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View Full Version : Tell me about the Burning Wheel system



Totally Guy
2009-07-07, 03:18 PM
I saw that Mouse Guard RPG won an award this week which I was told is a subset of the Burning Wheel rules.

Now I'd never heard of this system. So can anyone tell me all about it?

What can it do? Is it fun? What's the core mechanic all about?

erikun
2009-07-07, 08:15 PM
I can't say much about Burning Wheel, but I do have Mouse Patrol - and can describe that system.

The basic dice-rolling mechanism involves rolling a number of d6's equal to your skill level. 4-6 is a success, 1-3 is a failure. You need enough successes (depending on the difficulty of the task) to pass.

The core mechanic, though, is the way the game is setup. The GM presents a mission to the players (or the players find one on their own) and the GM assigns hazards to the mission. These are obstacles the party needs to overcome. Hazards are anything from weather to creatures to people becoming lost, or even betrayal.

In one example from the book: The party was trying to find a grain merchant who had gone missing, and who was possibly a spy selling secrets about the Guard. Two hazards are present; finding the merchant in the wilderness, and discovering if he was a spy.

Passing a check obviously means you succeed in whatever you were attempting. Failing a check also means you succeed, but a complication arises. Generally, it means that you've managed whatever you were trying, but either another hazard gets in your way, or you fall under a condition. Conditions include injured, hungry, and even things like angry - which do have game effects.

Again from the book: One of the characters decides to climb a tree and attempt to spot the missing merchant. On a failed roll, they manage to spot something - one overturned grain cart. The DM has added another hazard: a snake which has eaten the missing merchant. The players, of course, don't know about the snake yet...

One last noteworthy part of the Mouse Guard system: checks. Players may intentionally take penalities on their roles during the "action" of the mission to do additional things during the "downtime". Such things involve rolling to recover from conditions, meeting with contacts, acquiring new weapons, or whatever else you'd want to do.


For those who are only familiar with D&D, here's a few more big changes:
- Weapons only add +1D or +2D to rolls, if that.
- Combat is minor (compared to D&D) and potentially quite lethal.
- "Experience" is gained at the end of a session, and based on roleplay, not what was killed.
- Characters have Instincts and Goals, and gain "roleplay points" for following them.
- Characters have an Ability, called Nature, which can grant bonuses to rolls by spending the "roleplay points."


I too am interesting in hearing more about Burning Wheel, especially if anyone can compare it to the Mouse Guard RPG. I've seen it in the local game shop, but am not sure if I want to spend $25 on something I won't use. (Then again, that hasn't stopped me before...)

Knaight
2009-07-07, 08:42 PM
Burning Wheel is a lot less structured when it comes to how things work, but it is also a much heavier system. Its totally worth it though, just to see a lot of the brilliant ideas that didn't make it into Mouse Guard, as its intended to be a less complicated game, not simpler, certainly not less complex, but less complicated. Its a very good system, and a bargain compared to most.