Tag: game

The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane

The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane

I’ve been reading the rule books of different roleplaying games this year like Nobilis and now The Burning Wheel in order to alleviate boredom and socialize with friends while playing the various games online. While doing so, I have come to appreciate the artistry and finesse that goes into creating the games.

This effort is most easily seen in the rulebooks.

The Burning Wheel rulebook is gorgeous. The artwork and binding are lovely. This is a book that feels like it belongs in your hands when you open it.

I realize that the world is moving more digital all the time, books included, and that makes sense. It saves resources, space, and what could be more convenient than having your entire library with you when you travel?

But I think I would miss the experience of holding a physical book and the sensations that go along with that. I watched a YouTube video review of this game that suggested part of the familiarity of the feel of this book might be related to the fact that it was created in the shape and size of a family Bible.

Whatever the draw is, if you’re going to play this game, I highly recommend buying a physical copy of the book.

That being said, the game itself is incredibly complex. No matter what you want to do in Burning Wheel, it requires some sort of roll. The most annoying aspect of this complexity is in the “resource” portion of the game. I failed a roll a few weeks ago and now my financially-challenged elf bard has to find a job.

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Do I really want to play a game to roleplay something like that? I could just live life as it is right now to worry about resources.

The organization of the rulebook also leaves something to be desired. For example, bard songs and their details are located in a couple different places.

So, say you’re playing along, then you want to know what sort of dice you have to roll to sing a song to the trees. In order to find that information, you’ve got to look all over the place. It doesn’t work well at all.

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Even the character creation is an unwieldy process. It took two very experienced gamers and I, who admittedly has less experience but plenty of enthusiasm, nearly four hours to put together two characters. Four hours!

Despite its complex and difficult nature, I think experienced gamers who are willing to greatly simplify the rules might still enjoy playing this game. Newbies to RPGs may want to try something else.

Nobilis by R. Sean Borgstrom, Bruce Baugh

Nobilis by R. Sean Borgstrom, Bruce Baugh

Though not a traditional “book”, the rules and world-building instructions for the fantasy role-playing game, Nobilis, has more than 300 pages in it. And reads like a beautiful work of fiction.

“His eyes open, black as night. A star falls through them. ‘It is strange,’ he says, ‘how humans need but a taste of power to grow arrogant. You walk in a world of things greater than you can imagine, and you speak defiance.”

Nobilis by R. Sean Borgstrom, Bruce Baugh
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The game itself has been labeled so complex that, after reading the rules book, some gamers don’t bother to try it. Therefore, I think it’s fair to rate it on Goodreads where it can be appreciated more for its fantastic literature rather than its playability as an actual game.

“The Imperator Ananda rules Murder, the Infinite, and (some say) the Fourth Age that is to come. His glory is terrible: humans and Powers weak in spirit dare not face him, lest his countenance drive them mad with joy.”

The basic premise is there are major forces behind the every day reality that we all know. These forces are striving to either preserve the universe or end it.

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They work through intermediaries and lesser servants to influence what goes on in the real world. The point of the game is to create a story with levels and nuances rather than to brute force your will into existence.

“More beautiful than the angels are the Excrucians, whose eyes show darkness full of ever-falling stars. It is said that the Creator bargained with them long ago, that he or she might capture a touch of this beauty in the world of Ygg- and then failed to carry out his or her end of the bargain. It is said that this is why the Excrucians on their pale horses seek the destruction of all that there is…”

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The rules book describes all of these powers in extraordinary detail, or the manner for choosing a custom name and backstory of your own. There’s no limit to what you can create except your imagination.

The players embody the ruling powers and all of their minions simultaneously. So, a game scene can go from the real world, to the divine, to a place where a god resides and back again.

And you begin to see why so few people attempt this game in the first place… 🙂

“Powers bridge divine nature and human nature, the supernatural and the natural. They fight battles on all those levels, facing the challenges of gods and ordinary humans alike. They must learn to move fluidly from a world of spirits and myths to a polluted world of highways and computers, and from their Imperator’s custom reality to the broad Earth.”

Recommended for gamers who are looking for an incredibly detailed fantasy world to romp around in or readers who like open-ended works of fantasy. Beyond simple enjoyment as a game or work of literature, I could see Nobilis being a useful tool as a writing prompt for fantasy authors.