Endorsed Published Settings for BW

[luke]

I get asked a lot about settings for BW. My main answer is: There are so many fantastic settings for fantasy games out there, why would I want to do a half-assed job when folks could just as well use one of them.

So here's a list of settings that I endorse for Burning Wheel. Pick up these sourcebooks if you can find them and let them inspire you to play. None of them would require much tweaking at all to make them work in BW. (Of course all of them will get a lot grittier once you make the port!)

Middle Earth Roleplaying Game supplements.
ICE lost the license, but these books are still available on Ebay and other back channel sources. (hence no link.) They are detailed, well-illustrated and have incredibly good cartography. One definitely doesn't have to reenact the Lord of the Rings to enjoy them.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
http://www.hogshead.demon.co.uk/WarhammerFRPindex.htm
Dark, gritty, expansive and fun. Traditionally detailed campaigns and supplements. Usually very good maps, too!

Harn
http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/allharnitems.cfg
Deeply detailed setting for medieval European fantasy setting. Exhaustive!

Gemini
This is a swedish game, produced by Cell Entertainment, and now out of print. It's dark, dark, dark fantasy -- look at all that black ink in the illustrations! But it is a little "black and white" as written; Light vs Dark and all that. Cell produced two books for it -- the core book and a supplement. Both are worth checking out for inspirational purposes.

Riddle of Steel
http://www.theriddleofsteel.net/
Jake Norwood armed the Riddle of Steel with a nice, evocative setting. Not nearly as exhaustive as MERP or Harn, it still provides a nice guide and inspiration for playing in a medieval fantasy world.



Those are my top five picks for European, medieval, dark fantasy. Feel free to add your own choices. More than anything, I recommend that you pick and choose what inspires you and build your own setting. All you really need to play BW is a set of characters and an idea. Prices and politics can all come later.

-Luke

[solvent75]

Good choices

But all leaning towards the darker age low magic setting. Have to admit that both Harn and Warhammer. which over here in the UK is (or was) supported by Games Workshop are favourites of mine. But what about the more fantastic settings??

For several years my game was based in the Forgotten Realms - an excellent setting but only after stripping back on the magic and 'high fantasy, which i suppose was the very thing that made it fantastic!

The Talislanta setting also was 'out there' compared to the likes of Harn but still vaguely familiar once you got over the exotic characters.

Any chance of a BW/Talislanta conversion?? :shock:

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[luke]

you know, i've never played Talislanta. But for out-there settings, I'd love to do a BW/Jorune conversion! Now Jorune (http://www.jorune.org/big.html) was funky.

-L

ps (gritty dark fantasy is the only way for me...but wait 'til you see how BW handles "high fantasy." can you say "cities destroyed in one fell blow?" i can.)

[solvent75]

:D cant wait



------------------------------down with D20--------------------------------------

[skinnydwarf]

you know, i've never played Talislanta. But for out-there settings, I'd love to do a BW/Jorune conversion! Now Jorune (http://www.jorune.org/big.html) was funky.

-L

ps (gritty dark fantasy is the only way for me...but wait 'til you see how BW handles "high fantasy." can you say "cities destroyed in one fell blow?" i can.)

Oh man, Jorune, what a great world that was. My first RPG. I had hopes that my ma' would buy me the AD&D 2e PHB as a present, but she got me Jorune instead. I wasn't disappointed. It was a couple years before I got a game going, but it was great! I'll have to dig up my old books, read through them again...

[Paka]

I'd suggest Midnight, d20 setting by Fantasy Flight Games. It is a solid Tolkien-inspired setting, very much, Lord of the Rings if Sauron won.

I'm running it with the Riddle of Steel but if I had found BW first it might've been BW. I suggested this game over at the Midnight boards, www.againsttheshadow.org too.

Fun world, well put together and I think BW would be a decent match for it.

[Berlichtingen]

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
http://www.hogshead.demon.co.uk/WarhammerFRPindex.htm
Dark, gritty, expansive and fun. Traditionally detailed campaigns and supplements. Usually very good maps, too!
I am seriously thinking of using this setting. Always liked the setting, but the game itself was so weak. I'm thinking of using the base mechanics for Grief to deal with the influence of Chaos. Other than that, a few Lifepath changes, BW should work fine as is

[skandall]

Honestly, I'm not really all that keen on fantasy settings. That was until I played a game called Agone. About the only thing about it I don't like is that it's from France, otherwise it's quite an interesting setting. The races are unique, not the same old blah types you see from D&D. No, the races are: Sprite, Spriggan, Satyr, Ogre, Minotaur, Giant, Dwarf, Medusa, Black Fey, and Human. There's a lot of detail about each race too. The book gives a history of the world since it was created. It discusses each province and some of the Domains within those provinces. The provinces each have a distinct feel. Another thing I really liked was the fact that PCs are considered to be in the prime of their lives, that is they have reached positions of great status; Barons, Captain of the Guard, High Courtesan, Master Blacksmith, or even just very well known mercenaries. Part of game play can include the management of your own Domain.

What really drew me to the setting was the Magic systems. These are like no other game I know. There are two main branches: Dancers and Art. Dancers do involve dancing, but not so much on the PCs part but rather on the small magical creature called Dancers. The PC mage coaxes the creature to dance a certain way and this can produce a magical effect. Amongst the Dancer Mages there are three main groups each with a different attitude toward Dancers (tree hugging peaceful types that love their Dancers, sneaky thieves who are ambivalent towards their dancers willing to ditch them for another that knows more interesting spells, or the darker art of Torture where the Dancers are physically or psychologically tortured to force them into producing magical effects. Then there's the other and completely different type of Magic, Art. With art a mage uses a particular medium to produce effects. Art mages paint, make music, sculpt, or write poetry. Each produces it's own unique effects (my favorite being the ancient painters who could create picture worlds that you could visit, think of the video game Myst and the linking books to other worlds).

I could go on for hours about the setting, it's quite nice and the book is just flat out beautiful. Sadly they only got out the main book, two expansions, a drama, and the GM screen here in the US (apparently there's a ton of Agone books in French). Do check it out as it is a fantastic setting and one that I think would fit nicely into the rules of BW (not that the Agone rules are bad mind you).

[Eric Minton]

Hi there!

Personally, I think it would be very interesting to adapt Roger Zelazny's Amber setting to Burning Wheel. Yes, the power level would be significantly higher than usual, with Amberites potentially possessing Gray and White skills with hundreds of years' worth of lifepaths, but BW combat really fits Amber better than just about anything I can think of (which definitely includes the Amber Diceless RPG).

- Eric