Me and my partner are inspired to play a one-on-one game based loosely on The Physician (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Physician), a book she loves, and Burning Wheel seems like an obvious fit. I haven’t played any BW for ages so that’s a bonus for me.
However since moving overseas (UK->Germany) I don’t have my copy of Gold to hand, only the revised books. I can probably pick up Gold a few months from now, but want to get started now, rather than allowing our jets to cool. So is there anything critical that might really affect gameplay and fun that it’s worth remembering?
We’ll probably be mostly using the Hub to play, as she’s not versed in crunchy stuff. Certainly no complex Fight or R&C, or complex magic either.
I’m just interested in knowing any broad tips like “Steel is calculated differently now” or “Lifepath switching has been tweaked a little”.
If nothing to worry about, then nothing to worry about!
Many of the lifepaths got slightly tweaked, maybe an extra skill, wise or trait, but nothing that should affect character burning too much. Perception is no longer automatically open-ended. Many of the subsystems got overhauls, but it sounds like you’re not going to be using those. The skills chapter also got a complete overhaul – all the skills now have obstacles associated with them – but again, that shouldn’t affect character burning.
Most of the non-combat training skills (e.g. Geometry) are now traits. I think all the affected LPs gained a trait (but not points) and lost a skill point. DoW is not much changed from the last printing of BWR (i.e. specific skills listed for maneuvers vs “dueling skill”).
Ah, I forgot a big change - you no longer add Will dice to Sorcery tests. The spell obstacles are basically all the same. On top of that, meeting your obstacle gives you 1D of effect, and you’re usually capped at +3D/+3Ob from any non-capped spell.