Someone needs to make a Blades in the Dark adaptation of Peaky Blinders. Now!
Someone needs to make a Blades in the Dark adaptation of Peaky Blinders. Now!
Someone needs to make a Blades in the Dark adaptation of Peaky Blinders. Now!
8 thoughts on “Someone needs to make a Blades in the Dark adaptation of Peaky Blinders. Now!”
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Yes the series is brilliant
So obvious once you think about it. As a Brum resident I should have thought of this.
I have watched this series now. I think it underscores for me one area where Blades in the Dark may need a bit of consideration. Gangs are vulnerable, and they are relationship driven.
So, a leader must first be able to hold the internal politics together, second be able to drive off threats to the organization, and only then, only THIRD, advance an agenda and be proactive.
At tier 1, this is less of an issue (though I have driven the story in multiple sessions by having friends call in favors, and threats to their gangs manifest.)
As the tier gets higher, there is more power to have, more temptation to those inside the structure to take advantage. Also, more attention from police, more risk of spies infiltrating, more antagonism with other factions who now see opportunity or threat. Holding a crew together is the top priority, and that should drive things and motivate violence and planning foremost. Once survival is assured, or at least the gang feels safe(ish), then you go after heists.
So I see a divergence in the game’s flavor. Stay small and focus on staging heists, OR get bigger and focus on survival and the rewards of diplomacy (of various flavors) and diversification.
For experts who don’t want to be promoted to management, there should be some explicit reasons to stay small.
John Harper
The bigger a gangs get, the more politics will be involved, that’s true. Not sure how that would work with an action-oriented game as Blades though. However I love Peaky Blinders and in general I think it has a lot of potential as a setting.
Tommaso De Benetti I would handle it with a second entanglements or complications table during down time, based on morale.
If threats manifest, then they can choose to deal with a threat using a plan, and carry it out like a heist. For example, they find out someone in the crew is a spy. They can choose deception, infiltration, assault, etc. to deal with the situation, but that’s going to motivate a heist-like burst of action.
Or, there is a schism and several of the crew’s gangs noisily defect. Do you handle that with a negotiation and a couple rolls, or do you turn it into a heist-like level of detail complete with flashbacks and a more complicated plan? The mechanics are player facing, so they can choose where to put their emphasis and how much attention to lavish on a situation.
Still, the cost of ignoring situations like that should cost coin and hold and occasionally manifest as threats to be warded off with resistance rolls.
I tend to prefer interpretation over a mechanical solution but this sounds quite interesting nevertheless.
I really like how the complications work now. They’ve driven a lot of subsequent action, but you can also pay them off; so, you get the advantage of something happening and the players can decide how much attention to give it.
I could see expanding that mechanic to an interior side as well as an exterior side, but you’d be safer from it if you’re smaller.
Yeah, Andrew, I totally agree with your assessment. I’m adding some entries to the Entanglements that reflect gang troubles. A few will be in the new QS — even more in the final game.