Lifepath question

[Matt Wilson]

Hey Luke:

Wilhelm "rafial" is talking about running a game of BW coming up in the rotation, so I've been trying out a couple lifepaths to see how things work.

I ran into a couple dead ends in the lifepaths regarding leads.

1) If I'm city-born, and then become an urchin, there's no lead back to city-dweller. Wouldn't it be a logical step to go from urchin to cutpurse?

2) There's no way to go from footsoldier to bandit. I thought maybe soldiers would desert and form bandit groups. Likewise with free company. Soldier lifepaths don't have outcast leads.

Maybe there's a medieval-world kind of explanation going on there that I'm just not familiar with? Or maybe it's a "quit twinking your character, powergamer!" kind of thing?

Naturally I can bend the rules all I want, and you can't stop me unless you fly out here (in which case you'll get invited to UGX night as a guest star), but I like knowin' what the designer is thinkin'.

Them's my questions. Let me know if they've been answered elsewhere.

[Luke]

the reasoning which you have encountered is my pessimism. The leads in Outcast are structured to force a character to hit rock bottom before he/she can find a way back up to the top.

The footsoldier to outcast lead is an oversight. Damn you, Matt Wilson! You and those meddling kids have ruined my good name!

Without tinkering too much, you could safely add Outcast to all of the Professional Soldier paths without blowing apart the medieval setting. (Gee, after ascending to Captain the king's army he decided to be a... MAD WIZARD! Um...)

I would allow the lead. If you want to stay within the scope of what's written (and not CHEAT!) you could stay in Citydweller and bounce around between Cutpurse, Criminal and Guard before jumping into the outcast setting and becoming a bandit/freecompanyman.


However, ASK YOUR GM. Don't go shootin over his head just cause you're on a first name basis with the game designer. Over there on the left coast, he's the law as far as I'm concerned.

I'm interested to hear what happens!
-L

[rafial]

As GM to be in this case, I'm quite open to a fudged lead here or there if it makes a good backstory.

[Luke]

As GM to be in this case, I'm quite open to a fudged lead here or there if it makes a good backstory.

that's the right attitude.

backstory, of course, being the operative word. can't have fudged leads without good backstory.

btw, watch that Wilson fella! he likes rules light systems and he's shifty!

-L

[Matt Wilson]

I got "Shifty" for free from the marketing-guy lifepath, along with "taste the latte" and "my feet hurt."

[Luke]

::wipes spray from fruit juice off computer screen ::
::casts furtively about office, hoping no one noticed::

um.
LOL!
(i am such a sucker for Burning Wheel humor).

I should post my character --yes, I recreated myself in BW.
I've got Frail from my Recluse Game Designer lp, Hand Crampies from Scribe, and I was born with a Melodramatic Family.

-L