So...BE stuff for Burning Sands? Awesome, amirite?

Burning Empires General Questions
1

So, yeah…just occurred to me today. And of course, in the 'graphy page, Burning Sands is listed as a game reference for BE. Seems obvious then, to use some things from it to run Burning Sands, right?

I mean, exchange combat skills for Close Combat in general (since in the books, everyone seemed to be trained with everything anyway), keep the lifepaths and other stuff otherwise intact from BSJ, then add in the newer World Burning from BE (think about it - factions would be the Sisterhood, The 9, Splinter Religious groups, the Syndicate, Rebel Houses, Houses Minor…).

Then play it out straight. The Jihad is trying to invade, the Nobles are defending. Seems EASY to me (I’m sure I’m missing something, but the base idea is sound, no?).

Anyone done it before? How’d it go?

2

I haven’t done it, but I endorse this!

3

I’ve wondered myself at how well it would work, what needs to be altered. My players are all dune fans to some degree or another.

4

As are mine, which is what got me thinking on this - in a couple months our regular campaign and a few one-shots will be done, so, for the next campaign…I’m thinking BSJ using BE.

I’ll get cracking on what would need to be altered. But I think the scene economy would be kept, since there are two distinct sides anyway. The only think I can think to change is the requirement to have someone on the other side that you are against. At work so can’t read books now…

@Luke - cool! I WILL post what I start to come up with. Assuming I get off my rear soon. But the idea infects me…

5

Some further thinking on this…

First off, it seems the scene structure and phases are simply perfect, so I don’t want to change anything there - I’d like to keep these BE elements.

Secondly, I like the way combat works better in BE than vanilla BW, so, again, I’d like to use it. With that in mind, the Close Combat skill ought to override Appropriate Weapons. However, we would still need the Shield Training skill as it works in BSJ. I also like the addition of mass combat rules from Firefight, so, we use those for large scale actions.

Third, I think most of the lifepaths as written in BSJ can stay there, as they work more or less, with the minor changes I noted above. I haven’t looked closely though - it may be the BE lifepaths fit better than the ones actually is BSJ. For example, the soldier lifepaths may be better as “anvil” ones, or swap a few in and out.

I like the way Circles and buying it in BE works, but, I’ve got no idea how to map that to the BSJ lifepaths. One each in general? 2 sometimes for more, um, social lifepaths? What’s the logic? Also, for porting over BE lifepaths, what’s the logic on resource points? How to port them into BSJ? Or vice versa, if I like the BE system better, how to port over from BSJ to BE Resource points? It seems this would fit the scene economy better, maybe…

Anyway, first thoughts. Don’t have the book with me again, but tomorrow I will, and I’ll dig a bit deeper on this. Thoughts folks?

6

BE does not have provision as written for low-lifepath characters. So if one is going to have a desire for playing young jihadis, the chart needs to be extended back to 2LP characters. (that’s not hard, either.)

As for resources and circles, I MUCH prefer the separation. Resources points get spent on tech, resources dice, and gear. Circles points on affiliations, relationships, circles dice, and reputations… and I don’t know if they are scaled similarly to BW. So think about what brings wealth; subtract that much wealth from the Circles as if buying it.

7

Hmm…yes, I also like the Circles/Resources split, especially since you can spend some points on actual dice to make sure you have a rating that you want. Also creates another tension, since you can have high circles rating AND lots of affiliations, but affiliations are key. I’ll do some more work on this tomorrow and see what I come up with.

8

You know what we need? A BE Lifepath Burner, like what we got for BW in the Monster Burner.

9

Yes, yes we do. That would be awesome. Hint hint. Totally buy it, hint hint. Could make it a sentient alien burner, hint hint. :wink:

10

Sounds like an excellent fan project.

11

It’s not quiet explicit in the text, but Jihad is for your balls to the wall characters with a dozen LPs. I think the fewest LPs anyone had in playtesting was eight.

12

I think you can totally play it with fewer, we just went all-out in those playtests. That experience definitely informed some of the artha-based controls in BE.

13

Well, I’m not sure you can make a legal jihadi character in 2LPs! Although you can on the noble side.

14

I was wondering if anyone got any further with this idea? For some reason, even though I’ve read the comics, the BE setting has never clicked with me, but Jihad did, so the idea of a mashup definitely punches the right buttons.

  • Neil.
15

I’m hoping to see it, too. But I’ve not the time to work it out.