Burning Warhammer

This is a hack. As a preamble, purists be forewarned. Luke (yeah, that one) is notoriously
vehement in his derision of said hacks or hybridization. In no way am I intending to
besmirch or challenge either system!s designers or acionados. This collection of thoughts
(coalesced by numerous minds far more creative than mine) is in no way meant to be a
replacement. It is simply my attempt at bridging two games I really enjoy without too much
fuss. I claim no ownership or intellectual rights to any of the following content. Please take
it with a grain of salt.
Spinning the Old World
I love WHFRP and have done since its rst inception. I am also a newly converted
practitioner of the Burning Wheel. Once I had my ubiquitous epiphany that comes with the
territory, I really wanted to use the Old World as my setting for Burning Wheel. Then the
inevitable merging started: The careers and lifepaths appear compatible. Skills and talents
need little adaption, but the dice mechanic? Ist and 2nd ed. use d100 (primarily) in a case
by case basis. But along comes shiny new 3rd ed. with a dice pool mechanic not unlike
Burning Wheel!
Herein lies the rub... Burning Wheel!s mechanics drive its player proactive system: the
game is about the really tough choices - the moments that push the envelope of a
character. Whereas 3rd ed. simply follows the time honoured relationship of Game Master
and reactive players making largely chance driven choices (and development) within the
connes of a pre-generated story arc that is mechanically unsupported by the "rules! of the
system.
In order for this to work, you will have to adapt to what matters. A belief untested is just an
idea. You must accept this, and make the game based on:
dening what those things your character believes in,
Then move inexorably to test them, giving the opportunity to see what, when challenged
and forced to struggle, your character will do. Success or failure are narrative tools, the
dening moments of the game story are when character beliefs are actually tested.
I have played 3rd ed. in this way and have enjoyed myself immensely. Please feel free to
give it a try.
Burning a Roadwarden
Character generation is often a game in and of itself. In this case, I!ve tried to minimise the
disturbance to the 3rd ed. process. I would suggest you make characters as suggested via
the rules with the following guidelines in play:

Choose your starting career, from all of them. What are you interested in playing?

Answer the ten questions and more....

Use the excellent online resources in the Expanded Character Module and Liber
Fanatica to consciously decide (not roll!) what you want your character!s story to be.
Make sure you develop the Characters Dooming and Traits as suggested in these
articles. The tables contain many nuclei for writing Beliefs and Goals
Think of it within these terms: the character doesn't exist in any form other than a series of
choices you, the player, made about how you want to effect the game.
Now we get to the crux. You must write a Belief, Instinct and Goal for your character.
Beliefs (mostly paraphrased from the Burning Wheel Forums)
Your newly developed character will have at least one Belief, Instinct, and Goal that help to
drive plot and story. All of these are entirely communicated to the group. All of these are a
synthesis of what the character is and what the player wants; they act to dene what
drives the character as well as how the player wishes that character to interact with the
story. These invite the Games Master and other players to engage with the character in
ways that cause the story to develop.
A Belief is a player written goal/priority for the character. They have little to do with the
character's non-existent feelings. They are about what you want for your character: what
challenges do you want thrown in the way, and how do you want to be rewarded for
meeting them? You can phrase a Belief however you like, so long as the Belief contains a
statement of purpose and an action (what you'll do about that statement). This will
instinctively encourage you to write a good Belief.
If you want to write them "in character," that's awesome. But they have nothing to do with
the "character! and everything to do with YOU. However, Beliefs written from the player's
point of view, about what the player wants out of this game but with a focal shift so that it
appears like the character's statement, work more succinctly.
Recognize that a Belief is something the player writes about how they want Drama to
unfold in the game. Obviously, a character concept is important; it determines the focal
point of a players action and input into "the milieu! But a character, their Beliefs, they are
all just the player playing his hand on the table: !Hey, I want this out of our game. This is
how I want it." The more color and detail they can provide the group, the better.
Each Belief or Goal needs an ideology to back it up so the action has context and it!s clear
when the character is pursuing this belief to be rewarded in play. Instead of obliquely
stated concepts, players should turn them into a call for action. Shorthand for this is:
Beliefs (and Goals) are a principled to-do list.

A belief should contain an ideological stance of some sort.

A belief should express how this ideological stance drives the character to achieve their
Goal.

Beliefs should have names, relationships, places, crimes, tragedies, losses, boasts and
direct-action oriented goals written into them.

A strong ideological stance should be married to goal and an action to achieve that goal:
these will be very strong beliefs.
Players need to address these concerns:

One of their Beliefs MUST tie you them the Situation.

Look at their relationships, reputation and their afliations, the resources they own. Tie
those attachments into the game with their Beliefs, how they relate to the character.

Players are free to make additions to the setting, via Beliefs. Need a rival be it a
character or an organization? Put them in your belief.

Beliefs that evoke strong emotions are really good Beliefs. Love, Hate, Revenge.
! Written to be rewritten, a belief should change over time, you win or lose, get
a persona point and move on.
Beliefs are not meant to remain static. They are designed to grow and change. To be
strengthened, weakened, resolved or broken. If you don't like a Belief anymore, discard it
and move on. If you're torn, or if you really like where the Drama is heading then roleplay
out that internal conict! Let the group all know how your character is changing. Do that,
and you get an even bigger reward. An Advancement Point.
Instincts
Instincts are similar to Beliefs - they are player chosen priorities and reactions for the
character. They are based on the characters developed background experiences and have
a very tangible in-game mechanical function.
An instinct is essentially an "if / then! statement for a character!s behaviour.
eg: "I always draw my sword at the rst sign of danger!
The player can program these actions and reactions into their character. These are hooks
on how players want to experience the game. Therefore, the player can be assured that
their character will react within certain parameters, whether the player explicitly states in or
not. A canny Games Master will present the player with tough choices of consequence as
a result of their Instincts. This leads to dramatic tension and memorable gameplay.
Goals
As a Games Master, high concept Beliefs allow you to plan, give you longer arcs, and
thematic "Big Picture! grandiosity. However but you also want immediate Goals. Players
need at least one temporal Belief (or Goal) for their character. Goals are of the moment,
often achievable within one or two sessions: enemies to best, to dead lovers to avenge,
quests to undertake, Driving motivation to conict right now.
The Cru-ci-ble $kro%s&b&l|!
a place or occasion of severe test or trial

a place or situation in which different elements interact to produce something new

Players of course will have gameplay (character actions/situations/achievements) they
want to do. This stuff must be tied into their Beliefs and Goals. Let the players choose a
direction and run with it, challenge them with complications and then ask them how they'd
like to be rewarded for dealing with those complications. Beliefs are the mechanic that
facilitate this concept. Very powerful tools at the players disposal, fortunately, they require
player involvement and investment to work. In fact Proactive Player Participation is
essential in making it work. If you have a player who can't think of what to do, ask them to
look down at their Beliefs for inspiration.
In Burning Warhammer the outcome of most conict is decided by rolling the dice. It is up
to the players which conict to engage, how to engage it, and the stakes of the conict
resolution. Once the conict has been determined, the method of engagement decided
upon, and the stakes agreed to, the dice are used to resolve the conict.
The power of !Yes"
Before engaging the Dice Pool the question that needs asking is:
"are the results of Consequence?!
A Consequential result invokes the system. Anything else is inconsequential. The question
that must be asked is:
"does succeeding or failing at this effort matter to anyone?!
Say Yes, or Roll the Dice. If a player asks to do something that causes no conict or
consequence, the Games Master says "yes! and we move on. It is the Games Master!s job
to confront the players with meaningful challenges. Everything else is just colour and
background. This can be a quantum shift for many roleplayers used to rolling for
everything. The "stuff! that isn!t important to the characters development never results in
benet, because the Dice aren!t rolled.
Good roleplay can incapsulate every aspect of a character's interaction with the world,
described with immersive, exciting narrative. But what really matters is what!s worth
ghting for. A conict emerges when a character needs or wants something that requires
overcoming opposition. Opposition can be anything from convincing someone to your
point of view, to an actual ght. A conict represents a break in the normal ow of
narrative. The dice should come out only when a conict arises. There has to be some
consequence to failure that someone cares about.
Narration tends to grow pretty organically. At the same time, the Games Master has the
responsibility of challenging the game from turning into an endless storytelling session.
The game needs to move from conict to conict pretty rapidly. Downtime to stop and plan
the next move is ne, but groups should avoid getting into an hours long planning session
without anything of consequence happening (in a tactical sense). For the drama, it's all
about keeping the game moving.
So, now you have conrmed there is something that is important, usually to someone's
beliefs. The consequences are dened as stakes for success or failure. Everyone agrees.
Intent and Stakes
When a conict arises, the rst thing a player should do is declare an intent. The most
important point in declaring intent is that you describe how you are achieving your goal.
What do the antagonists want out of the Conict? (this may be disparate)
Once you have crystallized your intent, the players and the Games Master will set the
stakes. This is built on risk vs. reward; the more you!re willing to risk, the more reward you
can earn. The Games Master explains what happens if the roll succeeds or fails before the
dice are rolled. Success always means that the intent you declared succeeds exactly as
you described, narrated via the results in your dice pool. Failure is dened by the Games
Master. Failing does not always just mean you do not succeed.
The whole conict is a collaborative effort. Both parties have to put their Intent rst. That's
what drives play, and that's how players determine what they get out of winning a test. But
it's equally important for the Games Master to communicate what their stakes are, so the
players know what they!re risking. This has to be negotiated too. Whenever you pick up
the dice, there should be real reward involved. Since that's the case, there's got to be real
risk too.
Its important to make the point that in traditional "reactive! role playing, "Narration! of the
characters actions is just a less focused version of Intent. The player states his reason for
doing something and then tests an appropriate ability to perform the task. If the roll is
successful, the player gets his Intent.
Let it Ride
One of the more important rules in Burning Wheel (and thus Burning Warhammer) is the
"Let it Ride! rule. It means that the result of any roll counts. There are no retries, unless the
intent or goal of the task changes. This is both for the sake of the player (the Games
Master can not make you repeat a task until it fails) and for a good speed of play.
Consider if you want to spend resources / skills / time / talents carefully (see below) on a
task before you roll. You only get one attempt.
Different Kinds of Tests
There are a number of different ways to roll for different situations that arise. These are
straight from the 3rd ed Rules and include:

Standard Test Declare intent, set the stakes, roll the dice, trying to meet the assigned
Challenge Level of the test

Opposed Tests Declare intent, set the stakes. The Opposing Characteristic is the
Difculty of the test.

Competitive Tests Declare the intent, and roll to see how many successes you can get,
the more the merrier. Sometimes there is a minimum obstacle and above that, it just gets
better. Your intent should be clearly stated before rolling. Boons and stances can effect
the outcome. Use the Universal Progress Tracker to keep track of the progress.

Complex Tests Declare intent set the stakes for the overall task. Then, determine
what tests (in order) are involved in achieving it. Roll for each test in turn, each usually
with its own Challenge Level. If you succeed, you gain +1Fortune Dice to the next test; if
you tie the Successes with Challenges, there is no bonus/penalty; and if you fail, the next
test is at +1 Challenge Dice.
The mechanic for generating Dice Pools and resolving them is as described in the rules.
The primary point of difference is only consequential rolls are made and the intent and
stakes are made explicit prior to the roll.
Its important to note that when a player adds a additional Dice to their pool (whether "good!
or "bad!), They are escalating the stakes. The result will Matter. Failure will denitely spin
some interesting twists into the story.
Failure
Knowing when to apply a nasty complication and when to go easy is part of the Game
Master!s art. Sometimes failure is complication enough. Sometimes characters should get
a little wounded or something important should get broken. Sometimes a complication
should just lead to an additional test of some sort. And sometimes you should go for the
gold and make things more interesting. Complications should also be tied to the test at
hand.
The Games Master may create stakes in which the players achieve their intent, but not in
the way they wanted. This twist could be a whole new obstacle for the players, a brand
new problem tied to their beliefs as a result of their bumbling. It must be new situation and
develop into a new test that matters. It can even be stored "in the bank! for later on in the
story. Twists can develop into their own story arcs and that!s O.K.
If the player fails the roll, it doesn't necessarily mean they got something wrong or
stumbled or botched their attempt (although it could). Often, in such a case, unless the
Games Master has got a denite idea of how they want the consequences of failure to
play out, they can turn authorship over to a player and ask them to tell the group the
consequences. Remember that Intent is simply a smaller scale version of Narration. But
the Games Master should still retain veto rights if they don!t like the answer they get.
Making the most of what you want
How does this all translate into gameplay? First off, know your players. Figure out their
priorities for the game. What do they want from this game that you're playing? How do you
gure this material out? You ask. You talk about cool things you would like in the game,
and you offer the members of the group a chance for them to talk up their wants too. Do
this casually, whenever you are all together all the time. Fire up everyone!s enthusiasm for
the milieu and the characters invested in it.
Then, when you're ready to start the game, get the group to the table, but start that
conversation again. !I've got an idea, what do you guys think?" Give the players creative
input. Negotiate to develop a rough direction. Once everyone has got an idea that you're
all excited about, then make characters. Brainstorm. Create "Burn! characters together,
make this the goal of an entire session. Beliefs developed should be an outgrowth of the
ideas generated in your chat sessions.
A useful suggestion here is that when the group sitting around talking about your setting,
characters they want to play, and possible Beliefs, the Games Master should attempt to
steer them all to take one Belief that points in the same direction. They don!t have to be
identical, but they must be related. If everyone is making characters along the same
general paradigm to start, you're way ahead of the game. Another useful suggestion is to
get all of the players excited and interested in everyone else's characters. They have to
care about them (even if they want to see them fail). Try to follow this order when creating
a melieutogether as a group:

setting

campaign goal

theme

characters

beliefs

obstacles.
The Games Master will then have an idea of the story based on placing the characters in
situations that challenge the players expressed Beliefs, Instincts and Traits. The players
too, will have an investment in success or failure against these stakes so that their
characters evolve. The dice themselves are a narrative tool that are not trivialized with
excess rolling. Each throw is a potential twist to the narrative, another layer in the tapestry
of the game.
Bang! You"re dead (or not)
A "bang" is indie RPG vernacular for the exact situational dilemma that the Games Master
creates that challenges a player's belief. They are the complications the Games Master
has prepared to lay out in front of the players as they develop the story. You don't need to
re off Bangs every ve minutes. Play out the consequences of the decision until the
logical progression of the game demands a new Bang. The rule of thumb for designing
Bangs in this way is that when someone makes a choice; bring on the consequences!
Make the players pay for their choices with even thornier choices. A really good Bang
challenges a Belief. You can be pretty well assured that the players are willing to invest it
for two reasons:
1. They care about the issues because they wrote them down on their sheets as Beliefs,
2. They are going to earn Fate for involving themselves in these kinds of situations.
The planning for this is somewhat off kilter when one is used to a more "Reactive! style of
encounter design. It may at rst appear to be constant improvisation based on "winging it!,
when in fact a lot of planning to is needed to sketch out all of the relationships around the
player characters. The Games Master will take the player!s beliefs- and craft NPCs who
will challenge and conict with them. Games Master must know who the major NPCs
around the players are and what their motivations drive them to act. With that in hand, the
Games Master is able to play them (as you would play a PC) and respond to the actions of
the players.
The Games Master needs to recognize when players are voicing their priorities. The
proverbial "ghter! archetype obviously wants action in the game. That's cool! Thus try to
incorporate scenes of life-threatening danger for their character to succeed or fail.
Detecting priorities on the y is hard to do, and it requires that the Games Master be
exible with their own ideas. Which is even harder!
Meta Gaming
As the group gets comfortable, the players and the Games Master will generally share
equally the amount of narration. The Games Master describes the setting, the players
describe how they interact with the setting. The Games Master describes the NPCs, the
players describe NPCs they'd like to encounter, and the group uses both. The Games
Master will take into consideration player comments that directly effect the story. If
something a player comes up with conicts with what I think should happen, then the dice
are rolled.
Once everyone is satised with the stakes, we roll. And the story is very different than it
was before the conict was initiated. That stuff is now part of the story. As a player, the
whole idea is to forget where the Games Master!s idea of the story is going. Think about
what would be most interesting to you and the group at large, and go ahead and spin the
story in a new direction.
The group needs to collaborate. Yes the Games Master is going to attempt to challenge
players Beliefs in play, but they have to work at everyone at the the table. The players job
is to take the opportunities given to them by the Games Master and run with them. See
where your story takes you! The Games Master can't take you all the way there. They can
present the opportunities, but he can't make the players bite.
Now balancing the tension of the game, while keeping everyone involved, is a difcult skill
to master. The keys to it are:
1) know your milieu, so you understand the appropriate difculty for conict
2) sculpting conicts so they are dramatic and fun, but challenging to the characters
3) The most important aspect is that of giving the players a stake and a say in each
conict. Give them a choice with consequences that they can readily grasp:
"You can stand and ght, but more guards are on the way, you might not make it in time.
Do you want to risk it?"
Frame your scenes with questions like those. Let the players decide what they want to
risk.
The trick to accomplishing step 3 in a role playing game is to use those Beliefs! Get those
scene/risk questions tied into the characters Beliefs as much as you absolutely can. The
players chose those beliefs, they are exciting things they want involved in the game, so
use them.
At the same time, the most fundamental thing about Burning Wheel (and therefore Burning
Warhammer) is making difcult choices. And in order to make a real choice, you have to
understand the consequences. That's why the negotiation of stakes is so important.
Games Masters will cherish that moment when a player desperately wants to do
something and once the stakes are name they can't believe the choice they are being
asked to make. The players will revel in success or failure, as it not only matters to them,
but their character will evolve.
Fate, Advancement and the Feedback Loop
Beliefs are the colour that the player outlines for his character, but they are also the core of
the rewards system. Playing with and against Beliefs grants the most reward in play. And
players can tell the GM and everyone else how they want to be paid for playing.
Mechanically, that's all they are: the scope of the rewards system.
Normally in 3rd Ed, characters earn an Advancement at the end of each session, with the
odd bonus thrown in by the Games Master if the Players act out his story in an
"entertaining! way. Not so in Burning Warhammer. Beliefs and Goals, in essence, act as a
shiny red button that signies that the character will twitch if you push that button Push,
push, push! The simple beauty of the reward system is such that, if a player character
engages these Beliefs, Goals, Instincts, or Traits in the game, they get Fate points to
spend on developing their character in ways that matter to them (and the story).
Fate
Fate, as a nod to previous ed. of WHFRP is the most important resource you have control
over as a player. It allows you to manipulate the dice being rolled and can help you
accomplish amazing things or just survive.
There are 3 types of Fate:
Fortune
Is earned often, often multiple times per session, usually for portraying Beliefs, Instincts,
Traits and Talents in ways that make for good story. The most common uses for Fortune
are:

Adding a fortune Die to the Pool prior to rolling

Recharge exhausted talents and actions or used by special abilities

Players earn 1 Fortune per Session for:

Making a Consequential Roll based on their character!s Belief.

The character worked towards goal, but didn!t accomplish it.

Making a Consequential Roll performing an action under Instinct

Advances
Are earned by fullling a step in a Goal, which is usually possible once ever 1-3 sessions.
Common uses for Advancement are:

General Career Advances

Non-Career Advances

Characteristic Upgrades (if they have the requisite checks)

Career Transition

adding three kind of dice to a roll,

ignore a critical wound to bring your character back from death!s door.
Players Earn 1 Advance per session for:

Accomplishing a Goal - Write a new one.

Playing against a Belief

"Embodiment!
Playing against a belief is hard to quantify, but if a character makes a decision counter to
one of their Beliefs and you let everyone else know about it through the performance of
the player, they deserve an Advance. Maybe their belief is starting to crumble?
Embodiment refers to "good roleplaying! as suggested in the 3rd ed. rules, but it is more
specic than that: Its about capturing your character. Its representational of the player
driving the story through active embodiment of their characters Beliefs, Instincts and
Goals.
Deeds
Are earned by going above and beyond in completing a long-term goal, or breaking out in
a totally different direction, which can take many steps and phases over the course of a
saga. Common uses for Deeds are:

Direct trade: 1 Deed = 5 Advances.

Doubling characteristic dice for one test or re-rolling all negative results on a test.
Players Earn a Deed Point for:

Fullling their Dooming

Fully Completing a Career (in addition to the Dedication Bonus)

A re-birth of Belief, faith or conviction. A life changing turn of events.

Evolution
Everything about your character evolves through meaningful use: characteristics, skills,
talents, careers, everything. In order to advance something, the player must earn a
number of successes and failures of Easy, Average, Hard and Daunting tests. The higher
the core ability , the more tests are required and the harder they are.
This is very exible in the realm of difculty and advancement. Players often can make a
test as easy on themselves as they want. When they have time and friends, that is.
However, accepting all that help, ie: not operating under pressure, and reducing the
Challenge means the characters don't advance.
Money and Carcasses Can"t Buy Love
A player is eligible to spend Advancement points on attributes when they achieve a certain
amount of "checks! or success and failure in any given activity, so long as it matters.
Every time a character is "put to the test! under these conditions they receive one "check!
per attribute, per scene. Pass or Fail.
You are eligible to increase an attribute (and thus spend Advancement points) when you:

pass a number of tests equal to its current rating (at its matching Challenge Level) and

fail a number of tests equal to one less than its rating (also at its Challenge Level)
These are marked on the character sheet as P or F next to the attribute. Once the Attribute
increases (and Advances spent), the checks are erased and the process begins anew.
You are eligible to purchase an Action Card, Skill or Skill Specialization only if it is
incorporated into your Goal. It is important to tie this to the story.
In our Roadwarden!s case: !I will learn to Ride! is paltry compared to
!I will not cease until I Ride down the bandits that enslaved my village"s children"
!That what does not kill me makes me Stronger" - A Wound Threshold can only be
purchased if a character has been wounded with critical wounds during an encounter
equal to their toughness (ie: on the brink of death). Note that if the above was a players
Instinct, they would also receive a Fortune point for acting under instinct.
In order to be eligible to spend an Advancement on Stances, a player needs to have
earned a "check! on either Reckless or Conservative by being as deep as they can in that
stance. Thus our Roadwarden needs to have been 2 deep into Reckless stance during an
encounter that matters to spend an Advance on increasing their Reckless Stance Rating.
Challenging Clarications
In order to evolve, a test that "matters! and receives a "check! must be at an equal or
greater Challenge level than the characters Attribute tested.
ie: Our Roadwarden with Strength 3 needs to test themself at least at "Hard! tasks.
This presents a conundrum to larger-than-life characters that have attributes of 5 or
greater. In order to test these Heroes we need a further extension of the system.
Heroic: 5 Challenge Dice
Mythical: 6 Challenge Dice
Note that to achieve these astounding feats, players will almost certainly need to spend
hard earned Fortune on increasing their chances. So the players have a choice: use all the
bonus dice they can muster and succeed but stay the same or risk failure and gain for it,
even if unsuccessful.
Ties and Advancement
A tie result does not count for a "check!, Pass or Fail. If a player wants to earn a check for
advancement for that Skill or Attribute, they must break the tie by spending a Fortune point
on either a Fortune or Misfortune Dice to roll and hopefully create a denitive result.
Final thoughts
That's proactive player choice. It's one they can make about nearly every roll. If they are
stuck in a place where they aren't making that choice, it's the Games Master!s job to lay it
out for them. Tell them what their choices are: They can take the helping dice, sure, or
character can just use their skill and get a check for advancement.
That's where the game becomes a circular, self-reinforcing process all meant to make the
players challenge their characters to the utmost. Players get Fate and Advances as a
reward for pursuing and achieving beliefs. They spend Fate to accomplish the impossible.
Only by pushing to do the impossible (or fail at the attempt) does one!s character grow.
Enjoy Yourselves and Play the game you want to play
Bibliography
The Burning Wheel Fantasy Role Playing Game
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (all three Editions)
WHFRP Expanded Character Module:
http://www.windsofchaos.com/?page_id=92
Liber Fanatica:
http://www.liberfanatica.net/index.html
The Burning Wheel Wiki:
http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page