Burning Wheel functionality online and general discussion

[gabado]

Hi everyone, I've recently gotten quite into Burning Wheel. I unfortunately do not have a local gaming group willing to play something other than 5e dnd. I was wondering if anyone had an experience using this system in online play.

In reading the rules, it seems like the after-session advancement system would be the most difficult thing to implement into an online play by post format. Perhaps only advancing for artha, deeds, etc. at the end of a narrative arc could work. However, this seems like a significantly slowed down progression of the game.

I could see this working via discord/roll20/tabletop simulator, and I'd be interested in hearing if anyone's had experiences using it in that format.

General discussion about the system is welcome as well, what do you like about it, what works, what doesn't work? Having no one to play it with, I'm interested how it feels on the table and not just off the page.

[Koo Rehtorb]

I've played hundreds of sessions of Burning Wheel, ask me anything.

That said, I think play by post is a terrible format to hold basically any RPG in and think that it doesn't work at all. BUT, if you really want to give it a try, persona and deeds aren't a big problem. Award persona and deeds for goals and accomplishments as soon as they're completed, instead of at the end of the session. Fate is the tricky one, but you could maybe try awarding it every set number of pages instead?

[kebusmaximus]

My current burning wheel campaign is over discord. Unfortunately I have no experience with play by post. However, playing over discord is working out perfectly fine; we use a dice bot, have our BITs on a google doc shared with everyone, and still use physical character sheets.

[gabado]

I've played hundreds of sessions of Burning Wheel, ask me anything.

That said, I think play by post is a terrible format to hold basically any RPG in and think that it doesn't work at all. BUT, if you really want to give it a try, persona and deeds aren't a big problem. Award persona and deeds for goals and accomplishments as soon as they're completed, instead of at the end of the session. Fate is the tricky one, but you could maybe try awarding it every set number of pages instead?

That’s definitely a good idea for balancing progression. Yeah I agree that pbp is far less than ideal, but I’m in an any-port-in-a-storm situation. It’s been my experience that people generally lean further into the role playing aspect of rpgs in pbp games, so I thought that might gell well with burning wheel’s emphasis on heavy role playing and player involvement.

Looking at the combat, battle of wits, and range and cover rules, I could see things getting a bit crunchy when compared to dnd. What’s your experience been with the relative crunchiness of the rules and how easily do you find new players pick up the game?

My current burning wheel campaign is over discord. Unfortunately I have no experience with play by post. However, playing over discord is working out perfectly fine; we use a dice bot, have our BITs on a google doc shared with everyone, and still use physical character sheets.

That’s good to hear it works well on discoed, I’ve got some friends I might be able to cajole into giving it a go. Table top simulator might be a good environment for it so everyone can see the different dice pools in play.

[Koo Rehtorb]

That’s definitely a good idea for balancing progression. Yeah I agree that pbp is far less than ideal, but I’m in an any-port-in-a-storm situation. It’s been my experience that people generally lean further into the role playing aspect of rpgs in pbp games, so I thought that might gell well with burning wheel’s emphasis on heavy role playing and player involvement.

Looking at the combat, battle of wits, and range and cover rules, I could see things getting a bit crunchy when compared to dnd. What’s your experience been with the relative crunchiness of the rules and how easily do you find new players pick up the game?

The core game isn't especially hard. Remember to look up the difficulty of tests and log your advancements appropriately. People can pick up all the basic mechanics like obstacles, difficulty, FoRKs, etc pretty easily. The subsystems are a lot harder, but they're not really intended to be used more than once every like five sessions anyway. Save them for when they're a big deal. And try to do Duel of Wits a few times before getting into Fight! It comes up more, and it's the easier one.

[gabado]

That’s heartening to hear it’s fairly easy to pick up. I get a sense it’s more geared toward high numbers of characters and a more political/social game rather than the standard hack and stab loot-em-ups of dnd. How have you found the game experience generally to be? Where is the emphasis usually placed? (Looking for some grounded experience to pitch the game to friends)

Also have you ever exparemented with players controlling three or four characters spread over the world? The relationships and circles mechanica, while intended to burn npcs, seem like they could be leveraged to create a really epic feeling campaign where players get to control viniettes of loosely connected characters, rather than one A team of ghestalt baddaases.

[Koo Rehtorb]

That’s heartening to hear it’s fairly easy to pick up. I get a sense it’s more geared toward high numbers of characters and a more political/social game rather than the standard hack and stab loot-em-ups of dnd. How have you found the game experience generally to be? Where is the emphasis usually placed? (Looking for some grounded experience to pitch the game to friends)

It is political/social focused, yes. Which isn't to say there can't be periods of intense violence. Combat in BW is extremely dangerous and every time you get in a fight you're a couple good rolls away from dying or ending up in a multi-year coma. This is to make it clear that violence is serious business, and if you're ready to risk your life you'd better damn well believe strongly in the reasons you're doing it for. Fight! in particular is geared towards climactic rooftop duels against your nemesis that's been plaguing your family for decades.

Also have you ever exparemented with players controlling three or four characters spread over the world? The relationships and circles mechanica, while intended to burn npcs, seem like they could be leveraged to create a really epic feeling campaign where players get to control viniettes of loosely connected characters, rather than one A team of ghestalt baddaases.

I haven't tried, no. But I will point out there's nothing in BW that says the PCs all have to be in a "team" at all. It is entirely possible to play it with all the characters pursuing individual objectives that clash with each other and leads to them frequently butting heads.

[Knaight]

I haven't tried, no. But I will point out there's nothing in BW that says the PCs all have to be in a "team" at all. It is entirely possible to play it with all the characters pursuing individual objectives that clash with each other and leads to them frequently butting heads.

I'd lean far away from troupe play with BW - the system is made for very detailed characters and character focused gaming, which having multiple PCs per player dilutes. Character generation is also really long for a game about lots of characters all over the world.

[gabado]

I like the idea of PCs with competing interests. I guess the relative scarcity of combat and the fluidity of the tests and linked tests could lead to pretty engaging split storytelling, with various characters off doing their own things simultaneously and then meeting back up at key moments for some versus tests and maybe a climactic battle or two.

[kebusmaximus]

The most important point of burning wheel is that you (the player) must fight for what you (the character) believe in. Everything is about the PCs' beliefs. That is the structure of play---the DM presents a situation, the players wrote beliefs about it, then the DM challenges those beliefs. That's it.

Additionally, combat is dangerous and can put a character out of commission for multiple years as well as crippling them, but it isn't actually that lethal.