[Burning Wheel] Burning and Dragons, Part 1

[Matt Wilson]

Game two of my crazy gaming spree is part one of a probably multi-session game of Burning Wheel that Thor has adapted from a couple Paizo D&D modules.

It's Thor, me, John S, Dro and Mayuran. The characters are all pre-gens 'burned up' by Thor.If you're curious, you can check them out here: Tamlin, an orphaned wizard, played by Dro. Kyra, Paladin of the Goddess of Valor, played by me. Ardhion the Starbrow, elven ranger struck with wanderlust, played by Mayuran, and Kota Fan, a monk who wanders the earth, played by John.

One thing that has often had me wary of BW is the potential relationship between the importance of clever rules application and the persistent berating imps in the game text. It has always made me wonder: is the GM really going to be that much of an asshole if I don't do everything perfect? It creates a weird sort of challenging vibe that doesn't match with the message of beliefs and artha and such.

Play so far has not been like that. Generally the issue of rules application involves table chatter and the sharing of ideas, with even Thor as GM providing some hints. That goes as well for the adjudication of artha rewards. Again, the BW text constantly warns against abusive and disruptive players, but the process in action was much more like a group discussion with GM as a benevolent buck-stopper. Everyone chimed in, and Thor seemed like a kind of coach or theater director, saying things like, "next time I'd want a little more of that for the same reward." It's prompting and encouraging rather than fist shaking.

So, on to the play itself: D&D translates into BW with cool results. As Thor said after play, the stuff we did would probably have been five minutes of play leading up to the first fight. We spent a lot of time in a healer's shop talking to townspeople and researching a strange affliction that the poorer townspeople were suffering from. I think the most important thing for a GM to do in a game like this is to shape the consequences of failure into something new and interesting. It's what Jared talks about in his games: not allowing the locked door to halt the adventure. Thor did a good job of that, I think.

Even moreso was a fun application of player resources: one way to spend Persona points is to turn failure into a problematic success. When John did that in play, it triggered a significant scene where we needed to get out of town quietly. It prompted Dro's character to conjure some excellent sorcery, and it required my rather ostentatious paladin to do some unsavory skulking in her shiny white armor.

This time around playing BW I have a real appreciation of the tightness of the rules. There's a lot of careful work involved here, some painstaking craft in getting things to work correctly. There's a wealth of information on my sheet that provides cool story prompts and comfortable constraints.

If you compare BW and Primetime Adventures, you'll probably guess that BW is not quite at my gaming sweet spot in terms of data and rules and information, and you would be correct. Still, I really enjoy playing and admire the work that Luke and Thor and the others have done to create it. I'm very much looking forward to next week.

Coming up next: Carry and Primitive!