A Mouse Guard and Torchbearer Primer

Recently I've been listening to the Reckless Dice podcast as they have played a few sessions of Mouse Guard and it reminded me again of how difficult some of the concepts of the game can be. Especially for players used to a more traditional roleplaying format. My immediate thought was to offer some advice about certain things to think about and what stumbling blocks to avoid and share them with the Reckless Dice crew, but I realized that writing something like a primer and share here would probably be more useful for more people (including my own players).

In the following text I will mainly talk about Mouse Guard (or MG), as it is the basis for Torchbearer as well and they are similar in most core aspects. They do differ in some key points though, but instead of inserting those differences in the running text I'll try to collect them at the end in a Torchbearer section. I won't explain the game, as in how the rules work, I'll simply try to give advice on how to interact with those rules and how to play to make the most of them.

I am also aiming this text at players new to the system and who are not really used to these kind of character and narrative focused games. Of course, I hope the advice might be helpful for the rest of you as well. Of course, these are just my personal opinions on the game and how to make it run well, don't take it as Luke's gospel. :)

General Advice

Depending on the system and the players a Session Zero isn't always necessary, but in this case I really think you should try to start off with one. Use it to talk about the setting, the system and to make characters. There's going to be a lot of questions about the unfamiliar parts of the game but since you are all new I don't think it's productive to get bogged down trying to explain all of it in detail. Try to focus on the core of the game.

Do talk about how MG is tighly character focused and although there are quite a bit of rules it is also very narrativistic. In my experience this is the biggest stumbling block for players coming from a traditional rpg background. While we call it ROLEplaying I think many, perhaps most, players tend to end up playing a fantasy version of themselves. I don't mean this in an elitist way where I think this is a bad way of playing - it's not - but it usually doesn't gel with how Mouse Guard was designed.

So let's talk about this. The core of MG are the Beliefs, Instincts, Traits (aka BITs) and Goals. The entire game revolves around these concepts and if they don't click it can grind to a halt (how are you liking those... wheel metaphors, eh?). In traditional games we're used to having rules for physical actions in the game such as swinging a sword or climbing a cliff. Rules for things like persuasion and deceit is very common as well, although such things can also be governed purely through roleplay and GM fiat. What we almost never see are rules for how you should play your character - as in how she would act in certain situations.

In Mouse Guard there are rules for how you should play your character and the system of rewards hinges on you following those rules. This can feel very alien to some players, and paradoxically make it hard for them to know how to act. In the traditional sense of "playing yourself" there's virtually no filter between the players thoughts and actions and the characters thoughts and actions - you often react to what the GM describes the same way you, the player, would react. Having to reroute that process through the BITs of your character can feel cumbersome and be a barrier to what some call "immersion".

What I have found can help players kind of reframe this in their minds is using the director metaphor. Instead of thinking about your character as you, think of her as a character in a tv series you're directing, or a book you're writing. It is still very much your character, but it's easier to get into the habit of thinking about how would she react in this situation, rather than how would I react. Once you've shifted to this perspective you'll find yourself looking to your character's Belief and Traits more often to help you decide on how you should proceed.

With this new habit you are ready to really let the characters free. The game sings when you start to discover the story through the characters actions, which are based on their BITs. You should never feel constrained by "the story" or what you think you (the players) should be doing, or what you think the GM has in store for you. Just act on your Belief and the story will burst forth!

This includes not being afraid to go against the other players. If your characters Belief or Goal clashes with another characters, then some PvP might be in order. A passionate argument among friends can be the highlight of the session and the system is built to make this both possible and fun.

Alright, so we've talked about the importance of character and assuming a kind of director stance. What's another great stumbling block? Fear of failure. Through traditional rpgs we've been conditioned to think of failures as the worst possible outcome. We do everything in our might to stack the odds in our favour since failing usually means a null result or a negative result. Sometimes it can even mean the end of the adventure! Mouse Guard flips this all on its head and embraces failure as the catalyst of change and character growth!

When a character fails a roll the GM can either let her succeed anyway, but give her a negative condition, like Angry or Injured, or he can invoke a twist. A twist changes the fiction in some way that propells the story forward. If you're trying to find the path to Sprucetuck but fail, the GM could either let you succeed but say that you are now Thirsty and Hungry from the trek, or he could say that you've actually wandered too far and find yourself in weasel territory. Or it could be something completely unrelated to the actual pathfinding roll, like a sudden thunderstorm or a couple of crows taking interest in the shiny swords of the guardmice.

Twists can often lead to other twists that become adventures in their own right and it is this in combination with the characters' BITs that create the larger story. So failures are fun! They make unexpected things happen and they test the mettle of your character! Additionally they are required to advance your character's skills and abilities - yes, without failing a bunch of rolls you will never get better. Here's an important part where Traits come in, but I'll cover that below.

Stumbling block number three is the GM and Players turn structure and earning Checks. This sounds weirder than it is, but it's pretty much just the regular cycle of most roleplaying games as you move from action scenes to downtime and then back to the action again. The big difference here is Checks, which you must try to collect during the GM's turn to be able to do stuff during the Players' turn. The tricky part about Checks is connected to fear of failure that I mentioned above - to get them you have to affect your character negatively through her Traits. This also ties into the fact that you have to fail to advance your skills, so you now have two big fat rewards for failing!

The Player turn usually comes naturally once the patroll is out of immediate danger and have at least a few checks between them. It might read as very structured and constrained, but I've found that it simply comes organically through the story. If the guardmice have managed to persevere through what you threw at them and find themselves in a natural lull where they're safe from harm, a player turn is probably in order. The suggested two obstacles during the GM's turn is a good benchmark, but more likely than not those will have grown in different directions thanks to twists during play.

Ok, I think that covers the big concepts and themes that are unfamiliar. Let's talk about more concrete actual play advice, bullet point style.

Player Advice

• Belief, Instinct, Traits, Goal. Keep going back to those and you shouldn't have much trouble.
• Your Belief might be the most important part of your Character, so give it some thought.
• Also, don't be afraid to change your Belief it you find that it doesn't come into play, or your character has changed.
• Is the test practically impossible? Use a Trait against you and throw the test! That's like a free Check and a fail for advancement all in one.
• Think of the GM's turn as your character being on the job, and the Players' turn as leisure time to recover or tie up loose ends.
• Embrace failure! There's very little that will actually kill you. Twists are how the story evolves. If you never fail it would make for a pretty flat session.
• Describe to live! Visualising your characters actions as if you were directing a movie can be a great way to really breath life into the scene. Describe what it looks like!
• Don't fish for "irrelevant" rolls. During the GM's turn, focus on the task at hand. You can roll for Cartography or Smithing in the Players' turn (if you have the checks).
• Do make Checks a priority! Always keep your Traits in mind for when they could trip you up and earn you Checks.

Game Master Advice

• Have a sheet with the characters' BITs in front of you. Try to challenge all of them, but Beliefs and Goals in particular. 
• Keep harping about how they can (and should!) use Traits against themselves to earn Checks. This is such a crucial mechanic to grasp, but very unintuitive for traditional players. If you know you're playing several sessions you can simply not remind them about it during the first GM turn and then talk about it in the Players' turn as they're experiencing a distinct lack of Checks.
• Only roll when it matters. In traditional games you tend to reach for the dice at pretty much every turn. In MG you can let a lot of things slide by simply saying yes and moving on. Rule of thumb: if you can't think of a good potential twist, it's probably better not to make it a test.
• Keep the pressure on the characters. Don't make it easy for them, make sure to beat them down so they have the opportunity to persevere through hardship, which will let them grow. 
• Feel free to prep a bit beforehand, but don't get constrained by it. MG can be an almost zero prepp game, with just a bare bones adventure outline. You could map out the adventure as well, with a pass/fail branching structure, but even if you do you'll more than likely find yourself off-path sooner rather than later.
• Just be sure to have the story go where the characers take it rather than the other way around.
• Don't house rule. This can be tempting when you're first learning the game and are struggling with the unfamiliar mechanics. Try to resist the urge to house rule stuff.
• Twists and imposing conditions are great tools for managing the flow of the story. Being able to simply allow a character to succeed (but with a Condition) and move on creates a great deal of flexibility.
• If you're unsure about what Ob to set, lean towards making it harder for the characters. Don't coddle them and remember that twists are when the game comes alive! A patrol with only successfull rolls is a pretty boring one. 

Let's wrap up before this becomes too long winded. I think most of the really important advice is here, although I haven't mentioned Conflicts. They can also be a stumbling block and are probably the most "gamey" part of Mouse Guard, but at the same time are often incredibly tense and can make for great cinematic moments! I don't cover Conflicts here as I've already written an article on my thoughs on the system: Conflicts in Torchbearer and Mouse Guard. Please have a look at it. And before we say goodbye completely, some words on what has been called Advanced Mouse Guard.

Torchbearer

Many of the systems are the same in Torchbearer as in Mouse Guard, however the emphasis change. BITs are still a core component but they get to share the spotlight with sheer survival. While death is fairly rare in Mouse Guard it is a constant companion in Torchbearer. Beliefs, Goals and Traits work pretty much the same, but usually won't drive the narrative quite as strongly as in Mouse Guard - probably because there's this overarching goal/belief of all characters to simply survive and dig enough gold out of the much to make ends meat when back in civilization.

This does not mean BITs aren't important. In some ways they're even more important! In Torchbearer you can't make camp (ie take a player turn) without having earned at least one Check first. Instincts also change to become a kind of automatic action that doesn't take up precious time, which is very powerful and need to be utilised fully to survive.

There's also The Grind where the characters slowly become weaker unless they take time to eat and drink properly. This together with dwindling resources of light and rations makes Torchbearer a game about pressure and hard choices. There's a constant threath of physical debilitation combined with a thread of encroaching doom as the torches start to run out. Yet you can't give in to the pressure until you have enough loot to at least re-equip in the next town you come across. So to that end, is it worth it to ditch two torches to make room for a gold necklace? As you can imagine choices underground in Torchbearer usually hits the first principle of survival first and then filters through the character's BITs and Goal. 

To really drive this feeling of muddy despair home the GM needs to be merciless when it comes to The Grind and sticking it to the characters. While Mouse Guard should have the characters persevere and grow through moral choices the murder hobos of Torchbearer grow as they emerge from a crevace in the ground, covered in mud and blood, with a rusty knife still sticking poking into the back but with a bag of coins in a death grip in one hand!

Is that it? I think that might be it. For now anyway. Naturally all this thinking about Mouse Guard has made me decide to run a few sessions with a new group. We're aiming for 3-5 sessions and my goal is to be able to make time for a winter phase as well. First session in a couple of weeks. Please feel free to add your own advice, or point out where you disagree with me, in the comments.

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Torchbearer - Into the Crypt

Yesterday I ran my first game of Torchbearer with a new constellation of players. You might remember my session report from last year, when I got to be one of the players for the better half of Under the House of Three Squires. Unfortunately it ended up being a one-off so I thought I'd take a shot at running it with a bunch of old friends.

If you've been reading my blog for any substantial amount of time you know I've lamented the demise of our roleplaying group after we wrapped up the Gathering Storm campaign for WFRP3 (here's the first session report, for interested readers) back in 2011. Since then I've tried sporadically to get something started, but nothing really took off and Anders, who have always been a dependable roleplayer, started feeling less interested in the hobby. So although we tried a few different systems the only game we played more than once was Dungeon World, as I was waiting for the Torchbearer kickstarter to deliver. Hehe!

However, I have decided to give it another go but this time with a new approach. Instead of playing once every fortnight, which is how we made it through The Gathering Storm, I wanted to try and utilize evenings after work and play three or four times in close succession. This would keep the momentum going and we'd be able to play through a fair bit of the game before deciding if it was a good fit or not (as opposed to just deciding after one session).

So I talked to some old regulars that has been roleplayers for a long time but haven't really played together in this constellation before. Everyone was up for it and after discussing the different games I was eager to run (Torchbearer, The One Ring, Mouse Guard and Star Wars) we decided on Star Wars. However, I later withdrew that option as I had barely had time to even look at the 400+ page tome that is the core book! So while stalling for time in regards to Star Wars I suggested Torchbearer as I know the system fairly well and it's reasonably light on prep (not as light as MG, but lighter than TOR). Jimmy was eager to try it, while Jacob thought it sounded like "a dungeon crawler board game without a board" and Nicke and Claes were neutral. So... interesting!

Prepping for Torchbearer.

I quickly read through The Dread Crypt of Skogenby, got my poker chips, D6s and Mouse Guard conflict cards and headed over to Jacobs house this past Sunday to make characters and play our first session of Torchbearer. After a quick explanation of the basic rules (dice pool and skills basically) we went straight to character creation where I felt I could explain rules organically as we moved along. The characters we ended up with are:

Preben the Human Warrior (Jimmy)
Belief: Survival of the strong.
Instinct: Look for enemies when setting camp.

Fiord the Elf Ranger (Nicke)
Belief: Shit is always right around the corner.
Instinct: Always scribe scrolls when camping.

Tyron the Halfing Burglar (Jacob)
Belief: When everyone disagrees, I'm probably right.
Instinct: Don't trust Preben when thinking is involved (Preben has a Will of 1!).

Rurik Red the Dwarf Adventurer (Claes)
Belief: Live every day with no regret or remorse.
Instinct: Always repair stuff in camp.

Ambience!

As you can see we're not quite there yet when it comes to beliefs but as the players become more familiar with the system I think this will change. It would have been cool to keep track exactly of what they did each turn, but of course I didn't think of that so here it is in a semi-coherant ramble:


Spoilers for The Dread Crypt of Skogenby below!


I explained to them that Preben had had some bad news from his hometown of Skogenby and that they needed help with something. With promises of rewards he managed to get the rest of the murder-hobos on board and they set out on a journey to the west. They passed The Three Squires on their way there and Rurik mentioned that he'd like to try a swig of their famous beer some day...

They arrived in Skogenby and talked to the village elders about the dire situation in the village and the disappearance of Jora and the subsequent killings of several people. They were given the silver bracelets as the elders begged them to restore them to the tomb to appease the spirits. After Tyron had made some assurances that they would actually get paid for helping out they set out toward the burial mound.

As the clouds foretold rain Fiord, the elf ranger, studied the mud outside the small hole leading into the mound and realized that someone or something had been using it several times fairly recently. He also tried to read what was written on the rune stone but a freak lightning bold split the it in two before he could decipher it! Realizing that something was coming out of the tomb made the group discuss the possibility of rigging a trap and simply wait it out. But as the discussion grew long the impulsive dwarf suddenly swore to himself and started crawling through the hole, into the tomb.

He lit a candle once inside and called for the others that it seemed safe enough where he was. Having perhaps already tipped their hand the others decided to follow, using a torch for some more light. As they moved ahead something moved ahead and when Tyron through a torch forward to see what was making the noise they saw four skeletal warriors moving towards them!

One too many, but you get my point. :)

With a shout Rurik launched himself at them but was quickly overwhelmed and beaten down. Some quick bow work from Fiord and Preben covering him allowed them to get Rurik back on his feet. They fought a bit more defensively after that and the four undead were soon put down without much trouble.

The group explored a nearby room that had a font filled with water in it, a number of statues and a brazier. After some time trying to figure out the purpose of the room an eerie breeze came out of nowhere and extinguished the candle and torches! Suddenly unnatural lights appeared in the middle of the room and as they danced around Preben and Rurik started to move towards them. Just as they were about to dunk their heads into the font Tyron, using hidden depths, managed to restrain Preben. Rurik wasn't as lucky and swallowed quite a bit of water before snapping out of it. Fiord quickly lit another torch and the unnatural lights disappeared. Making matters worse, a blue glowing symbol suddenly appears on Rurik's forehead as he tries to use the brazier. Probably not a good sign.

Moving back into the first corridor they decide to move ahead a little and explore a second room. Its walls are covered in rotting tapestries and the elf again tried to make sense of the purpose of the room. While he didn't study the statues lining the walls he did figure out that this was a room for attempted transcendance... whatever that meant.

Moving ahead the group entered a long room lined with bones as well as pots, bottles and canisters of all kinds of shapes and sizes. After a cursory look at the bottles and realizing that what had once been in them was long perished, Preben and Tyron moved ahead and spotted a sarcophagus further ahead. The regal looking woman sculpted intrigued them and Preben was just about to push the heavy lid off when Tyron stopped him and pointed at one of the corners - a pressure plate trigger! Moving back and inspecting the rest of the room he realized that something was likely to come out of the holes in the ceiling. The halfling had a Good Idea though and he managed to pull the lid off the sarcophagus with the rope, easily avoiding the spears that sprang out of the holes. To everyone's disappointment it was empty.

This is kind of how I imagined it.

As the room didn't lead on anywhere the adventurers found themselves rather perplexed for a bit. It wasn't until Fiord noticed how his torch flickered that they realized that there must be a secret door somewhere. Fiord used his torch to look for it and just as it looked like he had found the source a dark, amorphous blob dropped down from the ceiling above him, covering him almost completely! Rurik rushed forward only to realized that his axe wasn't much use against the slimy creature. Preben tried to hold it at bay with his shield as Tyron pulled Fiord free of the bubbling mass. With their weapons useless against the slime the adventurers found themselves being pushed out of the room and soon a tactical retreat turned into a rout as they ran for the exit!

They made it outside, but Preben had a nasty burn from the creature and the others were exhausted! Deciding that they needed some proper rest Tyron looked around for a good campsite and found one in a natural shelter. They spent some time resting up, fixing gear and writing scrolls. Fiord even managed to use his elfish healing skills to alleviate Prebens burn. He also compiles the scatter of notes he had kept with him into a proper map.

As morning breaks there are more talks of trapping the entrance, but in the end the group decide to make their way back in and simply avoiding the room with the font as it looked like the giant amoeba made its way into the murky water there. Fiord's map makes it easy to trace their way back to the room with the sarcophagus and this time the elf manages to find the secret door.

Peering ahead they saw a corridor and some great oak doors to the left. Preben immediately moved ahead and opened the doors, revealing a chilling sight! On a large stone throne the remnants of some once great warrior sat, and in the skeleton's lap was Jora - the little girl. Only her eyes glowed with an unearthly sheen and she started angrily at the intruders. The heroes(?) stand stunned for a moment and before they can get their wits about them the girl spoke in a throaty rasp, claiming to be Haathor-Vash a once great hero. Cowed by the sight the adventurers played along nicely and simply tried to ascertain what the angry spirit wanted of them.

As Haathor-Vash stated that she wanted all her stolen belongings returned to her Preben was just about to hand over the armbands they had taken but Tyron was there before he had a chance to! The halfling instead suggested a bargain: release the girl and the adventurers would give the armbands back and re-seal the tomb. After some back and forth this was agreed upon and as Preben placed the armbands near the throne the girl suddenly collapsed as the blue glow went from her eyes!

They helped the unconscious Jora out of the crypt while throwing wistful glances at the armbands and some other bits of treasure they had left behind. Returning to Skogenby they were welcomed as heroes as the villagers realized Jora was still alive. For their trouble they received some coin and a trinket.

We decided to call the Adventure Phase here and had a quick Town phase. This being their first Torchbearer outing I allowed them +1D for their lifestyle cost as the villagers extended some extra courtesy to the "heroes". After some looking through equipment tables and pondering dice amounts Preben ended up with a new spear and Fiord a large sack. They also got rid of a couple of conditions.

End of spoilers!

We had a great time with the game, even if (as always) rpg veterans found it hard to adapt to the system. While they started to get into it after about half way through the way roleplaying games "should work" are so deeply ingrained that it's a difficult transition. If I introduce BWHQ again to some other players in the future I might present it as a board game first to see if that would be easier for them to parse, and then have them actually understand that it's simply a different kind of roleplaying game. Of course, introducing it to players who have never roleplayed wouldn't be a problem at all!

Anyway, they made it through the crypt alive, even though I went a bit easy on them at the end there. This was mainly because they had obviously not grasped the conflict system and were handing out cards more or less at random. I decided to simply play through the adventure and then talk about conflicts next time instead (which of course turned into my last post).

Although I keep harping on about how tough it can be for rpg veterans to go out of their comfort zone, I got a bunch of positive reactions as well, of course! That failing was really never a fail in the traditional sense of the word, that time actually mattered and that rolling always had some kind of consequence. There is a lot to like in Torchbearer!

Next our adventurers decide it's time to head back to the city, by way of that famous inn The Three Squires...

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Conflicts in Torchbearer and Mouse Guard

I ran Torchbearer for the first time with a new group of players practically unfamiliar with the system yesterday. If you've read any of the games that comes out of Burning Wheel HQ you know that Luke and his partners in crime create games that are very unique and don't really fit into most of the rpg moulds already out there. Yes, BW and its siblings are "indie roleplaying games" in the sense that they are produced by a small group of people who make games because they love it and it has unconventional rules. But if there's one thing I think that modern indie rpgs have in common it's a very light and quick system that is used to promote both storytelling and player agency. And while some of that is true for Torchbearer and Mouse Guard as well, the systems are, while not actually complex, really quite crunchy!

There quite a bit of moving parts which can be overwhelming for a newcomer to the system, but all of the parts are moving in the same direction: pushing you to play the character you created and making sure the story always keeps evolving. I won't be discussing the entire system today (read my Mouse Guard review for a rundown of the basics) but would like to focus on the mechanics of the conflict.

After our Torchbearer session we sat down and discussed the system and what the players thought of it. I think the general consensus was that some parts felt a bit strange and "unrealistic" but that other parts were pretty cool, and everyone wanted to keep going to try and get a better understanding of how it all fits together. One of the elements that felt odd to a couple in the group was the conflict system. I think it's party my fault as I only briefly explained the interactions between the four different actions you can choose but also I'm sure it stemmed from the fact that it's so different from any roleplaying game they have played before that it just felt alien and they had a hard time seeing the point of it. As I was starting to write down my take on the conflict system, and why it is the way it is, in an email I thought I might as well make a blog post out of it.

When you get into a conflict in Torchbearer or Mouse Guard, be it a fight with swords a battle of wits or a chase on horseback you use the same basic system. You roll for disposition as a group. This is basically your conflict "hit points" and side who first goes down to 0 loses. There are four actions to choose from - attack, defend, feint and maneuver. The players and the DM secretly choose three each and who should perform which action, then each is revealed and resolved in turn. The cards interact in different ways and depending on what weapons/tools are used you can modify this interaction in meaningfull ways. If both choose the attack action each side get to test independantly and both are likely to take damage. Attack against defend on the other hand is a versus test where the attacker can inflict damage on the defender or the defender can regain lost disposition, depending on who wins the roll.

Jacob, one of the players, likened it to rock, paper, scissors and in a way he's right - but it's a lot more complex and nuanced than something as simple as that. But being new to the game and not really seeing those nuances (I think the players more or less picked actions at random) I can see why it felt simply abstract, random and slightly frustrating. So why use a system like this? What's wrong with the good old BRP way of rolling under to hit and then the defender can try and roll under to parry/dodge? Well, the way I see it this way of handling conflicts aims to solve a bunch of problems that often pop up in roleplaying games and here is how it works:

All Conflicts Should be Equal.
Every Roll Should Count.
Tactics Should Matter.
It Should be Fast.

Below I'll discuss these four concepts. First just let me say that I will mostly use actual combat as the go-to example when writing, which is ironic considering All Conflicts Should be Equal, but I'm doing it simply because it's easy to picture for most of us. I'm also refering a lot to "traditional" roleplaying games which is just as loose a moniker as indie, but if you think games with an aim to simulate real life as the basic concept you're not far wrong.  So here we go:


All Conflicts Should be Equal
I'm not saying that every conflict should be literally equal, but rather that a conflict where you try to rally a group of frigthened villagers, or when you try to lose the wolfriders that are tracking you, or when you argue with the Duke about the inheritance should be just as important and detailed as a battle with a band of slavering frogmen! In the vast majority of roleplaying games the chapter on combat will probably be one of the most rules heavy, while the chapter on social conflicts are simply... non-existant!

Using the same conflict system for any conflict worthy of that name (that's to say, something larger than a simple versus test) will make sure that an argument carries just as much dramatic as well as mechanical weight as actual physical combat. It's a way of saying that they are all equally important for the game. There are other systems these days that do similar things, most notably FATE, but it still bears mentioning.

Every Roll Should Count
With a background in "traditional" roleplaying games I'm used to systems where combat is divided into rounds and every round you get to do your attack and you roll the die, and the opponent parries or dodges and then the next person rolls and it goes around and around. Nothing wrong with this per se, it's more of a simulationist approach to gaming that is/was very strong in Europe I think. However it tends to lead to combat situations where you roll dice a lot and most of the time nothing interesting actually happens during an attack. In an entire combat sequence perhaps only four or five rolls really have everyone at the table excited and invested in the outcome, while the large majority are of the less interesting attack-dodge-attack-parry-attack-2hp damage-attack-miss variety.

So why not try and distill a conflict down to those exciting rolls that actually mean something?! Most conflicts in Torchbearer and Mouse Guard involve relatively few rolls. It could all be over in just one or two action volleys, although most of the I imagine it being more like five or six. Still, this is far from the dice rolling orgy of many traditional (read simulationist) roleplaying games. This means that every roll is important as a certain victory could turn into bitter defeat at any turn! Basically there is no "combat filler", you cut straight to the juicy stuff - which is very much in theme with the whole Burning Wheel methodology: only roll when the outcome actually matters.

Tactics Should Matter

In a traditional roleplaying game combat (or any other conflict) tactics can be a difficult thing to quantify. Sure, your players can lay ambushes or try and flank the enemy which might give them a bonus here or there but there is still the matter of the GM trying to have his NPCs act in realistic ways to the player characters actions without being influenced by meta knowledge and table chatter. I hear you say that any GM worth his salt should be able to differentiate between player (or GM in this case) knowledge and character knowledge, and I'd be inclined to agree with you. However, how often has it happened in a traditional roleplaying game that you as a player has simply outwitted the enemy through clever tactics and manuvers? And I mean from turn to turn actions rather than starting the combat as ambushers or something. In a game involving projectile weapons I can see it being a little bit easier, but if it's good old stick-him-with-the-sharp-end type of combat it invariably comes down to attack-dodge-attack-parry-attack-2hp damage-attack-miss with no sense of tactical depth beside trying a different attack now and then.

With this kind of hidden scripting it really becomes a contest between the players and the GM. The players need to seriously consider the capabilities of the opposition, their own abilities as well as the mind and machinations of the GM. Imagine a group of murder-hobos squaring off against ten angry kobolds in Torchbearer:

Jimmy: "Hmm... that is a lot of kobolds, and together they roll a lot of dice. But they're only one hit point each so if we start with an attack to try and take out as many as possible in one fell swoop and then defend to recover lost disposition I think we would be in a position to take them out in a final attack!"
Claes: "Sounds like a plan! Give me the first attack action and I'll go at them with my battle-axe."
Jimmy: "Sure, then I'll take the defend action and use my shield."
Jacob: "Are we sure we want to make the last action another attack? I could use my sling with a maneuver to help set up for a strong attack by Fiord in the next round."
Nicke: "Normally I'd agree with you as I'm not that strong a fighter, but I have cast my Eldritch Dart spell and I'm Angry, giving me an extra die... I can handle it. Give me that second attack action."
Claes: "I just hope the GM's second action isn't a feint..."

In most traditional roleplaying games this dimension of cooperation and round to round planning would be missing. Sure everyone would do their little thing to try and kill the enemies but for the most part it would boil down to individual attacks without much coordination. Of course, I'm generalizing here but I think you understand my point.

Caveat: I've never properly played D&D but I'm quite aware that, in later editions especially, tactical combat is pretty much all that is left of that roleplaying game. While I enjoy the added tactical dimensions of the scripting system I think that D&D goes too far and becomes something I would rather play as a board game or at the computer.

It Should be Fast
This goes hand in hand with Every Roll Should Count in that the system tries to make sure conflicts don't take up the greater part of a gaming session. I can remember many times when a combat encounter (it's always combat!), even a small one, has taken two or three hours to resolve, simply because of all the dice that needed to be rolled and how many of those rolls that didn't really have much of an effect. You can get a lot of roleplaying done instead of drawing out a three minute in-game event two two hours!

The first conflict yesterday, against some Tomb Guardians, I think lasted four or five actiond and took all of ten minutes to play through - and yet it managed to be an interesting conflict with meaningfull choices.


That's how I look at the system. It's different from what we're used to and while it's more abstract in some ways it also has a lot more tactical depth to it and it makes sure that every roll is relevant. It's not better than a more traditional approach per se, we're all different after all, but I certainly think it's a well thought out alternative that can be even more exciting and rewarding than the systems we grew up playing.

It's tough just picking it up on a fly during your first session but I think after having tried it a couple of times and now having the chance to read through the conflict rules in privacy in preparation for the next session, future conflicts will prove very interesting! No more handing out actions on the fly... instead thinking ahead and strategizing will win the day. I would love to hear your thoughts on the system and what you percieve as good or bad.

I should have a proper Torchbearer session report up within the next few days...

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Torchbearer - First Impressions and Session Report

Finally, I hear some of you think! Or something. After a fairly long detour into the wartorn Eastern Front in the autumn of 1947 we're making our way back to the dank dripping caves filled with kobolds and other more... nasty critters that I posted about back in June. Let's talk Torchbearer!

Ever since I read a series of session report by a group who used Burning Wheel to play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay I've been fascinated by everything Burning Wheel related. I actually tried to find the reports in question but was unsuccessful - this was maybe three years ago and I seem to recall it was on rpg.net. Oh well.

Anyway, we've played Mouse Guard a couple of times (awesome!) but we have never tried Burning wheel. Although I did try to adapt Beliefs and Instincts into our now defunct WFRP3 campaign, without success. Now, Torchbearer is fourth game in the Burning family, after Burning Wheel, Burning Empires and Mouse Guard and it is really Mouse Guard that it resembles most closely. Advanced Mouse Guard as Thor puts it in the book. I won't really going into detail about what the game is as I think I mostly covered that in my June post. But basically it's conceptually an old school dungeon crawler but dressed in the modern roleplaying garb of Mouse Guard.

In the middle of July I was invited by my friend Kosta to try the game out with his gaming group, which I jumped at immediately of course! We had four players and a GM and we were going to try out the introductory scenario, "Under the House of Three Squires". A couple of us in the group had some passing familiarity with Mouse Guard but only Nils (the GM) and myself had actually read through the Torchbearer rules. After some discussion of the system and its concepts we had a look at the pre-generated characters. We ended up with a group consisting of Beren the Dwarf adventurer, Karolina the human warrior, Gerald the halfling burglar and myself as Taika the elf ranger. Here's Jordan Worley's take on how these characters look:

More on his blog.

What follows is a short session report that, naturally, is filled with spoilers for Under the Three Squires. Read on at your peril...

SPOILERS!!

We fiddled around a little bit with equipment, making sure we brought enough supplies to last us through the dark. I bought a bow for Taika as I felt it only right and proper for an elf. Mostly though, we simply ran with what was on the sheet.

We approached the inn but soon discovered that something was amiss, the door stood ajar, some furniture was tipped over and there was no trace of any people. After some recon work by Gerald the halfling we came to the conclusion that someone or something had been dragging stuff down into the cellar. As we pushed the door open only darkness and a rickety old staircase greeted us.

Beren lit a torch and was about to step onto the stairs when I stopped him with a quick hand on his shoulder. The staircase was a trap! My sharp elf eyes had spotted that someone had sawed halfway through the beams, meaning the entire structure would collapse if enough weight was put on it. Perhaps Gerald was light enough to cross, but it would be impossible for the rest of us. A few minutes discussion lead to Beren, with his considerable dungeoneering experience, using his axe to cut into the hard-packed dirt wall making hand and foot holds that we could use to climb down.

[Torchbearer is played in turns. A turn is not a set amount of time, instead each test (a roll of the dice) takes one turn. This means that you only really roll when there's something on the line. It's not quite as strict in this regard as Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard, but you still whould only roll when it really means something. Wasting time (tests) is not a good idea as torches only burn for a set amount and you get Hungry and Thirsty (or worse) as time goes by. In this instance I rolled a Scout test to try and see if there were any traps or similar in the cellar. With some help from the other adventurers Taika succeeded. Beren then took the lead in getting us past the stairs and he succeeded on his roll as well. This took two turns which meant that in another two turns we would become Hungry and Thirsty. It also meant that we had burned almost burned through our first torch.]

The room we found ourselves in when we got to the bottom of the stairs was strewn with rubble and debris, mostly consisting of smashed furniture and broken bottles. We could see two closed doors, one of which was hastily barricaded. As we sat down to rest up for a bit and have a drink of water Gerald could hear a high pitched whine coming from the other side of the barricade. He immediately started tearing at it, trying to get the door free. Although the halfling asked for help none of us felt this was a good idea so we let the him go at it alone (hah!).

To our amazement Gerald managed to clear the door, although he was huffing and puffing from the exhaustion. Interested in what might actually be behind it we drew our weapons and pulled the door open! Inside we heard something move and realized it was... a dog! It whimpered and hid under a desk but we ventured into the what we discovered was a wine cellar and Karolina, who is a competent hunter, tried to calm the dog. Just as it seemed like the half-starved creature was about to come out the door slammed shut behind us and we could hear chattering language and the sound of the barricade being rebuilt.

[All of us, except Kosta who played Gerald, really thought it was a bad idea to waste time trying to clear the barricade and didn't want to get drawn into the consequences of helping him. I quite liked the scene of the three large adventurers sitting down and having a snack while the little halfling struggled with the debris! Kosta actually failed the roll but Nils, the GM, opted to have him succeed at the cost of becoming Tired. As we discovered the mongrel dog Karolina tried to roll for Hunter to calm/tame it but failed and Nils hit us with a twist: the door slammed shut and someone was trying to lock us in! Two tests meant another two turns.]

The unknown assailants didn't have much time to rebuild the barricade and we managed to make our way outside in a couple of minutes. The room was empty though, whoever did it had fled the scene. Carefully we made it to the other door and entered the room beyond. It was a cold room for storing meat, but was also mostly covered in debris. A large hole gaped in the wall in front of us and it looked like it had been smashed open from the other side. Just as we were moving toward it three giant rats sprang up from the rubble and attacked! The fight was quickly over, but not until both me and Gerald had been bitten by the disease carrying rodents! This wasn't really anything we could do much about at that time so we decided to have a look at that hole.

[This was our first conflict. In Torchbearer the players tell the GM what it is they're trying to achieve in a conflict which the GM then interprets into one of nine conflict types. In this case we thought we were strong enough to handle a few rats so we actually tried to kill them, meaning a Kill conflict rather than Drive Off or Capture. Me and Kosta rolled poorly so got poisoned by the rats, but Karolina stepped in and saved the day single handedly! Another turn.]

We lit another couple of torches and Gerald brought out his candle. The hole in the wall lead into what looked like a natural cavern leading down. Soon we arrived at a T intersection where we could hear the same chattering language as before, but it was hard to tell from which direction it came. Beren suggested we go left and sneaking forwards we could see how the cave opened up into a small room, with four kobolds engaged in a heated conversation.

Beren and Karolina readied their weapons but I suggested we try and trick them into running past us down the tunnel from whence we had come. At first we talked in loud voices to get their attention and as they drew their weapons and approached we hid in a natural alcove. The kobolds hesitated for quite some time and for a tense few minutes it seemed like they weren't going for it. Those stupid lizards! Finally Gerald picked up a rock and threw down the tunnel behind us. This was enough to make them want to investigate and they scampered past us. We snuck into the larger chamber where Beren swore loudly about how it would have been better if we had killed the critters.

[We could have tried and figure out where the voices were coming from, but didn't want to waste the time so simpy picked a direction at random. Our second conflict. At first we looked at a Drive Off conflict, but then I remembered Taika's Belief: "The wise consider all angles before making a decision." and I thought this was an excellent opportunity to try and play into that. I suggested trying to trick the kobolds into going past us, making it into a Riddle conflict. We rolled so-so in the conflict and generally had a bit of trouble describing the scene and our actions. There was some discussion about wheather us rolling badly would mean they detected us or not, but in the end the minor compromise we owed the kobolds meant that we became Angry. Another turn.]

After looking through the room and not finding anything of value we continued down the tunnel that slowly turned right. We came upon a much larger chamber that was lit by torches and inhabited by a number of kobolds! Watching from the shadows we could see a group of them torturing one of their own on a rack. A man with his foot cut off was lying bleeding and whimpering on the floor and what looked like a chief of some kind was questioning the kobold on the rack. A confusing scene to be sure, we didn't know what to think!

There were two tunnels leading out of the room and suddenly we noticed a small girl standing in the left tunnel opening! The kobolds obviously hadn't seen her, but she looked terrified and it was only a matter of time before she was discovered. Beren suggested that this wasn't our fight, but was voted down by Karolina and the rest of the group who wanted to save the child. There were probably a dozen kobolds in the room and we were hesitant to do a frontal assault. As I have a closer understanding of how the world works than the younger races I decided to try and use some elf magic to lift the girl to safety. I was on my own on this though, as no one else was skilled in the art of magic. The girl started to lift from the floor and slowly glided up towards the ceiling. She hovered towards us and it looked like it was going to work when I lost my concentration half-way through!

The girl landed straight onto the kobold on the rack and after a split second of stunned silence kobolds were running everywhere! Not knowing what just happened half of them ran into one of the tunnels and the other half found themselves face to face with four angry adventurers. In the confusion Karolina and Beren dispatched a couple of the little creatures and arrows from me and stones from Gerald's sling chased them as they slunk into the dark tunnel that their companions had run into. As we caught our breath in the short lull tat followed the girl ran up to us and asked us to take her out of there, and to save the man bleeding on the floor. It was her father. Beren also discovered that his backpack had been torn open in the fight and was rendered pretty much useless.

[Our characters Beliefs again came into play here as Beren's ("There’s naught for me but blood and treasure, spent and earned.") clashed somewhat with Karolina's ("I am the bulwark that stands between my friends and harm."). Granted, the girl wasn't strictly a friend, but we all thought that it would be in Karolina's nature to try and protect her. We hadn't done all that well in conflicts up until this point and a room full of kobolds with their chieftan looked like a tough match. I was looking through my character sheet, wanting to "consider all angles before making a decision" when I noticed the spells that I had all but forgotten. 

It seemed like a cool thing to try out and a very "Yes, awesome!" moment if it would succeed. However with only Arcanist 3 and no one to help her it proved too much for Taika, and the twist Nils introduced was having the girl plopp straight down into the room! This also made for a great scene of pandemonium with kobolds running every which way and us charging out from cover. In this Drive Off conflict we actually rolled quite well but and quickly cleared the room of kobolds, however we did owe a compromise which took the form of Beren's torn backpack. Another two turns.]

The girl told us that her name was Elsa and her father's name was Joerg. Apparently he was the owner of the inn and for some obscure reason the kobold on the rack had cut off his foot! By now Joerg had lost consciousness and looked very pale - he was obviously not going to make it if we didn't help him. Beren muttered something about how "bleeding hearts will get us all killed", but didn't protest all to much when me and Karolina lifted up the innkeeper.

The air suddenly rang with the sound of drumming! Drumming coming from the tunnel the kobolds had retreated to. Gerald piped up: "Kobolds are easily startled but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers." After a moment of surprised looks we started making it down the other tunnel, away from the drums. We clambered down a crudely carved stairway and came into a small chamber crammed full of stuff from the inn. Loads of cutlery, a few books, some broken chairs and a large, quite heavy wooden desk.

I have at least some knowledge of healing so decided to do what I could to help Joerg, but the darkness and the stressfull conditions didn't make it easy. While I did manage to stop the bloodflow and bind the wound it sounded like the drums were coming nearer and I could feel cold sweat on my neck! However, they never came and we spent some time swigging from our flasks and looking around the room for any possible valuables. It was mostly useless junk laying around although the desk looked like it might be worth something. We also found a large bronze key in one of the drawers. A key to what?

[It seemed like the kobolds would return so we went into the opposite tunnel where we found the room full of junk/treasure. I rolled for Healing but failed, however Nils decided to let me pass at the cost of becoming Afraid. We also searched the room successfully and found the bronze key as well as some small knick-knacks. Another two turns. By this time it was quite late and we decided to call it a day.]

END SPOILERS!!


Alright, our first game of Torchbearer! And the first time for me playing an RPG (as opposed to GM'ing) in... probably 10 years. That deserves a wooo!

As I mentioned it was late by the time we ended so any post-session talk was quite brief. I think we all enjoyed ourselves, however Kosta and Simon (who played Karolina) did mention that they felt a bit constrained by the very structured turn sequence and also somewhat by the conflict rules. We all agreed that we needed to be better at descriptions in conflicts, but that is something that will come in time.

As it happens Kosta and Simon were also the two guys who had no experience with Burning Wheel or Mouse Guard (EDIT: Nope! Simon actually has played Mouse Guard a couple of times). Myself, Tomas and Nils had at least some experience which of course is a big reason why Torchbearer clicked faster for us. Simon mentioned on the buss that it might get boring in the long run, just running through dungeons and fighting monsters, which is probably true. But then again, you could say this about any game with a tight focus so that's perhaps not a critisicm of Torchbearer but rather the genre. Besides I think the system is robust enough to handle a lot more than dungeoneering should you so want.

Yes, the system is very tightly structured, but Thor and Luke often says that this is not a system for one-off games. It's a system meant to be explored half a dozen sessions or more, and I think that as you play it more the very structured system will paradoxically provide a kind of roleplaying freedom that other, more light weight games, often lack. It sounds backwards, I know, but it's just the feeling I get when reading stuff related to Burning Wheel and thinking about our Mouse Guard and Torchbearer sessions.

Personally, I had a blast! And that's not only for being roleplay starved and finally getting my fix. I genuinely think it's a genius system that is simply difficult to wrap your head around (very much like the games by Phil Eklund, if you're up for a board game analogy). For some people it will never work, but I think most of the time it's all about understanding the system and how it all hangs together. Grokking it (if that's the right word). However I'm a firm supporter of Torchbearer and am waiting eagerly for my physical book to arrive. I'm also looking forward to the conflict cards that hopefully will be up for sale in the not too distant future.

I'd love to play again but I'm not sure if we'll actually ever continue on this particular session. I know Nils is preparing for a sci-fi campaign using FATE Core so I imagine he's busy with that (also, room for one more guys? You know I'm a nut for sci-fi stuff! ^_^) and the rest of the group seemed lukewarm when I suggested I'd run an old Swedish adventure adapted for Torchbearer. We've also talked about trying out the Star Wars Beginner Game, so there's that as well.

Hmm... it'll be interesting to see what the future holds whatever happens. But I certainly would like to play more roleplaying games!

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Torchbearer

A few days before Deadzone came to an end another Kickstarter had its deadline: Torchbearer. It's a new roleplaying game from Thor Olavsrud and Luke Crane and is labeled as "A dungeon crawl roleplaying game and love letter to Basic D&D" - in fact, at first it was called Dungeoneers & Dragonslayers! Which would have been awesome, except they were worried about litigation. Anyway, Luke Crane, as you might know, is the mind behind Burning Wheel, Burning Empires and Mouse Guard. Thor Olavsrud has been a long time collaborator but has this time taken the reins with Luke working more as an editor.

So what is Torchbearer? Well, it's a dungeoncrawler built on the foundations laid out in Mouse Guard and Burning Wheel. It's designed for classic D&D style play but with a more modern system. In regards to the rules it's described as advanced Mouse Guard, but not quite as involved as Burning Wheel. The largest addition is a level of resource management that is not really common in rpgs.

Thor has mentioned that he went spelunking a few years ago and how that experience heavily inflluenced his design choices in Torchbearer. Basically, it was nothing like you see on tv and in movies, or how you usually play it in roleplaying games. Instead it was claustrophobic, dark and your life depended on what you brought with you. Today we have all kinds of electronic gizmos to help us out, but imagine going into a cave 500 years ago, where you literally have to crawl to squeeze through and if you loose your torch it's complete and utter darkness!

One side of the character sheet, with the inventory slots at the top.

So while you will be fighting dungeon denizens and gather treasure a large part of the game seems to be the struggle against the environment and what you bring with you in is vital for your success. Each character has a certain number of slots to put equipment in, kind of like a videogame - there's a head slot, a chest slot, several backpack slots, slots for your hands etc. So everything you carry with you is allocated to these slots and different things take up different amount of slots. A small pouch of gold coins might only take up one slot, but a chest will take up several! Are you prepared to leave some of your equipment behind to be able to bring that treasure with you? 

Thinking about it now the Torchbearer seems to have quite a few elements of the Survival Horror genre in it - limited resources, monsters lurking in the darkness and a deadline creeping ever closer (you track how long each torch burn!). Of course the Mouse Guard system is robust enough to adapt to any situation and I think Torchbearer won't be much different. Switching the dungeon for a dark and oppressive forest or an icy mountain during a snow storm would likely be easy, although removing the threat of the environment might perhaps lessen the game.

When I first read about Torchbearer I was intrigued but thought that I would simply go for the PDF as the international shipping was quite... steep. But as I read more about it and noticed the special linen bound hardback that Thor and Luke are producing I just had to go for the dead tree version! Apparently the pair is finishing up the final manuscript as I write this and they are hoping to send it to the printer by the 15th! This is quite a quick turnaround when it comes to a kickstarter project. This also means that us backers should have the PDF in hand somewhere around that time. So more on the Torchbearer when I've actually read it!

What also appeals to me is the opportunity to play through classic D&D modules that I've heard a lot about, but simply avoided because of the D20 system, which I really don't like. Thor himself recommends Keep on the Borderlands, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, The Village of Hommlet (also available as part of The Temple of Elemental Evil), The Secret of Bone Hill and Horror on the Hill... among others. There are loads over at dndclassics.com!

There are a couple of excellent articles on Forbes about the new game so head on over if you want to read more about it.

Being fired up about Torchbearer I've gone back and started reading Burning Wheel Gold again, this time with some better understanding of the basics of the system, thanks to Mouse Guard, and I'm getting very eager to try it out! I'm just about finished with the Hub and Spokes and as always Luke's design ethos really speaks to me. Something about his way of thinking and writing appeals to me enormously! I don't know what will hit the table first though, Torchbearer or Burning Wheel. Remember, you can download the Hub and Spokes (basically the whole basic game of Burning Wheel!) for free right here!

I also emailed Archaia and asked them about the upcoming re-print of the Mouse Guard RPG Boxed Set (review here) and they told me that although the date keeps slipping they will have it done before Christmas. While I have the box I really want to pick up a few dozen more dice and I wouldn't mind getting the rulebook as a hardback as well. 

Speaking of dice, I just ordered 40 regular D6 and some fudge dice from EM4 Miniatueres for use with Burning Wheel and FATE respectively. All that, plus a box of plastic "crystals" was cheaper to order from the EM4 in the UK than it would be getting half as many locally. Weird.

Finally, here's a sketch of the cover for Torchbearer by Peter Mullen. Looks awesome!

EDIT: Alright, so now I've actually managed to play a game and we had a great time! First impressions and session report here.

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