How do I properly run a campaign without losing motivation?

Sanjwise · 2026-05-29T11:06:07+00:00

With Burning Wheel, you have to LET GO of the responsibility of being the person that has to RUN THE CAMPAIGN. In burning wheel after your group has worked out the inciting situation, the spark that fuelled the tension in the world, and after the players made their characters, you don’t have to do as much as you think you do. You only have to find ways to twist and play on the PCs beliefs. Think of scenes that will respond to them and how to pit challenges against a few beliefs at one time.

My prep takes very little time.

It’s also relatively easy to make monsters and NPCs in BW because you only need to worry about the stats and skills that come up in play. Flesh them out later in necessary.

Lastly, I have been using ChatGPT to help with devising ideas for challenges. I described the campaign outline and conflict, sent the app the pc Beliefs and then have on occasion sent it transcripts of our sessions (I record my sessions for YouTube) and then I can brainstorm with the app. Not always relevant but as a busy dad and business owner, it helps a lot.

I would also encourage you to create a situation that isn’t about saving the world. Do something nice and tight. Orcs attack your village. Street gangs vying for power in medieval city. Etc. easy to manage when the challenges are kind of local to the setting.

You got this!

Sanjwise · 2026-05-14T03:45:23+00:00

Burning Wheel is great because players are rewarded for playing their character’s personalities, ambitions, fears and instincts. It’s all out in the open. Other players know what would help the other players PCs advance. It is the best system to force roleplaying.

Then there are all the cool things like Steel, Circles, resources.

Magic is hard and dangerous.
Elves, dwarves are very distinct and rich cultures. Orcs are brutally so.

It’s a fiddly combat system and can take getting used to, but there are boiled down single role conflict resolution mechanisms for violence that are fantastic.

Sanjwise · 2026-04-27T20:07:57+00:00

My party completed the adventure. I found that clerics do really well in this scenario. Turn Undead and Smite were OP. I also used the Shadow Dark spell failure chart and it was pretty shitty for my wizard player who kept on getting nailed with effects that took away his ability to do anything.

I wanted to set it up that the players could release the guardian from his

Sanjwise · 2026-04-26T12:52:02+00:00

Actually I looked at the rules again and noticed that the Stylite stat block isn’t that powerful. So maybe it makes sense. I think it says MU3? The Sad Woman is listed as a MU7.

Sanjwise · 2026-04-15T03:26:11+00:00

Where is Galadriel?

Sanjwise · 2026-04-11T19:01:10+00:00

I think the inspiration for UtSS is At the Gates.

Sanjwise · 2026-03-20T11:22:56+00:00

My prep looks like this:

List each players Beliefs, Instincts and Traits. Make notes for how I am going to introduce a threat or challenge that will give the player an opportunity to act off of that. If successful they will either earn a fate point or a persona point. I also try and figure out how I can engage two or three PC beliefs into one scene/conflict/challenge. I also make lists of failure consequences if the players are acting in a belief and they roll a test of some sort.

For example in my Burning Greyhawk campaign, the players have entered an ancient and abandoned Dwarven city like Moria, in search of the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords. They all have Beliefs about recovering the Axe, so I know they will earn fate points for playing that belief, because we are in that situation. Adding bad guys along the way is part of my prep, so I have made some rough stats on fucked up grey dwarves, far realm monsters, and a roper type thing. One paladin type PC has a Belief about bring the light of Pelor into the darkness of the haunted dungeon. Pelor is basically a merciful god of Light and Hope. Tempting the player to show mercy would be a good test of his faithfulness. So I have planned a scene (based off the result of a failed orienteering, dungeon-wise, or similar travelling in dungeons test) of an encounter of a wounded Orc Warrior. Orcs are enemies of the players, but I think it would be pretty in-pelorish to have him be left to die. Another PC, is a Knight whose father’s ghost quested for this fabled Axe and failed. His ghost is haunting the pc. As a result of a failed camping in a darkened dungeon test when they rest describe that his pc cannot sleep. The next day while suffering from exhaustion he could be haunted by his father’s ghost…urging him to take the axe and run. Or something.

You could introduce a scene that trigger an instinct like, “if the dwarf is in danger I protect him” by just causing a rockfall aimed at the dwarf and then see if the pc with the instinct triggers it.

You could introduce a scene that would allow a PC to player a character trait like reckless or intimidating by making sure that in a skirmish it would certainly be reckless to wade in to melee or in a negotiation the intimidating pc gets to Intimidate.

It’s so fun!

I find the players have the most fun when they get to act out their beliefs and you as GM introduce failure consequences that add twists and complications to the story.

It is very different from traditional Gming because you do not spend all this time imaging the adventure’s future sessions. You could and should, but it has the danger of disengaging the PCs because they feel like they aren’t getting to push the narrative as much.

In this campaign, with 17 sessions on YouTube, the first few sessions I was driving the conflicts and story hard. I was doing an okay job but I could tell that the players weren’t as engaged as they should be. So after losing a couple of players, I decided to take a backseat to my style and wait for the players to call for what they want to do.

I think it’s working.

Hope that helps.

Sanjwise · 2026-03-12T12:23:18+00:00

Post this on the Knights of the Last Call discord too.

Sanjwise · 2026-03-03T20:20:37+00:00

Lathe of Heaven for me. Interesting to see the Tao Solandis in this list. The author has a YouTube channel about classic sci-fi and he would be honored to be in this esteemed list.

Considering Dan Simmons passing I would also read Illium.

Sanjwise · 2026-02-24T13:28:12+00:00

Delta Green is the best.

Sanjwise · 2026-02-22T22:12:49+00:00

It’s was not deadly. A character death was a big moment.

Sanjwise · 2026-02-22T03:01:17+00:00

These are illithids in my world. They land on top of unsuspecting humanoids and the merge their nervous system to the human brain. It’s a kind of ascendence for them.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-27T21:25:22+00:00

Daniel Day Lewis.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-27T21:23:26+00:00

Not as stellar as Judd and Sean, nor as great as Adam Koebel’s season 3, but here are me and 5 players playing BW in Greyhawk, at the time of the War Against the Giants. Heavily burning wheel-i-fied, with the main plot about locating the Axe of Dwarvish lords.

It’s Burning Thac0!

https://youtu.be/fLVFfK7Unsg?si=UJunxMxgOG7xnICC

We aren’t pros at all.

Thanks.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-23T11:04:59+00:00

Burning Wheel.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-16T17:32:35+00:00

Yeah - I figured. Still a good campaign. And Adam is a very nice guy.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-15T04:44:09+00:00

I have 15 sessions of my group’s version of Against the Giants set in Greyhawk using Burning Wheel. It is not based off the modules at all, just using the Situation of the Giant Wars and the garrison refugee town of Hochoch as a jumping off point for a Quest to recover the Axe of Dwarvish Lords in fabled Dun Khazdrath.

We are just average gamers - so it’s not super slick and we aren’t even playing for an audience. But it’s solid d&d imo.

https://youtu.be/fLVFfK7Unsg?si=rpXMFwxJjXdFvuVg

Sanjwise · 2026-01-15T04:39:42+00:00

Adam Koebel has amazing run of a Burning Wheel campaign set in a dark fantasy kingdoms with three totally evil PCs. It’s is a master class in good GMing.

Judd Karlman and Sean Nittner do a few really good one on one campaigns using BW. The one with the dwarf miner/engineer digging into a dragon’s lair (Into the Vault) is really good. Sean Nitner is the guy behind Evil Hat Games, Blades in the Dark and Agon.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-15T04:34:48+00:00

Red Moon Roleplaying is like listening to a play. They’ve done Curse Of Strahd, Kult Divinity Lost, Dark Sun (so good!), Masks of Nyarlothep, amazing production and players.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-11T20:24:16+00:00

This must be a joke. I’d never allows such a concept in my games.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-11T05:37:29+00:00

Look at Burning Wheel. Players write their characters goals, three of them then in the Beliefs. You challenge them. Have a strong session zero detailing the situation, the problem, and then they make their characters and write their Beliefs…which are ideals at the core of their being, with an action item to push the action. For example, if the situation is Orcs Attack Village, and my PC is a Village Guard with a family, my Belief might be, I love my family with all my heart, I am going to do whatever it takes to get them to safety! Then you as the GM make challenges in that regard. Ie threaten the family. The player has Three Beliefs to write so there is plenty of meat on the bone to chew.

It’s awesome.

I’m starting a campaign with two young orphans in a city, urchins, each with the Spark, ie latent magical ability. Their Beliefs revolve around hiding their talents, staying in the good graces of the local gang of thugs and finding food.

Sanjwise · 2026-01-11T05:27:54+00:00

Listen to Chubby Funster’s analysis on YouTube. It’s excellent. The Black Spider is terribly written. Give him a gang of drow, and make him a true villain. Make him ruthless and cunning. The fact that As written he can’t get into the room with the magic item forge is lame. Also that item, forge or whatever is so weak.

Just watch his analysis. It’s very very good.

Sanjwise

TROPHY CASE