Monster Burner .pdf and more

[mrjam]

Hello,
I'm a italian roleplayer (so sorry for the bad english). I have bought The Burning Wheel last week, and it seems me a GREAT system. (I have downloaded Abstraction and Summoning supplements, and they are fantastic).

I plan to start very soon a new campaign with it, but before I have a few questions:

- Any hope to see a .pdf version of the Monster Burner?

- When will be released the revised edition? Only printed version? (Please, Luke, make a .pdf version, I love .pdf versions!)

- What is new in the revised edition?

- Where are the stats of the Two-Handed Sword (the weapon table lists only generic swords). Or perhaps there is a rule for using the 'generic' sword in the table with two hands?

- Which wounds make an arm (or leg, or foot, ...) unusable?

- There is a .pdf supplement with alternate armor rules? (i don't like very well the current rules)


Thanks,
Gianmarco

[Yagathai]

Hello, mrjam.

I can't answer some of your questions, but as far as the two-handed sword goes, we had quite a spirited debate about it a year or two ago. We determined that when using what's simply a large sword, like a bastard sword, with two hands, you add +1 Pow.

However, if you mean the zweihander, the 7-foot long early Renaissance-era weapon:


Pow 4, VA 2, Unwieldy, Extended Reach ... Heavy Weight: Opponent is at +1 Ob to Block Strikes and Ripostes from this weapon. Great Strikes from this weapon may not be countered with Counterstrike/disarm/lock.

I don't think that there's a specific .pdf for new armor rules, but you can find a summary of them in the Arena forum under "Welcome to the Arena... now die!" thread. There's also been some discussion of them elsewhere in the forums.

[Thor]

Hi mrjam, and welcome! I can't answer all your questions, but I will do what I can.

As far as I know, there are no plans to release a .pdf of the Monster Burner, though perhaps Luke could be convinced.

There is no firm date for the release of the Revision, but it will be soon. The Revision has lots of new material, as well as some changes to existing material.

The changes include a new Positioning system for melee combat that is more streamlined and just as tactical (if not more so), but without the need to count paces. It works wonderfully. You'll also find the new Range and Cover rules, which are a simpler version of the melee positioning system that is used with Ranged combat. There are some very, very cool options there -- and the extension of the ranged rules also opens up the possibility of EPIC sorcerous duels. There are a HUGE number of new lifepaths (for a taste, check out the Orc sample chapter that is now posted! (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=882). As you'll see from the Orcs, Hatred has some new applications. The same is true for Dwarven Greed, which is now extremely cool.

New additions largely round out the social aspects of the game. You have the Duel of Wits, which is a scripting system (similar to Burning Wheel melee) for making and winning arguments! There's also a new Resources system that allows you to deal with character wealth as a skill -- we've had a lot of fun using it in our games. There's also a new Circles attribute that largely replaces the Contacts you could buy with your Resource Points in Burning Wheel Classic. You can still buy Contacts, of course, but Circles now represents all the minor Contacts you've met throughout your lifepaths. I'm very excited to hear about how you guys put it to use in play.

As for what makes a limb unusable? Well, in the heat of combat, I think that's abstracted into the wound system, and I wouldn't double up on that penalty. But a good rule of thumb is: if a character ever takes a Severe wound or worse, he should be considered for a lame/missing limb trait.

[mrjam]

Thank for the answers!

Is there a preview for the new "Positioning" and "Range and Cover" rules? Or perhaps a thread?

.pdf is VERY important to me, because:

- it's nearly impossible to find Burning Wheel in stores here in Italy.

- I love to print the book and place the pages in plastic protectors, so I don't have to bother to ruin the manual.

- I can integrate future rules corrections and errata.

Please, Luke...

[Thor]

There's no PDF yet, although Kublai has been pleading for one, especially since the Arena started up! But you can get an idea of what the Positioning rules will be like in this thread (http://burningwheel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=766).

Just as a word of warning though, much of that thread was going on as we were discussing how the system would work. It was definitely a work in progress at that point.

[luke]

isn't the euro really strong against the dollar now? the monster burner is a beautiful printed edition. it needs and wants your love. and it's cheap. $29 USD right to your door.

Ya know, I thought about releasing Range and Cover as the preview chapter, but it's so heavily integrated into a number of deep changes in the rules, it'd be useless for folks who have the current edition.

When we took out paces, melee, weapons and sorcery all changed. Better to get that all in one package and understand it fully.

Duel of Wits, on the other hand, can be grasped from its chapter alone...

-L

[mrjam]

As far as I know, there are no plans to release a .pdf of the Monster Burner, though perhaps Luke could be convinced.



Should I ask this every day? Every hour? Every ten minutes? :wink:

Perhaps I could promise that I buy two Monster Burner .pdf... :?

Seriously, don't you plan to release future products as .pdf? :cry:

:cry:

[luke]

As far as I know, there are no plans to release a .pdf of the Monster Burner, though perhaps Luke could be convinced.



Seriously, don't you plan to release future products as .pdf? :cry:

:cry:

only when and if they go out of print.
-L

[Thor]

Honestly, at the current conversion, you can have a Monster Burning winging to your door for just 22 euros, and it is well worth it! The book is gorgeous. You really want a hardcopy. With it you get full rules for creating your own traits and lifepaths, charts for calculating probabilities on black, gray, and white dice, 4 complete sets of lifepaths (Roden, Great Spiders, Trolls and Great Wolves), tons of new beasties, and complete rules for creating your own monsters!

It's a steal.

[Melmoth]

mrjam, that's how I got them and isn't very expensive considering the prices of rpgs nowadays. In a week or a week and a half you've got Monster Burner at home :D

[mrjam]

Ok, ok, I'll buy it! :wink:

[mrjam]

At the beginning of every volley you'll compare your movement script against your opponent's script. If you've both scripted the same thing, you get what you want, no problem. If not, it's a versus Speed test. You'll get bonus dice based on a number of things: longest weapon, traits (like Fleet of Foot), terrain, etc. Then you roll. The winner gets what he wants.

In playtest we've found it very fluid, and we've also found it layers on a whole new level of tactical options that are very satisfying.

So, is this all I have to know about the new "Positioning" rule? About modifier, could you be more precise?

A lot of new questions:

- I have downloaded the new Weapons Table: are there now four combat distances: short, shortest, long, longest? What's means now "inside"?

- Are there other "critical" rules changes which I must know before starting my new campaign? Or critical problems with my "old" Burning Wheel version?

- about the new Range and Cover rules?


Thanks

[Kublai]

A quick rundown of the positioning rules: Instead of Movement like Walk, Jog, or Sprint, you now have "intent": Close with opponent, Maintain distance with opponent, and Withdraw from opponent.

You make opposed Speed tests at the top of each volley to see which opponent's intent wins. Longer Weapons give you an advantage, as will certain stats and traits.

For example, I have a sword and I want to Close on my opponent who has a Spear and who is at my lunge range. I script Close for my movement, he scripts Maintain. We then roll an opposed Speed test, but he gets a bonus die for having a longer weapon. If he wins the test, I don't close and remain at Lunge range. If I had won, I am now in my Optimal range.

No more counting paces and doing trigonometry! I really like this new system.

Range and Cover for missle weapons and sorcery outside of melee combat work pretty much the same way, only abstracted a bit more.

[jc_madden]

This type of combat abstraction is really what BW needs I think, and I think that it was how the original system of movement was meant to be but math got in the way.