Blades in the City of Towers | Five Nations | Dragon Between

Blades in the City of Towers | Five Nations | Dragon Between

Blades in the City of Towers | Five Nations | Dragon Between

I refuse to believe I’m the first to mention Eberron, right? Some rpg.net thread must have beat me to it. 

Blades in the Dark could be the game Eberron has been waiting for. Seems like it wouldn’t take much:

—Swap guns for crossbows, wands, and artificer devices

—Expand Whispers’ options in order to tailor doing its thing with more than just ghosts/demons (Quori, psionics, elementals, etc)

—Swap factions (this would probably take the most time) for whichever part of the laundry list of Eberron factions and secret societies suits your interest and the scale of your game (and give them hold representing starting power dynamics, which in this post I’m making up as I go)

How about some examples:

Political-scale

Tier IV. Aundair(5), Breland(6), Karrnath(8), and Thrane(4)

Tier III. Lhazaar Principalities(4), Mror Holds(6), Dreaming Dark(7), Church of the Silver Flame(6), Valenar(9)

Tier II. Zilargo(3), Cyran Refugees(6), Q’barra(1), Darguun(4), Droamm(6), Eldeen Reaches(3), Gatekeepers(5), Emerald Claw(5), Kalashtar(1), Talenta Tribes(3), Blood of Vol(4), Aurum(8), Cults of the Dragon Below(2)

Tier I. The Twelve(9), Wayfinders(4), Lord of Blades(6)

Sharn-scale (“Blades in the City of Towers”)

IV. Council of Sharn, Cannith, Sixty Families

III. Morgrave University, Deeplanterns, Orien, Tharashk, Boromar Clan, Phiarlan, Cyran Refugees, Garrison, Church of the Silver Flame, The Guilds

II. Cogs Workers, Kundarak, Deneith, Lyrandar, Daask, Wayfinders, Sivis, Church of the Sovereign Host, Adventurers’ Guild, King’s Citadel, Dreaming Dark, Order of the Emerald Claw

I. Medani, Ghallanda, Vadalis, Jorasco, Thuranni, Tarkanan, Dockers, Sky-Cabbies, Entertainers, Shining Path, Cults of the Dragon Below, Tyrants, Aurum, Esoteric Order of Aureon, Korranberg Chronicle

0. Inquisitives, Dark Six, Lords of Dust, Guild of Starlight and Shadows, Ravers, Sharn Inquisitive

Done?

—Could maybe do with expanding heritages to play more with races (Warforged, shifters, kalashtar, etc)

—Could probably make a custom playbook for dragonmarked heirs, with freeform powers (like the Whisper’s Channel) that can be tailored to the power themes of each dragonmark.

—Maybe expand Attune to include more common magewright devices and dragonshards (definitely needs the Leech)

—For the pulpy feel, maybe add a new Drive action

What fascinates me is that I see Consort, Sway, and Stalk being the actions I’d most want to mess with in this setting, which wouldn’t normally be my top choices. Yet at the same time Mayhem, Tinker, Prowl, and the rest fit perfectly into classic Sharn antics. 🙂

5 thoughts on “Blades in the City of Towers | Five Nations | Dragon Between”

  4. Dragonmarks: I’m realizing dragon marks don’t need a special playset, they just fit into existing playbooks according to their individual use of the mark. They may use Attune for small-scale use of their mark’s powers, but other actions are usually perfectly feasible.

    Generally…

    Cutter = Deneith, Tharashk, Kundarak, and maybe Vadalis

    Hound = Thuranni, Tharashk, Medani, Vadalis

    Lurk = Kundarak, Orien, Ghallanda, Medani, Thuranni, Phiarlan

    Slide = Phiarlan, Lyrandar, Sivis

    Whisper = Lyrandar, Jorasco, Vadalis

    Leech = Cannith, Jorasco

    Spider = Ghallanda, Sivis

    If any changes are needed, they would maybe be the following:.

    Dragonmarked

    Dragonmarked characters may begin with a modification of Whisper’s Channel ability instead of one from their chosen playbook: “Dragonmarked: Use energy from your dragonmark or dragonshards to produce supernatural effects appropriate to your mark type and size. Costs stress equal to the magnitude of the effect (0-4).”

    Fine Dragonmark

    Dragonmarked characters may permanently fill an inventory slot to upgrade their dragonmark to a larger, more powerful version. This counts as a Fine item for purposes of related effects.

    (My rationale is that more of their body is covered by the mark and thus has to be more available for use and is also more conspicuous. If this is weird, I had first considered offering an opportunity to upgrade your mark to a Fine item by spending a playbook advance on upgrading the original Dragonmarked ability above).

    Obligations (not a change, just notes)

    Dragonmarked characters likely start with a strong faction relationship to their House (usually good but sometimes bad).

    They also have plentiful reason to take Affiliation as a Vice, and to have abundant House-related side jobs and contacts.

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