Note: I received a copy of The Burning Wheel in exchange for this review.

The Burning Wheel is a fantasy roleplaying game that draws both from the literature of the genre and from the more system-orientated history of the hobby. It provides rich narrative game play – until the dice begin to roll.

Appearance, Layout, and Organization

The Burning Wheel is divided into two small volumes. Each measures approximately five and a half by nine inches and is soft cover. The Character Burner, which details character creation, has a red cover while the main Burning Wheel rule book has a brown cover and contains system information. The Character Burner is 232 pages long. The Burning Wheel is 240 pages.

The covers of each book are artistic and well put together. The interior ink drawings are average quality and, together with the other graphics and layout, help evoke a Tolkein by candlelight literary feel.

Burning Wheel is laid out in a single column per page format. It has a clean feel. It's graphic elements enhance readability rather than reduce it. They hint that a portal to another place is buried within the text.

Burning Wheel is written in a tone that manages to be both casual and preachy. The author almost seems to sit behind his pen with a self-assured smile while he dispenses advice from on high. Anachronistic and out of place diction often dispels the otherworldly feel that Burning Wheel's graphic elements conjure.

Both the Character Burner and the main rule book have well-detailed tables of contents. They also both have an index of headings - which are really just the tables of contents in a different format and are not as helpful as a regular index.

The Character Burner contains several pages of quick references for Traits, skills, and spells.

Setting

Burning Wheel's default setting is evident only in the details of character creation. It has a standard fantasy feel - there are peasants, knights, kings, and wizards - but the non-human races have a distinct Tolken-ish feel.

Dwarves are long-lived, greedy, and dwell beneath the surface of the world.

Elves are immortal, but the span of their lives weigh on them. They use song and spell to fight their Grief.

Orcs are night-kissed, fanged and tribal. They are also immortal. They make their lives bearable by giving in to callousness and hate.

Character Creation and Character Roles

Character creation in Burning Wheel is detailed in the Character Burner and centers around Lifepaths, careers and roles the characters take on.

Each race has its own set of Lifepaths, which are further subdivided into loose cultural or career categories. Each of these has a number of Lifepaths within it. For example, the Lifepaths of Man include Peasant, Villager, City-dweller, Noble, Noble Court, Professional Soldier, Seafaring, Outcast, Servitude, and Religious as general categories. The Servitude set contains Born Slave, Ditch Digger, Servant, Field Laborer, Captive of War, Harem Slave, and Bondsman as actual Lifepaths.

Each Lifepath provides the player with information about how long the character has been on said path, the number of Trait points accrued, Resources acquired, Stat bonuses, Leads to other Lifepaths categories, skill points, and available skills.

Character creation begins with a concept.

Concepts are quickly followed up by Lifepaths. Characters may choose to take any number of Lifepaths. According to the text, a "good, experienced starting character" should have about four Lifepaths. Six Lifepaths is said to produce a veteran and characters with eight Lifepaths are old and powerful.

A specific Lifepath may be taken more than once, but it provides fewer and fewer benefits after it has been traveled a second time.

Each general category of Lifepath - called a Setting - has a starting point, or a Born…Lifepath (as in Born Peasant or Born Noble). These tend to take a good deal of time to travel and provide the only skill points that can be used to purchase skills not encountered along a character's Lifepaths.

The Born Peasant Lifepath takes eight years to walk; provides the character with two Trait points; has Leads to Servitude, Soldier, Sea, and Religious; and offers up three general skills points.

The Farmer Lifepath also requires eight years, but only provides one Trait point. It does allow the character to make a living, however, and Farmers receive five Resource points. They also get one extra point of physical Stat. The path has Leads to Villager, Soldier, and Servitude; provides eight skill points, and allows the character to possibly learn the following skills: Farm, Mend, Husbandry, Weave, Cook, Sew, Firebuilding, Sing, and Hoarding.

The first skill listed for each Lifepath a character travels must be taken. If the character already has the first listed skill, the second is taken - and so on.

Some skills that appear in a Lifepath are actually Traits and are free. Hoarding from the Farmer list is such a skill. Thus a Farmer may have the Hoarding Trait for free - or he may not.

After the character has walked all her Lifepaths, the number of years spend on them is totaled. Each path traveled adds one to this total. This is the character's age.

A character's age provide the character with two point pools - one for physical Stats and one for mental Stats. The Stat bonuses garnered from each Lifepath taken are added to these totals. The points from each pool are then allocated to the appropriate Stats.

Each race has a different age table. A forty year old human will receive more Stat points than a forty year old dwarf as the human has lived a greater fraction of its total lifetime.

There are two mental Stats - Perception and Will - and four physical Stats in Burning Wheel. The physical Stats include Agility, Speed, Power (strength), and Forte (endurance).

Each Stat has a Shade and an Exponent.

The Exponent is a numerical rating that ranges from one to ten. An Exponent of three is the human average. A Stat's Exponent is purchased from the appropriate pool on a one for one basis but cannot exceed six until play has commenced.

Shade represents potential. It the realm that the Stat falls into, be it mortal (Black), heroic (Gray), or supernatural (White). The majority of Stats have a Black Shade. A Gray Shade may be purchased for an additional five points. White Shades cost an additional ten points.

After Stats have been determined, skill points are divided up. A character's skill points come solely from the Lifepaths she has traveled. There are approximately two hundred and eight skills in Burning Wheel.

Each skill is associated with a particular Stat or set of Stats. A skill's Root is half the associated Stat Exponent (or half the average of the Exponents in cases where the skill is based on two Stats). Skills receive the Shade of their associated Stat.

Purchasing a skill is referred to as Opening and the rating of a newly Opened skill is its Root. Most skills require one point to Open. The cost to raise skills is also on a one for one basis and, like Stats, they can only be raised to a rating of six during character creation.

Attributes are derived statistics. They include Health (the average of Will and Forte), Reflexes (the average of Perception, Agility, and Speed), Mortal Wound (the average of Power and Forte), Steel, and Faith.

Health determines how quickly a character recovers from injury.

Reflexes measures how quickly a character acts and reacts.

Mortal Wound determines the point at which a character's wounds become mortal and he passes into his next life.

Steel represents a character's nerve. A character's Steel rating is determined by answering a series of questions (which tend to relate to how much exposure the character has had to violence and pain).

Only characters with the Faith Trait have a Faith rating. The Faith rating of characters with the Trait is Black four.

Traits are qualities which the character possesses. There are approximately two hundred and fifty seven Traits in the Character Burner.

There are three different types of Traits: Die Traits, Call On Traits, and Character Traits. Die Traits are those which affect die rolls. Call On Traits are called upon by the player during times of need and provide a roll when there otherwise would have been none. Character Traits are descriptive in nature.

Players purchase Traits for their characters out of the pool of points generated by the character's choice of Lifepaths. Dwarf, Elven, and Orc characters receive a free set of racial Traits and can purchase ones not available to other types of characters. Some Burning Wheel Traits would be labeled disadvantages in other systems. These generally cost one point to purchase for the character.

Lifepath choices also generate resource points. These may be spent to acquire equipment, contacts, memberships in different organizations, and spells.

The next step in character creation is to determine the character’s wound levels. The Mortal Wound attribute marks the upper limit of the character’s fortitude on a scale that runs from Black one to White nine. The lower limit, the point at which scrapes and bruises become wounds proper, is one plus half of the character’s Forte. This is the character’s Superficial wound limit. Four other wound levels – Light, Midi, Severe, and Traumatic – are then placed as the player desires between Superficial and Mortal. These levels may not be placed more than half the character’s Forte apart.

The final step in character creation is choosing Beliefs and Instincts for the character.

Beliefs are roleplaying aids that remind players what is important to their characters. A character can have up to three Beliefs. Sample Beliefs include “I’m unworthy of praise,” “Strong arms are good but strong armor is better,” “I am cursed,” and “My dog is my best friend.”

Instincts are actions which are so ingrained in the character that he or she automatically takes them when appropriate. A character can have up to three Instincts. “Kneel in the presence of my betters,” “Always volunteer,” and “Eat corpses” are examples of Instincts.

The System

The Burning Wheel uses dice pools, set difficulty numbers, and counts successes for task resolution. Just six sided dice are used.

A number of six-sided dice equal to the exponent of the stat, attribute or skill that is being tested. The target number when a stat, attribute or skill with a Black Shade is four. The target number for the White Shade is three and it’s two for White.

Each tasks has a requisite number of success that must be met. This is called a task’s Obstacle. An easy task has an Obstacle of one. A routine task has an Obstacle of two, an extremely difficult task a four, and an impossible task an eight.

Some rolls in Burning Wheel are open-ended. Dice which come up six are re-rolled, but the new result is not added to the first. Instead, they’re simply treated as additional dice and generate one more success if they meet the roll’s difficulty number.

Opposed checks (called Versus Tests in Burning Wheel) compare successes.

When a character does not posses the necessary skill for a roll, the character uses the rating of the associated Stat. The Obstacle for the task is doubled.

Combat in handled in a series of Exchanges. Each Exchange is broken down into three Volleys. Each characters receives a number of actions per Exchange equal to her Reflexes score. These actions must be divided evenly between Volleys.

Players must write out or Script the actions of their characters using a shorthand language. Actions in a particular Volley occur simultaneously. Movement is Scripted.

Some actions do not require a target to be specified and are flexible enough survive interaction with other Scripts; those which fall to the wayside may be re-Scripted between Volleys but the first, changed action is lost.

It is possible for characters to take an action before anyone else in an Exchange. To do this, everyone bids actions. The character who bids the most actions (and still has one left) may take one action before the pack. All bid actions are lost.

It is possible to bid to go last in an Exchange.

Attacks and defense are handled as Scripted actions, such as Avoid, Block, Charge, and Strike. Different skills provide the character with different actions to Scrip. For example, characters without martial skills are limited to just the Strike, Push, and Lock actions.

A character hits with a weapon if she meets whatever difficulty number is needed for the Shade of the skill being used. Thus a character with a Black three in Mace will roll three six-sided dice and try to get a four or better on each die.

Players can Script changes to their character’s Stance. There are three Stances: Neutral, Aggressive, and Defensive. Certain actions receive bonuses in a specific Stance.

Characters may sometimes rely on their Natural Defenses when attacked – even if they have not Scripted a defensive action. Natural Defenses is a Versus Test that only works against certain maneuvers. The specifics of the test are determined by the maneuver the attacker uses.

Weapons have deal three different categories of damage: Incidental, Mark, and Superb. A Weapon’s Add score determines how many successes an attacker needs to move the damage from Incidental to Mark and from Mark to Superb.

Weapons also have a Power score. This is added to damage. Sometimes a weapon’s Power will also have a Shade.

A Weapon’s Speed determines how often it may be used. A Fast weapon may be used to attack each action. A Slow weapon may not be used to attack twice in a row and an Unwieldy weapon requires an action to “set” it before it can be used.

Weapons also have a Versus Armor attribute to reflect the fact that certain weapons do better against certain types of armor than others.

Bows, crossbow and guns do not use the standard rules for other weapons. The required Obstacle for them to hit is based on range and other modifiers. They do not have a Power attribute and the amount of damage they deal is based on a die roll rather than the number of successes garnered by the attack.

Thrown weapons use Power but take their damage from a random die roll like missile weapons.

Aiming is required to use missile and thrown weapons. The Obstacle for an attack with one of these weapons is raised by three if the character does not spend an action aiming.

Armor blocks attacks in Burning Wheel. When a character wearing armor is struck, she rolls one or more dice for each piece of armor worn. This is called a Protection Test. The difficulty number for the roll is based on the type of armor worn – characters who mix and match need to keep track of what die goes with which piece of armor. The better the armor, the lower the difficulty number – leather has a difficulty of 6 while plate has a 3. If any of the Protection Test rolls succeed, the attack is deflected.

This is the point at which the weapon’s Versus Armor is taken into account. Each point of Versus Armor raises the difficulty of the Protection Test by one.

A roll of one during a Protection Test indicates that the associated piece of armor has taken damage. That piece of armor loses one die from the number of dice it contributes to Protection Tests. Thus a damaged vest, which normally provides two dice during such a roll, would only lend one die to the pool until it is repaired.

Shields work like armor in most respects, but they (and other devices used to parry) add dice to the pool used during certain maneuvers and actions. Shields cannot be used to block missile fire. They count as cover instead.

Damage is directly related to the attack roll. The better the roll, the farther along the life track the resulting wound is placed. Hits which exceed the limit for Superficial wounds, deal a Superficial wound and so on. Hits which exceed the Mortal wound limit kill the character.

Burning Wheel uses wound penalties. Superficial and Light wounds increase the difficulty numbers for tasks. Midi, Severe and Traumatic wounds reduce the number of dice a character has to roll for tasks.

Wounds bleed and, if left untreated, push wounds penalties from one category to the next. Bleeding wounds are still considered to be the category at which they were dealt for treatment purposes. A Light wound which bleed until it dealt Midi wound penalties is still considered a Light wound by the doctor.

Human characters need the Gifted Trait to use Incantations or the Faithful Trait for Divine Magic. Orcs purchase the Blasphemous Hatred Trait to gain access to their foul rituals. Elves learn their magical Songs as skills.

Incantations use a Sorcery plus Will roll versus an Obstacle detailed in the spell. Divine Magic does not use predetermined spells or effects.

Incantations cause fatigue in the user and may go disastrously wrong. The Wheel of Magic, a kind of circular chart that lists different elements of spells such as range and type, is used to determined the final effects of magic gone awry. A miscast spell could merely have its range increased or could end up looking like a different spell entirely!

The faithful pray for what they need and the gods answer how they will. Divine Magic uses a Faithful roll versus a variable Obstacle, which is based on the magnitude of the desired effect. A simple blessing has an Obstacle of four. Minor miracles have an Obstacle of 5 and an intercession has an Obstacle of eight.

Stats, skills, and Attributes can be improved as a Burning Wheel game progresses. Instincts, Beliefs and Traits may change over time as the character changes. Burning Wheel does not use experience points for character advancement. Instead, Stat, skills, and Attributes are raised through use.

Each time a character uses a Stat, skill or Attribute, the difficulty of the test is recorded on the character sheet. The difficulty of the test is determined by comparing the Obstacle of the test versus the number of dice rolled on a chart. There are three levels of difficulty: Routine, Difficult and Challenging.

The number of difficulties required to raise a score depends on its current level. Raising a score of one to a two requires one Routine and either a Difficult or a Challenging difficulty. Raising a score from a five to a six requires three Difficults and one Challenging.

Note that a roll does not have to be successful in order to count toward advancing a Stat, skill or Attribute.

Characters who fail to practice with their Stats and skill start to slide downhill. Their scores in unpracticed areas drops by one. The amount and frequency of practice required is dependent upon the type of skill or upon the specific Stat.

Instincts, Beliefs and Traits are added or removed via roleplaying.

Players may change their character’s Instincts when the GM deems there is sufficient cause.

Beliefs which are not followed should be erased. New ones may be added at the player’s leisure.

Unused Traits disappear at the end of a campaign. New Traits can be generated during the course of a game – such as when a character loses a hand – or at the end of each session, when the GM and players suggest new Traits for their characters. A vote is taken on each suggestion and, if it passes unanimously, the character receives the new Trait.

Players are also awarded Artha (luck or fate points) at the end of each adventure. They are awarded for roleplaying, completing goals, teamwork, “rolling with the punches,” and being voted most valuable player for the night.

Artha can be spent to change a closed roll to an open one, to bid in place of actions, to ignore wound penalties for a time, re-roll a test, to lower an Obstacle by one, to reduce the time needed for a task, to have a chance of surviving a Mortal Wound, to invest objects with special properties, and to shift the Shade of a Stat.

Overall

The Burning Wheel is a tangled mass of half-stated rules and buried gold. It’s interesting and innovative ideas are buried beneath rules, minutiae, dross, and pages and pages of skills and Traits.

The Burning Wheel has a long list of faults.

The core set of mechanics is often bent around different ideas and it seems that for every rule, there is an exception to that rule. The list of exceptions and differences is long. Missile weapons do not work quite the same way as melee ones and thrown weapons do not work quite the same way as melee or missile weapons. Exponents are raised through practice but raising a Shade requires Artha. Health, Reflexes and Mortal Wounds are all calculated while Steel relies on a series of questions and Faith is based on a Trait.

The rules are also needlessly complicated in the name of realism. Designers often tilt this windmill and while many times they succeed in creating games that meet their subjective vision of reality, it’s often difficult for the general gaming public to share their perspective.

But Burning Wheel’s rules sometimes fall down fall down in this area as well. It is easy to build a sixty-three year old human who has average Exponents and two Gray shades for his Stats!

Burning Wheel’s rules are often contradictory or left understated. Skills take the Shade of the associated Stat. Skills cannot have a Shade other than Black. A player may choose as many Lifepaths for his character as he desires. The GM should limit the number of Lifepaths a character may have.

Although there are a great number of Lifepaths, chances are good that characters taking the same paths will end up with the same set of skills. Faith is another example of such similarities. All starting Faithful characters begin with a Black four Faith rating.

The game is pedantic at times. There are two different Excavation skills, one for Orcs and one for Dwarves. Both cover excavating earth, but one is based on Perception and the other Power and Will. There is a Fishing (Line) and a Fishing (Net) skill.

And the game is divided at its heart. It strives to emphasize both rules and roleplaying – but does so almost irrespective of the other. The detailed mechanical portions of the game tend not to involve roleplaying while the areas which rely on roleplaying lead to mechanical disorder.

Moreover, the author is either targeting Burning Wheel for a very small niche market or is unaware of the realities of popular gaming. Burning Wheel often relies on the players to respect the spirit of the game. The author expects them to purchase disadvantages without benefit. He must imagine that voting for Traits and Artha to pass without a hitch. Neither of these is likely, however.

The game is poorly edited in spots. The Faith Attribute refers to a Faith Trait that does not exist. Instead, there is a Faithful Trait. The description for the Faithful Trait refers to a The Sight Trait which does not exist. Instead, there is a The Second Sight Trait.

The game often smashes through what fantasy setting it possesses with modern elements such as martial arts, rules about guns and the Chow Yun Fat Trait.

Burning Wheel does have its moments, however.

The core mechanic – when you find it – is smooth.

The Lifepath system is an interesting approach that, with a little tweaking, could be a fantastic character generation engine.

The Burning Wheel is atmospheric, both visually and mechanically. The names of the non-human Lifepaths are evocative. The graphic design of the game calls to mind Legolas, Aragorn, and Ged.

Although it is yet another exception, the Grief mechanic associated with elves brings them into focus and is wonderfully enriching. It makes Burning Wheel elves distinct from those in other games.

Instincts are a great way to bring characters to life in a manner not seen in other games: by showing rather than telling. They flesh out characters with actions rather than descriptors.

And it’s clear that the designer has talent. It could be better honed, but it’s there.

Burning Wheel’s exceedingly low cover price makes it almost a must have for those looking for explore detailed, rules-heavy games. Folks more interested in roleplaying ideas than mechanical meat will also find material to work with in The Burning Wheel – but it will likely end up sitting on a shelf after those ideas are plumbed.