Actual Play!

Session two of our Burning Midnight Campaign was completed tonight.  Since session one was character burning, this was our first opportunity to actually play the game.  I can say that a few of our players entered the game with some trepidation regarding the complexity of the game, but everyone had a great time and agreed that the game plays better than it reads.  The complexity of the game lent itself to a feeling that anything and everything can be resolved using the rules.  What surprised me about the game is that combat never happened and we didn't care.  We mostly used social skills and we all still had fun.  I'm sure that many game systems can claim to be fun without combat in a session, but the truth is that most center and resolve around conflict.  Well, we had conflict and tension in our game, but still never drew steel nor engaged in any form of combat...and we loved it!  I would have to say that the game exceeded all my expectations and I can now see why people say that The Burning Wheel is their favorite game system.  After only one session I'm not quite ready to make that proclamation, but give me a few more and I can easily see sharing that belief.  The Burning Wheel may not be for everyone but I can honestly say now that it is for me.

A Letter Home....

Campaign Entry .9 (pre-campaign fiction)

Lady Tyra Dale,

My dearest mother, it shames me to admit that I have not yet mastered my letters enough to  be able to write this myself.  Good Legate Sivik has been kind enough to transcribe my letters to you.  I assure you that I work every day to better myself in this regard, as you commanded of me.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my arrival here in Cale for my fostering with Earl Redgard.  The Earl is a very stern man, but he is fair and he treats me and Arvidus well.  Speaking of Arvidus, he has been excused from most of his duties to the Earl and spends most of his time with Legate Sivik.  The Legate tells me that what Arvidus does is beyond my ability to comprehend and that I should not worry so much about him.  He says that Arvidus is special and that he has important things to do in the future.  I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but I respect the Legate, so I’ll take his word for it.  Arvidus himself doesn’t speak much about his duties with the Legate.  He seems very quiet and withdrawn since beginning these new duties and I often see burns on his clothing and his fingers are often blackened and raw.  I worry because he’s not the bright, cheerful friend that I had when we arrived.  His cheeks are sunken and his eyes are...I don’t know, hollow?  He was supposed to be training to be my right arm, my sworn sword.  Now he seems a shadow of himself.

(Note:  My Lady, I must interject a note on this matter.  Arvidus has taken up an apprenticeship with me and performs his duties admirably.  Earl Redgard has given his blessing to this arrangement and I assure you, the boy is in no danger.  He has been instructed, at this time, to keep his duties to himself.  He and I mean no disrespect to your son, the Prince.  We are merely following the dictates of the church and the commands of Earl Redgard. - Legate Sivik)

While I worry for Arvidus, you need not worry for me, Mother.  I grow stronger every day and my skills with sword and bow are unmatched among my peers here, even the Earl’s son, Rolli.  Rolli is big and strong and has a few years on me, but he is slow and, dare I say, stupid.  I best him easily at sword and bow.  This makes him angry and he often stings me with the flat of his blade when the swordmaster is not looking.  I say nothing, but I remember each blow and will have the last word, of that you can be sure.

I spend my time when not training and serving the Earl in the Keep’s rookery.  The Ravenmaster is teaching me the language of the birds and he says I have a keen mind for it and that the birds trust me.  I enjoy my time there, but I’m roundly mocked for it by the other pages and squires.  They have taken to calling me “The Raven Prince” behind my back.  They mean it as an insult, but I wear the title with pride.  The raven is solitary and strong and does not back down from larger foes...just like me.  They think to demean me, but they make me stronger with each jape.  The Earl has even taken to calling me “Raven Boy”.  He says it with a chuckle and means no disrespect, but everyone laughs when he says it.  Like the raven, though, I will remain strong.  I still have a few years here and I will emerge the stronger for all the hardships I endure.

There is one very bright spot.  The Earl has a daughter, as you know, Astra.  Cuyler is very lucky to be betrothed to her.  She is kind and smart and very, very beautiful.  We often ride into the countryside (escorted of course!) to hunt small game and catch fish from the rivers.  She will make Cuyler a wonderful wife and I must say that I envy him greatly.  She seems special, especially compared to her oaf of a brother.  I’m sure you will love her when you finally meet her.

I have to tell you, on one such outing with Astra we saw Elves!  They were at a distance, but they sat their horses with such ease and grace that they seemed creatures from the storybooks, such was their beauty.  They must have come down from the Veradeen.  Perhaps they were scouting?  I thought to find out so we attempted to approach, but they just waved and rode off.  Our mounts had no chance of catching them and our escorts were forbidding the pursuit anyway, so we could only watch them ride away.  I would very much like to meet and speak with an Elf one day.

Please give Father and Cuyler my regards and assure them that I prosper here in the House of Redgard, but I look forward to my return to Riismark.  

All my love, Calder.

• Legate Solomai Sivik, transcriber

Heart Attack!

Not much to say about this game.  I think my heart literally stopped a few times.  What a game!

Burning Wheel Super-Sized!

There has been some discussion about running Burning Wheel with a large group lately over on Google+.  My own GM, Brandon, has also expressed some anxiety at the idea of running BW with a group of 5 players.  Trying to keep track of all the beliefs that will be active in play, I can understand why he prefers 2-3 players in his BW game.  Well, we have 5 and I hope it works.  I've copied the advice of an obviously talented and experienced BW GM from Google+, +Dan Hall , who talks about making sure that the beliefs of each player in a large group compliment each other and work together to drive the narrative forward.  Here's his post:

Just to offer another point of view...I'm using a pre-written campaign and I have a regular group of 7-8 players, and so far, six sessions in, everyone keeps turning up and seem to be really enjoying Burning Wheel!!! None of us have played before. I have introduced Duel of Wits, Fight!, and Range and Cover and everyone is enjoying the game immensely.

I think it helps that we are playing The Darkening of Mirkwood campaign, which is written as a skeleton for major regional events and expects lots of player driven plots to occur in between those events. Also, because of that particular setting, there is lots of player buy in, so i think that is keep everything together somewhat.

As far as resolving the action, my players have been quick to take to the microsystems, but the Hub rules really seem to shine in a large group. I've had feedback that the resolution system is far more interesting than say pathfinder, because of Helping. Everyone around the table tends to get involved with each other's rolls and this makes it better for a large group than most trad games, where it's you and your roll and everyone else can only watch on. Honestly, I've been pleasantly surprised with how well the Hub handles a larger group, as I was really concerned before starting the campaign.

After about our forth session I realised that having disparate Beliefs was going to become a potential issue. I wrote some belief guidelines that we are now using and the players all seem to be on-board with the idea of keeping at least one Belief coherent with the group. I also encourage the players to talk about their Beliefs regularly, so that others can engage with similar or conflicting Beliefs.

Here's what I have written to help our large group coordinate Beliefs.

___________________________________________________

Beliefs
Beliefs drive your character and the game forward. Choose them carefully, but also change them any time you want. In fact, changing your Beliefs as the game goes on will be vital to progressing your character and the whole campaign. I will endeavour to run games that challenge your Beliefs; that's how Burning Wheel is supposed to work.

We will hold a formal "Question your Beliefs" session during the Fellowship Phase at the end of every game year, but feel free to change them whenever you want or whenever makes sense. If your Belief isn't seeing much action, it's probably a good time to change it.

Here's the general Beliefs guidelines for starting characters. It may be slightly different to what I've discussed previously with some of you. These new guidelines will work better for us, but if you already have Beliefs you are welcome to keep them if you wish.

Motivating Belief
What is my overarching driving purpose?
What elements of the setting am I interested in exploring?
What is my philosophy on life, and how do I live it every day?

Fellowship Belief
What ties me to The Fellowship?
What is my relationship to one, some, or all of the other characters?
What is my role within The Fellowship?

Goal
What is my short term goal (achievable within the next 1-3 sessions)?
What is my first active response to the current Situation?
If you don't know yet...leave this Belief blank until you find out more about The Situation. Write your Goal within the first hour of play if you can!

See Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits for more details and advice.

Aligning Beliefs
Your character’s Beliefs directly determine what sort of adventures you want to experience - for the GM’s job is to create narrative obstacles that get in the way of you fulfilling those Beliefs. From this, drama and story emerge. Hopefully, awesome fun times too.

This is the big picture of the Burning Wheel cycle. Beliefs + challenge = story.

You may notice how the game’s mechanics, particularly Artha and Advancement, support and propel the turning of this wheel. You get Artha by playing out your Beliefs. You spend Artha to advance your character. You advance your character so you can overcome bigger obstacles. And so the wheel turns...

So, it’s fairly clear, you need to challenge, drive forward with, and play out your Beliefs to improve your character over time. The GM is obliged to provide opportunities for you to do this. Beliefs are therefore much much more than queues that describe how we should roleplay our character; Beliefs literally drive the game forward.

The trick for us, in The Darkening of Mirkwood campaign, is that we have a very large cast of characters, and if everyone is to see some Artha each session then we need to make sure that most everyone’s  Beliefs are relevant each session.

So I ask you this: at the beginning of each session it is your job to look at your Beliefs and ask yourself “how do these Beliefs relate to the situation at hand?” “Why am I here?”, and “What am I going to do about it?”. If no answers come up, first consider slightly modifying a Belief to match the situation, or second, rewrite a Belief so that it becomes fully blown and relevant to what’s going on. Goal and Relationship Beliefs are ripe for this, so have a look at those first.

When changing your Beliefs, ask after other character’s Beliefs first, or announce it to the table so that others may work with (or against) you. Consider whether you can align with their Beliefs, creating a synergy. Or, consider whether your beliefs work at cross purposes with each other. Do not be afraid to do this! Doing so can lead to some great drama, and Burning Wheel handles this sort of thing really well (often with an inter party Duel of Wits).

Forge a pact. Make an oath. Promise revenge. Help a friend. Make your Beliefs conflicted. Don’t forget the Moldbreaker, Embodiment, and Goal rewards.

The other thing you should absolutely do is drive the game forward with your Beliefs. If there is something your character must do, then go and do it! Do it now! This is exactly what it means to drive the game forward with your Beliefs. We may end up resolving your Task with a single roll, or it may be the spark that motivates a whole session of play. The more other people’s Beliefs align with yours, the more chances are that this will indeed be the focus of a whole session.

In summary:

Challenge your Beliefs, but question where your Beliefs converge with others. Help, hinder, and mess with their story. Do this, and our campaign will most likely be awesome :)

Burn, baby Burn!

I've finally sat down and translated my Burning Wheel character, Prince Calder Dale, into a format that allows me to publish it here.  The character still needs to be approved by the GM and I'm sure I've made plenty of mistakes, but here it is anyway.  Opinions and advice are always welcome.

Edit:  The picture I chose in the wee hours of the night looks a lot like Jon Snow.  Oh well, It works for now.  Made some corrections to the character and changed some names to protect the innocent.

Here's a link to the PDF: Prince Calder Dale





             House Torbault                                                                    House Dale

Football Blues

It sucks when the Seahawks lose.  Not so much because they actually lost the game, that's going to happen.  What bothers me is that my expectations are SO high, that a loss like this hurts even more.  To add insult to injury, now the general NFL population is crowing that the Seahawks were "exposed".  Give me a break.  They played like shit, which is going to happen and the Chargers played great.  You have got to hand it to Philip Rivers.  He's a tough son of a bitch and their future HOF TE, Antonio Gates, is one of the best ever.  The Chargers won that game, no doubt about it.  But it's not the end of the world for Seahawks fans, as much as Seahawk haters would love it to be.

Prediction:  If the Broncos win next week in Seattle, which may happen, look for Broncos fans to scream that the Superbowl was a fluke and the Seahawks cheated.  I'll bet money on it.

Oh, extra salt on the wound...my fantasy team laid another giant egg.  Why do I even play?  I'm clearly not very good at it.

The Start of the Beginning, or something like that....

My Play by Post game, Blackpowder over Harn, has started again.  We had a false start, but we reset and grabbed some excellent new players.  This is my first PbP, so I'm on unsure footing, but the games is starting well and seems like it's going to be a lot of fun.  Read along if you like!

On a non-gaming front, my beloved Seattle Seahawks took care of business in week one.  Well done, Hawks!  My fantasy team, however, is currently laying a massive egg.  You can't win them all....