Blades in the Dark game/demo at Gametorm last night.
It’s not on the Action/Effect sheet but I thought I recalled seeing Background used as a modifier for Effect rolls in the KS AP. Did I imagine that? (we didn’t use Background for Effect, only Action)
One hiccup for the game was the segments versus stress usage for the two different uses of Effect rolls applications. I thought I’d explained “Scope of Action vs Resist a Negative effect” adequately but a couple players found the reference sheet leading to some confusion, e.g. “4 SEGMENTS, 1 STRESS” and had come to different conclusions initially. It may have been my poor explanation but I wonder whether that section of the reference sheet can be improved to show that segments and segments only are an application of the scope version and stress and stress only are an application of the resist negative effects roll.
The group picked Score II from the Quick Start (plant the strange artifact in rival’s HQ) and a Deception plan with a detail of using the Dockers (allies of the Red Sashes) to arrange a sit-down with Mylera Klev to get them inside the HQ. The party Cutter had a good relationship with the Dockers which gave the crew a +1 (Helpful) status with them. They were going to put the artifact in the trophy case of the Red Sashes’ sword-fighting school right under their noses.
I made two progress clock obstacles for their scheme. A four-segment “The Trust of Holtz” and a six-segment generically-termed “Red Sash Security”. The crew Slide, Cross, was known as Baz’s man and Holtz (leader of the Dockers) was going to be reluctant to arrange the sit-down as a result. If that worked, they were still going to have eyes and probably hands on them too prior and during the entire sit-down so arranging a moment to get the artifact into the trophy case was going to take some planning and a diversion or two.
The Wards / Patrols / Locks clocks from the book/quick start are great, but you can get more generic if you want and you give the players even more latitude in how they approach the score overall.
I really liked the feeling of the score in this session. It felt like a Gentlemen Bastards or Out of Sight con rather than the more traditional sneak-and-stab I was expecting.
The “Unquiet Dead” entanglement that resulted following the Development roll was eerily appropriate. Very cool.
Thanks so much to the players for sticking with me on this one. This was the first time I’d run/explained the game to other players who’d not themselves read the rules. Even trying to keep it to the minimum required explanation, there’s a pretty substantial chunk of rules to go over in the context of a convention one-shot.
Ben Kaser
Incidentally, in the course of the operation the Slide, Cross, made some somewhat unreasonable demands of their elite Shadow gang leader, Avery which resulted in a 4-segment recovery clock:
“BRING BACK AVERY”. (with all affection)
Background question: lower right corner on the playbook sheets under the bonus dice area is background (action).
A noble background character smooth talking a noble victim would get an extra die on the action roll.
Woo! Glad it went well.
Background gives a bonus die to Action. It’s on the Action reference sheet, page 26 of the quick start. Second item: “+1d if the target matches your Background.” It’s also on the character sheet, lower right, where all the bonus dice are indicated.
I see I didn’t phrase my initial question correctly. I’ll fix that.
I see/saw the bonus die for the Action roll. That’s clear. It’s not there for the Effect roll and I thought I recalled Background being applied for Effect rolls as well as Action rolls in the AP.
Background no longer applies to Effect rolls. That’s a rule from an old draft. You get a bonus for a fine item, instead. The early draft of the example of play mentioned background for effect, but the current QS text doesn’t (it’s correct).