I just got BW Revised over the weekend and I love it!

[MetalBard]

I've been able to read up through the BITs, so I haven't gotten to the point where I can burn a character, but I just wanted to say how refreshing and inspiring of an RPG system BW is so far.

I can see things like Let it Ride and the BITs making me a better GM. The underlying spirit of the rules is very well communicated, so I feel that reading and playing this game will improve my experiences with all role-playing games. Thanks for a great gaming system!

One question though, I haven't seen it anywhere (and I haven't finished reading the books yet), but what is the origin of the name, the Burning Wheel and what's its significance?

On a side note - I got copy #365, so I find my introduction to Burning Wheel quite auspicious.

[Thor]

Rock on MetalBard! Glad to have you here.

The Burning Wheel is another name for the Wheel of Fire, an incredibly powerful artifact in Luke's long-running campaign. I'm sure Pete (Kublai) could tell you more about it, as he's played in that campaign from the beginning.

The plan is to release a PDF called the Wheel Burner at some point, which will detail the elemental wheels used in that game.

Personally, as someone who has not played in that campaign and got into Burning Wheel long after it was named, I see it as a metaphor for the core philosophy of Burning Wheel: Story (and life for that matter) emerges from hard choices.

In many ways, the Burning Wheel is the wheel of fortune. When you choose to take a character for a ride on it, he will suffer burns and scars, but he will also be purified and tempered. On the other side, whether he's crushed by the wheel or rides it to the top, he'll have told a hell of a story.

[Yagathai]

<BGD>So imagine there's this wheel, OK, and it's turning in the void. And imagine that each spoke of this wheel is an edition of the game, and at an abstract point, let's say the top, the wheel is burning.

So each time the wheel advances by a spoke, going from older edition to newer edition, it burns a little bit more. And as the edition 'burns', and changes from newer to older, it loses a little bit more of what made it special. As the wheel turns, and the editions burn, they become less and less great, and more and more char and filth and dry, ashy garbage accumulates, and your hopes and ideas and the love of gaming that once came with a good game become dry and withered, until what was once a great game is nothing but burned-out dreams bitter, bitter ashes.</BGD>

Ahem. Welcome to the forums! :wink:

[Thor]

<BGD>So imagine there's this wheel, OK, and it's turning in the void. And imagine that each spoke of this wheel is an edition of the game, and at an abstract point, let's say the top, the wheel is burning.

So each time the wheel advances by a spoke, going from older edition to newer edition, it burns a little bit more. And as the edition 'burns', and changes from newer to older, it gets a little bit more special. As the wheel turns, and the editions burn, they become greater and greater, and more and more bright and pure; inspiration accumulates, and your hopes and ideas and the love of gaming that once came with a good game become renewed and invigorated, until what was once a great game is even greater, a pure, sublime experience.</BGD>


Hey ye olde Official Bitter Gravedigger. I fixed your post. :twisted:

[MetalBard]

I thought I saw a mention of a burning wheel artifact in one of those campaign threads. I've also seen it as a dream portent in a couple of fantasy series (I think both Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and Tad William's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn have similar images at points).

Regardless, it is a very evocative image that serves well in an imaginative fantasy role-playing game.

I've run a lot of Forgotten Realms (in various D&D editions), Mage: The Ascension, Mutants & Masterminds and many, many others. Lately, though, I decided to create my own world for gaming. I've been looking around for a good system to homebrew a setting that supports Tolkien, Le Guin and Leiber feels. I think I made the best choice possible. Later on this summer I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Monster Burner and digging in.

Yagathai, I think I like Thor's edits on your post better...

[Thor]

I've run a lot of Forgotten Realms (in various D&D editions), Mage: The Ascension, Mutants & Masterminds and many, many others. Lately, though, I decided to create my own world for gaming. I've been looking around for a good system to homebrew a setting that supports Tolkien, Le Guin and Leiber feels. I think I made the best choice possible. Later on this summer I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Monster Burner and digging in.

Excellent. Tolkien, LeGuin and Leiber are huge influences on Burning Wheel, clearly. 8)

Anyway, our recommendation for best results is to pitch your idea to the players and then build up the world and play areas around the characters and themes they get excited about.

It works fine for more "traditional" world design too, of course, but there's nothing quite the same as the player buy-in you get when they have a stake in the setting by virtue of the characters they create.

Either way you decide to go though, definitely keep us updated!


Yagathai, I think I like Thor's edits on your post better...

Don't worry about him. Being the Bitter Grave Digger is his job. No matter how much he likes Revised, he has to keep making comments about how much better the Classic version was, or he'll be fired. :lol:

[MetalBard]

I definitely love the player buy-in aspect of it. I was more looking at putting together a loosely created fantasy world based on what everyone in my group seems to enjoy fantasy-wise and then get the players to throw in what they specifically wanted to have in the campaign, both plot and setting-wise.

I'm hoping whole organizations, like churches and guilds will spring from a character-burning session. I really do want to see player buy-in, but I've just got to set the right tone at the character burning session. If my group throws me a curve-ball and they all want some sort of Dragonlance/Conan hybrid (first off the wall setting to come to my head), I'll definitely work with them on it. The game is always best when the players are excited about it and their characters' ambitions move the plot forward.

[Thor]

Cool. Sounds like you have things well in hand.