Quote from: Piestrio;674798So if you didn't back the kickstarter is there any way to look at this game?

Only if your purse has 3 slots open.

Quote from: One Horse Town;674848Only if your purse has 3 slots open.

I didn't see it in time. Mainly because my torch only had enough light for my friends, but not me.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;670644I don't know, man... :idunno: Fucking hipster games!

Quote from: Piestrio;674798So if you didn't back the kickstarter is there any way to look at this game?

All the KS supporters got a PDF of the game.

Which means I have a PDF of the game.

Quote from: Brad;675265All the KS supporters got a PDF of the game.

Which means I have a PDF of the game.

Ah, so no general release yet?

Do you know what the time frame is looking like?

Quote from: Zachary The First;670452GM: Oookay, and that's....(rolls) 28 more points of damage from the poison, plus the Ogre's attack. With an agonized yawlp, Gladius the Ranger passes from this mortal realm. Derek, roll up another....Derek, you ok, man?

Derek: I just...man....

Player 1: It's ok man. We're here for you.

Player 2: We totally understand if you need a minute to absorb this.

Player 1: Yeah, release those emotions. You're among friends. We will talk this out with you, brother, however long it takes.

Derek: I just...I gotta get out of here. This....this...THIS SUCKS.

(Exits the basement, openly sobbing)

Player 1 (to GM): YOU ASSHOLE! You know how what the rulebook says about Absorb/Release time!

Player 2: Yeah, man, it's like you have enough torchlight for the three of us, but never Derek. Resource manage, man--that's what we're here for. And couldn't he have just compromised with the Ogre? Huh? Where's the character-driven play in that?

Player 1: And now he's left! It's been like, 2 minutes, dude! When has he eaten last? He could be HUNGRY and THIRSTY up there!

GM: Well, dammit, how was I supposed to do anything? He didn't give me enough time! And besides, I was trying to calculate how much rope was needed given the number of turns, and then I couldn't remember if his Elf yearned for gulls or wanted grief, and my therapist says I'm still working out my own issues from when you killed my Fighter with that Ennui Golem, so CUT ME A GODDAMN BREAK!

(The group stares angrily at one another, before being interrupted by the sound of a single muffled gunshot from up above).

I love this. I really do.

Quote from: Piestrio;675280Ah, so no general release yet?

Do you know what the time frame is looking like?

The print proofs came back two weeks ago; so I can't see it taking that much longer.

Quote from: Brad;675528The print proofs came back two weeks ago; so I can't see it taking that much longer.

They did make a raft of proofreading/errata changes in the wake of the print proofs they shared, but from Luke Crane's tweets it sounds like the final layouts are with the printer now. So yeah, definitely soon I think.

You can get it here:  http://www.burningwheel.com/store/index.php/torchbearer-pdf.html

I guess they initially hadn't planned on distributing it yet, but the link got out so they said "eh, whatever, go ahead and tell people about it."

I've picked it up but haven't really read through it yet - I'm kind of interested, BW is a game I've always wanted to like more than I do, and the BW crew played a *ton* of Basic D&D (for like a year and a half), so it'll be interesting to see what they make of it.

Quote from: robiswrong;678538and the BW crew played a *ton* of Basic D&D (for like a year and a half),

Gosh!

:rotfl:

Depending on the actual frequency they played (say, a week in and week out), a year and a half can indeed be a *ton* of gaming.

Quote from: robiswrong;678538I've picked it up but haven't really read through it yet - I'm kind of interested, BW is a game I've always wanted to like more than I do, and the BW crew played a *ton* of Basic D&D (for like a year and a half), so it'll be interesting to see what they make of it.

Torchbearer, which is very different than BW, is a mechanically intense way of making sure your game is about social outcasts struggling with dungeoneering logistics.  I really enjoy that part of it; I've never played a game where, during character generation, we're looking around anxiously to make sure someone had taken Cooking skill.

As a GM, it was a little surprising; it felt like I wasn't in control of the threat level in the way I'm used to being.  The loss of a satchel, or a tumble down a hillside can be an unexpectedly big problem compared to 'epic fantasy' expectations, in the same way that you don't want to twist an ankle or lose your drinking water on a walking tour through Alaska.  It will hurt you, and the pain will last.  Adventurers aren't remotely "at home" in a dungeon, they're operating, like scuba divers, at the sufferance of their preparations and good fortune.

I have never seen a party looking so beaten up and miserable as my playtest group, crawling away from the ruined monastery.  Even fighters with 10% of their hit points left are cheerful compared to Exhausted or Sick torchbearer PCs.

I did enjoy how the logistics prompt a lot of player-to-player conversation that's about the challenge at hand.  How equipment is distributed, who's going to hold the torch, who's going to go first, all of that matters, and there's a constant table chatter about this that arises from the players having an unambiguous sense of what's important in the game world.

My last session was the first where I was a player rather than GM, and I enjoyed playing with an experienced party.  Whenever we camped, we instinctively started looking for fresh water, updating the map, preparing poultices for injuries.  We were wiser than we've been in the past, and we made sure that we had a good campsite, an accurate map, and plenty of supplies before we made our first foray into the dungeon.  When you stumble out, injured and exhausted, this makes a huge difference as to how (and whether) you get back home safely.

I like how towns are handled, I think it's a clever way to make sure that the party doesn't slip out of the game's central focus through 'accidental zooms'; you get in and get out, wiser and poorer.  The overarching sequence of game phases (of which 'town' is one) will seem overbearing to some. This is not a game where you can do a side quest of urban intrigue; at least not without some friction.

I really do like monstrous "dispositions", which are gauges of how hard monsters (or whatever) are to deal with in various ways.  These map to conflict goals.  After playing years of battlemap D&D in which "a plan" was nary to be seen, it's really neat fighting monsters where your tactical goal is a primary concern.  Whether you intend to merely drive off the monsters, capture, or attempt to slaughter them affects how tough the combat is its lethality, which I enjoyed.

Having said that, I'm not in love with the main conflict resolution system.  It forces some interesting tactical choices, and I think the way weapons are handled is great (daggers aren't just short, sucky swords), but overall it's a bit to detached from the specifics of what individuals are trying to do for my taste, like resolving combat with a game of tic tac toe (I exaggerate).  There's a strong temptation to just stop talking about the game world and play it out mechanically.

I will definitely drag it out from time to time, but it's not likely to become a mainstay for general-purpose fantasy gaming.  I can imagine having a stable of characters that we keep set to one side, and when we feel like intensely troubled dungeon crawling, we'd bust it out and see if we can level them up.

Quote from: silva;678546Depending on the actual frequency they played (say, a week in and week out), a year and a half can indeed be a *ton* of gaming.

Maybe, depending on your perspectives on campaign lengths and having a deep-dive into a game system. But it doesn't seem that impressive a period of time for writing a dedication, or love letter, to the source material.

If someone said to me, "They've played Call of Cthulhu (or RuneQuest) for a year and a half! So they've done enough research to justifiably produce a love letter!", well, I'd be dubious. Seems more like casual flirtation, to me.

Hmmm.. yeah, that makes sense K.

Oh, and Im loving the cards idea.