.In other woards, what would make a Belief true I think is something that can evolve through play. And is expected to.</blockquote>

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