It Revolves on This: Say Yes to Failure

My final piece of advice for playing Burning Wheel is this: do not be afraid to fail. Whereas most games only reward success, Burning Wheel rewards both success and failure. I would even say that it incentivizes failure since its the game's philosophy that failure leads to complications and complications lead to drama and tough choices.

This is one of the things I often find players struggle with most when learning this game. Players want to play it safe and live to see another day. That's not what Burning Wheel is about. It's about challenging your beliefs and seeing how far you'll really go to see them through. Far more likely than dying is having to make difficult decisions about who and what you really care about. You'll never get what you want if you play it safe.

Take the chance, roll the dice, and embrace the outcome, whatever that may be.

It Revolves on This: The Sword and How You Wield It

You've read the rules. You're ready to meet the game on its own terms. You've assembled your group of players. Time to make characters, right? Wrong. As I suggested in a previous post, you should always begin with a module. For Burning Wheel, that means running "The Sword", a simple one-scene scenario meant to introduce the basics of the game.

The situation is a familiar one, how to split the loot, namely, a sword that all of the players have beliefs about. You can find it here, along with each of the characters here, here, here, and here. Side note: if you've been paying attention you have everything you need to take Burning Wheel for a spin between the free "Hub and Spokes" PDF and this adventure.

Aside from the obvious reasons why you should begin with the demo scenario, a major one is simply that creating characters in Burning Wheel is a lengthy process. There are no classes, no obvious builds, no way to game the system. It's all about concept and representing that concept within the rules. Since this will all be alien to new players, I find it's best to front-load the character creation session with "The Sword" so that players will better understand the ramifications of their decisions.

After you've played through this scenario, start talking about what you liked. What did the system do that interests you? What do you want to see more of? Keep talking and asking questions. Eventually you will have enough that you and the group can move into building a situation that you're all ready to explore. The most important step at this stage is concept. What kind of game do you want to play? What kind of character do you want play?

It Revolves on This: The Hub and The Spokes

At almost 600 pages, The Burning Wheel rulebook is a monstrously huge tome. The good news is that you don't have to bother with a large chunk of it in order to get a game going. In fact, it's discouraged if you want to have a successful game.

The core of the game is called "The Hub and the Spokes", and is the foundation that the rest of the game builds upon. These first 75 pages are really all you need to get a game off the ground. Seriously. Some of my earliest failed attempts were simply due to trying to engage too much of the system at once.

For your first few sessions, possibly even your first campaign, stick to the rules in this section. Focus on writing interesting beliefs, mastering intents and tasks, and creating dynamic failure consequences and you should see the Artha begin to flow.

Once you have that down, you can consider what you want to add to your game. The other sub-systems crank up the drama, but also come with a considerable amount of rules crunch that will interfere with learning the basics.

Finally, you can get those rules for free from BWHQ here.

It Revolves on This: This Wheel's On Fire

Above all else, having a successful experience with Burning Wheel hinges on this: you must meet the game on its own terms. This is solid advice for trying out any new system but it is particularly critical for Burning Wheel.

The conventional wisdom is that you can just strip out the parts of a game you don't like and what add what you think is missing. This philosophy is largely the guiding principle behind all of the variations of the D20 system and it has produced some great games. However, if you go into Burning Wheel with this intent, you will likely break the game. The game's mechanics are so interlinked that any changes or additions may have significant, unintended effects. Often, rules that seem counterintuitive make much more sense in the context of play.

Along those lines, Burning Wheel is a set of procedures that, if followed, produce a certain kind of play experience: one that is fueled by the character's goals and the tough decisions they must make to achieve them. You may not want this or enjoy how Burning Wheel achieves that end, and that's fine. This game is not for everyone but it's important to honor these procedures if you're to find out if it's right for you.

It Revolves on This: Getting the Most From Burning Wheel

Since I first discovered it a few years ago, The Burning Wheel has become one of my favorite games. It has mechanical depth (not to be confused with complexity) I've yet to see matched in any other system; it puts the focus on the characters and their beliefs, leading to an intense, drama-centric roleplaying experience; and it's totally changed how I approach and think about RPGs. 

This was not always the case. My initial desire to like it never turned into a good session, which meant a lot of false starts and campaigns that were total flops. Still, every time I sat down and read the book I was inspired, ready to challenge my player's Beliefs or see my own tested. Despite my persistence, it wasn't until I sat in the player's seat with some experienced Burners that things finally clicked.

"It Revolves on This" will be a short series of posts on how to avoid the pitfalls that I fell into while trying to figure this game out. I'm not sure how much of what I'm saying will be new but, if nothing else, my voice will join the chorus of advice so that you may get the most out of this game.