Q about Meditation Obstacles

Burning Wheel Character Burner
1

Under the Meditation skill listing, there are obstacles listed for meditating instead of sleeping, and a description of “centering.”

You may “center” before taking a test for another skill. This is a linked skill test. When centering for a versus test or detailed conflict, make a versus test between the Meditation skill and the opponent’s skill. If Meditation wins, the character earns a +1D advantage.

Two questions. Which of the opponent’s skills are we testing against? Whichever skill will be used in the main versus test? I love the idea of Meditation vs Meditation for two swordmasters before they close to the real fight, but I feel that’s not what the rules intend - nor is it appropriate to most situations.

Second, what is the obstacle for centering when it’s not a versus test? If he centers himself before trying to climb a sheer cliff, for example, how do I set the obstacle? Is it the same obstacle as for the primary test?

2

  1. Test it against the skill the opponent will use in the coming versus test. For instance, each swordmaster could test his meditation against his opponent’s sword skill.

  2. The GM sets the obstacle. You can use the table under Absolute Difficulty on page 15. It’s reasonable to use the obstacle of the primary test as the obstacle of the meditation test. Just remember that the meditator must exceed the obstacle (rather than simply match it) to get the +1D benefit.

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It does make sense it would be harder to “steel yourself” for more difficult tasks.

Thanks, Thor.

4

As a way to give deeper(?) colour to scenes, I would look to impose different (but perhaps equivalent) penalties to the meditation, vs. the link skill. As a crass example, for climbing, there might be +1Ob for rain-slick moss on the cliff face, but meditation may be disturbed by the unquiet souls of suicides who leapt from the cliff-top.

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5

Different obstacles are a cool idea; I just couldn’t seem to think of any when I posted. I suppose I could even make meditation harder in certain circumstances than the task at hand. To stick with the unquiet souls example, meditating at a recent battlefield might be more difficult than fighting a duel there. Or advantage dice to meditation if it’s in a consecrated place. Thanks, Alexander.