As if "saving throws", "THAC0", "spell levels", "bugbears" and "hit points" were any easier. At least Burning Wheel has no "Hollyhock God"

Quote from: SosthenesI stand corrected. As the very model of a sadistic, miserly GM I postponed reading the Persona artha section until way, way deep into a future campaign. If I'm not mistaken, it was pretty hard to get one of those, so our fledgling villagers would bite the dust anyway

Um, I still don't see how Artha helps...much. It just buffers the lethality of the system somewhat.

If you use RQ, you can just cook up a hero point system for much the same effect.

The special thing about Artha is how you earn it--which is something you can graft pretty easily onto RQ.

Not saying that BW doesn't have a lot of niftiness--I just think that if RQ/BRP works for you, but you want to buffer the lethality, then it's a quick fix.

Also, are you aware of John Kim's Vinland campaign? Basically simplified/customized RQIII.

Quote from: Elliot WilenUm, I still don't see how Artha helps...much. It just buffers the lethality of the system somewhat.

Artha is just the means in this example. What helps is the concept throughout the rules that not only can a PC survive failures of all sorts, but that failures are great for driving the game along. So you can put your PCs up against neigh unwinable odds and it'll not only be OK, but fun. Which seems important to me to stress when you are planning on playing shmucks.

QuoteAlso, are you aware of John Kim's Vinland campaign? Basically simplified/customized RQIII.

That's pretty cool, but still seems to be aimed at higher levels? Or am I reading the numbers wrong on the character sheets? Also there is the comment about "only mad players would want to be serfs anyhow" but I might be taking that in the wrong context.

I guess where I was coming from was "hey, this seems to fit out of the box". Of course you can patch together systems to come up with a homebrew (or in this case patch on a piece of BW with someone else's homebrew).  I'm using something like that right now myself, but only because I didn't find anything that really fit what I was aiming for (plus I'm doing it with BW and SR, which BW is largely evolved from).

Of course BW is a bit crunchier (well not so much in relation to RQ I suppose), and some people that are use to "I bash you, you bash me" turn taking combat have a tough time letting go of that to get their head around the simultaneous actions in Detailed Combat. Assuming a group that isn't just going to go with Simple Combat all the time, which might be fine for some (but likely not myself) since the PCs are relatively innept at martial combat.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen...are you aware of John Kim's Vinland campaign? Basically simplified/customized RQIII.

I recognise a lot of the inspiration from RQ: Vikings.  In general, it's a bit too alt-history for what I'm aiming for.  I like the general feel for inspiration, though -- the section on magic was really food for thought (even though I'm strongly tempted to keep things strictly mundane).

!i!

Incidentally if you do use BW definately check out their board/wiki for any info/tips from others that have run a similar campaign. For example regarding Vellorian's cool idea about a Wolf Boy, complete with [optional] pantomiming, are in these three.

http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Youth_Lifepaths