Assimilation

Burning Everything
You can almost make out the (stealthy?) title of the book pictured above. It's the Burning Wheel Fantasy Roleplaying System Gold Edition and I frequently describe it as my favorite game that I never play. The Burning Wheel came to my attention several years ago during a period of intense searching for my "Holy Grail" of RPGs. I was rapidly losing interest in the most popular games of the day (4th Edition and Pathfinder) and had not yet come to clarity regarding White Box, the debt I owe it, and the place it has played in my thinking over these many years. Indie games offer alternatives to what the big publishers market and I knew I was looking for an alternative to what I was starting to call "the miniatures game" and its main competitor, "the bloated rules game".
Many of the indie games, then and now, explore narrative elements in roleplaying, i.e. they emphasize story telling over simulation or gamesmanship (referring to terms used by Ron Edwards in discussion on The Forge forum a few years ago). The Burning Wheel has definite narrative elements relying on Beliefs and conflicts and the evolution of the character both through generation as they travel through various life-paths from birth to the day adventure begins and as their Beliefs, goals and Traits are "tested" and modified or replaced. This is not a game about leveling up and getting more powerful (although skills do improve as you use them).  It is a game about altering some aspect of the shared make-believe world, even if it is just the PC who changes.
The Burning Wheel is an adventure game. It is also a game of discovery, of immersion, and reflection. The Burning Wheel handles social conflict with the same degree of detail given to combat and the game experience is definitely at its most rich when the players get attached to their PC and involved in the conflicts. The life-path chargen system is aimed at this by helping us to really get to know our fictional character before actual play begins. It is the referee's job to challenge the characters' Beliefs and changing Beliefs can be a major theme of the story that develops during play and a major source of reward to the player.
Reading the Burning Wheel and becoming familiar with its concepts has changed the way I approach every other RPG. I am more likely to consider the importance of social conflict, verbal arguments and changing beliefs as a part of adventuring. I look at characters differently, both PCs and NPCs. The Burning Wheel uses Resources and Circles which represents the environmental and social resources a character can draw upon, things such as wealth, income and credit, and the connections, relationships and affiliations the character has formed and can depend upon for influence, aid and sometimes complications.
In real life behavior often has consequences and choices can lead to unexpected ends. Gaming is fiction and how much of this one wants in their tabletop entertainment varies greatly, but a system like Burning Wheel can take the group where ever they want to go. I would say whatever system I play, I Burn it a little bit.