Use This Book

Burning Wheel Classic, Book1 of 2, page 230 there is an essay entitled Don't Use This Book.

No such essay in the revision.

I could ask Luke why that is but fuckit, I'll guess. Because we should use this book, its mechanics have been pushed to the limits in the revision. Suddenly, the mechanics for scripting can be used for a debate as well as swordplay, making a battle of wits and words as exciting as steel and blood.

The same pools of these little fuckin' d6's will allow a player to pull in NPC's from their character's history or buy a castle or summon a creature from the abyss.

It all came together here. It is all well worth using. Duel of Wits not only makes inter-party conflict fun, but it makes it interesting, drawing in the participation of everyone at the table. Those dreaded, tedious arguments that can eat five hours of game time are a thing of the past. Now it takes fifteen minutes and its as cool as combat as players throw dice at the debater they support.

Player 1: "We should attack the bad guy by doing X!"

Player 2: "We should attack the bad guy by doing Y!"

Player 1: "X!

Player 2: "Y!""

GM: "Duel of WITS!"

Burning Wheel Revised as made arguments exciting.

Use this book.

An old gaming buddy and I were looking through the book together, thinking about our favorite fantasy campaign. Every meaningful moment in the game happened despite the fact that we were using a hacked together version of Ars Magica.

I'm not knocking Ars Magica but it just wasn't built to do what we were doing. It often felt like there wasn't a game that truly was. It was like parallel parking a formula one race car. It worked, but it worked despite the system.

Suddenly, this game has all of the pieces of fantasy that we love and its all incorporated, all a part of the game.

And the setting here, its vanilla. Its what people expect in a role-playing game. Its also great, the best take on Tolkien-inspired Elves, Dwarves and Orcs ever. And the humans, the humans and the combat are pure George R.R. Martin.

This isn't even Under a Serpent Sun, a thermonuclear bomb of a setting, or what the hell else is lurking in Burning Wheel's future.

Eventually someone's going to take the positioning rules and make space dog-fights and a series of Space Opera life-paths, using the Monster Burner to make alien races right out of your favorite canteena or twist emotional attributes for use as spice addiction.

Eventually, someone's going to get out Perdido Street Station or the Elric Saga or Howard and begin writing life paths.

Eventually, someone's going to look at Grief, Hatred and Greed and realize that that mechanic can be used for any emotion at all, as long as there is a swift and brutal mechanic for reaching 10.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, I am going to take these books and just play. I'll enjoy playing through the good ole familiar fantasy trips. I am going to get my copy of the books good and dog-eared, have myself some fun. But once that's done I'll begin making a mess, taking out the Monster Burner, rolling up my sleeves and fiddling under the hood.

That'll be fun too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go use this book.

[x-posted, BW Forum, RPG.net and The Forge]