Rules and Things to Know

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Marullus
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Rules and Things to Know

#1 Post by Marullus »

I'll add notes and rules here as we develop them.

Please make a character sheet in the die roller. Campaign ID is 347.
You can store character information on the sheets or notes for your own use as desired, but we'll keep the main sheet copies in the forum. All rolls for the game should use the character/campaign for tracking and organization.

This is a Burning Wheel Campaign, exploring the beliefs and struggles of those who were uprooted from the Lonely Mountain by the arrival of Smaug. The game will begin in the aftermath of Smaug's arrival, as refugees cluster near the top of the Long Lake and begin to flee in different directions to salvage their lives. The game will be player-driven in its direction and goals, take inspiration on the rich lore of Tolkien's Middle Earth, and follow one group's journey to the new life they choose. Dwarves are highly encouraged, but Men of Dale or Elves of the Woodland Realm are possible.

All characters should be made with 4 lifepaths (4 LPs).

As part of your concept, I'd like to see the start of answers to three questions:
1) What is your core belief about the life you lived before Smaug?
2) What is your core belief about the current exodus and how you'll survive it?
3) What is your core belief about someone else in the group (either another proposed PC or an NPC you will purchase as a relationship)?

To go a step further, provide an action that each belief will drive you to pursue as game starts.

I expect the game to have a desired one-post-a-day rate, but will fluxuate based on reality.


Burning Wheel Tools
Video introduction to Burning Wheel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_uhLRAXngg

Good tool which provides the descriptions for the lifepaths, skills, and traits for exploring options:
http://janklabs.com/bwlp/
(Uses the original rule books, not revised)

Good generator to make actual sheets (enforcing points and spends) and produce them with bb code:
http://bwgoldburner.appspot.com/
(Uses the new Burning Wheel Gold rules)

The Burning Wheel Store:
https://www.burningwheel.com/store/inde ... -pdfs.html
They have free PDFS - these help give an intro to the game.
- Burning Wheel Gold: Hub and Spokes
- Burning Wheel Gold Play Sheet PDFs
- Adventure Burner Sample Chapter: Beliefs Commentary

For the lifepaths and other stuff, you can click over to the main store and buy the hardcover book for $25 plus shipping. For other help, please PM me.

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Marullus
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Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:41 am

Re: Rules and Things to Know

#2 Post by Marullus »

Character Creation

Each player character should be made with Four Lifepaths.

Resource Points:
Resource Points (rps) should be spent as if Smaug had not yet arrived.

- Calculate your Resources Exponent by totaling points spent on Reputations, Affiliations, and Carts and Baggage [not all property] and dividing by 15. For points spent on property which is now lost due to Smaug, you get 2D Cash for each 15 rps instead. This represents what you were able to escape with - please explain what it was you grabbed and why as this will be important flavor as you make hard decisions about selling your heirlooms to survive.

- Your full expenditure on Property and Relationships is still used for figuring the +1 Circles bonus.

Relationship with anyone named in Tolkien's works (Smaug, Thror, Thrain, Thranduil) is a 15pt relationship (adjustable if related or hateful, as normal). 10 point and 5 point relationships are explained normally.

All characters can begin with a Found Weapon they acquired during the escape.

Code: Select all

Weapon  Power     WS     Add      VA
Bed knob   1       1       2       -
Spike      1       2       2       -
Bottle     1       2       2       -
Mallet     2       1       2       -
Broom      1       2       2       -
Branch     2       2       2       -
Knife*     0       2       1       -
* This is a kitchen or utility knife not designed for combat; describe what you grabbed.

Delvers get:
  Pick     4       1       2       1

Starting Greed:
Since you all lived in Erebor and just had your possessions stolen by Smaug, the following elements should be assumed to apply and specifically justified if they do not for your dwarven characters:
- Has the character ever been in the presence of the master craftsmanship of the Dwarven Fathers? (+1 Greed)
- Has the character witnessed an outsider (i.e. Smaug) in possession of a work of Dwarven Art? (+1 Greed)
- Has the Dwarf ever had is prized treasure stolen from him? (+1 Greed, define the lost possession)

Apply "presence of the master craftsmanship of the Dwarven Fathers" a second time if you've been to the ruins of a First Age dwarfhome (Moria, Gundebad, the Blue Mountains), or handled artifact items.

Starting Wises:
Decide if you spent the majority of your years inside the Mountain or outside of it. You can add one of the following groups of wises to your class list. You get one of them for free and can pay to open the second.
Inside: Erebor-Wise, Stone-Wise
Outside: Fear of Mirkwood-Wise, Weather-Wise

Any character who's age is older than 170 years also gets Dragon-Wise opened for free, since you lived in the Gray Mountains during the dwarf/dragon war.
Last edited by Marullus on Fri Oct 09, 2015 3:36 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Marullus
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Re: Rules and Things to Know

#3 Post by Marullus »

Rules for Conduct

A few things to put out up-front.
  • We will be transparent to each other as players. Character sheets will be public in a thread. There will be no private sub-forums.
  • We will separate the actions of our characters from our knowledge as players. It is possible that something nefarious between players may arise. Both players will be witting of it and the Burning Wheel rules (likely Duel of Wits or Fight) provide resolution. It is expected that players will have their character act on the character's knowledge. Stakes for the conflict will be pre-agreed between players first, per normal BW processes.
  • This is shared storytelling. It is also a game with rules, dice, and fun exploration of unknown outcomes, but ultimately we are telling a fun story together about these main characters. I'll structure things to support this goal.

How Gameplay Will Work

Running Burning Wheel on a forum provides a few challenges that don't occur at a table where player conversation and sidebars are easier to have. I am proposing some initial structure to help this as we're moving forward. We may adjust based on how it works in practice. We'll have some stickied OOC threads to facilitate the needed OOC discussions, then I'll create IC threads as we go to contain the IC actions.

Scene Request Thread- This thread is where you as a player propose future scenes that you'd like to see play out. These are usually for multiple characters, but can be individual for your character or proposed for another's character (i.e. "Boy, I'd really like to see how Trombey handles THAT revelation with his wife!"). Proposed scenes should be be designated as Action, Color, or Interstitial. This is borrowing some of the scene economy concepts from the Burning Empires game and will help us to be clear to each other as players about the intention of a given scene. All Scene Request posts should be clearly related to at least one current Belief.
  • Action scenes are major events in the story. This is where beliefs will be challenged and resolved or refuted (ala Moldbreaker). They are the scenes that merit multiple tests or use of Fight! or Duel of Wits rules. It is a signal to the other players that it is something you want to be a focus of shared-play.
  • Interstitial scenes are minor events in the story. They are things that need to happen for the story to progress but which will likely resolve quickly. They are scenes that usually contain only one test. Examples include using Resources to get needed materials, Circling up a contact who is going to do something off-camera, handling some form of practice/activity while camping for the night which is important to only a single character.
  • Color scenes are opportunities to roleplay and interact between multiple PCs without it being a driving (i.e. test-driven) thing. Examples include things like, "I'd like Fred to sit down and talk to Donna tonight by the campfire about how scared she was during that encounter with the wights. He's worried about her, and it will give her a chance to expound on her past with her parent's transformation." Color scenes can evolve to include tests, but are explorational rather than directed.
IC Threads - This is where we'll actually play. I'll organize them in story format (i.e. "Chapter 1, Chapter 2") as we go, starting new threads as needed. I'll introduce new scenes as necessary, drawing from the requests made by the players as we collaborate on the story's direction. New scenes and opportunities will pop-up organically in play, particularly as consequences for failed rolls.

I'd like to keep OOC discussions in the IC threads to a minimum. There will, however, be an OOC portion to most posts. General format for a post:
  • Narrative and dialog of what a character is doing in the scene. (OOC note stating my intent and skill being used, along with what FoRKs I'm trying to add. All FoRKs and skills need to be justified in the IC action above.)
  • Other players add their Help to that character's action with a narrative and dialog post. (OOC note stating what skill you are offering as Help, and whether it is +1D or +2D.)
  • GM responds with narrative, NPC actions, and any relevant expansion on the scene details. (OOC note explaining hindrances, setting the obstacle, and the consequence of failure.)
  • Original player narrates the success or action up to the point of failure. (Player embeds the dice rolls, rolling all their own dice and the helping dice given to them. Rolls are made and tracked on a character and linked to the campaign. All dice should be rolled as [1d6] in order to show the sixes, making multiple rolls if necessary. Player spends artha if necessary, end result shows the success or failure.)
  • GM narrates for failure and consequences, if necessary.
  • Players all post roleplay/narrative until it arrives at the next test or the GM announces a transition to a new scene.
Burning Wheel handles one major action at a time, with all players supporting a single player with help, then moving to the next action. It is because of this that I'd like to have the Scene Requests as a separate thread, ensuring that we can balance between player actions and ensure "camera time" is shared appropriately, and happily, among all players/characters. Because the scenes are proposed, it should be clear to players what the main action, objective, and tests desired are in a scene and players can continue comfortably knowing their turn is next.

Kudos and Rewards Thread - React to what is happening IC here. Give each other compliments. Recommend each other for Artha awards. Provide links back to the specific posts if possible. (Right click on the individual post's title and choose "copy hyperlink.") We are a community of players as much as a game, and I want everyone to give and receive positive feedback.

OOC Chatter Thread- Any questions, comments, dillemas, or delusions? Any pending player absences? Talk about those things here amongst yourselves (as well as anything else you'd like.)

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Marullus
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 17900
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:41 am

Re: Rules and Things to Know

#4 Post by Marullus »

Starting Artha:

All characters will begin with Two Fate and Two Persona.

It is my intention to be liberal with Artha in this game. Make use of the Kudos and Awards thread.

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