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Post by Lidhuin on Sept 10, 2019 22:00:28 GMT
With the intent being to start the game late September/early October, pending rule development and all that, people are more than welcome to start thinking up and hashing out character concepts.
They can either be posted here, in a different thread, or messaged to me. Ultimately, every character must possess the trait "Blooded", which defines them as a ruler and may eventually lead to other traits (To be determined), but beyond that there aren't any requirements as such. We'll start off somewhat freeform and I'll apply case-by-case judgment to prevent absurd characters.
Considerations:
Think about which skills will affect which actions. As a general rule, a skill should only affect one, maybe two, domain actions. If this proves untenable, that might change (remember, this game is still a work in progress).
Think about your character's beliefs and instincts and how they might interact with the world. While you'll probably get most of your Artha from holdings under the current rules, beliefs especially are crucial for the roleplaying aspect. Beliefs and instincts may also drive events.
You don't have to start with holdings or a reputation if you don't want to. If you want to build that up during the course of the game, that's fine. You can also start with however much your lifepaths can afford you. Recognize that characters, especially humans vs dwarves & elves, are not equal. If you want to play an underdog, then you will be an underdog. Conversely, even if you're a powerful character, you should probably have some flaws via traits especially.
If your dice always exceed the obstacle, you will never improve your skills. Adventures will ultimately drive the story and may give exceptional rewards upon success. They (probably) won't be as deadly as the last Birthright campaign, but expect failure in adventures and remember that failure in Burning Wheel is meant to drive the story forward. Note that if adventures are deadly, they are likely to be a lot deadlier in Burning Wheel than typical DnD, but probably only about as deadly as the last Birthright campaign (pro-tip: Always, always, always have a persona at hand to ward off death).
Mundane vs Magical is going to be a part of the game. If you are magical - Gifted, Dwarven or Elven - expect to come into conflict with those who are not, and vice versa. Province growth (and decay) is expected to be a lot faster in this game, because Rule Province is going to be a simple +-1 province level, just a difficult check.
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Post by asaxon on Sept 11, 2019 17:11:21 GMT
I am largely unfamiliar with burning wheel, but I threw myself in an made the below as a character. I have no idea how it needs to be changed to be campaign compliant. I also have no idea how well the character will perform in this game (or anygame). My goal was a character that was Average ability but neglectful minor lord, Decent warrior and Field marshal, and about average tournament entrant.
Is the character below viable?
Descended from the original Saxons invited as mercenaries to the island, and granted lands for their service, Alban is the inheritor of a small fief. The fief while dominantly Saxon, has adopted much of the Briton's culture namely Christianity. Alban was raised in the military tradition of his forebears taking the classic education in becoming a knight. Alban while a devoted student with a degree of natural aptitude neglected honing his skill in favour of delving into the history and lore of knighthood. The deeds and accomplishments of Arthur's Knights of the Round table drawing particular inspiration. Upon inheriting the lands of his father, Alban continued is knightly pursuits, using the proceeds of the estate to fund his travels as a knight errant. Alban wanders the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues, either in knightly duels or competing in tournaments. Alban remains largely untested in matters of war, beyond routing out bandits or serving as champion in trial by combat.
Character Name: Alban Stock: Man Age: 32 Gender: Male
Born Noble > Page > Squire > Knight > Lord
Will B 6 Perception B 3 Power B 3 Forte B 3 Agility G 3 Speed B 3
Mortal Wound B 9 Reflexes B 3 Health B 5 Steel B 7 Hesitation 4 Stride 7 Circles B 3 Resources B 2
Su Li Mi Se Tr Mo B2 B4 B6 B7 B8 B9
Armor Training Power/Speed 1 Brawling Power B 0 Champion-wise Perception B 2 Conspicuous Will B 3 Crossbow Agility G 2 Dance Speed B 1 Estate Management Perception B 5 Etiquette Will/Perception B 4 Falconry Will/Perception B 0 Heraldry Perception B 2 Hunting Perception/Agility B 2 Intimidation Will B 0 Knives Agility G 1 Lance Agility/Power B 5 Mounted Combat Training Will/Power 1 Read Perception B 1 Riding Will B 3 Shield Training Agility 1 Sing Will B 0 Sword Agility G 5 Tactics Will/Perception B 3 Write Perception/Agility B 2
Fearless die Your Lordship character Mark Of Privilege die Sworn Homage die
Gear Warhorse 12 Gear Arms, Run Of The Mill Quality 5 Gear Armor, Full Plated Mail, Run Of The Mill Quality 50 Property Property, A Manor Or Small Estate 40 Relationship Black Knight; significant, hateful 8
Beleifs: The land cries out for the return of King Arthur, when his legacy is restored I will be invited to sit at the round table for my deeds and chivalric example. There is one true faith, and god will protect his flock should their leader be virtuous and true. Fame, love, and Fortune as best pursued through adventure and tests of prowess, not as a bureaucrat
Instincts: Always keep your lance on target, trusting your armor and horse to do their jobs. Never neglect ones Arms, armor and steed they are always cared for. When passing a stranger, always keep a hand on your weapon if you are not saluting.
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Post by Lidhuin on Sept 11, 2019 17:42:21 GMT
I would modify "Your Lordship" to the "Blooded" trait (a variant trait with benefits TBD, but generally required to rule holdings and whatnot), since the Knight background already permits the Lord background.
The beliefs are good, and I would probably add an "immediate" goal to them - something you might be able to accomplish between 1-4 turns that works towards the overarching belief.
Starting Holdings: +1D Affiliation from Mark of Privilege, +1D Affiliation from Mark of Homage, +3D property from Property & Relationship (close enough to 50), character's choice.
I would also grant this character +1 resource circles die (48 resource points is close enough to 50 for me)
(I am going to have think about who would start with province levels. This character might be able to apply Affiliation/Property towards province level ownership instead)
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jonah
New Member
Posts: 14
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Post by jonah on Sept 22, 2019 20:17:45 GMT
I'm curious, looking over your character I see you have 3 skills which are listed as Shade Grey rather than Black? I thought you could only improve the shade of a skill through aretha earned in game play?
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Post by asaxon on Sept 22, 2019 23:04:45 GMT
I am new at burning wheel, too so if that's an error that needs correction let me know. My understanding is that the "root" skill for those skills is agility which is purchases as grey so associated skills are grey as well.
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jonah
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Post by jonah on Sept 23, 2019 0:36:25 GMT
I think I remember that about the root skill. Do you know how you got agility shaded Grey? I just read the Burning Wheel instructions last night and this morning, so not saying you are doing anything wrong, just trying to understand.
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Post by asaxon on Sept 23, 2019 1:48:19 GMT
charred.herokuapp.com/#/ is great for learning character generation as you start internalizing game concepts. IIRC it cost 5 life path points to shade an ability. Was it worth it? I have no clue, but it seemed a good way to represent natural talent over practiced ability.
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Post by Lidhuin on Sept 23, 2019 4:55:46 GMT
The app is good to put together a quick character and I recommend using it! I also recommend verifying it with the newest BW rules, because it's unfortunately out-of-date.
As I recall, shade shifting one step costs 5 points of the respective ability/stat/skill. For agility, it also means that the skills requiring only agility are also shade-shifted to grey. For each gray-shaded stat, you would also add two before total any average (for skills and attributes)
Page 50 discusses opening new skills with a grey/white shade
Page 86 discusses starting with a grey/white shade
Page 88 discusses starting skills with a grey/white shade
Page 91 discusses starting steel with a grey shade
Given how crucial resources are, I'm unlikely to allow the Resources skill to be grey-shaded at game start, unless you manage to start with 15 resources.
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jonah
New Member
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Post by jonah on Sept 23, 2019 6:24:37 GMT
Thanks, I've been playing with the character generator today. But I must be missing something as the copy of the burning wheel I downloaded only goes to page 74.
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Post by Lidhuin on Sept 23, 2019 16:23:53 GMT
The free version that's available for download is sadly only the first part of the book. The designer, Luke, has some sort of irrational hatred against pdfs and doesn't distribute BW electronically, even to the point of publicly and rudely refusing to accommodate people with disabilities.
Of course, no one has ever scanned it and uploaded it, and people who buy the book never download the pdf. That definitely doesn't happen.
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jonah
New Member
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Post by jonah on Sept 23, 2019 18:04:30 GMT
Gotha, i'll order the book then.
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Post by Lidhuin on Sept 23, 2019 22:14:53 GMT
In theory, you could rely on the app if you want and I'll verify with my copy of that book. This holds true for any other players as well.
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jonah
New Member
Posts: 14
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Post by jonah on Sept 24, 2019 14:37:17 GMT
Do I just need the book for character generation, or will the information in the rest of the books be useful throughout the game?
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Post by Lidhuin on Sept 26, 2019 16:58:35 GMT
Do I just need the book for character generation, or will the information in the rest of the books be useful throughout the game? The book goes into detail about character generation (incl. traits and descriptions for them - however, most traits can be described as follows: Descriptive, die-traits and call-on traits. A descriptive trait is RP-only. A die-trait grants a die to a skill (incl. stuff like +1D affiliation). A call-on trait allows you to reroll failed dice. There are some other more unique traits besides that, but all of it can be handled on the forum without the book). It also details more complicated fighting rules, how to suffer and recover from injuries, and more complicated talking rules. But you can definitely play without knowing the rules and potentially without using those rules.
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jonah
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Posts: 14
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Post by jonah on Sept 26, 2019 19:37:25 GMT
I bought a used copy. If this game lasts 4 years, i'll probably spend upwards of 1,000 hours on it. Worth $30.
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