Running my first BW game...

[BWA]

After 4-5 months of lackluster gaming (and much evangelizing from me), my regular group has decided to switch from D&D to BW. Woot!

But now I'm nervous, because I've been pushing BW as the solution to our gaming woes, and everyone decided pretty suddenly to change gears, so the first BW session is on Wednesday, and I want everyone to grok the system and have a good time.

We have five players (plus myself), most of whom have some D&D experience, and some of whom are new to role-playing. Only two of us have gamed regularly for most of our lives. I'm probably the only one who's played much aside from D&D.

My plan is to run the Sword, so everyone can see the Fight and DoW rules in action, and then have a campaign-burning / character-burning session (possibly using our currrent d20 campaign setting, if thats what everyone wants).

There's lots of good advice on the forums about starting a new game, and about running the Sword, so I guess I am just looking for any specific advice about someone in a similar situation.

Also, I found several treads about a fifth character for the Sword, but I didn't see any AP stuff with a solid recommendation.

[Glendower]

My plan is to run the Sword, so everyone can see the Fight and DoW rules in action, and then have a campaign-burning / character-burning session (possibly using our currrent d20 campaign setting, if thats what everyone wants).

The Sword is gold. Go with it, and I recommend the fifth character be the holy man with faith, because seeing faith in action is kinda neat! He's kicking around in the forum somewhere.

As for campaign burning, I would suggest you do a few things. First of all, do not use your current d20 setting.

There's a few reasons for this. If you've been using D20 in a specific setting, then when they see that setting, you'll bump into D20 thinking. This means people thinking in terms of levels and base attack bonuses and miniatures and attacks of opportunity.

You need to cut away from this thinking, and to do that I recommend a new setting. This new setting is free of the D20 association, and will serve to make it feel like a different game.

Secondly, if you want to create a new setting, then make sure the players are involved. There's a few ways to do this. In the Frozen Vise (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Frozen_Vise), I used the game Universalis (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/ramshead/) to have everyone sitting at the table create some campaign facts.

I used to use a neat method to add some player content to the game world in my D20 days. I'd write the name of a town or village or kingdom or nation at the top of a sheet, and each person at the table (including the GM) would write one person, landmark or current event pertaining to it. The stuff written on the sheet were then facts added to the world.

Now, Burning Wheel doesn't even need this. Get the players to use their Character's Wises to author any fact in the game world they want. City-Wise to create stuff like pubs, circuses, merchants with dubious inventory, Forest-Wise to create hunting lodges or the Tree of Serenity, Noble-Wise for Lady Arlington's favorite flower.

Stress that a successful wise test gives them amazing GM powers. When they ask if something's in a city, make them do a wise test. If they don't have the wise, then beginner's luck the test!

I recommend also adding restrictions to character building. Seriously, the more restrictions, the more focused the campaign, and the better mesh of characters you'll have in the game.

For example, if you're going for a court intrigue, Require Born Noble from everyone. If it's a "swords for hire" game, then Soldier Lifepaths are needed. If you want Peasant Heroes, then restrict to Peasant lifepaths. Don't say "play whatever you want", because you'll get an unfocused mish mash of lifepaths, and it won't work that well.

Establish the situation first. Take a look at The Sword for inspiration here. The situation is the Sword. Everyone wants it, who gets it? The beliefs have to be tied tightly tightly to the situation in the game.

Again, the Frozen Vise I required everyone to want to do something about the approaching Wall of Glacier death. that was a restriction to their beliefs that made the game possible.

And I deeply regret having my players burn characters with any lifepath they wanted, it would have run a lot more smothly had I restricted things down. And to be honest, it would have really helped the character creation go smoother had I cut away the lifepaths that the situation didn't care about. There's a lot of options there in the character creation to tell a lot of stories. Cut it down for the story being created at the table.

Restrictions are key. Incredibly key. Discuss what the game is about, cut out any options that lead away from that base concept, and then burn characters that relate directly to the core concept.

[elmago79]

Yep, go for The Sword first. I recently used a holy man as a fifth character (http://burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4817); it worked pretty cool!

Since I was in a similar situation than you, I can give you three pieces of advice:

*Don't try to get all the rules right the first time around. Even if you forget something or make a bad call, the system is so robust that it will self correct.

*If you're using Fight! stick with the basic martial options; loose positioning and stances and everything else. Use the scripting sheets for every extended conflict.

*For the D&D players, the hardest part of the BW thing is going to be to become proactive players instead of reactive ones. Be sure to talk about BITs beforehand. And award Artha the moment it is gained, in spite of what The Sword says!

*Oh, and don't forget Steel checks. They're pretty cool and represent the biggest change between a hack and slash fest and BW.

About campaign burning, I'd go with Luke's questions (http://burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4236).

Good luck, and don't forget to post here about it. :)

[luke]

Good advice. Take it slow and enlist your players' help in learning the game. Don't let them dump the responsibility on your shoulders. They've got to learn the game, too. To facilitate this, try to "convert" one player. Just one. If you can get just one other player in the group to commit and learn the mechanics, the rest of the group will most likely come over.

-L

[BWA]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will use the holy man as our fifth character, and I think the advice about dropping some of the more advanced combat options at first is a good one. Also, the campaign burning questions are good. I am now armed with a printout.*

The only piece of advice I think I might disagree with to some extent is the idea of NOT using our current campaign world. It was collaboratively created (standard grim D&D northern frontier city, with the twist that elves are the antagonists, in their role as Roman conqueror types), and my experience has been that a shared-creation worlds are good, because everyone knows the basics (ie - the news that General Arturus has been overthrown is more meaningful if everyone at the table knows and cares who the hell General Arturus is).

I'll certainly post an AP somewhere if it's worthwhile.

* Having just gotten my copy of 'Blossoms', I am also tempted to use the campaign-burner models, but pulling out a third book, with yamabushi no less, might murk up the waters.

[BWA]

To facilitate this, try to "convert" one player. Just one. If you can get just one other player in the group to commit and learn the mechanics, the rest of the group will most likely come over.

Mission accomplished. Just got back from NYC, and one of my players had me pick him up a copy of both the Character Burner and main rules (from Compleat Strategist). Which is good because a) it shows a real committment to learning the game. and b) six players and one set of rulebooks is lame-o.

[Yokiboy]

Hey BWA, I'd recommend that you stick with Jon's advice about dropping the d20 setting, at least until you're all comfortable with The Burning Wheel rules. The reason is that it's so easy to forget that you're playing BW, and stick with your D&D instincts if all the trappings remain the same. I've done this mistake myself in the past, and the campaign crashed and burned, because all of a sudden you couldn't fight 20 goblins on your own (that and many other things), like you could in D&D.

Jon, that was the second outstanding post I've read from you today. Great job, I'm stealing a lot of your ideas for my next game.

TTFN,

Yoki

[glitchpop]

That stuff about wises is really cool! Thanks Jon. I'll definately be using it. I never thought about them that way. Changing play styles is harder than I thought it would be. I never knew I was so conditioned.

[Glendower]

That stuff about wises is really cool! Thanks Jon. I'll definately be using it. I never thought about them that way. Changing play styles is harder than I thought it would be. I never knew I was so conditioned.

I'm with you. I spent much of last year unlearning a lot of my old GM methods. I divest some of my tight hold on the "precious epic storyline" and let the players add to the mix, twist things, push their own direction. I had to share power, and that's a really scary thing.

I needed to trust my players to share power. And to trust my players, I needed to communicate with them. I tore down their "that's what my character would do" and my "because I'm the GM!" and spoke, player to player, what do we want, what's fun, what sucks. And if my players can communicate with me, they trust me, then the power that they have is going to be used to help the game. That dialog happens all the way through any game we play.

We communicate, we build trust, we share power.

Once upon a time I had entire games planned, start to finish. It was insane amounts of work, and the players didn't care about the story, their characters were inserted into my epic and their stories put aside.

Now I have a loose framework of antagonist motivations, a big chart of the player's current beliefs, and the rest happens in play. I haven't a clue about where we'll end up when I sit down, and it's this incredible feeling of freedom and wonder. I find GMing to be so much more fun with this game.

Now, one thing I did in my Blossoms game is put down a map of the local village. It had two spots in it, the rest was a blank page. Both spots were relationships made in Character creation. "The rest of Village will be made by you, with Circles rolls and Wises. Want a blacksmith? Circle one up. Want a park? Village-Wise. If you fail I add a few details of my own. Maybe the park's haunted, or the blacksmith remembers your family stiffed him 80 Farthings!"

The players immediately began adding details as needed. There was a bustling village, but there weren't any important features until they needed there to be an important feature.

As a GM, you still have the power to say no to a wise roll. But again, that decision comes with communication and trust. If everyone keeps talking, then wise rolls can be negotiated, altered, and agreed upon.

[BWA]

Anyone have a link to the cleric/holy man character? I saw it early on, but now I can't seem to locate it. Thanks!