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Burning Wheel Thoughts So Far

I received Burning Wheel as a gift and I slowly working my way through the book.  I have fixated on one idea so far -- using Burning Wheel type concepts to aid in Pathfinder/D20 character background generation. Character background generation has always been a difficult concept to get normalized across the different players, and I think a structured rule set could really help this, not by limiting the possibilities or strongly driving the mechanic, but by giving some structure to the details that are sometimes overlooked by the mechanic.  In particular I feel the following items have been treated poorly in d20/Pathfinder style games:


  • Contacts -- Hooks to other characters and NPCs is always difficult to normalize.  Rarely do I get references to negative relationships, which is disappointing.
  • Weaknesses and flaws -- Having a low strength score just isn't the same as having a weakness or a flaw that defines the character
  • Life Backgrounds -- Yeah, you can say you grew up on a farm, but where is your farming skill, ya big faker?
  • Beliefs and Goals -- Why are you here?  What are you doing?  What is your hook to the rest of the party?  So many of the characters just show up and they don't fit in but they get adopted by the party for no reason.

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