Burning Wheel 101 How Dice Work
You roll a pool of D6’s. The notation is 4D for 4 dice, 6D for 6 dice, etc. Rolling a 4, 5, or 6 counts as a success. success. Difficulty is the number of successes you need to achieve your goal. Obstacle 3 means means you need to roll 3 or more successes. So far, pretty standard, right? Here’s where it gets more more interesting. There’s various options you can do to get more dice to roll. Carefully
If you’re doing something which has a time component (“Unlock the door before the guards come”), doing it carefully means you’re pushing the edge to do it right. You get +1D, but if you fail, you run out of time. Helping Dice
If someone is helping you and has an applicable skill, they can give you a +1D by helping you instead of doing something something else. They have to describe how they’re helping you (vice versa, you can help other people if you describe it). Teamwork works! FORK Skills
You can “help” yourself if you have additional skills that are related in some way to the primary thing you’re trying to do. If you’re tracking a wolf, Hunting might be the primary skill you’re using, but having skills like like “Wolf-wise” and “Local Geography-wise” Geography-wise” would be useful as well. Each FORK skill skill gives +1D. (You can usually get 1 or 2 of these these if they fit, going for 3 or more is tough.) **HINT** Having a few different knowledge skills (-wises) is like giving yourself a broad +1D or +2D across the board!
Advantage Dice
If you’re in some situation where you really have an advantage, the GM can grant an Advantage die, or more. But it’s really really the GM’s call, so make your point and don’t push it. Intent & Let it Ride
Say what your goal is. “I want to sneak into the castle!” castle!” Good. “I hide in the doorway. doorway. Then I edge along along the wall. Then I listen listen at the door. Then I…” Bad. (You can get into detail about –how- you do it AFTER you say –WHY- you’re doing it.) The reason you do this is this- when you make a roll- it covers the WHOLE WHOLE attempt. The GM can’t make you do 20 rolls of the same thing to get the job done- one big roll for a reasonable goal (You can sneak into the castle, you can’t win the whole war in one roll). Basically, once you’ve made the roll successfully, the “Let it Ride” rule lets the success stay in play – I don’t randomly get to retest you. Artha
Artha (pronounced Ar-tuh) is the “hero points” of the game. You get them for for roleplaying your your character in awesome ways – following your Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits, or challenging them. There’s three types types and they help help you in rolls like this: Fate Artha: You can spend a Fate point after you roll to make it “Open Ended”, which means any 6’s you roll allow you to roll another die (and if those come up 6’s? You get to roll roll another die, die, etc.) Persona Artha You can spend a Persona before a roll to get an extra +1D. You can spend up to 3 on a single single roll. Deeds Artha You can spend a Deeds before a roll to double the dice of your base skill or stat (before any extra dice are added on top of it).
Burning Wheel 102
using Helping dice to help someone else do a tough test.
Beliefs Getting Artha
Beliefs are the core goals and beliefs of the character. Use them as guidelines on how to play your character- or, play up how your character has a moment of crisis in deciding to change her beliefs. Chasing Beliefs or struggling with them is how you get Artha (see below).
There’s 3 types of Artha – Fate, Persona, Deeds. Fate
You get Fate when you a) pursue your goals, b) let your Instincts cause trouble c) invoke your Traits to bring the story in an unforeseen direction. Persona
Instincts
Instincts are automatic reactions of a character. Sometimes they’re useful, because they serve as an “automatic” action for your hero (“Always know the exits in a room”). Just as often you might have Instincts which are set up to cause you trouble (“Never lie.”). When you play an Instinct in a way that makes your life difficult, you get Artha. Traits
Traits are sort of advantages and disadvantages rolled together. You can always use a Trait to make the story more interesting – “I’m Philosophical, I’m going to try to learn about the Lich King’s views on life.” This kind of stuff earns Artha. Some Traits are “Call-on” traits, you can use them once a session to either a) win a tie or b) reroll your failed dice. Advancing Skills & Stats
Your skills improve by using them against certain numbers of Obstacles. This applies whether you succeed or fail.
You get Persona when you a) really roleplay and capture the mood of the game, b) have an internal struggle between your Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits in making a tough choice, c) achieve a personal goal (usually tied to a Belief). Deeds
You get Deeds when you accomplish a huge goal larger than your own personal agenda that benefits many, for something other than just personal gain. This is usually the “end of the campaign” kind of stuff. Circles
Circles is a stat that indicates how well connected your character is. You can use it to find NPCs and introduce them to the game. You can do this to find nearly anyone- a blacksmith to fix your sword, your cousin who you’ve always kept in touch with, the one sage who knows the Dragon’s True Name. The weirder and more rare the person, knowledge or service, the harder this is. **Hint** Use Affiliations, Reputations, and – wise skills to improve your Circles tests. Resources
You’ll need to do a couple of routine tests appropriate to your Skill, and a couple of really tough ones. **Hint** You can get some tough tests out of the way by either attempting something while hurt or otherwise operating at less dice, OR by
This stat is an abstraction of how much money, wealth, status, and credit you have. You use it to buy stuff. **Hint** Use –wises, Haggling, or related Skills to improve your Resources Tests.
