BWG meets Burning Sands: Jihad

[TiresiasBC]

I've ordered a copy of BWG, but don't have it yet. Here is the word from Luke on supplement compatibility.

Is the game compatible with the supplements? Mostly. Elements of the supplements that directly reference weapons, spells and Fight will prove problematic.

Anyone who's got a copy of the rules figured out exactly what's problematic? Is it problematic enough I won't want to touch it, as someone who is just getting in on Burning Wheel?

I want to play Burning Wheel primarily to be able to play the Burning Sands supplement, so I'll be sad if the conversion process proves too complicated.

[NkEnNy]

I doubt it will be a problem, but if its such a great concern why don't you pick up BWRevised from your FLGS on the cheap?

-k

[TiresiasBC]

Thanks for the suggestion! That is an option.

Though I would prefer to play with the new hotness. Really pumped about the Hub and Spokes PDF so far; I'd rather not take a step backwards.

Any comments from people who have copies of the game already?

[stormsweeper]

Weapons should be easy enough to convert over, and there's no spells to worry about.

Jihad is sort of epic-level BW, btw, and burning up 8+ LP characters can be daunting if it's your first time out.

[TiresiasBC]

Excellent. Thank you, stormsweeper.

Yeah, I wasn't sure about springing that on people even newer to the game than I am. But I'm waiting for BWG to really learn the system for the first time, anyway. I'm angling for a Dune campaign using the BWG rules; maybe I can tone back the epic for introductory sessions.

On an unrelated note, how quickly do products ordered from the store tend to ship? That's the limiting factor at this point. Can't learn what I don't have!

[Taladel]

Since BWG has just gone on sale, I imagine that Andy is swamped right now. I'd not stay up late waiting for it. :P

[TiresiasBC]

I actually took NkEnNy's advice and ordered BWR from an Amazon distributor, so now it's a race to see what gets here first. I'd prefer BWG, but I win either way. =)

Since I can't delve into Character Burning myself without the Character Burner, does anyone who's played Burning Sands have any insight to offer about running a game with fewer life paths? A way to make the game less intimidating to new players, myself included, with a power level more appropriate to a minor House than a major House?

I'd be using Burning Sands to represent a pre-Jihad Imperium. I've read the supplement a few times now and I think I can do that pretty well. It's just a matter of whether the character burner numbers add up, I suppose.

[TiresiasBC]

I don't want to burn up the full character to put it in the Crucible, but I wanted to point out that it's possible to make a Fellahin character and get him all the way to the Noble Court setting in seven lifepaths. When a player asked if he could play a Fremen exile, I originally didn't think there was any way he could get to the proper Noble Court setting, but he can! (Fellahin below is optional, I included it because it has the Water Discipline Training. It's part of the "feel" of being Fremen - ahem, Fellahin. I also included Tribal Exile in the original - after all, why else would you leave?)

The Lifepaths:

Born Fellahin -> Fellahin -> Desert Rat -> Lead to Outcast Setting -> Desperate Killer -> Lead to Soldier Setting -> Soldier -> Sergeant -> Stormtrooper -> Lead to Noble Court Setting -> Swordmaster

I don't know if that was meant to be possible or not, but it's awesome! He wouldn't even be overpowered compared to other characters, I don't think. I'll assume this is due to Luke and company wanting to allow awesome variations, and say "thanks!"

Edit: I did some searching, looks like this is just the inverse of the previously-established Born Noble-> Dilettante-> Mustajib-> Desert Rat ->Rafiq path. Nice that you can go both ways.

Another Edit: It takes even fewer than I thought. Born Fellahin -> Lead to Outcast -> Desperate Killer -> Desperate Killer -> Poisoner -> Lead to Noble Court -> Assassin. Bam, done. 5 LPs.

[luke]

It's by design. Enjoy!

[TiresiasBC]

Thought about posting this to a new thread, as it's a different issue, but it's still about adapting Jihad, so here it is.

For player character jihadis, total the Fanaticism exponents. That counts as the
Will of the Jihad.

That refers to the Body of Argument in the extended Duel of Wits that is the Propaganda War in Burning Sands: Jihad.

What I'm trying to think of is a suitable replacement for the fanaticism exponents if you have one noble house invading other nobles' homeworld. I've thought about totaling up the players' wills - there's only three of them, so it might not be too bad. On the other hand, we're talking eight-lifepath characters here. Wills are pretty damn high so far.

Ancestry is the obvious choice, but I'm playing without the Ancestry rules, too. Vanilla artha.

Any other thoughts on how to adapt this? Nothing but Will and Ancestry are jumping out at me.