I just received my copy of BWG rev, and I’ve been reading it this afternoon. To be clear, I’m comparing the 2011 BWG to the 2019 Revised Gold Edition.
So far, I’ve noticed one or two very minor changes in wording, but nothing significant. I’d love a guide directing my attention to changes in:
What changes have you all noticed?
Someone made a change log comparing the 5th printing to the current 7th printing, but they seem to have stopped at pg. 257 for right now.
Some highlights from the first 257 pages:
All instances of “Man,” Kingdoms of Man," “Mannish,” etc. have been changed to “Human”
Elven Grief was reworked
Lots of lifepaths were rebalanced/modified slightly
“Begging” has been renamed “Beggardry,” probably to differentiate it from the Wolf “Begging” skill
Sorcerous spells and other magic-y things were made clearer and brought in line with the Codex (removing references to Abstractions, etc)
Generally speaking there’s a lot of redundant and distracting language that has been excised and a clear attempt has been made to make things more readable and add clarity where there was previously confusion.
Nooooooooo, they censured the serving Wench !!!
Eh I’d hardly call it censure; the changes are pretty in line with all the rest
Drop-Dead Gorgeous and Buxom are still just 1pt char Traits anyone can take.
The optional character Traits on the LPs are supposed to convey stereotypes, I know, but I’m personally glad BWHQ has had a good think about which media stereotypes they’re actively highlighting. Some of those in 2011 were already well past their time. I’m going to have many fewer “WTF” conversations with my group over these.
(And my daughter, when she’s looking over my shoulder at my prep. Looking at me with BWG open to the human LPs last night, she asked, “Why can’t you be a woman?”)
I love that Ganymede gets Catalyst suggested now. That’s gold.
Sounds like #metoo to me.
Haaaard eye roll
I’m confused. Crane has changed the work to match what he thinks important. I don’t agree with those changes, but it’s an objectively better product, so what’s the deal?
That list is very useful and handy. Glad it exists, many of the changes are subtle but important.
Hello there! The linked changelog is mine, and I’m happy to report that – though I haven’t updated it recently – it hasn’t been abandoned. Buried in work at the moment, but still making my way through the book. 
While reading through the Codex just now, I realized that the Big Deal rules from the Duel of Wits chapter were removed in BWGR. They were simply replaced with the advice: if it’s not a big deal, don’t use Duel of Wits.
(Posting since that’s on pg. 391, ahead of the current document progress.)
I must confess that I shall miss the ring the phrase, “Kingdoms of Man”, had to it! Generally I suspect I’m just an old fogram, but in this instance I do hope such changes ultimately effect further grow of the BW community.
The resources section has a new rule called “Consolidating your Losses”. You can now sacrifice one point of your resources rating to eliminate tax, just like nature in MG.
As people might want to mark the changes, seemed sensible to add a link to my discussion: Efficient Ways of Adding Notes to the Rule Book?
Dang. I felt like “Man” had an archaic charm. “Man” meant “Human” back in the day, so that terminology seemed at home in the game to me, and I thought it was cool.
Honestly wish BWHQ had gone further and changed all the pronoun use of “he/him/his” to “they/them/their”
I understand that The Burning Wheel is a great game for roleplaying in history-inspired settings, but it’s a fantasy game that literally tells the reader to make up their own world. I know it seems small and insignificant to many, but to me it seems to put a damper on the whole “create your own world” vibe when nearly every reference to a character or player assumes the male gender.
BW can be inspired by history; we all should be! Knowing that “cooper” is the profession of making barrels is cool as are all the other historic professions. But a roleplaying game should work to be as accessible as possible. Especially if it’s already a pretty complicated game that not a lot of people know about. Zweihänder did a great job in this regard.
I concur, I really wish they’d done more for making the book gender neutral
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