GM: Sean Nittner
System: Burning Wheel
Last night was a lot more fun than I was prepared for. In fact, I really didn’t prepare at all. The characters had all put themselves in horrible situations and I really left it up to the players to figure out what to do about it. This report will be rather short though, as I’m tired and my tooth hurts.
What rocked
Complete player initiative. I really didn’t do anything other than use the rules to demonstrate the severity of their situations. Steel checks, pretty dire consequences and a few graphic descriptions of cannibalistic orcs eating men alive pretty much got the players kicking asses and taking names.
Dragon hunting! Yeah baby. Genn Blackstone, if successfully will not only hunt down the Black Dragon, but also gain the alliance of the Dwarves. Genn pulled through in all the right ways. First, he doled out 9 successes on the OB8 (it was 4 but he wasn’t trained) Soothing Platitudes roll to impress the Dwarves, then pulled the OB5 Resources test out of his ass to present a worth gift to the leader. It was freaking awesome. Genn might just become the great captain he’s been pretending to be.
NPC conservation. I realized this game that the same runner, who has not yet been asked his name knows a ton of the PC business (they send him to do their work all the time). As we’ve already determined that there is a spy for Kel’Thazad in the group, he became the natural candidate. Add that and a healthy dose of cannibalism and my rosy cheeked runner just became WAY more interesting. Similarly, the masked knight we know is Aaron, the corporal who is a bitter rival to Jordan. I’m not sure how this is going to come back, but I know it will. In blood!
Sorcery burns…. Like crazy. Wow, I’m going to have to re-read the rules but as far as I can tell, a sorcerer with a high Forte is insanely deadly.
A Deed. Though the vast majority of the NPCs will not see the full sacrifice that Jordan has made, I gave him a Deed point last night (or at least nominated him for one and the other players agreed) for sacrificing what was left of his small regiment to save his fallen comrades from tortures worse than death. It was dangerous and dumb, but it was for the Light!
What could be improved:
I really wish I was more prepared with the rules. I’ve wanted to do a Fight! Or a Range and Cover for a while, but haven’t spent the time reading over them. I really need to hammer through all of that stuff.
I thought my introduction of the junior insurrectionist was a bit forced, I decided to pull it out of my ass rather than require several more tests to find him. After all the Circles roll was made, but I don’t think I delivered that part well.
I need to figure out what Captain Luke is doing. He got very little screen time last game because he had very little to do. He essentially delivered a message and made it out alive. An impressive feat, but not a very exciting story arc. We need to hammer out his beliefs and give him some more immediate goals.
We’re taking a few weeks off, which is just as well. I’m hard into the WoWCrack so time off means more time leveling. Bad GM, I know.
