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Gaerik
04-20-2006, 10:23 AM
I've finally gotten a few players together and we're going to try Burning Wheel out for the first time. The players are as follows:

Me - Been role-playing for almost 20 years and GMing the majority of that. Most of my experience has been with traditional games but here lately I've been expanding my horizons with Capes, FATE, the Pool, and now Burning Wheel. I've been following the Indie RPG scene for a few years now and I'm fairly familiar with the theory and stuff going on there. I also played a quick demo of Burning Wheel with Luke (and I think Ralph) at GenCon 2005, late at night at the Embassy Suites.

Ryan - I just met Ryan through FindPlay. He's very interested in Burning Wheel and owns all the books. Other than that, I don't know much yet.

Fred - A friend of many years. He's been playing D&D for a couple of years now. He liked Capes, which is pretty much the only other RPG he's played.

We're going to meet for the first session this weekend, which I envision as a setting creation and character burning session. I don't really plan on getting much actual play done as I want an opportunity to look over the characters and get some ideas for Bangs and such to use in the game before we start.

My trouble (or concern rather) is that I'm really unsure on where to start or what kinds of things I should bring to the table for this first meeting. How much of the setting should I have already prepared? Should we just make the setting up on the spot? What are the best parts of the system to start out with if no one has played before and which parts should I just leave to add in later? Are there any cool play aids that might be useful for us rank beginners?

I've read through a good number of posts here. Thor's advice on how to create Beliefs was very helpful. I'm definately keeping that in mind. I think someone indicated that setting the Concept and the BIT's before burning the rest of the character was a good idea. Is that the way most of you handle burning characters?

That's a lot to ask people here, I know. Sorry. Prepping for D&D is very familiar to me but getting ready for BW is a new thing and I'm trying not to forget anything important. I think we're all pretty stoked to play. So at least I have willing and excited players.

Kublai
04-20-2006, 10:39 AM
Before you play for real, set-up both a Duel of Wits and a Fight! using demo characters from either the pre-made adventures or the Wheel of Life forum. This is the best way for your players to understand the mechanics and which stats and skills will be most important to their character concepts.

Thor
04-20-2006, 10:49 AM
Before you play for real, set-up both a Duel of Wits and a Fight! using demo characters from either the pre-made adventures or the Wheel of Life forum. This is the best way for your players to understand the mechanics and which stats and skills will be most important to their character concepts.

The Sword (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Image:TheSword.zip) scenario is perfect for this, Andrew. I've got some additional suggestions but it will have to wait until I have a few minutes today.

Gaerik
04-20-2006, 11:45 AM
The Sword is the demo scenario that I played at GenCon 2005. It's definately a good choice and I'll print out everything and let the players go for it.

I've got a question about the Duel of Wits. I'm fairly certain that in the rules it states that the DoW is not mind control and that even if a character wins the duel, the character he was in conflict with is likely unconvinced but it is the audience that swayed to one argument or the other. How does this mesh with players using the DoW against each other to convince other characters in the party to do certain things or act certain ways. For example:

Let's say the Elf wins a DoW against the Dwarf (who has the sword) concerning the sword. Even if the Elf wins, the rules say that the Dwarf doesn't neccessarily agree with him but that the Elf's argument was better. Does the Dwarf have to hand the sword over or can he say, "Fine! You're mighty handy with words but I've got the sword and I ain't giving it to you. Pansy elf."

Yagathai
04-20-2006, 11:57 AM
Depends on the conditions the duelists set. If the players agree that the condition of the duel will be "If I win, you give me the sword", then I think the in-game effect of that would be that the dwarf is, indeed, convinced that the Elf has the better claim. If he doesn't want to risk that, either change the terms of the Duel or don't agree to duel at all.

Or, after losing, cut the Elf down. Remember, escalating the conflict to violence is always an option.

Drozdal
04-20-2006, 03:52 PM
Or, after losing, cut the Elf down. Remember, escalating the conflict to violence is always an option.But the real question behind escalating to violence is - Do you really want it that bad? :)

khelek
04-25-2006, 08:53 AM
Unstated but part of what the others said for DoW is that make the Stakes something you can deal with if you lose.

For the Sword it wold be unwise to set the stakes to: "If you win I will recognize the Dwarves/Elves have the rightful claim to the Sword"

After the DoW is over, one player is basicly out of the story, and has to either conceed or escalate.

better stakes might be: "If you win you may carry the sword to the city of Avalon which stands inbetween the Kingdoms of the Dwarves and Elves".

Now one player has an advantage, and a new conflict has been created.. what happens when we get to Avalon, maybe the Princes will be there, or their stewards (steal them from the Gift if your interested in playing this).

Anyways, good stakes should set up future conflict and both participents should be willing to accept a defeat (for now). Forcing very high stakes in DoW is a good way to create a Fight! scene though.

luke
04-25-2006, 09:36 AM
Excellent advice. One area that I've been exploring -- under the tutelage of Master Thor -- is designing your stakes for compromise.

We had a DoW between father and son. The father wanted his son to leave these bandits and come home. My gut reaction for my stakes was, "If I win, your son hates you." But I thought about it for moment. What kind of compromise am I going to get from that? In fact, wouldn't that kind of emotion be better incorporated into a compromise? I shifted my stakes to something simple, "I'm not coming down from this mountain. The bandits are the only protection we have." And I let the hate come out in play...

-L