26+6=1

Hitting the gym

Another Himedere checking in. I love setting up situations where the players and/or the characters squirm in anguish about what to do.

My favorite so far was an estranged princess living as a man and hostel owner. He had turned his back on the throne and wanted little to do with it. As a bonus he was the only child of the king’s only remaining child. Fast forward a bit and he needed a (legal) favor from the king. Went to court and met with his grandfather. The king would do it, no strings attached if a) he returned to court and resumed his duties as prince and b) sired an heir.

There were a good thirty minutes of the players anguishing if he should accept while going deep into character motivations and the setting. During that game I don’t think I did as much concrete worldbuildning as during those thirty minutes. I loved it, the players loved it. Great time.

Issue in that case I rather see as why is it allowed to enter into legally binding agreements when you aren’t sober. Why there isn’t a (forced) period to review the papers.

Marriage is a legally binding agreement. Let’s treat it as such.

The Swedish vacation law (Semesterlag 1977:480) amateurishly translated by me. And I am in no way experienced enough in our labour law to comment on how it looks for those not working full time. The short lesson is to Remember Ådalen, or those that fought, bled and died four our labour rights.

4 § En arbetstagare har rätt till tjugofem semesterdagar varje semesterår […]
An employee have right to twentyfive vacation days per year

12 § Om inte annat har avtalats, ska semesterledigheten förläggas så, att arbetstagaren får en ledighetsperiod av minst fyra veckor under juni-augusti[…]
If nothing else have been agreed upon, the vacation is to be scheduled such that the employee get a vacation period of at least four weeks during june -august

Unions work. Labour movements work.

As long as the Russian bear is around to scare the west and occupy our mibds the Chinese dragon is at much more liberty to do whatever they want.

Love the addition of “again”.

I mean if you don’t want your yacht sunk then don’t sail it where orcas sink yachts. Sorry but actually not sorry for the casual victimblaming.

The more abstract the map is the more of a support for TotM it becomes. I selfom do a map, rather a flowchart. Quicker, easier and knocks out the last desire to measure things.

This brings us back to zones, a good middle ground. Draw rough map, or great map, and on it mark intresting combat zones. Some are separated with emptiness, others by obstacles.

For example a tavern brawl. Zones could be the Bar, Kitchen, Common Room, Balconies, Private Rooms, Out Front and Out Back.

Fighting on the Balconies could be tight, only one in width and with the risk of being thrown off it into the Commonroom. In the Kitchen there would be fire hazards, improvized weapons, knifes and the Stew. Not to forget other ways to spice things up in there. Around the Bar there would be some cover fighting someone on the other side, bottles to be broken and combatants to glide alond the bar for maximum mental damage.

And so on. Make each zone memorable and with special features. Did I mention drawing it out really helps?

Do you actually want us not to repost it?

If the DM asks you you really want to do something look at their expression and do it anyway.

If you want to do something really stupid, crazy or narrativly disruptive look towards your fellow players to get their consent. Then do it.

The time to argue technicalities is outside of sessions to not waste precious gametime. Do it during sessions only if you are into that weird shit.

The best way to get to use new character options is through DM bribes. In this case a sourcebook is recommended.

If you help clean up afterwards you may get inspiration.

Fil (fermented/soured milk) and musli in my opinion cannot be beaten. Get bowl, open fridge to get fil, pour fil into bowl, get muesli, add that and you are done. Pretty unprocessed, plenty of fiber and (depending on variety) lots of good bacteria. Cleaning up is also quick, water and a few swirls with the brush. Making coffee takes longer than chomping down on a bowl of fil and muesli.

Premiums they will then offload onto renters keeping their margins.

Larger and/or gamey games 1€/h. Here I put games such as the Tomb Raiders, cRPGs etc.

Narrative experiences 5€/h. Stray Gods and other high quality intense experiences. Often short and with limited replayability. Like seeing a movie a second time.

My Swords of the Serpentine have become absence-cursed. We have had a few weeks now where we haven’t been able to play. Bit sad as it sucks energy and I really want to give a GUMSHOE system a good run for its money.

The ICON game I’m in is marching slowly ahead. Emphasis slowly. We are so very new to it that combats takes just so much time. On the other hand fighting is what it has going for it. And the combat is good, really good. So not complaining too much.

Also playing in a Burning Wheel game where things are marching on. Good group and good play but sometimes wish we would have less roleplay and more rolls to close out scenes. Next session we do start with a Duel of Wits, possibly a three way duel of wits.

Think of all the new beachfront properties!

/s

I’ll probably pick up a copy this print run. For its pictures at least. Any idea when preorders will be coming?

I feel Ironsworn is a good mix of PbtA and BW. At its core it is a PbtA, moves and all that jazz. But it hands over narrative drive to the players in a direct way. Ironsworn demands Vows to be sworn, essentially telling the Player that if this matter for your character a vow need to be made. Its progress then tacked and when fulfilled rewards given. I see parts of the Artha Cycle there (minus the meta-currencies) but one not as active as BW’s.

I find a simple way is to relinquish control of the game and let the players drive it. Once you, together with the group, have set up the Situation and Big Picture hand over the reins to the players. Saying

Ok, you have your Beliefs. Anyone wants to begin trying to achieve something?

It may be slow in the beginning, lots of questions and hesitation. But be a bit careful using this technique as it can devolve into a bunch of solo games. Nothing wrong with that but it may not be what you want.

Second method is a bit more directed. Between sessions look at beliefs that weren’t touch upon and figure out a scene where you can drop the characters straight into. Or if your players are active and send you their new ones take one of them. Drop them straight in, no fuss, full in media res. If they want to poison the king drop them into the castle kitchens and ask them where they got the poison from. Use that information, with perhaps a test, to set up their immediate obstacle. I also call this the Blades method (as I’ve take it from Blades in the Dark).

Instincts and traits I seldom get a chance to actively engage when GMing, have so many other things going on then. Leave these things up the players.

Sometimes though it really helps to see how others do it. Jump into a few actual plays, I would skip around in their character burning sessions to see if their flavour warrants more in-depth dedication.

Read it and I have to say I vehemently disagree with the author’s conclusions. Only the third point I can a bit agree with, but not the others. Not saying it is bad advice but for the goal of “three methods to get the magic of BURNING WHEEL’s approach in your game, no matter what it may be”* the mark is missed. My methods instead would be

• THE
• ARTHA
• CYCLE

It is in its Artha Cycle one finds the magic of Burning Wheel, everything else is just fuel for the fire. The Artha Cyle then…

1. The player states a Belief their character has. It is good, but not required, to include a goal in this Belief.
2. The player has their character try and achieve said Belief, if the test really matters Artha (player-facing meta currency) is spent on the roll to improve the chance for success. Perhaps they get a bit on their way, perhaps they succeed. Or they fail. Regardless…
3. The player is awarded for playing their character’s Belief with Artha (meta currencies) and the character is rewared by getting better at the skill.
4. Update Belief and start the cycle anew

That there is Burning Wheel at its core. You can find more about it in the Hub and Spokes (free), or just ask if you want to know more about it.

Relationships, which the author so focuses on, are a tool for the player to write Beliefs about and use to achieve them. They are also excellent tools for the GM to challenge Beliefs as at the beginning of the game every relationship the characters has are someone the player spent points on to create when they burnt their character. So they matter because the Players have said so. But you can remove them and still have Burning Wheel.

Lets talk a bit about the Author’s third point

III: Build Massive, Compound Stakes on Dice Rolls

I agree that Burning Wheel really wants the tests to matter. Spamming tests are not the way. Let’s circle back to the Artha Cycle. Players and Characters are rewarded (mainly) for having their Beliefs in play, which on the other side says that if the scene isn’t about a Belief of theirs there is barely anything in it. Instincts, Traits, other PCs, relationships etc may be there using the character to get involved. But back to big tests. The less you test in Burning Wheel there more those tests matters and the more the player can make those tests matter through spending Artha on them. The player is also more inclined to spend Artha on tests if they don’t feel they have to spend it on several minor tests. What I’ve found this leads to at the table is a test or two to set up the big test. Also there is a focus around the test, a focus to better position their character for it. So once the test comes around it already matters, the table has invested in it and we are all eager to see it play out.

That is all I have to say about it for now. Read Burning Wheel, at least the Hub and Spokes. There are good things in it.

But since I cannot shut up - if you are running a more classical fantasy game implementing the Artha Cycle from Torchbearer may be a better idea as it is a bit scaled down.