Why I Love the Burning Wheel 

If one of your beliefs is "Burning Wheel is the best system ever, I will convince other players to go and give it a shot." you have now gained a Persona point.

in writing we define a character as "someone who wants something really bad" and plot as "what they do to achieve that want" so it seems burning wheel really is focused on the most basic elements of story in a way that more rpgs should

I never thought I'd enjoy watching a slideshow on youtube, but here I am enjoying it.

Yes, so good. Burning Wheel was one of the first games that every decision I made in character creation was to give the character more personality and history and not more power. And when I first started playing I was kinda nervous about that, because even with one lifepath more than the other players, his highest skill was a 3. But it didn't matter because following your beliefs (make any sacrifice in my service to the Plague Lord) towards your goals, gave me way more direction than a B5 Persuasion ever will.

This video was what got me interested in burning wheel years ago. It's still a great video.

Ah, I come back to this video every so often and dream of a day when the stars align and I’ll either get together a group willing to play Burning Wheel or find a group to play it with. Thank you Adam for keeping my dream alive. 😁🙏📿

Damn, it's already been 3 years since I first watched this life-changing video. Thank you for being amazing, Adam!

This has always been one of my favorite of your videos Adam!

This sounds like the perfect game for theater people.

genuinely one of my players sent me this to convince me to run it for her....

You´ve sold this to me. As a literature! I have nooo chance to ever get enough friends together to really play any rollplay game. And certainly not for a longer period of time. But you´ve talked about this system sooo nicely, that I bought it just to read it for myself.

This is a game I've been looking for, Thank you Adam! also Adam, you are a bit intimidating when you're passionate, shows how good this game really is.

Adam you are amazing, I want to play this now xx

I miss your Burning wheel videos, I never got to finish them all. I bought the book because of you and ran a short campaign for my group. They all loved it. It definitely elevated our rollplaying game and we still use BITs in some of our roleplay focused campaigns

Rewatched this years later in prep for session 0 off my own burning wheel game. Wish me luck!

'The word artha literally translates as “meaning, sense, goal, purpose or essence” depending on the context.' - Wikipedia

ok.. so watching this I'm even more excited to see the new campaign launch!

Hey Adam, how do you think Burning Wheel would work with a game like the West Marches or just a large sandbox world in general?

This seems so crazily complicated. It's intriguing, but so damn fiddly.

You need to do an hour video on the flow chart diagram. P.S. do you have the RPG saved on YT? If so can I watch?

Haha! it's about time you made this video!

I am excite for watching the roll20 videos!!

Adam your obsession with rpgs has had a drastic effect on me. Before you joined the rollplay crew I watched games and now thanks to being everything else I DM them. When you threw down the beardman challenge to Steven I too picked it up and one of my student from the DRC called me Jesus in class today. Stay awesome dude

I was looking forward to seeing something like this from Adam as he's been talking about it of late. It does seem complex to get new players into, but it probably could be easier if a "cheat sheet" or a smaller concise guide was made.

Adam, I am watching this older vid of yours after picking up the revised Gold Edition at Origins and just wanted to say "Thank you!". Your video content is The Best on the internet imo. (I guess I am re-discovering a couple things here.) I really appreciate your enthusiastic, thoughtful and energetic coverage of the games you seem impressed with. Now a question: do you have any advice for selling a group of D&D players on The Burning Wheel? I ran The Sword for them a couple years ago and got no takers.

Hey Adam, I think it might be a good idea if you let your players nominate a trait in the trait vote at the end of each show. I thought it might get really frustrating if someone acted like they had one trait but the audience got a different trait read from it. -For example, Kalen, the spellcaster, didn't have enough points for the trait diplomatic. He then spends the first few sessions attempting to act out that trait, but gets traits like, helpful, neutral, annoying, etc. Just a suggestion and I look forward to Burning Wheel!

Aw cool. I've been looking forward to this. I am already already very much into BW but I was looking forward to hearing your opinion on it.

Big thanks for the big efforts you've undertaken here! I have avoided BW for years as I'd flicked through and thought "meh, another elves/dwarves/orcs boredom party". I did not realise it was an integral system that was so adaptable and added actual resonance and depth, not just technical details to overcomplicate. Just ordered the main book and codex off the back of this...thank you! Also, great job conveying your enthusiasm and passion, I think that's what swung it :)

Duel of Wits needs a Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock -type diagram. (or not, tables work too.)

I'm a huge fan of the World of Darkness - White Wolf dot system where there is a heavy emphasis on character specific, non-combat related aspects. This game takes that idea to the next level.

Great overview, this convinced me to go pick this up...now to get my players into this...

Thank you for this. It's an amazing tool to get people to agree to try the system.

Really cool explanation I’m borrowing loads of TBW with a little flavour from The Riddle of Steel combat, which is compatible. 😊

Very interesting. I had son difficulty wrapping my head around Burning Wheel before bit this video explains it well. I do have a question. About making custom lifepaths skills and traits. Is it difficult and are there rules or guidelines to help me?

This video is now my commute.

I loved your talking of failing forward. It is something that I've learned to do and use in my own GMing. It hit me tonight as I was playing in my friend's Pathfinder game that he doesn't understand this idea. He had left a clue to lead to the next 'dungeon'. Only two people in the group knew of the clue (problem 1 - If something is important make sure several people know that fact or give multiple ways to know it). So, the players that knew of the clue asked to make a dice roll to locate this new location using an appropriate skill. Roll happens and it is a decent roll but not amazing. The GM then says the characters don't know where this new location is (Problem 2 - If the story hinges on succeeding at doing something then you should consider just setting a price rather than leaving it up to chance of a skill). The group, without a new direction, now goes to find a place sell some items because we don't have a new goal. The GM seeing this complains that he will have to make a new dungeon because the players are not heading towards the stuff he prepared (Problem 3 - When the die roll failed, I pointed out that he could have failed us forward by having us end up with a direction to a place within 20 miles of where we needed to go and have to locate more information to get closer which would have kept things on track to his adventure). Failing forward would have allowed things to progress and still keep the story interesting with the randomness of having to fix the complication that we found ourselves in. Instead, we are now just wondering along going anywhere but where the GM hoped we might go. BTW I'm looking forward to your series and found a group on roll20 that I hope to get better at doing Burning Wheel.

The passion is real in this video BloodTrail

BWG was actually my first RPG, and easily the best $25 I've ever spent. Can recommend wholeheartedly, and even though I'm already quite literally sold, watching everything outlined neatly by Adam was a joy. Fight for what you believe.

I found a GEM! Maaaan Loved that Omar from The Wire reference.

Adam, my friends and I saw your video and we were impressed by the beauty of this game and we WANT to play it. However, we don't know anyone experienced with the system around here. What do you recommend ? Read the whole thing and start from scrap? Watching other people play? Thanks.

In the example when the player tries to impress the king by killing the guy with his sword could he have used conspicuous as a ForK? or must the skills be related to the skill used and not to the intent?

just finding this now, and the core mechanics are basically like white wolf games where you build a dice pool and roll them to hit a number? also I remember the WoD games to be very RP heavy and like how you describe for this game, what do you think the major differences are that make burning wheel better? I guess the intent mechanic is interesting, but that could always have been roleplayed... I guess this game just fleshes that out more for people so people flock to it? I suppose that makes sense, the more defined something is for people the easier it is for them to imagine and make up stuff to go along with guidelines.

@adam How would you go around making NPC's? The same as PC's?

watching this in 2017 because I am so hyped for series 3

Is it only fantasy? Or can the framework apply to scifi?

I think you can import many of the dynamic character, duel of wits and reward structure aspects to most rpgs. It all depends on how you reward players (Xp) and how many additional rules you want. Know the probability curves of the games you are trying to combine and making a conversion shouldn’t be that hard.

Definitely would of been nice not to have 30 seconds of silence lol, I thought my speakers were broken.

Adam clearly did well in high school French.

So you can break a task down into components by modifying the OB but once that's done is it all or nothing on the roll? Can you succeed in the first 2 parts then fail the 3rd or is that not possible?

You sold me im gonna try it out. Is it good with different genres? Opinion welcome.

Great walkthrough, thank you. Seems to me like beliefs would be better called drives.

how does one go about buying burning wheel? i looked on amazon but couldn't find it. is it an ebay hunting thing?

Thanks for the vid. I love the talk on mechanics and supporting game play as it applies to all game design. So often two seemingly identical games play so differently due to subtle differences. Even in totally different games, like F2P first person shooters, you can see it in lack of teamplay say. Why don't folks work together to win the map, because if you look at the rewards (coins given out to buy stuff at the F2P store etc.) you find it's not related to map winning and of course in F2P folks are playing for coins for the grind, not to win. Even if the game was identical (think Team Fortress 2 before and after the shop and hats were introduced).

21:13 I like to roll for specific sneaks. Not a whole lot, just at challenging points where guards or sensors would be a real challenge. It adds to the tension and if the player fails at stealth at a certain point, I say that he incidentally made a noise(In the darkness, your boot knocks over a half empty soda can and soda runs out, fizzing.) and I role for the opponent's alertness level, to see if the opponent is paying attention(The guard stops and his head turns, peering in your direction) or he doesn't even notice the event. If the opponent is successful, the opponent investigates the noise and the player must make a new stealth role with a small penalty. Perhaps, with another opponent roll, the guard notices the freshly spilled can, which would further penalize the player's next role.(The guard turns on a blazing accessory light on his rifle and begins scanning the area with it.) This builds suspense and uncertainty. If the player is successful, the opponent looks around and brushes the noise off or just can't find the cause of the spilled can and throws it in a trash can and the player can continue his shadow walking into the complex. If the player fails, the guard radios in that he heard a noise and requests addition units to search the area or gets caught by the beam of light, blinding the player, penalizing his accuracy for attacks and the fight is on. It's my job as a GM to make things complex and challenging, not simple. If it doesn't feel dangerous, how is it fun? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bg4AOqZxRcM.html

great video. What gm hurt you though XD?

how hard is this game to GM the first time?

I feel like it's taken me more than a year to get comfortable and confident enough to run a Dungeon World one-shot. Now I'm just hoping that introducing a more narrative-focused game system like DW is a good stepping stone to a character-driven, narrative-focused game like Burning Wheel! Side note: more RPG books need to be as gorgeous as Burning Wheel Gold!

what theme is burning wheel based around your example I take it that its high fantasy or the like but those might just be you trying to make correlations other might understand so tell me what are some of burning wheels kind of themes if you could describe it as.

This system looks amazing. Too bad I don't play rpg's anymore, else I'd totally would love to give it a try =(

Is there links anywhere for this Burning Wheel game you played?

Is it possible to bring that "Trait Council" into the Dungeon World Aligment Mechanics?

Looks pretty interesting. A lot of this seems like a further developed West End Game's 'D6 System' from the 1980s-90s. It's a D6 die pool skill-based game, and then BIT is a more complicated 'advantages', and 'disadvantages'. The wounds system too. Then there's some Warhammer Fantasy in there with the lifepaths.

Not super relevant but you using Tyrion as an example really really makes me wanna play Burning Wheel but in the world of ice and fire

"Ok thats great but it needs more explosions." - Michael Bay LOL

So Adam, one could say you consider the Burning Wheel a Gesamtkunstwerk?

Could burning Wheel be used in a modern murder mystery or would the way challenges are resolved be an issue?

I love how excited and passionate about this game, it's magical :)

I just bought Burning Wheel. I am a bit nervous about it though because it uses the Games Workshop style multiple D6 pool to hit mechanic which I am never a fan of. The 2D6 bell curve in DungeonWorld feels better to me. The one time a dice pool has worked for me is Storyteller style games. For some reason the multiple D10 roll always felt satisfying. I won't hold the dice pool against the Burning Wheel before playing it though, I will give it a try and introduce it to my players.

How does the GM determine the difficulty of a challenge in a consistent/methodical way?

I really need to see a playing example for burning empire.

This system is incredibly well thought, way better than DnD imo. Thanks for the awesome video man!

Hmm. Ok, as his stuff on Rollplay and Roll20 is so good I'll give this a look. But man that system seems clunky. Is this gonna be live on Twitch or something?

Burning Wheel is the first game I want to DM for a second campaign. You can't explore all it has to offer in one story / one party.

The player at 1:00:00 is like WTF?! o_O

Great video only problem is glaives are a real world weapon. what Adam is thinking of i assume is a massive chakram that once thrown returns to the owner or something along that line of thought. but ya glaive in old English and french was referencing a different type of spear something more like the Japanese naginata

Hope JP watches this :)

With questions 2 and 3, am i right about this distinction? Q2 is about how well a game LETS you do what it's meant to be about and Q3 is about how effectively it makes you WANT to do that? So 5e inspiration is a (shitty) answer to Q3 and not even an attempt at Q2?

I have recently started to run a BW game and I ran into the following problem: The people I play with are very used to D&Ds "there is no rule, make stuff up"- system. How do you get them to see the advantage rather than a hurdle in a system that gives you clear rules for character creation? One player for example keeps insisting that he should be allowed to play a 40 year old Eleven general who has tortured an murdered since he was 10 but is unaffected by grief.

As interesting it will be watching you DM this with the roll20 people, I think it might be even more interesting to see you be a player in it and observe the way you about the game when you're not holding all the cards.

Hey Adam, I know this is a bit old now, but which edition of Burning Wheel is your favourite? Which edition would you recommend I start with? I don't mind heavy crunch.

How does Burning Wheel deal with more than one attacker vs. one defender and vice versa, be it in hand to hand combat or discussions, etc.?

The Question i have is: How do you start? Since it is such a complex System you cant just leave parts out until you understand them. So you pretty much have to understood the game before you even played it. At least as a GM

It's "fort" because it's a French word - it's only for forté or forter that it would be pronounced "fortay".

do you still love burning wheel?

Forte is probably a French word and most of the time you don't pronounce the last letter of a word in French (in certain cases it would be pronounced fort-ay though due to rules with vowels)

cud i use this for a star wars setting?

I got the gold edision.

1:00:30 yes please. Do that. I'd like to listen to that.

Looking for Burning Wheel players close to Vermont, White River junction

Hey Adam, my friends and I have played D&D and SWN, but no one has any experience with BW. It seems like the type of game that you need some experience in to GM well. Do you have any BW-specific advice for a GM new to the game?

There was a line, I forget if it was in the old burning wheel books, or what.. "At every moment in every game, say 'yes' or 'roll" Pretty much my GMing credo, but I can't remember where it actually comes from.

If you like mechanized character beliefs you might like Tenra Bansho Zero, it's sci-fi Japanese stuff.

Hi Adam what's up?.I would like to get the slices, the PDF of your Drop Box regarding the game. I would be more than grateful for that, thanks in advance. see u around.

This is the second time I watch this video and I really want to like this game, but one thing I can't get my head around when reading the rules or watching videos about BW is why the game needs to be so complex to reinforce acting upon your beliefs. Why does it need more complex skills, subsystems, etc. than what DW (my current favorite game) could offer with minor tweaks to the XP sources of income? I feel BW's core identity (BITs) could be condensed in a PbtA game, or even a DW hack or supplement

Game of Thrones and the masses voting for player traits!! You win, Adam, you win. All you needed to do was put in Dune and I would nerdgasm.

Why is "what kind of dice system does this use" a stupid question?

I just created my first Burning Wheel character. Burned my first character? It took me about 3 houers to do so on my own. I had to replan my lifepath a couple of times and got a bit frustrated about some things. Why cant a clerk become a servant/captive? Lucky for me there always seams to be a similiar lifepath that has no such enslavement immunity. Now I am exited to set up a group! And my character, who was only created so I could learn to use the burner, will rot forever in my notebook. A human being just born to be there, no intent or reason further then that. Existance without purpose. No goal and no chance for fulfillment. He is not even lost since there is no place for him to possibly belong to... Being god is fun!

ya i dont really pull the who you didnt say you grabed your sword/armor...ect tho never really like the idea of player walking in armor 24/7...anyone who ever wore any form or plate or even padded armor its hot and stuffy,and while not super hard to move in (if fitted well) you'd start to get back/neck...ect pain and general sitting down and general day to day stuff would be a bitch if you sit around in it all day. always wanted to set up some rules to fight that some.( i dont want it to be crazy but enough so there pop there full plate off time to time to get some fresh air :P) playing around with the idea of stamina system tho its maybe getting little rule bloated to add stuff like that in.

Adam, have you ever tried Fate? The current version reminds me a lot of what you like in this...

An hour of white text on a black backdrop? Add says no.