Burning Wheel: System Discussion

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Marullus
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Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#1 Post by Marullus »

Burning Wheel is a new type of system, different from what many folks are used to. This thread will be for questions and discussions on the system and mechanics, as well as "tips and tricks."
Marullus wrote: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.
Last edited by Marullus on Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:53 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#2 Post by Marullus »

Enoch wrote:One of the cool things about skills in Burning Wheel are wises (listed as Dwarf-wise, Hold-wise, etc.). These are basically your knowledge skills, and they're not limited to the wises shown in the lifepaths--you can have a wise about literally anything (I doubt the GM will allow GM-wise, but something like dragon-wise would probably be acceptable, or Men of Dale-wise for a dwarven trader).

Wises are very different from knowledge skills in most systems in that they aren't limited to being useful ways for the GM to dump info on us, or for us to say "OK, I'm going to roll this--what do I know?" Wises are powerful tools for shaping the campaign, because we use them to introduce facts into the fiction. For example, if we spot Smaug passing overhead and the GM asks what we do, I might say "hey, dragons hunt their prey based on motion, right? I have Dragon-wise." He'll let me test to see if that's accurate, and if so we'll probably get a big advantage to, say, a Stealth roll to avoid being spotted--or he may simply say "sure, stay still and he won't spot you." And from that point forward, in our campaign dragons have a hard time spotting anything sitting still.
Marullus wrote:That's a good place to start! Also, a good place to talk about beliefs. I like making beliefs in two parts: a) an overarching credo, and b) what it drives you to do in an actionable sense (near term and achievable in 1-2 game sessions).

For example, I like the belief from your post: "Smaug is the hand of fate."
Depending on how you are thinking of Fate, this could have a few meanings. 1) If fate equates to justice, it would mean you believe that those suffering under Smaug deserve it somehow. 2) If fate is amoral immutability (it isn't good or bad, it just is predetermined), then you'd drive to fatalism in the face of it, perhaps trying to convince others not to oppose that which can't be changed.

You would then add a second part based on what that belief drives him to do.
"Smaug is the hand of fate. I will find him and beg his forgiveness."
"Smaug is the hand of fate, summoned by my cousin the King's greed. I will resist all evidence of Greed in myself."
"Smaug is the hand of fate and our king deserved to be brought low. I will seek the truth of the Grey Mountains Dwarfhold to know why this King has fled from dragons more than once."
"Smaug is the hand of fate and is unstoppable. I will convince my companions to travel to X, far from here."
I must embrace the dwarven way of life again.
What does it mean to embrace the "dwarven life"? If combined with a Smaug-belief, do you mean the current ways (which drew a dragon) or some call to "old ways" which are somehow more righteous? (i.e. if this is a return to conservatism, how conservative?) You can make your core belief here a little tighter, then add your action statement.
"I must embrace the dwarven way of life again. I will prevent Y from taking the Scrolls of Thrain from me before I've learned them." (Where Y is now an NPC who opposes your decadence.)
"I must embrace the dwarven way of life again. I will prove to Y that I have changed by doing ABC."
"I must embrace the dwarven way of life again. I will enter Moria to learn the ways of the First Dwarves."

You also see something important in a Belief statement - it can introduce facts into the fiction, too. In the above beliefs, you established that: a) there are Scrolls of Thrain which say something about how dwarves should live, b) You rescued the Scrolls of Thrain and currently possess them, c) There is an NPC Y who desires the scrolls / doesn't think you are worthy of them and who will try to take them from you. This is totally kosher! Burning Wheel is a player-driven game, and you are signalling to the GM what sort of things you expect in the sessions ahead. I then weave a story to help bring these together meaningfully across all the PCs. If there is a Big Bad that needs to appear in your story, then he is either a) bought with a relationship by a PC, or b) appears in someone's beliefs. Otherwise, the Big Bad is unlikely to appear. Smaug might be a background fixture. He may not appear in our story at all, unless someone makes a Belief about him or buys a relationship to signal Smaug's interest.

Why does any of this matter?
The reward system in Burning Wheel is not XP; it is called "Artha." You earn points by working towards your beliefs/goals, achieving your beliefs/goals, or struggling with and changing your beliefs/goals. These points then are used to achieve success in the game, advance your character's skill, etc.
I think this should be about a person who was very important to Farvick before his exile. Any volunteers? I'd prefer a PC to an NPC...
If Enoch is proposing a chronicler/historian, that could dovetail nicely.
Keehnelf wrote:Really all you need to know to understand how to play is Hub and Spokes (the starter PDF); the other systems add lots of crunch but don't later the utility or relevance of anything you learn earlier. I'd also note that the non-mechanical bits are just as important as the mechanical parts of the rule book where learning how to play is concerned, because they systematically reinforce the unusual assumptions BW makes compared with other RPGs. Don't skip around to the "rules sections" or it will continue to be intimidating and confusing. The only parts really able to be skipped wholesale are the life paths, traits and skills lists (until you need them in character burning).

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Re: Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#3 Post by Enoch »

Skills

When creating your character, you'll gain skill points for each lifepath. These skill points are divided into two pools: a General pool, which can be used for any skill (these points are generally only granted by your first lifepath) and lifepath skill points, which must be used for skills listed on your lifepaths.

For example, the Ardent lifepath grants 4 points and the lifepath skills Sing, Soothing Platitudes, Accounting, and Whispered Secrets-wise.

You must spend at least one point on the first skill listed in a lifepath. When you spend a point on a skill you don't have yet, it gets opened at a level equal to half the stat it's based off of (rounded down). For example, the Command skill is based on Will. If you have a Will of B4, the first point spent in it gives you a Command skill of B2. Each additional point spent in the skill increases its value by 1 (starting max is 6).

Points spent on lifepath skills can come from either the General or Lifepath pools. Any other skill can only be taken from the General pool.

Skills advance in play through use--the more you use a skill the more it will advance. In addition, you'll have to challenge yourself--simply doing easy, routine tasks over and over won't get you very far.
Shadrach, Demon-Hunter - Dust to Dust

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Re: Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#4 Post by Marullus »

Marullus wrote: Skills:
If you have Dwarven Magic skills on your list - They cost two points to open, but only one point to advance after that, like any other skill. These skills are woven into the fabric of dwarfiness, allowing dwarves supernatural success with them. All 6's automatically count as a success and then reroll for a chance at an additional success. (Normally this costs a fate point per roll.)

Depending how you allocate your Stat points, your skills are likely to open at 2 or 3; this is the appropriate level for a skill you are learning or which isn't your character's focus. (Often these are good for FoRKs - they add +1D when your roll is for a different skill but you relate this skill in the narrative. Like adding Illuminations as a +1D when rolling Dwarven Script or Obscure-Text-Wise.) A skill of 4 is considered Competent. A skill of 5 changes the rules - at this level, you give +2D when offering it to help another character instead of +1D, and routine tests no longer count for its advancement (everything for advancement must be difficult and heroically done). A skill of 6 is the maximum for a starting character.
Marullus wrote: Instincts:
Instincts are well-described in the book for game terms. What are the hard-wired life lessons which drive him and are emblematic for how he acts?

They have two mechanical purposes:
* Insurance and off-camera action. "Always draw my sword at the first sign of trouble" or "Always forage the roadside as I travel" are examples. They are committing an instinct as a limited resource to ensure that your character can and will act in a certain way.
* Causing problems for you, which earns you a Fate point. If triggering your instinct causes you complications in the current scene, the GM can offer you a Fate point to do so.
* They can bend the rules. Always drawing a sword, for example, essentially gives a free action. I've seen a Village Idiot with the instinct "Always blurt an ugly truth when confronted" allowing a free Incite action at the beginning of Duel of Wits. A military leader with the Command skill might have "Always rally my men when confronting fear" allowing use of the skill to reduce the hesitation of everyone in their group.

The best instincts can do both. They use the example in the book of "Always draw my sword at the first sign of trouble." Hey, that's great, they automatically start with their preferred weapon in-hand when combat initiates and won't get caught having to use an action to draw it. However, when they are pleading their case to the King in his court and their nemesis walks in... do they instinctively draw and face him, causing a faux pas? That's worth a fate point. For someone with a Husband lifepath, perhaps you made the decision to have young, rambunctious children. "Always keep an eye on my son, Rumbert." You won't get surprised by the GM with "oh no, he was kidnapped by the villain!" But the primary role of small children is to interrupt and make doing productive things more difficult. This trait could frequently work against you, earning fate points as you take Obstacle penalties for your child being in the way.

They should be emblematic of your character. As an example, a situation came up in another game on this site which would have worked well in Burning Wheel. I had a hobbit with an instinct, "Never engage in business before breakfast." It is therefore standard roleplay that she cooks and describes a meal before the group sets out each morning. The GM introduced some strangers who came to her house before dawn (presumably a new plothook). She offered them to come in and wait an hour or two and she'd feed them before discussing their business and they insisted it be done under cover of dark, before the dawn. She chose not to yield, and accepted unknown consequences but earning a fate point.

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Re: Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#5 Post by Marullus »

Cash vs Resources
Just to help with the definition. Your permanent Resources attribute (i.e. Resources B3, if you had a 1D Reputation, 2D affiliation, and 1 carts and baggage) is a permanent amount of wealth, credit, and favors that you can try to use (i.e. roll the dice) to acquire goods. You can roll it every time (with rules for reducing it on failure). Cash works the same way, but a die of Cash only can be used once. So, if you divide up your 10D Cash over several small transactions, you can "rebuild your wealth" by advancing your permanent Resources attribute.

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Re: Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#6 Post by Marullus »

General Actions for a Scene
  • Freeform roleplay. Just play your character IC in the setting, developing him and interacting with other PCs, until there is a consequential action.
  • Roll Circles. Need to find a specific person or type of person to achieve your goal? You roll your Circles attribute for this. It is modified by Reputation dice and Affiliation dice as well as by other factors. Success means that you find the specified type of individual and he's favorably disposed to your request. Failure means one of those two conditions are not true.
  • Roll a Wise. Wises and knowledge skills generally let you define "what is true" - the roll must be consequential, i.e. that failing and having it not be true has a significant impact. Success lets you frame facts about the gameworld and/or specify favorable conditions to help you in a future test or conflict.
  • Roll a skill. Taking an action as your character, pretty self explanatory. A key rule for Burning Wheel, though, is "Let it Ride." You only roll once and that result stands for all tests you'd undertake until the conditions significantly change.
How a Test Works
  • You request a test, specifying your objective (what you want to achieve by it) and how you will try to achieve it (including the skill to roll).
  • I tell you the obstacle (I.e. number of successes required) and the consequence of failure.
  • You then decide your FoRKs, add in offered help by other PCs, write a narrative that takes it all into account, and roll dice, posting the results with the narrative.
  • You should make a blank character record in the dice roller attached to this game's ID (game 347) so the rolls are all captured. Roll a number of [1d6] needed because the number on each die often matters. I think you can only roll five dice at a time, so do (and thus log) multiple rollls to account for the right dice.
  • If you beat the Obstacle, you narrate your success. If you lost, then I narrate your failure.
Marullus wrote:
FantasyChic wrote:Also we get to roll multiple dice? How come?
Yes. First, go to the die roller in the upper right corner of this page.
Log in, then make a character named "Ilreth" attached to game 347.
Then, go to the Roll the Dice link and you can roll dice, picking Ilreth from the drop-down, and they'll attach to the campaign.

You COULD roll them all at once. (Black shade succeed on a 4 or better. Grey shade succeed on a 3 or better.)
Burning Wheel Dice Test [4d6s4] = 3
On that roll, using [4d6s4] or 4 Dice, 6 Sides, 4 or better for success, I got 3 successes.

BUT, after you roll, you have the option to spend a Fate point. If you rolled 6 on any one die, you can keep that success and re-roll the die to try for an additional success. If you do not roll the dice individually, you do not know if any were 6's.
Burning Wheel Dice Test [1d6] = 2 [1d6] = 6 [1d6] = 2 [1d6] = 3
So, on this roll, I rolled 4 dice. I for one success, but it was a 6. So, I could spend a Fate point if I wanted to reroll that one die and try for more successes.

What are FoRKs?

FoRKs are Fields of Related Knowledge.

They don't apply in this case because Power is a Stat (and skills don't add help to stats). I'll use a different example.
Bow is a skill for you. You have G4 Bow Skill.
For each other skill you work into your narrative, you can get +1D for it on the roll. As long as it is plausibly worked into your narrative in your post, I'll allow it because this encourages you to write more, write creatively, and be well-rounded in your character.
So, in our example, you write about how she uses her superior knowledge of bows to adjust her shot in a specific way (+1D from Bow-Wise as a FoRK) and her innate understanding of the forest around her also helps her in a specific way (+1D from Forest-wise as a FoRK). She is now rolling six dice instead of four. Better chance of success! That's how FoRKs work.

As a different example, take Gilkas son of Gimkas, and put him in a situation where he's going to use his B5 Oratory to convince someone of something. Depending how he spins his tale, he could work in any number of his other knowledges - Obscure Text-wise, Ancient History, Oath-wise, Rumor-wise, Clan History, Chronology of Kings, Hold-wise, or Erebor-wise. In that case, being a long-winded smart-guy has its advantages. He has a lot of facts to draw on in making his argumentation.

It is not always wise to do this, however. Leaning on your other areas of expertise makes you more likely to succeed, but with such crutches, less likely to advance the skill in question. Advancing requires Difficult and Challenging tests (i.e. tests where passing the obstacle is a real challenge with the number of dice rolled). That's a whole other topic, though.

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Re: Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#7 Post by Marullus »

Calculating your Starting Greed

In play, the Greed emotional attribute is used by the player to acquire.,
create or retain wealth, power or beauty. When it is invoked, that which
it was used in favor of cannot be willingly relinquished.


First, House Rules.
Marullus wrote: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.
Start with B3 greed as a baseline unless you justify why you DO NOT have the above applying to you.

Add another +1 if you saw the other homes/ruins. (Looks like it applies to Niping and Favrick.)

Second, the Book Questions.
  • + 1 Greed if Will exponent is 4 or lower.
  • + 1 Greed for every 60 resource points.
  • + 1 Greed for each of the following lifepaths: Trader, Mask-Bearer, Master of Arches, Master of Forges, Master Engraver, Treasurer, Quartermaster, Seneschal or Prince.
  • + 1 Greed if the Dwarf has coveted something owned by another.
  • Has the Dwarf ever stolen something he coveted? If so, + 1 Greed.
  • Has the Dwarf ever had his prized treasure stolen from him? + 1 Greed. (Besides Smaug)
  • Has the character ever been in the presence of the master craftsmanship of the Dwarven Fathers? If so, + 1 Greed.(Handled under house rules above.)
  • Has the character witnessed an outsider (Elf, Man, Ore, Roden, etc.) in possession of a work of Dwarven Art? If so, + 1 Greed.
  • Is the Dwarf over 200 years old? If so, +1 Greed.
  • Is the Dwarf over 400 years old? If so, +2 Greed.
  • Relationships: Each romantic relationship is -1 Greed. Each hateful relationship is + 1 Greed. A hateful immediate family member is +2 Greed.
Third, decide Shade.

If your number is high (i.e. six or more), you can shift the shade from Black to Gray by subtracting five. So, a B6 becomes a G1. This represents that your greed has less control over you, but is more potent when it exerts itself. Greed can be added to certain rolls when in the throes of greed. If your Greed ever reaches 10, however, your character is consumed by it and becomes an NPC.

If your starting greed is greater than 10, you MUST shade shift from Black to Gray. You can then choose if you want to shade shift from Gray to White by subtracting another 5 points.

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Re: Burning Wheel: System Discussion

#8 Post by Marullus »

Greed

Greed is the emotional attribute of Dwarves. It is important to read the whole section in the book (pp 121-124 in the Burning Wheel Gold book), but I'll put a summary here to help.

Encountering something Greed-Inspiring

Each dwarf character is vulnerable to three of the four idioms: Riches, Physical Beauty, Craftsmanship, or Power.

When presented with something in an affected category...
  • GM calls for you to roll your Steel attribute for self-control. Your Steel dice must succeed against an obstacle of your Greed Exponent or your Hesitation, whichever is higher. If you have a Belief or Oath that contradicts the situation, you can subtract one from the obstacle.
  • If you pass, you are fine.
  • If you fail, you choose "Stand and Drool" or "I Must Have It!" as reactions.
  • If you choose "Stand and Drool" that is what you do. Roleplay wise, "the object of the failed test becomes the focus of his attention-always lingering somewhere in the back of his mind, nagging at him."
  • If you choose "I Must Have It!" then "This new reaction allows the character go for it: He must attempt to purchase, steal, barter or kill for the object, person, place or idea in question.
  • Record advancement: Any time a steel test is rolled for this, it counts as a Routine test. Every time you choose "I Must Have It!" you record another Routine test.
Rolling your Resources...

Greed impacts all attempts to spend your money.
  • If Greed exponent is lower than your Resources exponent, then FoRK your Greed into the resources test. (+1D, if Greed is 7+ then +2D)
  • If Greed exponent is higher than your resources, then add a +1 Ob penalty. You can't part with the little you have.
Making, Acquiring, or Retaining Greedy Things

"A single persona point can be spent to tap the burning fires of Greed. It can be spent on any test where the character is creating, acquiring or attempting to retain a thing of beauty/wealth/power/craftsmanship. Doing so allows the player to add any amount of dice from his Greed exponent to an ability test. For purposes of advancement for the augmented ability., the dice act like a persona point spent on a test."

Then, advance your Greed.

"Any time dice are added from Greed to another ability., it counts as a test for Greed. Compare the dice added to your current Greed exponent. The dice used count as the obstacle of the Greed test for advancement."

When it gets too much...

Once Greed advances to 10, your character goes mad with his desire and becomes an NPC.

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