Fixing Burning Wheel With Boot Hill

 

Yeah that’s right: Revised

Burning Wheel, at its best, is a game of raw aggression. You make your Beliefs and then the GM hacks at them in a frenzy that more than casually resembles sharks around a bleeding seal. If I got stuck on a deserted island and you asked me to pick one game, it would come down to Burning Wheel and mine own baby, Crescendo, and I don’t even know how that decision would go down. I would cry either way. 

What the Hell Is Burning Wheel?

Great question! Burning Wheel is a low-fantasy TTRPG, where you play characters who are driven by their Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits (BITs). You are rewarded for causing trouble with these BITs with Artha, which influence your dice rolls.

Beliefs are proactive statements of how you approach the world, which might include short-term goals. You get Artha for causing trouble on behalf of Beliefs and acting against them.

My father still has good in him. I will convince him of this.

My sister is our last hope.

Ben lied to me. I can never trust him again.

Instincts are reactions to specific circumstances. You gain Artha for acting on Instincts when it would get you in trouble.

Always Force-choke physical threats.

When socially confronted, do not back down.

Always protect family.

Traits are passive facts about you. Some of your Traits can net you Artha for acting on them in an entertaining manner.

Angry, Eloquent, Cautious

Now, in the Revised edition, you gain Artha immediately, by the GM. Later editions, like Gold and Gold Revised, move this reward to the end of the session. This is a mistake we'll get to in a bit, trying to address a much larger problem about Burning Wheel that we're going to address with this post!

This combination of BITs and Artha is a perfect storm of perfectly paced aggression. The GM is constantly after your BITs, you're trying to get Artha without getting totally screwed over, and when this game works it works, and nothing else compares, not even close.

Not even Crescendo, mine own baby which is the godson of Burning Wheel... but that's for another day. Crescendo is doing something different.

But

I haven’t seriously played Burning Wheel in five years.  

Now, part of that is because I have been working my ass off on Crescendo. I have done more research and playtesting and soul searching on this one game than others would put into a dozen games. So that takes up time and brain space.

But Burning Wheel has some really severe flaws: ambiguous game set up, Wises, janky Artha rewards, Instincts, and “optional” rules that aren’t actually optional.  As usual, I'm going to handle the concerns, It's my blog, cry about it in the comments!

"Optional" Rules

The Duel of Wits, Fight!, and Range and Cover are some of the most innovative mechanics ever devised. It's best to describe these mechanics are rock/paper/scissors/Spock/GUN on steroids: players pick out a number of actions (usually three) privately, and then reveal them, one at a time, and compare to everyone else in the conflict. There's this huge and beautiful chart that honestly makes my pupils engorge and all sorts of other unseemly things happen.

But.

People do not use these mechanics, by and large. Usually they're having to use them against the GM. Put a pin in this, we're getting back to it. 

The real issue is that Burning Wheel is designed to use these "optional" rules, and if you don't use them... your Artha piles up, and then you get Artha bloat. This is a very common problem with Burning Wheel. And without the extended conflict mechanics, this problem goes from occasional to "Dear God I have way too much Artha", and the reward loop of the game, the thing it does so well, dies.

Instincts

Instincts were covered above. The problem is that the design of the game makes it difficult to actually challenge Instincts. You're essentially begging the GM to hit you with specific situations... except the GM has to focus on two other Instincts and three Beliefs... and that's just for one player. Given how flexible and rich the Beliefs are, Instincts have a bad habit of going to the wayside (there's a reason why Crescendo drops them).

Janky Artha Rewards

Burning Wheel's initial design was for immediate Artha rewards when you act upon your BITs. Up until Revised, this created a dynamic conversation. If you have too much Artha, the GM can ignore you, because you're in a real conversation with the participants at the table. Burning Wheel Gold changed this reward to waiting until the end of the session to hand out Artha. This makes the flow of the game work better, because the GM can't be the sole architect of the bullshit coming at players and watching Artha rewards.  You can't do both, trust me, not long term.

Wises

Wises are skills that a player can roll to force a fact into the fiction. This is great in theory, but it collapses the setting into a Schroedinger's Setting, making it difficult for players to rely upon the setting, and potentially making the GM skittish about introducing facts.

Ambiguous Game Set Up

This is the big one. There is no real game set up. No, there isn't, don't leave your comment. The GM has no guidance on how to set up the fictional situation that will spark the players into making Beliefs.

And this brillitant game  is missing one sentence, that would change everything:

Players can always challenge each other better than any GM.

And it is possible to engineer this.

Enter Boot Hill

 

On an initial look, the 2nd edition of Boot Hill should not be in this conversation. It's a d percentile game. Burning Wheel is a d6 dice pool.

But you know what it does say you should do?

Have the GM design the opening situation. Have the players issue orders, week to week And then forbid sessions of play when the players aren't directly in conflict. 

These simple rules completely redefine Burning Wheel Revised. Suddenly, players are unable to play unless they go after each other... and if the GM wrote a tight initial situation, where the characters he made up are in direct conflict, the players merely have to show up. 

And the thing is that the Burning Wheel Revised has a metric ton of pre-gen'd characters! The GM barely has to do any work! He just grabs some pregens from the books and writes some BITs. He then winds up, lets go, and then spends his sessions principally rewarding loud and proud behavior as it starts conflict. Sure, the GM is going to sometimes need to present some challenges aside from whatever the players are doing. But that won't be the focus.

Those optional mechanics? I notice that players like using them against each other, not the GM. This is because the power differential is too great to use such a mechanic with a GM. With other players? Man, it's like crack.

And if the GM doesn't want to go pregen, but kitbash? Burning Wheel Revised provides the best tools to do it out of all the Burning Wheel versions. The Monster and Magic Burners may be expensive, but Crane really breaks the math down, and provides actual tools that I can personally vouch for. You can very easily draw up a bunch of stuff with confidence.

Conclusion

The truth is, Burning Wheel Revised is a masterpiece hidden inside a game that sometimes fights against itself. Its core loop—aggressive Beliefs, immediate Artha, and those glorious, baroque conflict systems—is one of the best things roleplaying has ever produced. But the ambiguous setup, the optional-but-not-really rules, and the tendency for everything to collapse into GM-vs-players slog have kept it from reaching its full potential for too many groups.

The fix is simpler than we think: steal from Boot Hill.

Let the GM craft one sharp opening situation loaded with conflicting interests. Hand out pregenerated characters with pre-written (or quickly customized) BITs that put the players at each other's throats from minute one. Then declare: No session happens unless the players are directly pursuing conflicting goals. The GM's job shifts from "invent endless opposition" to "facilitate, adjudicate, and reward the glorious chaos that erupts."

Suddenly the Duel of Wits and Fight! stop being scary optional modules and become the main event. Artha flows naturally from real stakes. Instincts matter because other players will exploit them. The table becomes a arena of raw aggression—the very thing Burning Wheel always promised.

I haven't seriously played Burning Wheel in five years. But reading this back, I realize I'm not done with it. I'm just done with the default way people run it.

If you're a BW fan who's been frustrated, try the Boot Hill Setup. Run it hard and mean. You might rediscover why this game, at its best, has no equal.

And if it still doesn't click? Well… that's why I'm building Crescendo.

But trust me, I will always play both.

Creating Roleplaying Opportunities

The other week I played DCC for the first time. It was a blast. I had a wonderful time. Three of my level zero wusses died in the first session, in hilariously awful ways. Blood was flowing, we were solving puzzles and trying to survive... and boy was I failing. But I noticed something while we were having a great time: we weren't really roleplaying, as I had come to understand it. Again, I had a blast! I was engaged! But it wasn't like we were truly RPing.

This isn't a complaint. It's more of a meditation. A processing. Please keep something in mind: I have been playing either Burning Wheel or Crescendo constantly for going on... ten years? I have been steeped in very deep, narration-heavy, roleplaying for a very long time. I don't say that as a boast. It's a fact of my life, and in order for this post to make sense, you have to know that.

Now, I am a firm believer that systems influence people. I think it's possible to encourage people into roleplaying more, into any system, with just a few modifications. After thinking about it, here's what I thought of:

Whenever possible, hook mechanics into roleplaying.

You can't make a fictional world in an RPG without the rules the players agreed to. Throwing the rules out actually makes the world incomplete. I've found that the more you bring the rules into roleplaying itself, the better the roleplaying itself is.

Hold any possible skepticism for the moment. Here's some ideas on how you do it. 

Use Their Player Classes/Archetypes/Backgrounds to Describe Scenes

Whenever you're done describing a scene, ask each player to add a detail that would interest their someone of their class, archetype, or background. Let the players add to the scene. Let them help you tie the noose.

Players Must Justify Success

If a player doesn't narrate why they should succeed in their action... they don't. It's not "Roll for it", it's "No". That simple. 

Rolling comes up, generally speaking, if the GM feels that the plan given by the player might be plausible. This one little rule will almost entirely do the trick, just on its own. If you require actual narration, with an attempt to solve the problem before them, players will do it. 

Justify Advantage When Rolling

Rolling should never be neutral. Either the player has justified having advantage on the roll or they get disadvantage. 

This comes down to system choice, of course, but the general mechanics of most RPGs can be fit to this rule pretty easily. This rule keeps the player engaged in the fiction, even as they pick up the dice. It's a small trick, but it keeps the flow of narration going. Be more merciful than not. Rolls are usually instigated by the GM, not the player, so if you're forcing a player to fend for themselves and then not be terribly lenient about them responding it's actually going to kill engagement. Let the players feel like they're rising to the occasion.

Let Them Narrate the Loss of HP

Or whatever negative stuff you have in your game. If something happens to the character (like gaining Stress, losing HP, gaining Conditions), ask them what that looks like for their character. Players naturally want to use the system to describe their characters. Let them! They'll invest if you let them do it.

Conclusion

The idea that the fictional world is complete without the rules of the game doesn't really work, because it doesn't. You aren't just playing make-believe, you are using a ruleset to guide make-believe. Bringing the rules into the fiction, to make it an aspect of roleplaying, makes the overall experience more cohesive. The rules are in the world. You bring the rules in, and the loop is complete.

Return to the Wheel

I used to play Burning Wheel two to three times a week. I did that for three years. The campaigns were dark, personal, sometimes more than borderline crazed fever dreams of fun, adventure, grief, and oh so very trippy. Burning Wheel is the sorta game I’d take with me to a desert island because it’s going to keep challenging me and kicking my ass until the day I die. Whenever I GM Burning Wheel know you will get a brutally honest “AND I MEAN IT” with every session. It was all out there. I loved every second of it.

Afghanistan happened. And something in me broke. It happened to be the part of me that enjoyed the sincerity machine I'd turned Burning Wheel into.

I went from GMing multiple times a week to none. I just couldn't do it. I grieved for months, unable to really focus that part of me at all.

Fortunately at the time I was developing Crescendo, so I threw myself into that with abandon. I wasn't running from Burning Wheel, so much as having to dedicate myself to developing that game to a degree that cut out all other games. And, to be fair, Crescendo is a sprawling mess made coherent. It's taken many a draft to make what one of my playtesters called "actually two or three games working together" (it may  be five or six) actually work together. Crescendo, unlike more than a few of the games that are currently being developed in response to Burning Wheel, decided to take the jank of its mother system head on and make it core to the game. Crescendo is gloriously weird. It's not as rules "intensive" as Burning Wheel, but it's every bit as idiosyncratic and demanding as Burning Wheel, in its own way.

As I developed my mythological character development game I realized that I was, in part, processing what made Burning Wheel so important to me in the first place. With each and every mechanic that I crammed into Crescendo I understood a bit better what I was try to replicate: the expansiveness of Burning Wheel's engine, with the intricate knobs and levers that would take a lifetime to master. I wanted to make something every bit as challenging and unique, in its own way. I realized that I really missed Burning Wheel's expanded mechanics, its demand that you accept it as it is, along with its uniquely idiosyncratic approach to character evolution. Just... the whole damn thing.

As I designed and reworked and reworked and reworked and wrote and broke my brain over and over, I realized that how I wanted to play Burning Wheel was changing. Before that point I was a bit skittish about playing Burning Wheel the way I wanted to: with all the gloriously inconvenient crunch at front and center. I thought Burning Wheel was a session-based game and wanted to honor that structure. Well, with the Anthology I know now that was never really what was intended. So I kinda figured "Meh, why not just embrace that? Let the scenarios be long, messy, and filled with all of these gloriously crunchy bits that I enjoy so much?"

And that percolated in the back of my head, as I designed Crescendo. Which, for the record, is also scenario based, not session-based, and also takes an interminably long time to get anything done. Actually it can take longer than Burning Wheel by a very good margin: arcs of Burning Wheel can take between eight to eighteen sessions, maybe longer. That's one arc. Burning Wheel's probably firmly into its second arc by then, if not its third.

And yes I think that's a feature not a bug.

So the other day I decided to go back to Burning Wheel with Lena. We started talking about what we wanted to do, and all of this love for the game just came washing over me. It wasn't what Crescendo did, but I didn't want it to. I wanted my janky and messy Burning Wheel, which helped create all of these really intense and raw moments of gameplay and emotion! Burning Wheel does really grounded, in the moment character development, really well. It doesn't hop around like Crescendo, which will have you doing intense character work, switch to setting stuff for context, and then into making myths another session later... and then dump you back into the story with some more context to hang your character work off of, the whole time at the same breakneck speed of Burning Wheel (if not faster, depending on how you view it). I love how grounded in the present moment Burning Wheel feels. It's something I had really pushed against before, but now that I've got a game that can go from ground-level to the heights of mythology and back down in an instant... I really like that Burning Wheel doesn't. It's got more of a gritty, pulpy sorta a feel in comparison.

And I've been listening to a lot of pulp recently. I really like it.

Time to go back to Heranyt and see how fucked it is. I've missed it so.

RE: What's Wrong With Nerd Culture, Part 2: "With a Bang and a Whimper"

 

Before I joined the Army I was working at a McDonalds. I hated the job with every cell in my body, despite being extremely good at it, so I was grouchier than I normally was. Most people kept a polite distance, except for one particular nerd, Ezra (name changed to protect the innocent). He was.... not nearly as good at the job as I was, but he had this trait of being friendly to the point of irritation.

That's a very low bar for me, for what it's worth.

He was too damn chipper!

Well, eventually he wore out my grump reflex and we started a friendship, of sorts. Ezra talked a whole hell of a lot about pretty much anything on his mind, at a volume and speed that I could barely keep up with, at a pitch that I definitely didn't want to put up with.... but he was kind. He had a good, gentle heart, under the layers of sheer annoyance. And I find true kindness to be in short supply. So I gritted my teeth and decided a bit of kindness was worth the increase in blood pressure. 

Oh, and dear God he talked about his girlfriend too much. Who he swore was real! Promise! She's just far away. I could never remember where.

Starved for roleplaying game time I offered to GM a Burning Wheel for Ezra. I didn't expect much from him, to be honest. I kinda figured he'd futz around with the rule system and probably just make something that would help me pass the time. And, really, at that point, I wanted time to pass. It was still a few months before I would be able to leave, and I knew that what would probably be bad Burning Wheel was still better than no Burning Wheel at all. So I pitched the game to him. I explained that Burning Wheel was not Dungeons and Dragons, that he'd actually have to put work into it to get something out of it, and that I'd help him with the rules but I wasn't going to take it easy on him when the dice hit the table. It was up to Ezra to succeed. He nodded, told me he looked forward to it, and we ended the workshift with me having a twinge of guilt. At the time GMing was a way for me to vent just how frustrated I was, so I looked forward to low-key torturing Ezra's character. 

No, I don't mean that ironically.

Yes, that's messed up.

I've never claimed to be a good person. Ever.

Ezra made a character who had a cruel older brother, which mirrored some of his real life situation. That should have been a tip off for me. I admit it now. But I was so pent up, so angry, so arrogant, that I didn't really think much about what would drive Ezra to make such a situation. I just decided to make his brother as cruel as possible and then to give Ezra the chance to abandon him. Which is exactly what I did; I had a dark elf kidnap the brother and gave Ezra the chance to rescue.... under suicidal conditions. Eventually Ezra failed the tests, and the dark elf told his character that it was a nice try, but he could either give up or die with his brother.  Ezra walked out of the building. I thought I'd won. And it felt good.

And then Ezra set fire to the entire area, using his Firebuilding skill to set up a conflagration so powerful only he could put it out. When the dark elf came out, furious, Ezra offered to put the fire out.... but only once he had his brother. The dark elf laughed grimly, offered his admiration for a job well done, and brought out Ezra's brother.

The thing that impressed me about this whole scene wasn't Ezra's plan, not principally. It was the look on his face when he had initially failed. There was a determination, a total lack of concern, that took me aback. Ezra's character was going to help his brother and damnit if anyone was going to tell him no. To be able to show kindness and help someone who hated him mattered to this irritating young man. It was unthinkable to Ezra to give up. And, while he normally couldn't do anything so heroic, he had a chance to do it here, in this game. He did it with a grace and ease that I honestly didn't think him capable of. The dark elf's reaction really came out of a genuine place of shocked admiration on my part. Without raising his blood pressure Ezra had shown me what a tool I had been. Kindness and forgiveness are real, no matter how they happen.

The thing is that, otherwise, Ezra was a pretty pathetic person. He had that "feel" of a nerd, of someone who had put all his pudgy existence into playing video games and anime and nothing else. His room was lined with differing paraphernalia he'd definitely spent some good money to acquire. With the exception of his girlfriend (who I never saw of a picture of) there really wasn't much talked about other than video games and anime. If there was a drive that Ezra had beyond these things, he didn't show it to me except that one time, in Burning Wheel. 

My last memory of him was being shown Halo 4. Which I hated. It felt like CoD. But Ezra was so excited that there was a new Halo I didn't really have the heart to tell him how much I despised the thing he had specifically brought me over to show off. He also showed me that you could now watch anime while you played video games on the XBox, something that I hated even more. But again, he was so excited that a part of me knew it would be wrong of me to shut him down. After a few matches he asked if I wanted to watch Pacific Rim. Considering that's one of my favorite movies...

Eventually it was late and I had to go, having work the next day. Ezra walked me to the door, talking excitedly about the resolution on the TV. And it was nice, to be fair! I'd not seen Pacific Rim look that good since seeing it in IMAX. So I was more than happy to reciprocate. But I realized something really sad in that conversation: Ezra didn't know how to look for anything else. Not anymore. The world was a meaningless wasteland for him, and these few hours he could get with his videogames and his TV was as good as he could see it getting. Ezra wished me luck at MEPS and talked about joining the military himself, probably the Coast Guard. I told him that I'd heard the Coast Guard were all genuine badasses and I'd be impressed at anyone making it through their training. And he'd actually be useful, unlike me, who was going into the Army. Ezra laughed and said something kind and dorky. I forget what it was, only that I honestly felt reassured by him in that moment. I didn't feel too reassured by anybody at that point in my life; the feeling was like water to a man stuck in a desert.

I never saw him again.

I hope Ezra made it out. I hope he figured out how to not be addicted to the machines that sidelined him into a life of insignificance. I hope he went and joined the Coast Guard. I really hope things worked out with that girlfriend, or if not with her that some lady would figure out that Ezra was a genuinely kind soul. But the bitter and mean part of me wonders (with a sneer!) if he's not sitting in that same room, even eight years later, still raving about the latest garbage video game and anime. There's only one direction to the universe, after all, and it's down. 

But who knows? 19 years ago I said I didn't want anyone to remember me. I wanted to be dead and forgotten. With a wife and three children that's changing, one step at a time.  I'm able to change. Maybe he did too! Hopefully we'll both make it. Kindness should.

Although that doesn’t change the fact that Halo 4 sucked ass.

RE: What's Wrong with Nerd Culture, Part 1: "The Rise of the Nerd"

 

I am very late to this party. I saw this series of videos during 2019, and have been sitting on them ever since, trying to figure out my opinion. Like or dislike his thoughts, Dave the Distributist's thoughtfulness cannot be denied. And this series of videos on nerd culture has continued to rock me to my core, years and and years later. After attempting to write about gaming and other nerd/geek stuff for about five years, I realized that this series of videos is at the very bottom of my worldview. And I had to get it out of the way if I wanted to write about gaming or really anything else.

Thanks, Dave. Thanks a lot.

In highschool I was Eddie from Stranger Things, without the drugs (or the repeated failures at school):

No, really, that was me. Granted, my hair wasn't that long (it's longer now!), but the attitude? Yup. That's it. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who knew me early in college and he about died laughing, because it's really not an exaggeration. I found friends in large part because of DnD, Magic, video games, and Firefly, as opposed to my heavily chaotic and extreme personality. And going into college I found myself really only feeling comfortable in those elements. 

But suffering hammers and expands one into something you don't really expect. I found myself wanting more out of my interests and hobbies... and couldn't get it. And had no idea why. And then I found Burning Wheel. There's a few years of posts of that game on this blog. and while I haven't played the game in a while it still holds a near and dear place in my heart. I used the game to explore and process, particularly with The Giggling Dark and The Undertow, both of which I consider the highest points of my GMing Career so far.

All this to say that I never really was into nerd culture for anything other than a vehicle to explore meaning. I've never really experienced the urge to use my interests as an anti-movement, a wish to destroy, to eradicate societal concepts that were persecuting me. If I was against anything it was against being pointless, of having no meaning at all. Whatever burning hatred of humanity I have, it is total, as opposed to directed at one particular social caste. I think humans, in general, suck horribly and I see no reason to exclude one group from that hatred. Not that this is a good thing, mind you, but whatever baggage and damage I have, hating a particular group and resisting them isn't one of those things I have to struggle with.

But I've noticed that I'm not in the majority company of those I share interests with, both generally and with things like RPGs and games and comics and whatnot. The particular areas of "nerddom" I inhabit are more than a bit left-leaning, with an assumed "Us VS Them" mentality that makes running around those circles really hard to manage. I've noticed this alienation for years but could not figure out what to do with it. How do you tell your own "home camp" that you think that everyone sucks pretty damn equally, and that you don't really understand the need to hate conservatives? Or Christians? Or the physically fit jarheads? And that, really, by fixating upon these groups they've just done what was done to them in reverse, and thus made themselves the perpetuators of a cycle that they claim to want to end? It's not that I mind people have different opinions than I, but simply that, if you're going to stand for something, stand for it, as opposed to using it as a weapon to fight someone else.

Oh, wait, I'm sorry, I forgot, the evil conservatives and Christians are out to get all progressives and trans people!

And the evil progressives and trans people are out to get all conservatives and Christians!

I literally just had to switch the subject and object of the sentence. Structure's the same. It's the same ideology: abuser vs abused, attacker vs victim. And there's the same stoking of a war spirit, the same "let's just enjoy our shit until we have to kill each other" nonsense going on. Eat, drink, fuck, for tomorrow we kill each other.

And, before any progressive stupid enough to argue with that opens their mouth, this is from one of the bigger RPG Discord groups I'm a part of:

And, while I don't have any examples from conservatives close at hand at the time of the writing of this post, I'm sure you wouldn't have to look very far to find it. These groups of nerds are stuffed to the brim with rage, and the only reason why anyone reading this post doesn't see it is because they're in it. Because it's that obvious.

If you are saying "BUT VIOLENCE AGAINST TRANS AND LGBTQ FOLX IS REAL" you didn't read my last few words. 

Try again.

If you still can't see it please go find an adult. No, it's clearly not you. I stated exactly what I meant, word for word. If you think that means I'm downtalking your side, whoever you are, you didn't read for comprehension. 

I'm moving on.

Atop all this I kept finding this weird materialistic consumption at the heart of the culture: buy, watch, consume! Now I definitely live in a glass house when it comes to this sorta thing: I'm a sucker for Kickstarters and random shiny games, and I'm keeping up with the Star Wars train and enjoying it. But I don't necessarily view this tendency as a virtue, but as a vicious flaw that I struggle against with all my might, even if it's the weak struggle of a spiritual invalid. But I can hardly go a week without having to roll my eyes at yet another soulless Marvel movie coming out, or some element of "come and be a part of this large corporately sponsored story that's not quite good enough to be nourishing but not quite bad enough to get you to walk away in disgust!", which comes with a wave of toys, collectibles, and licensed properties.

Yes, I know this includes Star Wars.

This was one series of videos I did not want to sit through. I felt distinctly uncomfortable throughout them, but only because I realized I could finally have a language for what I was feeling. There's sometimes you don't want to look a problem in the face, because to see it means you have to change in order to address it. And change can be quite painful and lonely. I've had a lot of both in my life. I'd prefer not to do more.

Fuck.

To live is to be in pain. After more than two decades of trying to ignore this fact of living I've gotten tired of trying to run from it. So. Let's do this.

Fundamentally, generally, I think Dave is right. I've never not seen general geek/nerd culture as much more than a counter-movement against the ideal of an integrated person. And I find that sad! This whole nerd culture thing doesn't have to be anti-integrationalist. I think both soul and body are absolutely necessary. I try not to use my more intellectual interests as a cage to keep the stresses of my body out, but as a way to process them so that I can return to my body, revitalized and ready. Gaming, particularly tabletop gaming, has helped me make sense of my world in a way I couldn't do otherwise. There is something to be said for taking the principles of the world and putting them into a rulebook. There is definitely something to be said for taking the rules of reality and dressing them up a bit differently so you can get a better look at them. Our bodies are exhausting to live in, regardless of why they are. It's nice to get out and about every once in a while, without them. That's a universal, human, need. If I believed in rights I'd not hesitate to call it such. But I don't believe in rights. So I won't be saying such silly things.

I don't know if anyone "On the other side" of this divide would agree with my analysis. But elephants in a room generally don't notice the mice they squish, regardless of how loud they squeak. And I am definitely not that elephant.

SQUEAK.

Part Two Next Week!

Suihkulahde: Session Thirteen

I wasn't nearly as nervous about returning this story as I thought I would be. Over the last few months I've beening playing Hearts of Wulin and Against the Darkmaster, and just... decompressing. After two to three campaigns a week for almost two years I'd just... needed some time off. Playing other games, after drinking from the fountain of Burning Wheel so intensely, was a really eye-opening experience for me, and gave me a bit more perspective on what I wanted out of Burning Wheel in the first place.

And let's be honest: I was definitely trying to live up to The Undertow. That campaign was absolutely the type of journey I wanted to have in RPGs, and I wanted to do it again. That, of course, is stupid. I can't do it again, that's what makes it special! With a bit more perspective (and two different stories/systems) I was ready to go.

Last arc on...

Anneli was on dail way to save the world... and literally had dail sister, (a now pregnant) Nomi, dropped into dail lap. With a magic sword. Nomi had not only betrayed Anneli, but had been personally responsible for torturing and injuring Thungal and Fingar, Anneli's friends. They did not take to this kindly. Anneli and Nomi had to kill them both as The Light from Mikansia's sacrifice faded.

And then they were back in time, with Nomi on the ship. Thungal remembered the alternate future and cracked. They left Thungal on an Island with some folks who might have been able to help dai. They then got caught up with Leviathan, almost giving into his influence.

Anneli and Nomi then used Sydanelma to go further back in time, to try and stop Aloysius from killing Nomi's husband, The Crown Prince of the Argentum Empire, Constantine. They failed, in part because Anneli had left Aloysius, not knowing he would be kidnapped... and stabbed with a Dagger of Betrayal, making his killing of Constantine not of his own volition. Nomi's wrath was almost incalculable. 

They came back to the present to find that Fingar's brain had broken as well; Fingar stabbed Anneli, who met Mikansia as she was about to go through The Gate. Mikansia's mentor and friend, Akseli, gave a part of himself to Anneli so dai could return to the world. Anneli returned just as Nomi killed Fingar. 

Thungal came, utterly transformed by evil, with an army of twisted things at her back. Anneli and Nomi fought her in the pounding surf on the beach. Anneli was wounded in the head and went down like a rock. Nomi killed Thungal. And then stayed by dail sister's side, even though there was really nothing Nomi could for Anneli. 

Telos and Marian helped get Anneli stitched up. A few months into the process of Anneli healing they left to deal with the fact that the sun hadn't returned. They said if they didn't come back within four months they were in trouble.

It's been five months. Anneli is now fully healed.

So I knew I wanted to keep tying all three campaigns together, ever tighter and tighter. I want them to be three parts of the same story. Just the concept of doing a trilogy is so freaking cool that I couldn't avoid it. So I figured out a way to do it: Aloysius, Alpertti (the Crowned Prince of the elves from The Undertow), and Tara (the human lover and betrayer of Spar from Sabina's Castle, who should be dead) would show up, looking for Anneli and Nomi. I figured that would get quite a reaction out of Andy and Lena. 

Whaddaya know, I was right! Here's what they gave me, before the session.

Anneli

B1. Something has changed about Aloysius; I will cut to the truth of his heart.

B2. Nomi is changing; I will give dai the spark of a new ideal.

B3. My bond with Akseli is profoundly new; I will learn how to strengthen it.

I1. Akseli Instinct: Always rely on others.

I2. Always let Nomi draw steel first.

I3. Never abandon kin.

Traits: Call of the Island, Dreamer, Mortally Wounded in the Head, Shaky Hands, Bound to Akseli, Commanding Aura, Driven (Pilot), Aura of Determination

One of the many things I enjoy about Andy's RPing is how fully he buys into the concept he's set up. Anneli wants to be the hero. Dai thinks heroism is a necessity, a duty. Like, no matter what happens Anneli has this drive to do the right and idealistic thing. It's a lot of fun to watch the character get battered, but I still walk out impressed by how Andy has this core of Anneli down.

If I had to boil down what a GM's duty, his first job, was then I'd say it was to enjoy your players. Find the things you enjoy about them and encourage those things.

Nomi

B1. I trust Fish’s truthfulness; I will gladly help him ensure Tara isn’t a problem. 

B2. Whatever new idealistic game the prince is playing at here, I cannot trust mu to have accurate intel or read of the situation

B3. I can’t afford to grieve; there is more to be done.

I1. Always act towards my own goals first

I2. Always bend the truth when advantageous

I3. Never put my son in unnecessary danger

Traits: Call of the Sea, Spite, Deceptive, Compulsive Liar, Memory’s Influence, Guarded, Charismatic,   Pregnant, The Killer, Familial Loyalty

 See, this was the character I was really excited to watch this particular session. Nomi had been close associates with Prince Alpertti's father, before dai had started to get dai's life together. Nomi had a very particular opinion of Alpertti, as a goody-two-shoes who needed a serious dose of real life. That and seeing how Fish handled Tara (who he had killed awhile back) was another thing I really looked forward to.

Anneli had taken to walks on the beach and sitting contemplatively, slowly recovering dail strength. Fish was also taken this form of recreation, and the two took to sitting on the beach together, watching the dark waters, torch in hand. Nomi had kept herself busy with tasks to keep her mind busy and distracted/focused. Keeping food stocked, small tasks to prep the ship, and so forth. Nomi did not want to be sitting still.

Now, we'd already talked about the situation, but I didn't want to start in media res. Burning Wheel has never really been an in media res game to me. I've always wanted to savor it. For me, my primary inspiration for fantasy are the treks of Tolkien, the surrealistic sadness of Gaiman, the paradoxes of Wolfe. And those require set-up, not rushing... time. They require time. And it had been months. I wanted to just... sit... in it for a little while.

There was the sensation of approaching lowering airship- there was a familiar change in air pressure - nearby. Everyone independently goes to investigate. Aloysious and an incredibly pale redheaded woman, with an eyepatch come off this definitely elven airship. Anneli had spotted an elf flying the thing but couldn’t make it out. The ship was circling the ground in a textbook landing pattern, as in, learned from a book not the maneuvers of an experienced captain, with lots of wobbles. 

As soon as he saw the red-headed woman, Fish charged her, knife appearing out of nowhere.

Aloysious reaches down and picked him up, tossing him straight into the ocean.  Fish bobbed and sputtered, but couldn’t swim. Nomi had been stunned into silence for a moment, not expecting to see Aloysious again quite so soon after…everything. Anneli held dailself back to see what would happen, choosing to not get involved yet in a fight. Nomi angrily sputtered at Aloysious and went to pull Fish in out of the water.

This was a Steel test on Nomi's part, which dai failed pretty epically. Andy did not want to make a Steel roll, given that he did not want to intervene. He watched with great amusement as Lena had Nomi go out, yelling and cussing at Aloysius for throwing Fish so far.

After Nomi went to get Fish, Prince Alpertti exited the ship. Anneli tried to make the appropriate respectful greeting but it was a little awkward as Prince Alpertti was a dai now, and no longer a mu. There was talk about respect being based on grief and social hierarchy, and how complex it could be to work it out. Alpertti brushed it off: it wasn't important right now. Prince Alpertti asked if dai as talking to Anneli, and then asked where Nomi and Sydanelma was. Anneli pointed; the glimmer of Sydanelma could be seen from where Nomi unbuckled and left her, at the waters edge. Prince Alpertti asked what were they doing here. Anneli was flowery and gave a cryptic answer. 

Nomi stomped back up, cussing Aloysious out, and realized the crown prince was present. Nomi didn't respect him personally, but did attempt a socially appropriate acknowledgement.

Fish charged Tara again; this time Aloysious knocked him out cold. Nomi drew Sydanelma from the beach and demanded to know who Tara was and why they were there. Seeing Nomi brought back something painful for Alpertti. There was an exchange about how she was unworthy to carry that sword and if he hadn’t had it on good authority from someone dai trusted, that dai would have killed Nomi where she stood. Nomi cooly replied that dai felt the same way. Anneli tried to settle the building tensions. Everyone turned and snapped at dai.

We were definitely just jawing at this point. Honestly I'd just missed all these characters enough to where I really didn't want to do a lot of mechanical stuff. I could have and probably should have called for rolls a good deal sooner than I did, but Andy and Lena play off of each other so well I just enjoyed hearing the chatter. Eventually  I made Andy make a check... which he failed. And we got a good laugh out of it.

Alpertti said dai had been visited by Mikansia in a dream, and had been told to collect them. Alpertti was looking for Anneli, as one of dai's few remaining captains, and Nomi, the bearer Sydanelma, sword of legend, because dai needed to find hope for dail people. Alpertti talked about how the Ring was nearly destroyed in confrontation with the Nameless, how Mikansia saved them. But there was still immense collateral: the Ring of Tears, the home of the elves, was nearly destroyed. Many had died. Would Nomi and Anneli come, to help bring hope?

 Anneli focused on the fact that what they were doing here was more important, without actually explaining anything. Nomi said Alpertti was being such a typical arrogant noble; dai just assumed they’d drop their plans to come at his beck and call. Alpertti was angry: "If you wont answer me, and just want to sit around and fight, go fuck yourselves for all I care, I’ll go die holding my people if I must." Prince Alpertti stormed off to go start undocking the ship and fumbling with knots. "COMMONERS!

Nomi teased Alpertti about dail bad knots but wanted to know what happened to Mikansia. Alpertti told Nomi about Mikansia's death, and kinda half apologized for losing dail temper. Nomi also softened a touch and mentioned that dai hadn’t been part of the cult for some time now, and only wanted to save the Ring not see it ripped apart. Prince Alpertti knew, that’s the only reason he was even willing to talk to Nomi at all; dai had many things to do other than talk to those who would ignore dai.

Anneli talked with Aloysious and Tara, sorting out a little of their stories. Tara mentioned having a dagger put in her back by Fish, and that being why he hated her for turning him into a dragon. “It’s the dagger that binds us all together.” said Anneli. Tara quipped that it bound Anneli just as much as it did everyone else. Tara was strange, in how she spoke and moved. Not quite alive exactly…cracking sounds, head spinning, no teeth, odd vocal quality. Even Tara wasn't quite sure why she was there but she was certainly willing to believe in destiny, considering.

Before dai left, Alpertti tried to remind Anneli of the oath  dail had taken, as one of Alerpitti's captains. Alpertti released Anneli if dai was clearly unwilling to follow it. Anneli spoke to Nomi directly, about having an idea since dai was the only true captain here. Nomi caught the glint of what Anneli was doing and was only too happy to support Captain Anneli at Alpertti’s expense.

Anneli addressed Tara and Aloysius directly, demanding to be let aboard as the only true captain here. Tara sort of laughed and asked why, what did she plan to do. There was a bit of a steel-off, Anneli trying to maintain authoritative composure to let Tara rant herself out. Tara being pragmatic and wanting something known versus gambling on an unknown risk, since Anneli wasn’t offering anything descriptive. Anneli mentioned walking amongst the flows of time, and other beautiful descriptions of their experience, and how dai didn’t present what they were looking for because dai held the key, the key to the Island. If they really wanted to do this, then they needed to let dai aboard and give dai the ship because her path was the one that could do something. They should be helping Anneli and Nomi and not the other way around. To help sway the balance and knowing the sword carried some sense of awe to these people, Nomi held up Sydanelma and asked if they'd really rather bring back what they called the sword of legend just to serve as some figurehead, or if they wouldn’t really rather it be doing what it was meant to do, here, actively working.

So this whole thing was going and going and going. I was really enjoying RP'ing Alpertti, whose evolution since The Undertow had been something I'd found really interesting. Alpertti, who had once been such an idealist, had been changed by the constant death of dail people. This young monarch loomed large and pitiable in my mind. So Andy and I kinda got into it.... and I kept expecting him to make a call for a roll. I don't know why I did, but I was having fun, so off I went! Finally I made it clear that if Andy wanted a roll I was more than to do so, but I was having fun. Andy said he'd been hoping for a roll five minutes ago!

Abashed, I called for an Oratory roll. Lena threw in a helping die and and advantage die from Sydanelma. I put the obstacle at 8; Alpertti was not amused in the slightest, Tara didn't give a crap for flowery speeches, and Aloysius refused to get involved. Andy just barely passed.

Alpertti…sighed kind of sadly but agreed to give Anneli the ship to use if she would first return dai to Kohtae Mah, as his place was with his people. Anneli agreed. Aloysious told Nomi to kill him, his life was in her hands. Nomi…surprisingly couldn’t bring herself to do it. Aloysius said he remembered two time lines, how was this possible? Nomi and Anneli said they did as well. Aloysius said he owed his life to the both of them. Nomi but said he could start paying that debt by carrying the unconscious Fish up to the ship. He did. Nomi warned Tara to stay out of the way going forward; Tara chuckled and said the ship was a bit small for that.

Anneli walked the ship to begin learning the feel of handling the new vessel and its operations. This was Alpertti’s personal vessel, top of the line and super fancy. Anneli promised to bring it back but mentioned not having the best track record for keeping ships intact. There was an awkward call back look to Nomi for dai's prior sabotage of Anneli's first ship.

It was agreed and done. Anneli took command of the prince’s vessel Isän Rakkaus: Father's Love. They set off into the black sky.

So that was the first session after the break! Light on mechanics, but man it felt good to be back in this world. With this game. I can't wait to do the next session. I've really missed this game. Even though I'm in the middle of designing my own there is a special place in my heart for Burning Wheel, a spot that I doubt it will ever leave.

A sincere thanks to Lena for taking the notes for this session. I needed the help!

Suihkulahde: Session Twelve, Trait Vote the First

I tried something different this time: I didn't push for this arc as if it was the last, and spent most of the time building forward. And it was a very strange experience! I've always striven to make sure each arc was self-contained. Even if my sessions aren't, they all added up by end of the arc. But this focus led me to suggest skipping parts of the narrative in The Undertow that could have been really interesting.

So I may or may not have gone the other way.

Way the other way.

I think I may have overdone it. Slightly. But this wasn't a total wash. We had created a prologue of sorts for the rest of the game. There had been a lot of tension between Anneli and Nomi. This arc hadn't removed the animosity completely, but it did put Anneli and Nomi on the same side.  By putting the sisters in a situation that removed them from their friends (and preventing them from able to communicate the problem to said friends) Anneli and Nomi forged a completely unique bond. And that's where we cut it: a rekindling of sorts between Anneli and Nomi. It's not perfect, it's certainly not pretty, but they won't necessarily be at each other's throats in future arcs.

So before we start this trait vote here's the traits as they stand:

Anneli

Call of the Island, Righteous,  Mortally Wounded in the Head | Shaky Hands | Slightly Clumsy, Bound to Akseli, Commanding Aura, Driven (Pilot)

When Sabina's Castle ended, Anneli was in a very interesting place. She had just saved the Argentum Empire from Aloysius, but was unable to figure out how to address Nomi. The entirety of this arc was about Anneli's assumptions getting just shattered. Seeing that Nomi, who Anneli had abandoned in confusion, had not only changed, but was pregnant, with a husband that had loved her, would have been enough. 

But then she failed her sister and Nomi's husband, Constantine, was killed. And then the Akseli helped mend her broken body, changing Anneli's soul. That's a lot. A lot of a lot.

So when looking at the traits I know I'll be suggesting swapping out Righteous for Fearless, drop Slightly Clumsy, and add Tough.

Nomi

Educated, Call of the Sea, Spite, Deceptive, Compulsive Liar, Callous, Charismatic, Memory’s Influence, Bitter, Guarded

Ah, Nomi. From NPC to PC, there's been a lot of development for this character that Andy first envisioned as just simply "Anneli's sister". Nomi, having lost her husband Constantine, needed a new anchor. And I think she found it? Or at least is willing to look for it? Even that much is a lot. And I think she's willing to find a new anchor.

I'll be suggesting swapping out Compulsive Liar for Snarky, nixing Guarded, and adding Aggressive.

Lead Up to the Vote

The first thing we had to figure out was how long Anneli, who'd taken a mortal wound, was out for. Given that life-giving water from the center of the earth was available, I decided that would help Marian, Telos, and Decima heal Anneli, giving dai quite the boost. So I told Andy that all healing checks would pass, giving Anneli +3D to dail Health rolls. The water also meant that, no matter what happened, the recovery time was at the minimum. That's a bit of cheating, I know, but it's the life-giving water. Those 3 dice really helped! Andy passed like a champ. Five months of recovery! So that's what the downtime is.

Feedback

I next asked folks for feedback: things they liked, things they didn't like and wanted addressed, as well as things they wanted introduced. With the format explained, I led.

Nathan (GM)

I really liked the character work going on; no matter how wonky things got Andy and Lena stayed relentlessly focused on how things affected their characters. They also played a lot with subtext, describing in pretty great detail little facial shifts and other stuff that I just adored. All the little twitches that siblings are so sensitive to they played up. It was great.

Less great was my own lack of focus. I had tried a few things that fell apart as they hit the table and had created a bit of a mess. I had partially intended to not make an arc that was self-contained, but felt that I had gone too far. 

I personally wanted to see more of what made someone become a member of the immortal Council. What did it mean to be immortal? What had to be given up? And what if not all of them were good? What did that look like?

Andy

Andy agreed that the character work was really strong and enjoyed it. He and Lena had crafted some really good emotional scenes. The arc had retained a good emotional core. He also really liked going back to the Argentum Empire and seeing it again.

Andy's criticisms were... completely on point, and not what I expected them to be. Andy said that the plot about the stars vanishing had been more or less dropped, and that had been a primary piece of concern for Anneli. Andy also wanted to see more of the fallout from the time traveling that happened, specifically the Dahaka. What had happened there? He wanted more definition on it.

I honestly just kinda expected them to want to drop the arc entirely.

Andy also asked about somehow getting back to the Ring of Tears. He wanted to reconnect Anneli to that piece of the past.

Lena

Lena agreed about the emotional core. She had found that, as weird as the plot had become, its focus on character was amazingly consistent. She also agreed that she wanted to see more of the consequences of the time travel. What had they accomplished? What sorta backlash was coming? Lena then asked if we could find a way to not only get back to the Ring of Tears but to see more of the fallout of the Lone Keep cult. Nomi had been a member of that cult for a while, what would happen if dai ran into more members of that former cult? I honestly hadn't expected that.

The State of the Sky

Andy brought up a good point: the plot about the vanished sky had dropped out. Part of it was that introducing Nomi significantly affected the plot, changing the focus of the story. So now that we had resolved the myriad conflicts brought about by bringing the two sisters back together, what were we going to do about the sky?

I said that I didn't really know how to approach the problem and wanted to broach that with the folks at the table. Naturally speaking the cloud that surrounded the planet would be dying down around five months or so. Now, speaking on a meta level that wasn't a problem; we needed to determine what answer we wanted. I broke down the three states we could do: sky remains black, cloud goes away, or something strange happens. If the sky stayed black that would mean someone was probably keeping it that way, and that while that would change the plot it would keep Anneli's motivations intact from the start of the campaign.

We all opted for that: the sky would stay dark. And that meant someone was keeping it that way. Which kinda implies the meta-goal of the next arc. I think. 

The Trait Vote

We're finally here! The trait vote! Here's the actual thing. We listed out our suggested traits, and then started to have our conversation.

Anneli

Nathan

Drop Slightly Clumsy, change Righteous to Fearless, and add Tough as Nails

My logic was that Slightly Clumsy, a trait earned from a Mortal Wound from years ago, just didn't really apply anymore. Anneli was no longer the Righteous icon dai had become in the eyes of the Argentum people, but had become a fearless, badass warrior, whose body was toughening up in the face of constant adversity.

Lena

Drop Slightly Clumsy, Righteous to Cool-Headed, add Aura of Determination

So Lena was in complete agreement about nixing Slightly Clumsy and Righteous, but wanted to add Aura of Determination. Anneli had been the bedrock of the sisters, constantly helping Nomi regain dail composure at key times. So Lena wanted something to reflect Anneli's leadership, but at the time she didn't really know what particular trait she wanted.

Andy

Drop Slightly Clumsy, swap Righteous for Dreamer, add Aura of Determination

Turns out nobody thought Slightly Clumsy and Righteous should go. But Andy wanted to go for Dreamer, as that allowed Anneli to take dail experiences with Dream and seeing other things from other worlds and making that a part of dail plans. Lena and I adored that idea, and took to it at once. Lena, who was looking for a trait, loved that idea.

And so this is what we ended up with:

Drop Slightly Clumsy

Swap Righteous for Dreamer

Add Aura of Determination

Nomi

Nathan

Drop Guarded, Swap Compulsive Liar for Snarky, add Itching for a Fight (C-O Intimidation, start in Aggressive stance)

I saw Nomi as becoming more open and not as openly secretive, as well as being openly hostile to those who got in the way of Nomi and dail sister.

Andy

Drop Compulsive Liar, swap Bitter to Grief-Touched, add The Killer

Andy saw Nomi as opening up more, and emphasized dail's growth from Bitterness to someone who was may be willing to grieve. The Killer makes Nomi better at Fight! and Ranged and Cover. 

Lena

Drop Educated, swap Callous for Familial Loyalty, and add The Killer

Lena brought up that Educated didn't come up... at all. Not at all. Like, at all at all. Lena wanted to get rid of Callous because, at the end of the day, Nomi had started to care about something... dail family. The rest of the detritus hasn't gone away. And this was another situation where The Killer just became a unanimous vote. 

Drop Educated

Swap Callous for Familial Loyalty

Add The Killer

And there we have it! We're going to take a break, as Andy and I go onto do an eight session gameof Hearts of Wulin while we all digest everything that went down. In about a month I think I'll start writing up my thoughts on the arc and see what it is I want to throw at the campaign. The idea of going and ending the darkness that was unwittingly started by Mikansia but now continued by... something else. Maybe throw in some of the folks from the Lone Keep, get some time glitches and loops thrown in, all from bad members of the Council?

We'll see!