Burning Wheel, a total noob has few basic questions

Howdy there folks of the Torchbearer guild. Jozern here, soonish a Burning Wheel player. And I've got a few general questions before I get my hands on BW Gold. 1. Have understood BW Gold is the thing to get BUT there is also the Burning Wheel Codex which adds things like lifepaths, races, information and MOST importantly Magic stuff (I love playing magical characters). Is it worth getting codex also? If so what site would you remommend buying it from? burningwheel.com or some other trusted source? How common is codex usage in BW games? 2. Any general tips and tricks of the Wheel you would want to share for a new player? Got 4-5 years of experience in TTRPGs in general but in other systems (D&D, Pathfinder, SWN, Dungeon World, CoC, Shadowrun.) Etiquette, thoughts on creating compelling and suitable characters for BW (D&D mostly favors "heroic hero" characters). 3. Any online site/community/source for stories o and for a place to communicate with others in the hobby? Youtubers/streames worth following (BIG fan of Adam Koebel and the BW games he runs in roll20)? Thank you for taking the time to check this over. Happy gaming and may the dice roll in your favor.

1. The base rulebook contains rules for magic and is enough if you're just starting out. The codex adds additional rules for magic and lots of other stuff. If you buy it, get it from burningwheel.com, as that's straight from the creator (unless you're outside the US).

re 1.: In a first campaign you'll only be using about a third/half of BWG anyway. So, you do not need the Codex for the additional rules... a lot of them are also alternatives rather than additions. One is not even meant to play with all those systems in place but to choose what is suitable for your specific game and what you want to go for. What is useful to you in the Codex is the abundance of commentary it comes with. That can be helpful to get the idiosyncrasies that BW has. re 2.: Don't try to use the special systems out of the gate. See how things go without DoW and Fight! for the first couple of sessions. They are meant to be used as a zoom-in on very decisive moments. Try to use and take things as written, even if it feels uncomfortable, explore where it takes you (this is mostly for character burning). Don't stress if you notice you did something wrong, just correct for the future. Make a collective effort of being explicit about the Task and Intent division. Declare what failure looks like before the roll. When the GM names the Ob, the player is bound to roll; so take care with that. re 3.: Check Shaun Hayworth's stuff on youtube; he has a series delving into the different subtopics. The Burning Wheel forums have old HQ let's plays to read and lots of discussions. Check the G+ community.

Sweet, thank you very much. This cleared out quite a few things for me. Oh man, the hype is getting real :)