All right. I hope not to offend Luke, here, but this is a post about my experience with Burning Wheel, and what happened after my group switched systems to my own fantasy game, The Legend of Yore.

To begin with, the group was formed in part due to an interest in Burning Wheel, and the party was built and the game proceeded quite well until we hit combat. Then things slowed way down, and several players began to rebel. Specifically, the problem was the scripted combat. Most of the folks at the table didn't like it. They liked the skills, advancement system, and the rest of the game, but the combat system did not sit well. Two players began to agitate for me to switch systems to my own game, and since all but one player wanted this (and the one player was hesitant merely because his character was going to lose effectiveness when we switched), I went ahead and did.

Our next session was one of the best we've had since I started the game. Everyone had a great time, and it was like a weight had been lifted off the group. Unfortunately, the one player resistant to change wasn't there that night, so I'm not sure how he will react to the switch.

Anyway, this is just an actual play example for me of the principle "System Does Matter." The main difference between The Legend of Yore and Burning Wheel is what I call rules transparency. After character creation, you really don't have to think about the rules much in The Legend of Yore. You occasionally make rolls, and it is fairly quick to resolve all sorts of issues (including combat, which we haven't done yet in the new game; I'll make another report once we do). This is really what the players want in our sessions, and now they seem to feel comfortable and able to relax and just play. I'm sure part of this is that we were all brand-new to the Burning Wheel rules when we started, me included, and I am super-familiar with the new rules, since I wrote them.

I'm not offended in the least, Brennan. But I gotta say, I don't quite think this pertains to System Does Matter. Having read LoY, I feel it's easily a match for BW in the crunch department. I really think this might be an issue of you and your group's simple comfortability with your own game over another less familar system.

The scripting system is one example where your group bumped heads with the system. Where else did the system switch appear to create more satisfying play?

-L

abzu wrote: I'm not offended in the least, Brennan. But I gotta say, I don't quite think this pertains to System Does Matter. Having read LoY, I feel it's easily a match for BW in the crunch department. I really think this might be an issue of you and your group's simple comfortability with your own game over another less familar system.

abzu wrote: The scripting system is one example where your group bumped heads with the system. Where else did the system switch appear to create more satisfying play?

inthisstyle wrote: The other issue is that two of the players are big fans of LoY's percentile system. Their argument there is that it is very intuitive for them to understand their abilities, and both had expressed some difficulty with the dice pool system you utilize. When we switched, one of these players said how relieved she was that she could understand what her skills were doing during play, I think related to the percentile system again.

Andrew Martin wrote: I've experienced similar feelings when transitioning to/from a percentile system. Then I noticed that what I was feeling was the gain/loss of protagonism for my character; with a percentile system I could more easily gauge whether or not my character would be likely to succeed in an action. With the aid of the modifiers section of the rules, I could tell what character actions would help me to have the character succeed instead of failing and flailing. Do you feel that this is what your players are feeling as well?