The Burning Wheel The Heist, Podreczniki RPG, The Burning Wheel
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The Heist
The Heist is a Burning Wheel scenario about betrayal and trust. It
involves nineteen characters, all Roden. The characters represent
one “nest.” They’re all related in some way—cousins, brothers,
husbands, wives, etc. However, all of the characters have their
loyalties divided along different lines. There are factions within the
family. The game plays out as those lines surface and are broken or
break through the overall bonds of family.
Family, obviously, is one of the core conceits for this scenario.
Exploring the bonds therein, pushing the limits of what’s acceptable;
that’s what the game is about. It’s likely the players will care about
the various other characters at least enough to talk to them before
offing them. Outright, bloody violence is fine and dandy, but it
won’t mesh well with the Beliefs and numbers provided for the
characters. We’re all one big, happy family, right? Not for long.
The following information is intended for the GM. Players are
welcome to read it, but they must let everyone know that they read
the adventure set up before play.
The Set Up
That Which is Below
When beginning this scenario, I let players know that they’ll be
playing a nest of Roden living beneath a decaying and decrepit
human citadel. The Roden refer to where they live as, “Below.”
The citadel is run by a powerful magocracy. Should the vile
sorcerers discover the Roden, the furry little family would be wiped
out by scourging fires in an instant. Therefore, we gotta keep it
quiet, you know?
So a few people disappear here and there. A few warehouses
collapse, sure. But things like that are bound to happen in such
a vast city, right? The Boss keeps things moving, Sweek and The
Brain keep the ideas coming.
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Burning Wheel Demo Scenario
Handing Out Characters
When giving out characters, I tell everyone generally what’s on offer:
The bosses, the middle-tier and the workers. Then I start by offering The
Boss, Swiker, first. “Who wants to be the boss?” Then Sweek. Then I
offer out the workers—Scratchers, Scavengers, Snitches, and spies. Then
I go back to the middle management—Grista, The Brain, and company.
Finally, I offer up Kuul Fieldwalker as “the mysterious stranger.”
Secrets
Most characters in this scenario have secrets. I prefer that the players
don’t share their Beliefs and their histories here. I like them to come
out in play. However, some groups like to get all that out on the table
beforehand so they can make sure everyone gets in on the action.
The main secret is that Sweek, Grista, Krim, Sweesh and Shin are all
members of a hidden cult in the ranks of the nest. They are trying
to convert everyone to their side. And they’re trying to do so via an
elaborate (and very rat-like) plan.
4 Players
If playing the Heist with four players, I recommend using Swiker, Sweek,
Grista and either Squee or The Brain. The conflict centers around
leading the boss into the trap.
6 Players
If playing with six players, I recommend using Swiker, Sweek, Grista,
Moosh, Thack and Kuul. The conflict centers around the appearance of
this mysterious stranger, and who shall lead the nest after his identity
is revealed.
8 or 10 Players
Playing with eight or ten players, I recommend using Swiker, Sweek,
Grista, Moosh, Thack and Kuul, and throwing in Shin, Pinky, Squee,
The Brain and/or Good.
14ish Players
As above, but add in the Scratchers and the Scavengers. This is a fun
game. Everyone has a stake.
19 players
The Heist was originally intended to be played with all 19 characters
taken on by players. It works ok, but there are some weak links in the
chain. For example, the more PCs that are in the mix, the less important
Squee becomes. Squik, the sneak thief, is a weak character and often
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The Heist
gets frozen out, if the player doesn’t just completely turtle. Sweesh never
seems to ever want to blow anything up. And Fink just ends up causing
trouble, but not really contributing to the overall conflict. Having run
the game a number of times, I prefer to leave these characters out.
If you are going to try to play it full on, take note of these deficiencies.
Hell, I’d even tell the players about them before they take their
characters. That way, they can try to compensate in game—rather than
just feeling frustrated and lost.
Read the Beliefs
Read over the characters’ Beliefs. There’s a lot of them, sure. But you
have to familiarize yourself with the various goals at play. The conflict of
this scenario is contained in the Beliefs of the characters. There are one
or two twists, but they exist only to turn the heat up on the Beliefs.
The Deal
Some of the more involved or more complex characters have a paragraph
or two on their character sheets detailing back story or additional set
up. Make sure the players read this stuff and, of course, make sure you
read it!
The Hook
There is no cheese. Everything’s great, everything’s dandy, but the
cheese has run out. The nest must have cheese to survive. That’s the
hook. What do you do?
Cheese
Cheese is no one set thing. I take pains to explain this before the game
gets too far along. Cheese is whatever the players want it to be. Among
the Roden, “cheese” is just slang for anything valuable. So it can be
food, loot or even power.
The Twists
So everything’s fine, everything’s great and, when the game begins, The
Boss is going to start handing out orders for some cheese to be got. He’ll
likely tap Sweek and The Brain to concoct some scheme to get at the
latest stash. With those two on the job, there’ll be cheese in the nest in
minutes, right?
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Burning Wheel Demo Scenario
Rise Up!
Skitch and Scratch, the Scratchers, are set up to revolt against the bosses
from the get-go. They’re not going to work for no pay anymore. It’s
likely that the players will either refuse to work, or do the work for the
bosses, but start plotting against them.
The Cult of the Below
The protests from the workers creates ideal conditions for Sweek and his
cultists to move in and turn them. If Sweek can turn the workers to his
side, he’ll control a majority of the nest’s workforce. He can then force
the Boss to get the work done himself. Perfect!
Of course, that all has to be done in secret. Because a good cultist never
reveals himself until he’s completely taken over, right?
The Mysterious Stranger
Have Kuul’s player sit back for a few minutes and take stock of the
situation as the conflict develops. He’s literally waiting in the wings.
When he comes in, don’t let him come in quietly. Make sure he comes
in with a grand entrance. He is, after all, a complete freak of nature—
albino, ancient, most holy bad-ass rat!
Once he’s in the thick of it, Kuul’s going to confront The Boss and The
Boss is going to try to have Kuul whacked. Force their confrontation out
into the open. Make everyone get involved. Is Squee really going to beat
up an old man for his Boss? Will Thack let his saviour be treated badly?
Can Kuul risk any rat being harmed, when one of them is his son?
For this conflict in particular it’s very important to be let each player
know what’s going on, what the stakes are and how they can participate.
Do not pull a “and the mysterious stranger is killed while you weren’t
looking!”
And, in case it isn’t obvious, if Kuul isn’t in play, don’t use the Mysterious
Stranger twist.
The Cheese Is Water!
Sweek and Grista will push Swiker—through their agents—to raid a
warehouse they’ve identified. It’s a trap. Once the Scratchers break
through that last wall, water’s going to come pouring out and drown the
poor sots digging through.
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The Heist
This is a delicate matter to play out. It makes a great surprise ending, or a
terrific mid-game twist, but either way, you’ve got to build up to it. Make
sure everyone’s on board when the digging/tunnelling commences. Make
sure Sweek’s had enough time to arrange things. And if the Scratchers
go and spring the trap prematurely—they secretly dig into the location,
for example—make sure they come back half-drowned, howling: “The
cheese is water!” (Translation: “It’s a trap!”) In other words, if the trap
is sprung by The Boss or in his presence, those characters are drowned,
If the trap is accidentally sprung, those players should come scrurrying
back pointing fingers.
There’s no getting around the trap. There’s no sneaking in from upstairs,
finding the warehouse on the surface, no digging around, nothing. You
know why? Because there’s no warehouse, no cheese, nothing but the
trap. So either they discover it’s a trap and turn back or spring it and
get whammered.
Playing the Heist
The Starting Positions
Everyone starts together, in the nest. It’s acceptable to get up and talk
privately, but the GM should be constantly herding players back to the
table and grilling them: “What are you doing? Who are you talking to?
Why?!”
Social Conflict Resolution
Don’t forget that you can use the Duel of Wits to resolve big ol’ social
conflicts. Often, in the Heist, Kuul will challenge The Boss to a Duel of
Wits over breaking the nest up. He’ll want to leave with everyone and
the Boss will want everyone to stay. The lines of compromise involve
some going and some staying. Who goes and who stays is fuel for great
conflict—because we’re all family.
In the big Duels, get everyone involved. Helping dice can only be thrown
in if you roleplay. Get a group of 19 people shouting at each other and
throwing down dice and it’s pretty fun. I use either the Group Duel or the
Unscripted Duel rules on pages 106 and 107 of the Burning Wheel.
Versus Tests
Especially in the big versions of this game, resolve all the conflicts
with simple versus tests. Even fights. We had a great fight in one game
between Pinky and Thack. Pinky easily won. He could have killed
Thack, but he knew that the nest would then turn on him. But if Pinky
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