[Burning Wheel] One-shot with ole gaming buddies

[Judd]

I ran a BW game with two friends who have been doing nothing but d20 gaming recently.  I can't count the number of times one of them said, "Thanks, Judd, thanks for running something other than d20, its nice to have a change."

I wrote up a city in some e-mails with a buddy of mine, in a kind of collaborative effort, years ago and hoped to run him as a native son of the city, a pirate ship's captain.  Pete ended up running Marsui in his d20 game back home but he was cool about leaving his ideas of the place behind and yet acting as a friendly local.

The city ended up as a kind of cross between Lankhmar, olden N'awlins and Perdido Street Station's New Crobuzon.  

Finally getting to walk through the streets with Pete was nice.

PC's BIT's later but for now they were a pirate and a renegade scholar with mad historical theories on the founding of Marsui turned forger.  Character creation was fast and smooth thanks to Luke's character creation worksheet PDF from the burning wheel site.

I felt like I finally ran a truly successful scripted combat.  Both participants really took to the combat system and dug it, considering using it for other systems.  

The quiet moment of scripting the exchange really built the drama.  A fun time had by all.

I wrote out a couple of bangs on a scrap piece of paper after character creation while one of the players played Bard's Tale and another took a post-dinner nap.  I weaved two of 'em together and that was pretty much the entire adventure.  The other 5 or so bangs were left behind.

[Bill Cook]

Isn't it funny how Bangs are like primer:)

[Luke]

so what happen?! At least give me a little kernel of actual play goodness.

please?

-L

[Stigg]

As one of the players, I have to say that the whole experience rocked.  Paka did a kick-ass job of keeping the storyline flowing.  

It is amazing what can be accomplished with a good "storytelling" system.  Kudos to Luke!

As to what happened?  Well, I don't want to steal Paka's thunder.  Suffice it to say that when pyramid anchors outside of your harbor you know it isn't going to be a typical day.

;)

[Stigg]

I should also mention that I'm the Pete listed above.

[Judd]

Captain Remuis Gaunt played by Pete

Beliefs

The God of Luck watches over me.

My crew is my family.

Quick wit and quick steel will see me through.

Instincts

Talk before a fight.

Always go the least expensive route.

Stab sorcerers in the throat.

Traits

Charismatic, Quick-Witted, Sea Legs, Practical


Benedict Montague aka Benny Quill played by Witt

Beliefs

The past holds the key to the future.

Knowledge is worth any price.

I'll prove father's theories wrong.

Instincts

Always examine all of the facts.

Be a man of action.

Always check runes and read them thoroughly.

Traits

Blank Stare, Cursed, Insomniac


Looking at their traits, I ENTIRELY forgot about Witt's cursed trait.  Shit.

The game kicked off with the Forger meeting with the Pirate to forge a false ship's manifest.  One of the crew spotted, through the mist, a pyramid beyond the harbor.

Naturally, they investigated, as a matter of fact, the Forger said he'd make the forgery a freebee if they took him there and back.  Done.

The wound up taking the pyramid's envoy to the queen so that the undead pharoah within could claim status as an unliving refugee (a part of Marsui's backstory is that it allows all beings to apply for refugee status).


Pete found out that his god, the god of luck, walked the streets of Marsui and was being hunted by a group of godkillers, out to grab god's power for themselves.  He smuggled out a decoy and the god-killers fired two crossbow bolts at them, and Remy jumped in front of the shots himself, taking both bolts without armor.

Ouch.

Witt's scholar dragged Remy to a nearby alley while the other guards pursued the crossbow-men.  Luckily, Remy's God was nearby and healed him up with a kiss upon the wounds.

The only real combat of the game was when Captain Remy realized they were being followed and Benny made a Streetwise roll to know of a little cul-de sac alley where they could easily ambush their tail.

It was two against one and he continually tried to get inside one of them but they consistently fended him off.  Pete pulled off a beautiful feint but the guy was wearing chainmail and they had trouble doing damage to him.

In the end they did some called shots to get around the chain and took out his eye with such a shot.  Then they woke him up and interrogated him, then took him to the queen.

There were a few scenes in the senate that were PERFECT for a Duel of Wits and I'm pissed at myself for passing that up.  Those rules rock and I would have liked to shown them to the guys.

I'll track down my list of bangs and outline the adventure a bit more later.

[/b]

[Judd]

One more note about this game.  I didn't fudge die rolls.

I rolled right in front of the PC's, for good or ill.

This is a fairly new approach for me.  It has been brought on by Sorcerer, Riddle of Steel and Burning Wheel.  I can recall playing RPG's in the past and only rolling in front of everyone when the situation was particularly dire, like a duel and such.  

There were times when Pete knew things his character did not and I just trusted him to role-play properly, however I feel this kind of approach allows him to put his character in a good place to learn the secret.

[Stigg]

Just to add a little bit from the gamers end on this particular game:

I really loved BW as a system, it allowed myself and Witt to really explore our characters.  I went places with Remy that I didn't think I would, but once in character I realized that the actions would not be out of character.

Case in point:  Remy and Benedict face off with nameless godkiller.  Our more effective attacks are repelled by the armor.  Remy goes for an eye shot and succeeds.  This takes the fight out of the bad guy who drops his blade.  Remy kicks the blade away and asks the godkiller a question.  Godkiller gives Remy lip and Remy sticks his thumb into the open eye socket.  Godkiller passes out, so Remy drags him over to an area where gargoyles on the buildings are draining out rain from the rooftops.  Once awakened, the godkiller is questioned again and then dragged before the Queen and the Admiral's Senate (the ruling bodies of Marsui).

Now, I didn't know that Remy had the whole thumb-in-eye-socket thing in him.  But, considering he'd taken two bolts for his "patron" and that these events were taking place in his home city, Remy wasn't going to give into chivalry.  When the shit hit the fan, Remy got tough and stayed tough.  Judd omitted the fact that Remy is the one who swung the axe that lopped off the godkiller's head in a public execution.  Wasn't Remy aware that this would make him a target of the godkillers?  Yes, and he was willing to take that chance.  Didn't that seem a little extreme for a freebooter, smuggler, and corsair to do such a thing when one of his belief was to talk first then fight?  At first glance, yes.  Then when I thought about it I realized that Remy doesn't cotton to strangers working a deicide racket on his home turf.  Remy also has a secret and abiding love for the Queen, so he's willing to take chances he normally wouldn't.  Mind you, Remy had sent his ship: the Fairwind's Gull, out of the harbor and on a run without him so that both his crew and his ship would be safe if any major league shit came down.

Anyway, I think I'd change one of Remy's instincts to "do anything for Queen Monille" to round out the character better.

-Pete

[taepoong]

Changing your BITs during the game is a big part of the system and is encouraged. It happened to me last night! I played a character whose first Belief is "The wizards who cursed me must be hunted down and killed!" But, after our party wizard betrayed my character's trust, that Belief changed to read "ALL wizards must be hunted down and killed!"

Life's experiences can change a man.

[Stigg]

I hadn't realized that one could do this changing. I'm still very new to the system.

I can see where experiences in game will evolve a character's BITs.  Especially if a misunderstanding or skewed viewpoint causes a character to react in a way that the player hadn't anticipated.

I need to play more of this system! Oh yes, I do!