When Deeds Fail

Burning Wheel Subsystem Advice and Guidance
1

Tell me your stories of when the hero spends a Deeds point and fails at the test!

Tonight … it was awesome, and painful! Siggar has a complicated relationship with Princess Medel of Pelark. He’s been trying to win her over to get in with the royal family, because he’s afraid of what her mother will become. Siggar brought the Pelarkers in to help win the war against the liche, but the Sorcerer-Queen could soon overpower the fragile alliance that’s come together - and perhaps become just as bad a tyrant herself. He’s not the only one that thinks so, and his chief supporter is her treasonously ambitious daughter Medel. He wants to cement his bond with her as best he can.

To this end he’s been doing Medel’s bidding for several sessions now. She enjoys his company because of his reputation, and because it annoys her mother. Despite his heroic reputation, he’s utterly unsuitable marriage material. (He’s a refugee commoner without a penny to his name.) Nothing is going on, but it amuses her to make her mother wonder what’s going on between them.

Tonight, Siggar made a painful decision and went against his belief to win Medel’s admiration. Only a few hours later, he finds himself in need dire of her help - money! and he comes crawling back.

He offers her a rare gift in trade, and makes the most incredible speech full of bravado and inspiration - it later wins him embodiment - but she doesn’t care. She’s quite happy to give him the money, if he’ll show her how to get into the Reaching: He may not want to go with her, but she’s going to carry out her nearly suicidal plan on her own, without Siggar’s help. This is a heavy moment in itself.

But what really strikes me is that in his speech, he actually implied the two of them might be King and Queen together, usurping her mother. This is so out there (it’s treason!) but it’s really interesting - it calls her bluff on this game she’s been playing. So far, their relationship has been pragmatic. When push comes to shove, what does she really feel?

I call for a Seduction test. This isn’t about whether he gets what she wants in this particular negotiation, this is whether she can see herself sleeping with this guy. Does she dismiss him and think he’s an ass, finally rebuking him for talking way above his station? Or does their relationship take the romantic twist he’s been subtly angling for all this time?

I set the Ob at 3. Her Will is 5, but she’s on the fence. But of course, he doesn’t have Seduction. It’s an Ob 6 Will test. Then he does the unthinkable - he lays down his Deeds point. Deeds! It’s that important to him.

When all the dice are laid out, he’s rolled twelve of them. He fails by one.

2

I’ve only given out my first deeds artha on Sunday, but I’m interested to read what’s happened in longer games.

3

A few weeks ago our group of misfits consisting of Spjuthök, a so called Rortväktare(Paladin of our setting), Bronvard, a Blacksmith(my character) and Kaijalan, an unruly and banished dark elf went hunting for a pack of trolls that had been terrorizing the countryside.

Upon finding the trolls the elf challenged the troll leader, Brute, to a duel. Of course the zealous paladin would have nothing of that. He charges to kill the troll himself (one of his beliefs). The massive troll, at least 1,5 men tall lets out a terrible roar, forcing a steel test. Spjuthök spends 3 persona points to pass it. He does. He then continues to spend a deed on his sword skill, hoping to kill this troll in one blow. Rolling a total of 13(!) dice only 1 comes up a success. The following action, the troll brings down the massive Trollhammer on the poor paladin’s head, instantly knocking him out of the fight. He then had to spend the following 20 months in bed.

Bronvard had to activate an aristeia(Gray power) in order to knock the troll to the ground and lock him while the elf dealt a killing blow to save his friend from certain doom!

Needless to say, the whole endevour was fairly epic. :slight_smile:

4

My only PC to receive a DP got if for fulfilling a possession trait. He beheaded his possessors foe and finished off the belief. Then returning from his successful mission the PC was gut shot by a minion scout with a bow and spent his DP on his failed health roll to survive the MW.

[Edit]

Forgot to mention the best screwy part. The NPC death was a sidebar to the quest to recover a great treasure to present to his beloveds father to earn his permission to marry her. After being in a coma for months in recovery, the treasure was lost [another PC has it] and his beloved was married to another guy and pregnant.

5

That player should lobby for the group to give his character the Wolverine trait at the next trait vote!

6

Once, a long time ago, during the uprising in the Kota Bulan, Si Juk and his companions ambushed a group of tax collectors lead by one Melowat. Melowat traveled with a cadre of lightly armed and armored bodyguards wherever he went.

Si Juk began the fight on an overhanging roof, releasing arrows into the fray. If memory serves, he grievously wounded Melowat with one such volley. In the street below, his friends were engaged with the bodyguards. Seeking to aid them, Si Juk charged off of the roof onto the unsuspecting thugs below.

A Power test (+1D) was made.

No successes…

“Fuck it,” he uttered.

A Deeds point spent for a reroll.

The reroll produced two successes, not enough to overcome the thug’s resistance.

The result? Si Juk leapt off of the roof and landed in the thug’s arms, like a bride.

They hug, kiss and promise vows. Peace reigns throughout the beleaguered city, following the example of their unlikely love. Wait, that last part isn’t true.

7

In our last session of Burning THAC0, my priest with White 8 Faith prayed for a miracle beyond Major (Ob 14, I believe). It was to purify a Vampire Queen and every single vampire she spawned in the entire country whilst in the midst of an evil, supernatural sandstorm. This would also be his first out of three tests to achieve Immortality. He used his Deeds point to double his Dice to 16 total.

13 successes after re-rolling all but one of the 6s (including a Fate re-roll). Just before I dropped the die, Anthony the GM states the nigh-mathematical certainty of success. Everyone at the table groans and scolds Anthony for this lack of superstitious etiquette.

And of course, the roll comes up a 1.

Merrick fails, loses his Faith once again, and now I hate Anthony forever.

8

You didn’t lose your Faith, you just got fired by Cuthbert for being soft. (Also, there were several sessions after that)

9

Don’t try to Avoid the fact that you cursed my roll!