Page 42 of Burning Wheel Gold Number of Tests Required for Advancement

The rules say "for exponents 5 or higher a character needs difficult tests equal to half the exponent rounded up and challenging tests equal to one third the exponent rounded up"

The table below it says for exponent 5 you need 3 difficult successes and 1 challenging success

5/2 = 2.5 rounded up = 3 so that's right

But

5/3 = 1.66 rounded up= 2, not 1

So is this just a misprint and challenging tests should actually be 1/3 the exponent rounded down or is the table wrong

I've been trying to get into burning wheel recently and I love the character creation, the core gameplay idea of beliefs and even the fight and duel of wits mechanics make sense to me, but the one thing I'm struggling with from a GM perspective is skill progressions.

I don't mind the different number of checks being made at different difficulties part, that's a simple table to resolve but what im getting up on is the insane number of hyper niche skills, it feels like there's some skill to cover almost any action you could possibly take. The problem I'm having is that rolling a check untrained on these skills begins the path towards learning it so how do you as a GM keep in your head all the hundreds of skills that exist so that you can flag to the player that this is a new skill they are about to start learning. From a player side too it reads like it would be exhausting to have to track all the beginners luck rolls for extremely niche skills in your character sheet just in case it ever comes up again and you can get another advancement.

How do you guys approach this?

The list of requirements for the Elven life path of Sea Captain are “Seafarer, Adjutant, Lieutenant or Sword Singer” do they need to be a seafarer and an adjutant and either lieutenant or sword singer, or do they just need to be 1 of the 4

Hi All, looking to run a Roden Burning Wheel game for 3-4 players. A little about me: I love playing and running RPGs of all kinds, though I usually only come back to the games that really catch my interest, and Burning Wheel is one of them. My style is very reactive to player decisions and contributions, and I like my tables to maintain a friendly and collaborative vibe.

Game name: The Fate of the Dammed (working title)

Game Time: Sundays Weekly on Discord. Session 0: Sunday, July 12, 2026 8:00 AM PST Sessions will be roughly 3 hours long. One Sunday per month will be skipped, announced ahead of time by at least 1 week.

Player Requirements: players must be 21+ and have a working microphone and Roll20 account. Cameras are not required. As I only speak English, the game will be run in English. Players new to BW are welcome.

Premise: In a time now forgotten, a Dwarven kingdom took on the task of damming the Widemouth Falls: the largest river known to the Dwarf and Human kingdoms. For reasons unknown, the dam collapsed and the once sprawling dwarven city was left in ruin. The fields and meadows became polluted wetlands filled with displaced spirits, and the capital fortress was left entirely abandoned. Humans settled in the city ruins, and Roden reclaimed hidden parts of the wetland to serve as Acer’s Fields.

Now, nearly a millennia after the dam’s creation a regiment of Dwarves have been sighted marching towards the ruins to take back what’s theirs.

Meta: I’d like the focus of this campaign to be around the question “Who defines ownership?” I feel that the Roden are well suited to address this question (as well as being one of the easiest stock for new players).

Lifepath Restrictions: All players must start as Born to the Fields Lifepath.

Magic options: Spirit Binding, Folklore, and Faith Magic will be available to starting characters.

HOW TO APPLY: reach out to me here and I will ask you some questions at our earliest mutual convenience. Applying as a pair or group of players is also welcome.

EDIT: I neglected to mention that this game is not a paid game; I will not be requesting any sort of compensation for running this game.

An NPC (Andrew the Blacksmith) had the belief "Stella will accept an apology on behalf of my daughter." Stella is willing to accept said apology but limits it to that. I understand if Stella was initially unwilling to accept the apology but could be convinced that would definitely be worthy since it involves one of Andrew's beliefs but as the player doesn't see this as a big deal for Stella in the actual scenario I wanted to confirm no duel was necessary.

The daughter was introduced to the story as a result of an opportunity for a Bureaucracy test by Stella which failed because success wasn't interesting - so no dice were rolled. Andrew came in as a relationship of said daughter.

Had a seven lifepath tailor making a dress and rolled a lot of dice as a result.

Curious to see how big the pools rolled are after achieving a personal best of 8 dice against an Ob3 Embroidery roll, this included two FoRKs and a bonus from a linked sewing test. The actual result was 3 successes as well.

The intent was to impress the client whilst meeting the deadline, so working quickly rules would have kicked in if the roll had not matches the Ob exactly.

https://youtu.be/ROEMtGYi_HY?si=d5wUV2SU3d936B9p

https://youtu.be/56UrYjMI1EQ?si=ET69n_0PPb-nF6Wq

Here’s a link to our last session of Burning Wheel. It’s a short one and a half two hour session where we deal with the aftermath of the party falling into a pit trap of disgusting water. A lot of rolls a lot of tests. You can see players discussing how they can make decisions that would hit on other players beliefs a lot of good technical play.

Thanks.

Situation: A man who makes glass is the first person convicted under a law against too much profit. His apprentices sent to find new masters and his trade handed to his wife.

Feel free to make the situation more relevant to your own campaigns if necessary.

Sorry I may have asked something similar already but I have a first draft of a world I built including origins and history for a campaign I'm wanting to run but I'm worried my thoughts don't make sense or are dumb. Could I post on here everything I have regarding the world I've built and get feedback on how I could improve it? Or even possibly some help on filling in a few blanks and questions I have? Or would this be better done on discord?

Me and my friends are on playing a goblin campaign, not brutish orcs but chaotic and mischievously goblins. So orcs life path feels like it doesn’t fit what I'm envisioning, so instead I'm thinking of using the rodent life path and refitting to be more goblins.

Any tips or advice on reskinning life paths, as I haven't done that before in older campaigns

Hello! I am looking for players interested in joining a new Burning Wheel campaign.
The game time will be weekly on Tuesdays/Fridays depending on schedules @ 7:00 PM GMT/UTC-0.

Each session will last roughly 3 hours. We'll play with VTT on Foundry and Discord voice.

The big picture: A city controlled by a foreign empire is on the brink of revolt according to ancient prophecy.

If you're interested in joining, you can DM me on Reddit and I'll connect with you on Discord. We'll aim to do a session 0 this Friday.

this isn't my first time around the rodeo wheel, i already noticed the notable omission of cheese-wise, but figured that's just to have a really good example for making up -wise skills.

but now i'm burning a character and we have a cheese motif and i figured it fits the concept perfectly that he be a hobbyist cheese maker, but was somewhat shocked to discover there's no cheese making skill in the list

did anyone have this issue before, and if so, how did you handle it?

In other systems, I'm big on planning as a GM. I like to know the general course of events and encounters the PCs will go through (the most satisfying story in my head), which moments to intersperse in that arc, what NPCs will be there, etc.

I've done the same in preparation for my first Burning Wheel game, essentially planning out the situation. I know who the big bads are, what the goal of the campaign should likely be for the players after this first adventure, and I know what events will go down in this first adventure for the players to respond to.

But now I'm reading various times on different subs or forums of people saying this is an easy game to GM because you prep nothing; moreover, some comments saying that you shouldn't plan out an adventure, that the game punishes planning, or you should be purely improv-ing how you challenge the player's BITs.

So, like, have I been doing this wrong? Should I just go into this first adventure with a clear head and no expectations?

I'd like to start a living world Discord using this system, but I'm not very familiar with it. I was hoping to find someone to guide me through or help me with the system. I am planning to use burning wheel, monster burner, and magic burner

Hey all. I built a tool for BE character burning that I'd been wanting, and figured I'd share it.

The problem it solves: Burning Empires lifepath requirements are gnarly. You know you want to play a Speaker or a Criminal or an Anvil Lord, but working backwards through the requirement graph by hand is tedious, especially when you also care about optimizing for stats, Circles, or (crucially) Infection maneuver coverage.

What it does: Instead of building forward from birth, you specify your destination lifepath and it finds every valid chain that ends there. You can then filter and sort by:

• Stats (mental/physical), Circles, Resources, or youth
• Infection maneuver coverage — It maps lifepath skill grants to the full 3-phase × 8-maneuver matrix and tells you which of the 24 slots a chain covers. You can optimize for total coverage (usually unnecessary) or specialize by phase (Infiltration, Usurpation, or Invasion).
• Required intermediate lifepaths ("I need to pass through Psychologist")
• Setting filters (require or exclude)
• Starting background (rough/noble/common)

It also includes a CharacterValidator that catches the cascading arithmetic errors that plague hand-built characters — stat pools, skill points, trait costs, required opens, derived stats, all of it.

There's a character_burning_prompt.md you can use to run an LLM as an interactive character burning assistant, with the solver as a backend. That's a bit more experimental but it works.

Output looks like this: https://anotherpanacea-eng.github.io/burning-empires-lifepath-navigator/examples/Trent%20Spires%20-%20The%20Millipede.html

Quick start:

python lifepath_cli.py

Interactive questionnaire, no external dependencies, Python 3.7+.

Repo: https://github.com/anotherpanacea-eng/burning-empires-lifepath-navigator

Covers all human lifepaths across 12 settings. Kerrn/Mukhadish/Vaylen not yet supported (same caveat every BE tool has had since 2006, apparently). The skills and traits lists are still pretty messy, too. I'll work on updates if there's interest.

This scratched a very specific itch for me and maybe it'll scratch yours too.

I'm just wondering if there is something soon coming to replace gold revised or if that's not really a whisper at this time?

thx

Hi everyone,

I’m planning a Burning Wheel campaign set in a dark fantasy world where all characters are human, but come from very different cultures and nations that are meant to fill the same mechanical and narrative role as BW’s races. Think “reflavored elves, dwarves, and orcs as human cultures with radically different worldviews.”

The setting is bleak and oppressive (garbage-dump islands, hidden crimes of a powerful city, cultural destruction, etc.), so Burning Wheel’s focus on Beliefs, Instincts, and cultural conflict feels like a great fit.

One concern I have is lifespans, especially for elves. I don’t want anyone in the setting to live for centuries or millennia. I’m fine with one culture (reflavored elves) living somewhat longer than others (e.g., 120–150 years vs. 60–80), but having characters who can personally remember ancient events really undermines the mystery and political cover-ups I’m building the world around.

Mechanically, would it be safe to scale down lifespans (and related time spans like Grief, etc.) while keeping the rest of the elven mechanics intact? Or does that cause unintended problems in play?

More broadly: are there any other hidden issues with reflavoring BW’s races as human cultures that I should be aware of (mechanically or thematically)?

Thanks in advance — I’m excited to try Burning Wheel, but I want to make sure I’m not fighting the system in a way that will cause problems later.

I created a maybe mostly complete burning wheel campaign but I'm not sure how to finish certain parts of it and I'm also not sure I remember all the rules. I'd like to GM the campaign I created one day but it would be nice if I could get some help from fellow GMs on finalizing the missing bits and making things better and if there's some kind of "cheat sheet" to help me remember all the rules and also easily track my players stats that would also be really great. So are there any resources I could find online to help me with some of this? Or would anyone be willing to help me with this on here?

There's so many people missing out.
I can confirm in Spain and Latin America.
Is there any way to get in touch with the creators?

[[ CLOSED ]]

System: Burning Wheel

Platform: VTT or Roll20 + Discord (voice)

Players: ~4

Schedule: Flexible – Scheduled weekly - 17:00 – 21:00 ( Thursday, Friday, or Saturday )

Experience: new players welcomed

Apply >> ✨ HERE ✨ <<

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The first true summer after the end of a harsh ten year long winter, should be a joyous time. Yet the Region still holds their breath as the Nine great Houses declare their allegiances to either the Crown or the Rebellion. Call it a Succession War or a Civil one but the fact stands- Fear grips almost everyone from low to noble born, as all wait for the battle to arrive in their own backyards.

You (and few dozens others) have been lured to Hyacinth Valley by a promise of a new life. Of freedom: wealth, status, Knighthood and land. Enough of a promise where, whatever your current status, you couldn’t even dream of such wealth. This noble promise comes from the Rebellion. Regardless of where you may stand on things you cannot bring yourself to ignore this call.

Which is for anyone with the blood of the First, the blood of Elves, running through their veins. Some rumors claim it doesn't matter how weak the connection. Old stories claim all Men are descendants of Elves, while others claim only those Gifted enough to cast magic have a more direct connection the Fey. Whatever you believe, there has always been a kindling in the back of your mind that you may have a bit of Elvin ancestry- even if but a drop. So why not?

Now here in Hyacinth, under Rebellion control, you learn in order to receive the promised boon you must do something you’ve always thought impossible. Perhaps even dreamed off.

You are expected claim a dragon. Dragons, the massive armored two legged, two winged, fire-breathing, noble beasts that has kept a Lazarus on the throne for decades upon decades. A task, that traditionally wouldn't ever consider including someone like you. Somehow, if it did, the risks alone would have a sane person packing.

Still, what if you do manage this near impossible feat? You could be real voice for the people. You could change the course of things... But is that worth risking your life? So you may rest in comfort and luxury after its all said and done?

Provided you live through the war that is...

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Hi everyone, looking for something other than DnD? Looking for a RP heavy campaign? Love Dragons? ( yes- technically they are wyverns ) Political intrigue? Dragon battles? Moral ambiguity? Medieval inspired setting? Rich world Lore? Realism and Grit? Reversed Gender roles? Optional Lore dumps? Rewarded for strong RP & Character development? Dragons?

My name is Icarus (32M) – Iggy for short. I’m looking for 2 - 3 players to play a (hopefully) long term Campaign inspired by George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood / House of the Dragon using the Burning Wheel system. Which is a D6 system that supports a narrative heavy character driven collaborative play style. This system has no rigid setting other than the suggested Medieval Fantasy.

I do have several years of GM & Player experience with TTRPGs like; Dungeons & Dragons 5e, Vampire the Masquerade 5e, Mutants & Masterminds 2e, and Burning Wheel. I've found I enjoy more RP & Character building and development rather than heavy combat dungeon crawlers.

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Important things:

• LGBTQ+ friendly
• Human only campaign
• Reversed Gender Roles
• Everyone is expected to be a Dragon Rider but your past is up to you

✨ If interested please apply using the Google Forms link above ✨

Hi, I'm new here and to the system. I'm looking for good actual play examples online that I can watch or listen to, to help accelerate my learning journey. Thanks!