Burning Wheel 101
How Dice Work
You roll a pool of D6’s. The notation is 4D for 4
dice, 6D for 6 dice, etc.
Rolling a 4, 5, or 6 counts as a success.
Difficulty is the number of successes you need to
achieve your goal. Obstacle 3 means you need
to roll 3 or more successes.
So far, pretty standard, right?
Here’s where it gets more interesting. There’s
various options you can do to get more dice to
roll.
Carefully
If you’re doing something which has a time
component (“Unlock the door before the guards
come”), doing it carefully means you’re pushing
the edge to do it right. You get +1D, but if you
fail, you run out of time.
Helping Dice
If someone is helping you and has an applicable
skill, they can give you a +1D by helping you
instead of doing something else. They have to
describe how they’re helping you (vice versa,
you can help other people if you describe it).
Teamwork works!
FORK Skills
You can “help” yourself if you have additional
skills that are related in some way to the primary
thing you’re trying to do.
If you’re tracking a wolf, Hunting might be the
primary skill you’re using, but having skills like
“Wolf-wise” and “Local Geography-wise”
would be useful as well. Each FORK skill gives
+1D. (You can usually get 1 or 2 of these if they
fit, going for 3 or more is tough.)
**HINT** Having a few different knowledge
skills (-wises) is like giving yourself a broad
+1D or +2D across the board!
Advantage Dice
If you’re in some situation where you really have
an advantage, the GM can grant an Advantage
die, or more. But it’s really the GM’s call, so
make your point and don’t push it.
Intent & Let it Ride
Say what your goal is.
“I want to sneak into the castle!” Good. “I hide
in the doorway. Then I edge along the wall.
Then I listen at the door. Then I…” Bad. (You
can get into detail about –how- you do it AFTER
you say –WHY- you’re doing it.)
The reason you do this is this- when you make a
roll- it covers the WHOLE attempt. The GM
can’t make you do 20 rolls of the same thing to
get the job done- one big roll for a reasonable
goal (You can sneak into the castle, you can’t
win the whole war in one roll).
Basically, once you’ve made the roll
successfully, the “Let it Ride” rule lets the
success stay in play – I don’t randomly get to
retest you.
Artha
Artha (pronounced Ar-tuh) is the “hero points”
of the game. You get them for roleplaying your
character in awesome ways – following your
Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits, or challenging
them. There’s three types and they help you in
rolls like this:
Fate Artha:
You can spend a Fate point after you roll to
make it “Open Ended”, which means any 6’s you
roll allow you to roll another die (and if those
come up 6’s? You get to roll another die, etc.)
Persona Artha
You can spend a Persona before a roll to get an
extra +1D. You can spend up to 3 on a single
roll.
Deeds Artha
You can spend a Deeds before a roll to double
the dice of your base skill or stat (before any
extra dice are added on top of it).
Burning Wheel 102
using Helping dice to help someone else do a
tough test.
Beliefs
Getting Artha
Beliefs are the core goals and beliefs of the
character.
Use them as guidelines on how to play your
character- or, play up how your character has a
moment of crisis in deciding to change her
beliefs.
Chasing Beliefs or struggling with them is how
you get Artha (see below).
There’s 3 types of Artha – Fate, Persona, Deeds.
Fate
You get Fate when you a) pursue your goals, b)
let your Instincts cause trouble c) invoke your
Traits to bring the story in an unforeseen
direction.
Persona
Instincts
Instincts are automatic reactions of a character.
Sometimes they’re useful, because they serve as
an “automatic” action for your hero (“Always
know the exits in a room”). Just as often you
might have Instincts which are set up to cause
you trouble (“Never lie.”).
When you play an Instinct in a way that makes
your life difficult, you get Artha.
Traits
Traits are sort of advantages and disadvantages
rolled together.
You can always use a Trait to make the story
more interesting – “I’m Philosophical, I’m going
to try to learn about the Lich King’s views on
life.” This kind of stuff earns Artha.
Some Traits are “Call-on” traits, you can use
them once a session to either a) win a tie or b)
reroll your failed dice.
Advancing Skills & Stats
Your skills improve by using them against
certain numbers of Obstacles. This applies
whether you succeed or fail.
You get Persona when you a) really roleplay and
capture the mood of the game, b) have an
internal struggle between your Beliefs, Instincts,
and Traits in making a tough choice, c) achieve a
personal goal (usually tied to a Belief).
Deeds
You get Deeds when you accomplish a huge goal
larger than your own personal agenda that
benefits many, for something other than just
personal gain. This is usually the “end of the
campaign” kind of stuff.
Circles
Circles is a stat that indicates how well
connected your character is. You can use it to
find NPCs and introduce them to the game.
You can do this to find nearly anyone- a
blacksmith to fix your sword, your cousin who
you’ve always kept in touch with, the one sage
who knows the Dragon’s True Name.
The weirder and more rare the person,
knowledge or service, the harder this is.
**Hint** Use Affiliations, Reputations, and –
wise skills to improve your Circles tests.
Resources
You’ll need to do a couple of routine tests
appropriate to your Skill, and a couple of really
tough ones.
**Hint** You can get some tough tests out of
the way by either attempting something while
hurt or otherwise operating at less dice, OR by
This stat is an abstraction of how much money,
wealth, status, and credit you have. You use it to
buy stuff.
**Hint** Use –wises, Haggling, or related Skills
to improve your Resources Tests.