The Gaming Den

Recently got this as a gift from friend, had the Burning Wheel main book and the character book. Read both! Seems pretty cool. Combat seems like it can be a bit slow and clunky if you get too involved with it, but it also seems nice for a dramatic one on one battle.

My main gripe? Humans getting Faith as their emotional attribute. Hell, emotional attributes in general, kind of sort of. But Faith? Really? I don't see why humans can get blessings from their gods any easier than anybody else who has a god.

Tone of book is pretty nifty, I like the lack of a hard prescribed setting in the main books, and I also like a game that basically tells the MC and the players to not be retards or assholes. They shouldn't need to be told, but that's just kind of nice that it calls people out on common stupid stuff.

Anyway, so what's the general opinion?

I've only played a little Burning Wheel. I've tried to GM twice, both times the games collapsed like a flan in a cubboard. I also played in a game run by a more experienced player which was fun until he got a job and didn't have time to game. Overall I'd say it was a fun game, but at times frustrating.

The most important recommendation I'd make is to read the ancillary information on Beliefs, Instincts and Traits on their forums. They are really the most important part of the game and are explained pretty poorly in the main rulebooks. (I've heard the newest book, the Adventure Burner has a lot of this info too.) In fact, I'd say one of BW's biggest weaknesses is in explaining how the BITs are used to create the story.

D&D is more fun when the players and their characters have goals and motivations but BW requires it. If you're thinking of GMing and your potential players prefer to be passive or reactive it's going to be disappointing (This is what killed my games).

Mechanically the system seems to be set up so that characters are as likely to fail their rolls as succeed (One session I played my character failed every roll I made). The GM is supposed to use failed rolls to extend the story rather than halt it; for example I failed my roll to find some contacts who could guide my character to the bandit camp, instead of just being out of luck I found contacts who led us to the camp, but betrayed us. While it's nice that a failed lockpicking (or whatever) roll doesn't stop things dead, it still sucks to be constantly hosed by the dice.

The advancement is heavy on the bookkeeping and also encourages the player to attempt rolls that are unlikely, or even impossible to succeed on so that they can advance their skills.

Combat is fun and involves no small amount of player skill which some people like and some people are pissed off by. It does work best for duels. The social combat is pretty great.

Regarding Faith, only a small group of humans have it (I thin it's less common than sorcery if you go by the number of llifepaths that have it on their list) whereas all Orcs have Hate, Elves/Grief and Dwarves/Greed. Also the Monster Burner has Rat people who can have priests with Faith.

The GM is supposed to use failed rolls to extend the story rather than halt it; for example I failed my roll to find some contacts who could guide my character to the bandit camp, instead of just being out of luck I found contacts who led us to the camp, but betrayed us.

I hate Burning Wheel, but this is a really cool idea. Never thought of it like this before.

ETortoise wrote:The advancement is heavy on the bookkeeping and also encourages the player to attempt rolls that are unlikely, or even impossible to succeed on so that they can advance their skills.

This was my biggest complaint about the game, though I've only done a read-through. The simultaneous action mechanics is something I've loved ever since Broadsides and Boarding Parties and Street Fighter.

Mkay, was curious. Even if it does look like it's mechanically frustrating [though it does seem soundish], I probably am going to in the very least mine a lot of the ideas. There's something to be said for how it tries to run everything in a way to create an interesting story.

Thanks for share wonderful idea!!!

Burning Wheel is the "declare 5 actions at once" system right?

WHat's combat like with that.