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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8529824" data-attributes="member: 42582">The descent from Burning Wheel is very evident in these features of the system. The main difference, at least as it looks to me at this stage of my reading and reflection, is in the consequence rules. Also there are no FoRKs; which makes teamwork all the more important.There's an amusing remark in the Scholar's Guide (p 231):Beware that it is possible for you to kill the characters in the first conflict. Cavalier players will often charge heedlessly into a pack of skeletal tomb guardians and try to destroy them. That is a kill conflict. Even though the tomb guardians are Might 2 (to the adventurers’ Might 3), they can still kill the characters if they get lucky. With this in mind, we recommend you play conservatively in early conflicts. Stick to Attacks and Maneuvers. Do not bust out tricky Feints on the third action just yet.For those who haven't thought it through: a tempting script for players is Attack/Attack/Defend - ie try to land some blows and then recover at the end of the round. A third action Feint from the GM will negate that Defend and get in some free damage!In Burning Wheel, the GM is encouraged to script for NPCs and monsters in a manner that reflects their Beliefs, Instincts and Traits even if not fully rational. So far the closest I've found to that in Torchbearer is this, from the Scholar's Guild (p 174):A monster’s instinct is provided for you as guidance on how to play the monster. Monsters don’t have to test to do mundane things. They just do them (within reason of course). In fact, the game master rolls dice for a monster only when opposing a character. That’s it. So instincts are listed here to help you better portray the beast.The Tomb Guardians are Mindless, and have the Nature Descriptors Guarding, Pursuing, Slaying the Living and the instinct Never leave the tomb unguarded. That makes me feel like their default script should be Defend (guarding the tomb), Manoeuvre (impeding and positioning), Attack (driving back the intruders). So if I was a player against my conception of Tomb Guardians the best script would be Feint/Attack/Defend. Or maybe Feint/Feint/Defend if we're feeling lucky. Depending on the type of conflict, that could be enough for a one-round victory.I think the clearest statement of this is in the opening of the Dungeoneer's Handbook (pp 6-7, in a section entitled "Born to Lose"):Adventurer is a dirty word. You’re a scoundrel, a villain, a wastrel, a vagabond, a criminal, a sword-for-hire, a cutthroat. Respectable people belong to guilds or the church or are born into nobility. Or barring all that, they’re salt of the earth and till the land for the rest of us. Your problem is that you’re none of that. You’re a third child or worse. You can’t get into a guild - too many apprentices already. You’re sure as hell not nobility - even if you were, your older brothers and sisters have soaked up the inheritance. And if you’re cursed with visions from the Immortals, the temples won’t take you in. You question their authority and subvert their power, so you are outcast like the rest of us. And if you ever entertained romantic notions of homesteading, think again. You’d end up little more than a slave to a wealthy noble. So there’s naught for you but to make your own way. There’s a certain freedom to it, but it’s a hard life. Cash flows out of your hands as easily as the blood from your wounds. But at least it’s your life. And if you’re lucky, smart and stubborn, you might come out on top. There’s a lot of lost loot out there for the finding. And salvage law is mercifully generous. You find it, it’s yours to spend, sell or keep.This seems to be reinforced by the designer notes on the Noble Scion class in the Scavenger's Supplement (p 35):The Scion class is an advanced option for Torchbearer play, as it is difficult and problematic in a number of ways. First, it breaks the game’s primary conceit—that our characters are regular people down on their luck, cursed by the Immortals and forced into a series of bad choices. The scion is making a bad choice because they were born a fool. Second, the Superior trait is not a point of fact, but a matter of self-perception. No one is inherently superior to anyone, especially not in Torchbearer.The word "scum" might be a bit laden, but something like it seems right. The remarks about superiority are very REH Conan, and PCs (except for Noble Scions) start at the bottom of the social hierarchy and make their living by disregarding all social norms.</blockquote>

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