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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7825746" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've got quite a large collection of actual play posts from various of my campaigns.Here's an episode I'm sure I've mentioned (EDIT: yes I have, see link below) but may not have written up. It's from a while ago now, but showcases some features of the system in question.The GameBurning Wheel - the three PCs involved in this escapade were Jobe, a somewhat renegade wizard who is trying to rescue his brother Joachim from possession by a balrog; Tru-leigh, a somewhat crazed snake-handling healer and spirit-talker from the Abor-Alz, who has been dominated by a dark naga and instructed to bring Joachim's blood back to his scaly master to use it as an offering to the spirits of the earth; and Alenihel, an elven "ronin" working as a bodyguard for Jabal, a powerful leader in the sorcerous cabal to which Jobe belongs.The key NPC was a former PC whose player had dropped out of the game: Halika, a fighter/mage bandit who has sworn vengeance on her sorcerous former master for the brutality he perpretrated upon her. Of course her former master was Joachim.The SituationAt the table everyone knows everyone's goals. In the fiction, Jobe and Halika know their respective goals though they have an uneasy truce.In a previous session, Joachim had nearly died when he trie to cast a powerful spell and internalised the power instead. (It was a previous such event, in the backstory, that led to his demon-possessed state.) Jobe had taken him, unconscious, to recuperate in Jabal's tower.Now Jobe and Tru-leigh learn that Halika is planning to break into Jabal's tower to assassinate Joachim, and so plan to get there first and take him elsewhere.The Decision PointHow to get to the tower - Jobe decides to lead them through the catacombs (which he's been exploring). This has the advantage of secrecy, but the disadvantage of the risk of getting lost.They also decide to feed Halika a sleeping potion before they go. This works; but then things come unstuck in the catacombs.The MechanicsThe PC build mechanics were key to having set-up this situation: Jobe and Halika had their respective Beliefs from PC build, while Tru-leigh's acquired his as a result of being subjected to the Force of Will spell by the naga in an earlier session.Also, Jobe's player made the decsion to use the catacombs because he wanted to get a Catacombs-wise test  - if he gets enough he can open up the skill. But he hadn't yet, and so was checking it using the Beginner's Luck rules, which allow a larger dice pool but against double the normal obstacle, thus reducing the chances of success.Tru-leigh's player succeeded on the check to make a sleeping potion (using Apothecary skill) and so Halika fell asleep. But then Jobe's player failed the Catacombs-wise check. So they got lost!I narrated the failure as the two of them finding themselves at a dead end beneath a grate, where Halika - clearly now awake and on the move - was there to taunt them, stuck in the catacombs while she went to the tower to get Joachim.Burning Wheel gives the GM a lot of latitude in narrating failure: here I made what Apocalypse World would call a "soft move", negating their former advantage and so requiring another check to get what they wanted.It was now clearly a race - them vs Halika - and so we resolved this as opposed Speed checks with appropriate advantages (eg Halika has Witch Flight, a jump like spell good for infiltrating upper stories of towers; Jobe can turn into a falcon, also pretty handly when needing to get to a tower quickly).Halika won (ie I rolled better for her), and so got there first. Jobe next. Tru-leigh (whose physical stats are pretty poor) last. Alenihel, Jabal's elven bodyguard, tried to stop Halika but I had her unleash her Emperor's Hand spell, and she knocked him unconscious. (The details of this are much hazier in my memory, and so I can't elaborate on how the timing was handled. But I doubt it was sheer fiat.) So Jobe arrived at Joachim's room in the tower only to see Halika beheading him; and Tru-leigh ran up behind him in time to see the blood gushing out. (Apocalypse World would call this a "hard move".)For the follow up, see <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/its-ok-ive-got-the-head.530845/" target="_blank">here</a>.</blockquote>

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