The Burning Wheel Family

The Burning Wheel games are a series from the minds of Luke Crane, Thor Olavsrud, and the other awesome folks at Burning Wheel Headquarters (BWHQ from now on). They have four games out, listed from simplest to most complicated, Mouse Guard, Torchbearer, Burning Empires, and Burning Wheel. These games all have somethings in common, but express them differently. The basis of these games are what're known as BITs: Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits.

BITs
A Belief is a proactive statement of purpose. It guides your actions. If you write a Belief and don't find yourself wanting to do things based off of this Belief you're doing it wrong. At it's simplest a Belief is simply an ethical statement. In some BWHQ games, however, Beliefs are broader and include goals as well, allowing for more nuance and depth to the proactive statement.

Instincts a reactive statement of purpose about what a character would do in a specific event. It's the exact opposite of Belief in every way. Whereas a Belief is a broader statement that drives the character forward, an Instinct is statement governing a reaction to a very small, very finite situation.  Instincts are the same no matter where you go.

Traits are qualities about your character that define him, like hairy, tough, or charismatic.  They have the most variance within the Burning Wheel family. Traits always have some sort of special goody attached to using them, whether it's generating rewards or adding dice to rolls.

Dice Mechanics
All these games also employ similar dice mechanics. All are a d6 dice pool system. That means that numbers represent numbers of regular dice to be rolled. Most of the games determine success on a 4, 5, 6 on each dice. You're trying to get the number of successes that the GM set at the beginning of the roll. Speaking of which, this is how you make such a roll:

1. Declare your intent. The GM decides what skill or ability is to be used, and then sets a difficulty, which is the number of successes that must be rolled.
2. The GM then declares what will happen if you fail. The failure must not completely shut down your intent, but put a nasty twist in it. In some games he might throw a condition on you instead. 
3. Put together your dice pool. You're allowed to help yourself with other skills you have that apply and ask for help from your friends. Figure out if you're going to be modifying the dice pool any other, and then roll!
4. Count up the number of successes, and figure out if you can manipulate the pool any further.
5. The GM and you interpret the results.

Rolls are only made when interesting failure could happen. The rest of the time,   whatever the player says happens. Oh, and there's a rule called Let it Ride, which means that whatever die rolls you make are unrepeatable unless the situation changes dramatically.

Rewards
The Burning Wheel Family of Games (BWFG from here on out) gives out rewards based upon following and denying Beliefs and Instincts and for good roleplaying. The games all hand out two types of points: Fate and Persona.

Fate points are given out for following in a character's path defined by their Beliefs and Instincts. Fate points can be spent to reroll all 6's in a single dice roll.

Persona points are given for breaking Beliefs, fulfilling G(g)oals, being the force behind the scenes to get everything working (Workhorse), being the star of the hour (MVP), and good roleplaying. Persona points may add one dice to your dice pool per point spent, up to three.

Extended Mechanics

In addition to the basic dice rules the Burning Wheel family also uses what's called extended mechanics. You and the GM declare intents, and then you pick up to (usually) three moves ahead privately, and then reveal them one at a time.Usually both sides have what's called Disposition, which are points that represent the strength of your side. When one side's Disposition drops to zero the extended conflict is over. There's usually a form of compromise that happens based upon the damage to the winner's Disposition. 

All this focuses on Burning Wheel's central core experience: struggle. These games are not high fantasy romps through the woods where people kick ass and take names. No, Burning Wheel games are about struggle: against the elements (Mouseguard), society (Torchbearer), betrayal (Burning Empires), or yourself (Burning Wheel). If you want games where your protagonist bleeds, cries, and probably gives up every once in a while but becomes a hero in spite of, maybe because of, their difficulties, then man these games are for you. Not a single one pulls a punch. Even Mouseguard, the easiest game of the bunch, still manages to deliver sessions full of barely hanging on for dear life. 

I'll be reviewing each of the games, referring to this review each time so that way I don't have to go over new ground all over again. First up: the simplest game, Mouse Guard!

EDIT/ADDENDUM: Forgot to put this in before, but one of the things that all Burning Wheel games have is a bibliography of the works fiction, non-fiction, movies, music, and gaming, that inspired the game. Do yourself a favor: check into at least a few items on the list. I've found that even a little bit of research into their bibliographies has helped me get a better understanding of how to run the games. And besides: reading's good for you.