Call the Weambulance, Your Character Might Die

[luke]

from this post: http://burningwheel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=173
This will only make the game even more deadlier, IMO. I think if you combine this with the new wound ideas, then there is no hope for a PC. The game becomes 1 day adventuring, 3 months recovering.

I hate this attitude. It's completely ridiculous!

The scary thing is, I encounter it all the time. People actually ask me, "If the system is so deadly, how do characters ever advance? Aren't players making up new characters every session?"

Let me retranslate that: "Oh my god, if a gun can kill someone in one shot, how is my character ever going to develop?" Oh no! What to do! I might die out there! If I get shot! Oh woe is me!

Gah!

In this system, above ALL OTHERS, this is the least relevant argument/criticism. You can actually THINK your way around these situations. You can actually not get hit. But even more than that, if you know that three guys tackling your character at the same time is probably going to bring him down, then you had better think before you take on three desperate opponents! Don't let it get that far. That goes for any game, not just this one.

"But combat is part of the game."
Yeah, and it should be a SCARY part of the game.

I've been running this game for quite some time and I've killed a number of PCs, but the game has never been so over the top that PCs were dropping so fast and so numerous that the players couldn't keep up.

grrr.

[Kublai]

I've been running this game for quite some time and I've killed a number of PCs, but the game has never been so over the top that PCs were dropping so fast and so numerous that the players couldn't keep up.


I don't think we ever would've made it half this far if we used all these new-fangled rules! :cry:

[eruditus]

I can't speak for the armor rules yet (which seemed to work just fine in Poisons Ambition - if not for my trusty troll scaliness I would have not survived half as long as I did) but I have been playing the ne wounding rules and I think they work much better conceptually and practically. Really, what wounds now do is take the "edge" off. It makes it harder to be spectacular. With multiple OB penalties, now that superb is a Mark, maybe even a Incidental. Instead of getting fewer successes you get fewer successes that COUNT.

And I completely agree with Abzu on the "isn't this too deadly?"

Combat IS too deadly. Also, with Artha and altered shading it becomes easy for PCs to survive. It just means you have to spend, spend, spend. In a game playing the new scout to the Knight Justicar, I spent through 3 Artha ignoring wound modifiers alone. It was what gave me a significant edge over my oppponent.

And, DAMN is a 6 Forte handy. I just could not get a handle on a PC (Dr. Willy in fact). A awesome knife fighter couldn't get more than nicks and cuts due to wound penalties and Wilhelm's superficial of B4. So the knife fighter cutted the horse instead :)

[Yagathai]

And, DAMN is a 6 Forte handy. I just could not get a handle on a PC (Dr. Willy in fact). A awesome knife fighter couldn't get more than nicks and cuts due to wound penalties and Wilhelm's superficial of B4. So the knife fighter cutted the horse instead :)

You owe me a horse, you bastard!

[Kublai]

You owe me a horse, you bastard!

LOL! :lol:

[eruditus]

I may think about rewarding you with a new horse when you deliver a new journal entry. Even written, and I can transcribe it... or you could just use my computer :)

[Lyarie]

I thought combat would be too deadly when I first started playing. Like any good gamer, I blame my GM for giving me that impression. Sure you can die easily if you don't think, but your GM should not be actively seeking to kill you. If he/she is, then that's not the fault of the system. I have played in 5 sessions, I think, and I haven't been hurt once. And my character is not a sidelines girl. She's always right in the thick of things. Wear armour, be smart, and always save a little artha to get you through those life or death moments.

And of course, if you think that life dangerous for an ordinary character, you should try being a fairy. One of the other players in my group is one. Instead of the normal wounds system (superficial, light, medium, severe, traumatic, mortal), she has stunned, broken, and squished. Her mortal wound is 5. My character does that much damage on an incidental hit.

[Drozdal]

Hello necromaner ;)

As for 3 months (or more) of downtime and recovery - i love those moments. Times like that allow everyone participating in the game to develop their characteres a bit - practice and learn new and existing skills, earn tests for stats, recover resources and earn some money...

[dsellars]

I started looking at this thinking "What new wounding rules?"...

...and then I saw the date on the first post!

[Lyarie]

Hello necromaner ;)

As for 3 months (or more) of downtime and recovery - i love those moments. Times like that allow everyone participating in the game to develop their characteres a bit - practice and learn new and existing skills, earn tests for stats, recover resources and earn some money...

Yeah, I love my downtime. And since, I'm an elf I don't have to worry about that pesky aging thing that I was always so concerned with when it came to other races in other RPG's. Of course, your GM might be going a bit over board when he's assigning downtime in 10 year slots. Sure the time is nice, but it's very interuptive plot-wise, and you start to get really old.

[Fourth Horseman]

If you prefer the dramatic tension of searching that one last dungeon to get that one last gold piece to "level up," over say, the drama of making that one extra success on your close so you can get on the inside of the motherfucker with the big clunky axe, so you can stab him in the face, cause if you don't, you will certainly die from even a grazing hit from his next great strike ... well, BW isn't the game for you.

On the same note, if you're the type who is used to picking every fight possible with your 20th level whatever ... you are not long for the world of BW.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Lyarie]

Horseman, are you perhaps a little bitter towards D&D and its ilk? A bit cynical maybe? I happen to enjoy both D&D and BW. There are pros and cons to each, and D&D can have the same level of tension and drama as BW if you play it right.

[Fourth Horseman]

A bit cynical maybe?

Ah, I like to call it "being negative." A cynic would be someone who exploits the lowest common denominator to make a buck and screw some groupies, like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ru6q-S0EWk

[mtiru]

Ah, I like to call it "being negative." A cynic would be someone who exploits the lowest common denominator to make a buck and screw some groupies, like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ru6q-S0EWk

Rich is the Bruckheimer of BWHQ! We should set up some interviews to promote the new game with the gaming press and see what happens.

That said, we have engaged in many many fights where no one dies or is gravely injured.