TEXT: Blightburg situation creation reference
  SITUATION CREATION REFERENCE
  This is the players’ reference for situation creation. It lacks the GM advice and 
  guidance found in the book.
  STEP 0: BRIEFING (10MIN)
  Instructions
  1. The GM explains the game’s premise and objective
  2. The GM explains the basics of the setting and the baseline for the city
  3. The GM goes through the player and GM agendas
  4. We’ll now create the situation together. Some steps limit discussion, the 
  GM informs the group about the limitations. All steps require you to make 
  individual choices following your own sense of drama.
  STEP 1: RECENT PAST (15MIN)
  Instructions
  1. The GM highlights 1-3 interesting events from the Tragic Events list.
  2. Going around the table, the players do the same.
  3. Discuss and pick the most popular one. If the event offers two factions, pick 
  which one is relevant in your situation.
  4. Take a blank sheet of paper, write the event on the very top of it and 
  underline it.
  Tragic Events
  An unjust war initiated by our noble houses, barely won, but killing the wisest leaders 
  and heirs
  A plague, killing thousands, allegedly set loose by a terrorizing witch coven or a cult
  A famine, killing thousands, the only food supplies open to townsfolk controlled by 
  criminal gangs
  A mass migration, assisted by an ethnic community, leading to civil unrest
  A wild demon, driven off by a mercenary company or the city watch with unethical 
  tactics
  A witch panic, numerous innocents and heretics burned at the stake by the Church
  Religious or ethnic community cleansing done by the Inquisition
  A failed people’s uprising, suppressed with unnecessarily heavy use of force by the city 
  council
  An economic collapse, having something to do with a corrupted bank or guild
  A volcanic eruption, ruining people’s health, but leading to improved medical research 
  at the university, though only for the benefit of the rich
  
  Blightburg situation creation reference
  STEP 2: SIDES AND FACTIONS (15MIN)
  Instructions
  1. Adhere to the discussion rules in this step.
  2. Divide the blank area of the paper into three equal sections.
  3. Handpick the bolded faction related to the tragic event and place it on the 
  conflict web.
  4. Starting from the player sitting left from the GM, each person picks either 
  a faction or a descriptor for a faction, following their own sense of drama.
   » If you picked a faction, place it on one of the sides. One of the sides will 
  end up with two factions while the other two sides end up with one.
   » If you picked a descriptor, add it to a faction that doesn’t have one.
  5. Continue until there are four descriptor-faction pairs on the conflict web.
  Factions
  • A Cult
  • A Noble House
  • A Witch Coven
  • A Criminal Gang
  • The City Watch 
  • The Church
  • A Mercenary Company
  • An Ethnic Community
  • A Merchant/Craft Guild 
  • A Religious Community
  • A Bank
  • The City Council
  • The Inquisition
  • The University
  Descriptors
  • Wronged
  • Unlucky
  • Ruined
  • Desperate
  • Oppressed
  • Dominant
  • Envious
  • Indebted
  • Vengeful
  • Misguided
  • Zealous
  • Influential
  • Sinful
  • Two-faced
  • Murderous
  • Intolerant
  • Populistic
  • Self-righteous
  STEP 3: THE ALLIANCE (5MIN)
  Instructions
  1. Adhere to the discussion rules in this step.
  2. Continue from the next person. That person chooses a relationship for the 
  allied pair of factions
   » Draw a labeled arrow between the factions for the relationship, 
  indicating which faction initiated the alliance.
  Alliances
  • Has hired
  • Shares ideology with
  • Bribes
  • Shares goals with
  • Blackmails
  • Is bound by the leaders’ witchcraft to
  • Manipulates
  • Is bound by the leaders’ friendship to
  • Trades favors with
  • Is paying off its leader’s personal debt to
  • Shares ethnicity with
  • Shares religious beliefs with
  
  Blightburg situation creation reference
  STEP 4: FACTION GOALS (10MIN)
  Instructions
  1. Adhere to the discussion rules in this step.
  2. Continue from the next person. That person picks a faction that doesn’t 
  have a goal, chooses their goal and points it at another faction.
   » You can’t point more than two goals at one faction. 
   » Allied factions don’t need to point their goals at the same target. 
  3. Keep going until all factions have a goal.
  Goals
  • Exact revenge on
  • Sabotage an endeavour of
  • Gain dominance over
  • Take something valuable from
  • Collect a debt from
  • Enforce a deal struck with
  • Utterly destroy
  • Manipulate to change the course of
  • Purify the deviants of
  • Reveal the misconduct of
  STEP 5: SITUATION DETAILS (30MIN)
  Instructions
  1. Continue from the next person. That person picks a faction and asks the 
  first faction question from the next person.
  2. Once they’ve answered the question, they pick the next faction and ask the 
  current question from the next person.
   » Feel free to add notes on the conflict web along the way
  3. When the current question has been answered for all factions, move on 
  to the next question. Keep going until all the faction questions have been 
  answered for all factions.
  4. Then go through all the connections (the goals and the alliance) and ask the 
  corresponding question as you did with faction questions.
   » When going through the goals, make sure the whole situation can’t 
  resolve itself trivially. There’s a reason why this is the starting point of play. 
  If the conflicts are trivial, they should’ve already been resolved.
  Faction Questions
  • Why/how is the faction <its descriptor>?
   » For example, how is the noble house unlucky?
  • How large is the faction?
   » An adjective is enough at this point, no need for numbers.
  • Was this faction involved in the tragic event in any way? How?
  • How has the tragic event affected this faction’s current goal?
  Goal Question
  • Why does the faction want to achieve this goal?
  Alliance Question
  • Why do the allied factions need this alliance?
  
  Blightburg situation creation reference
  STEP 6: OPTIONAL DETAILS (15MIN)
  Instructions
  1. Decide whether you have time to answer the optional questions and skip 
  this step if you don’t.
  2. Stop taking turns now. Go through the optional questions one by one, but 
  this time let everyone answer the questions that they find interesting
   » If the group doesn’t have a strong opinion on something, leave it to the 
  GM and move on.
  3. When no one has anything to add or you’ve used up your 15 minutes, go to 
  the next step.
  Optional Questions
  • What do the townspeople call the factions? Name them.
  • What makes a faction unique, colorful or interesting?
  • What kinds of resources does a faction have access to?
  • What characters obviously belong to one of the factions?
  • What’s the history of a faction like?
  • What kinds of informal ties exist between the factions?
  STEP 7: FREE DISCUSSION (15MIN)
  Instructions
  1. Take a look at the situation you’ve created. Do you have a shared idea of 
  what’s happening? Does the situation make sense? Discuss.
  2. Add details if something critical is missing or change details if something 
  doesn’t make sense.
  3. Move on to the next step when everyone has a clear idea what the situation 
  is about.
  STEP 8: PLAYER CHARACTERS (30MIN PER PLAYER)
  Instructions
  1. Each player picks a faction they would like their character to be a part of. 
   » All player characters must belong to different factions in the beginning.
  2. It’s likely that the players have come up with character concepts by this 
  point, but if not, they need ideas now. 
   » If you need ideas, skim through the lifepath list in the character creation 
  reference and pick a lifepath that you fancy. This is your last lifepath, i.e. 
  the target lifepath for character creation. 
  3. The players should take their character creation references while the GM 
  follows the instructions in the character creation chapter. 
  4. Create the characters.
   » The GM facilitates character creation, asks provocative questions and 
  makes sure they’re tough and determined enough for this mess.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Blightburg (PbtA)/Sheets/Blightburg - Situation Creation Reference.pdf