Preperation for Sessions

[vikingmonkey]

I was curious to hear some of the different ways in which GM's write out and/or prep for game sessions for Burning Wheel. I haven't started playing yet, (still working out the rules) but so far it seems like writing adventures in Burning Wheel would be very different than writing for something like D&D.

I guess what I am imagining is as opposed to scripted encounters i.e. if the PC's go left, run encounter A, if they go right run encounter B... something more like just a bunch of NPC's that could come into play if the PC's go poking in the right places.

Am I way off with this? I'd love to hear how others hash out their adventures.

[MetalBard]

Hey, check out the links under the Fevered Circle category in the Wiki:

http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Fevered_Circle

The "Starting a New Game" and "Runs with Bangs" should get you started. Essentially the key is to design NPCs and choices (see Bangs) that challenge the players' beliefs they've written down. Hopefully someone else can get more specific, but that's all I've ever done for a BW game. It's certainly way less prep-intensive than D&D.

[vikingmonkey]

Awesome! Thanks, I seemed to have missed that one. I think I'd have the same fears that donbaloo, coming from a D&D campaign that is organized and well written out, to "anything can happen" is scary. But it's ultimately the direction I want to go in.

I love, and I think my players will love, how Burning Wheel really pushes player empowerment. Like what Thor said in that post, I, as GM, am really just a player who knows just a little bit more than the other players. I love that!

[Thor]

On the other hand, vikingmonkey, it's definitely okay to introduce new ideas slowly. Both you and your players are learning a new game. Unless all of your are 100% into the idea of a new game and a different way of playing, take small steps.

You can totally prepare for Burning Wheel the same way you would a D&D game. We won't cry foul. :wink:

Just make sure to incorporate some events that will allow Beliefs to fire off. As all of you become more comfortable with Burning Wheel, you can start shifting the type of prep work you do. You'll start focusing on creating relationship maps for the NPCs and bangs as described in the threads Dro pointed you to.

And believe it or not, while it may sound scary to you, it will actually lift much of the burden from you as the GM. Your prep work will go from hours to 15 to 30 minutes.

[vikingmonkey]

Yeah I see what you're saying. I guess I should try to ease into it, my only concern with that was using my "old" style of prep work as a crutch to simply continue doing things the way they've always been done and never grow into the new way of doing things.

Thinking about who my players are, I imagine they'll appreciate easing into it rather than diving in head first.

[vikingmonkey]

On a semi-related topic, what are some suggestions as to get my players to go from reactionary to empowered? In other words, how to I get them involved in narrating the story rather than just waiting for me to push the story along?

[luke]

On a semi-related topic, what are some suggestions as to get my players to go from reactionary to empowered? In other words, how to I get them involved in narrating the story rather than just waiting for me to push the story along?

how did you set up your game?

[vikingmonkey]

Actually I haven't set anything up yet - haven't even dished out the rules or anything to them yet. I'm just trying to make sure I show/tell them how much more power they have in directing the flow of the story. Basically I'm trying to avoid a pindrop silence after asking "So, what are your characters doing?"

Maybe I'm coming at this the wrong way, maybe I need to apply the "ease into it" to this as well. Maybe start out by asking lots of questions when they want to do anything? Making sure they dish out plenty of detail?

[luke]

How many players do you have? What kind of a game have you agreed to play? How long are your sessions? How frequently do you play?

[vikingmonkey]

How many players do you have? What kind of a game have you agreed to play? How long are your sessions? How frequently do you play?

Oh man, I'm totally not following "The Fevered Circle" policy, sorry Luke! :oops: I hate being the rule-breaker!

Ok here's my set-up:

I have 5 players with a possible, but unlikely 6th (leaving town for school). We've been playing together for about 3 years now. So far we've been stuck with D&D exclusively, mostly your basic dungeon crawl, though our last session was about 50% actual roleplaying - they blew me away!

Anyway, we get together for about 4-5 hours every other Saturday. So far they only know a few minor details, but they're all open to try Burning Wheel, so essentially we don't have any kind of game going yet. I told our resident mage about the magic system and his eyes lit up like a little kid at christmas, it was a priceless moment. And all the others are totally gonna grab the Beliefs and run with them. But, yeah so far I haven't discussed what type of setting to play in with them. I've got a few ideas rattling around in my head, but I want to hear from them first before I offer my suggestions.

They're all fans of "Firefly" so I was thinking they'd get into something loosely based on that idea; a group of smugglers living in a corrupt city trying to incite a peasant uprising. But like I said, I wanna hear from them first.

[luke]

Step 1: Talk to your players. ;) Talk about the stuff you liked and didn't like in your last game. Ask them what they liked and what they wished was different. Tell them why the new system will support what they want. Brainstorm briefly for an overall campaign concept and then set a date for a character burning session.

-L

[vikingmonkey]

Step 1: Talk to your players. ;)

Right. Got it! I've made feeble attempts at that in the past, I think I need to have an array of questions (opinion questions, rather than yes or no questions) for them. I have a feeling they worry about hurting my feelings or something like that. I need to impress upon them that it's THEIR enjoyment too, not just mine. Anyway, will work on that - I promised them a few sessions of trying out In Nomine before we get into Burning Wheel, so it might be a bit, but once we get a concept and a character session under our belts I'll slap up the characters on the forum for advice.

Thanks!