Blades Quick Start v3 Draft: new version!

Blades Quick Start v3 Draft: new version!

Blades Quick Start v3 Draft: new version!

Here’s the new draft PDF for v3 of the Quick Start:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/32k4p0semn2k7yh/blades_quickstart_v3_draft_03.pdf?dl=0

It’s still rough in places, and is missing some new stuff I’ve been developing, but I decided to not make you all wait any longer. 🙂

(Full version with examples, changelog, etc. will be in the works next week after I’m done with GoPlay NW)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/32k4p0semn2k7yh/blades_quickstart_v3_draft_03.pdf?dl=0

61 thoughts on “Blades Quick Start v3 Draft: new version!”

  6. I like the effect and factoring guidelines John 🙂

    1-3 levels of effect (ticks) harnessed through fictional positioning is very flexible and rather pleasing to the way we play.

    ‘Clocks aren’t mean’t to be filled with one action.’ Simple and to the point.

  9. YAY!

    Thanks John! I’m going to eagerly read through this once I get done with the Actual Play you posted on youtube way back when. That’s been entertaining as I get into my cups. It’s very neat to see the evolution of some of the rules; what we originally got was quite good, and it seems like since then it’s gotten even better.

  14. I love it! Very glad to see Hound’s name is back, and ghost pet, Ink Rakes, and Sparkwrights (much better name), I really love all the new factions. Can there ever be too many factions? 😛

    I’m intrigued by the split of Attune and Invoke. I’m also intrigued by all that’s possible with The Horde. 🙂

    I also love the subtlety of the blades up and blades down for positive and negative faction status on the faction sheet.

    Is it bad that I like that the Skovlan Refugees also start perfectly vulnerable to being taken advantage of (Hold 12 with Tier IV)? That’s dirty but cool. Now that I look closer, the smaller consulates are also vulnerable at the onset (hold less than 6x tier 1).

  15. Glad you’re diggin’ it, everybody. 🙂

    Adam, didn’t you come up with the ghost pet idea? I know I stole that from someone’s post here.

  16. The Horde: A mass of hollows, all united in some fell purpose, controlled by an unknown power.

    The Reconciled: An association of spirits who have not gone feral with the passage of years.

  18. Wow, iteration machine indeed. All my misgivings about the new approach to Harm have been allayed with the changes in this version — plus there are a lot of other cool, little things I need took at in closer detail. Awesome stuff all around.

  21. I am deeply excited. Now I need to reread it a lot to make sure I can wrap my head around it.

    …if we notice anything that may be an error, do you want it pointed out? I don’t want to assume or be That Guy, especially if things are still being proofed, y’know?

  22. I love pretty much every change I’ve seen accept one. The “add a dot based on you heritage/background” part. Since I imagine most players take those into account anyway why not just give 6 assignable dots instead of spreading them through three steps? Not a huge deal, just a small head scratcher.

  24. John Harper yeah, ghost pet was one of my suggestions of filler Hound abilities for use by my group’s hound between the drafts, that and Ghost Sight for a bit of classic scrying. I’m flattered you saw fit to steal my ideas. 🙂

    I especially love all the new factions, they really fill in gaps that were missing in the world stage allowing more avenues of mischief and alliances/enemies. I can’t wait to use the Ministries, the Horde, and the Sparkwrights (for more clockwork/automaton goodness!)

  26. Mark Moller I like that it gives some rationale to your dots so there can be more natural narrative tie-ins whenever you use that action.

    Say one of my Prowl dots comes from my Dagger Isles heritage, that potentially gives a unique flavor to my movements that other characters don’t have. Likewise, if my Sway dot comes from a Labor background, maybe that inspires me to play my character (and social actions in particular) as a unionizing activist or communist (in the style of Peaky Blinders).

  27. Adam Minnie On the other hand, I feel it HINDERS using your heritage. You say you could justify using that one skill for the background or heritage as a narrative tie-in; I suggest you can use ALL your action ratings as tie-ins to your heritage and background. The chances of remembering which heritage or background led to which dot three sessions in is not probably very good.

  28. Andrew Shields This may seem like the opposite of my prior argument, but in my mind, assigning dots based on background/heritage guides initial inspiration of backstory and context about how your background impacts your current state. Then that narrative can and probably will affect all actions and intangible social interactions (especially for inspiring ways to hit that 4th advancement trigger). Therefore I don’t think there’s need to remember which dot your background provided. You’ve already started to live into your backstory and place in Duskwall through play, and you won’t forget that.

  33. I figure that since I was one of the people grumping around about the previous revision to Harm, I’ll put it out there: I’m totally happy with this version of it. The new Effect feels really nice, too. Blades seems like it’s starting to come together really well.

    Also, yay Mayhem.

  34. John, this looks great! I like that you have reduced the clock sizes and generally cleaned everything else up. I’m excited to see how things are coming, and I can’t wait for the final product.

    I like what you’ve done with effects: normally, a critical cannot overcome a complex obstacle, but if you crit on some locks and have, say, fine thieves’ tools or Infiltrator, you pull it off. That feels good, and it certainly showcases how roles are good at their jobs.

    Could you give some other examples of situations where a crit might deal with a complex obstacle? Could the player declare, perhaps, “I’m taking some extra time to make sure this all just gets done” and get the increased effect?

    I ask because I’ve heard of the house rule of introducing a third roll type, so you end up with: “single roll”, “clock”, and “single roll if you crit“. Do you think this will become a common house rule, where failing to crit leads to a clock, and if so, do you think it would be worthwhile to add that as a mechanism to the game?

  35. On first read, I like it a lot. One thing that sticks out at me is that it might be cool if there were a way to unify PC effect levels and consequence/resistance against NPCs. Like, one of the examples for Potency is “people are vulnerable to a ghost’s possession,” but resisting the consequence of the ghost is still (6 – highest die roll) Stress. I’m not sure yet that I see a mechanically elegant way to do that, but I’ll give it some more thought.

  37. Spotted a probable error. Everyone now has a (3,4) Light, (5) Normal, and (6,7) Heavy Items rating. The Cutter is the only one who should have that, yes?

    Oh, also the page that explains what all the crew upgrades are seems to be missing.

  38. Some claims provide extra development die, but it looks like development roll has been excluded from current rules. Is it supposed to be that way?

  42. On pg. 17 under Character Advancement, it talks about spending playbook advancement ticks to increase Effect. Is that intentional or a leftover from the previous version? If it is intentional, it might help to make it clearer that you can only buy the 1st dot with those and not with regular action category ticks.

  43. Question, in Consequences and Resistance the text says you regain all Armor during downtime. In Downtime under Recover it calls out regaining armor under that action. Is the armor recovery automatic or do you need to specifically spend an action to regain armor?

  46. As mentioned elsewhere, there seem to be contradictory rules for when a faction is vulnerable – the Advancement section on Pg 3 says “less than 6x their Tier” while the mysterious red text on the next page says “zero or less”?

  48. Played my second game under the new changes earlier today. I’m liking the much quicker die rolling a lot. It’s feeling a lot more clear and intuitive. Our game was fun, it was teenie bopper and puppy filled, but still more The Wire than My Little Pony, or even Scooby-Doo.

  50. I ran my first game with this version last night and liked New Effect too. I love the revamped Consequences page; it took me a little bit to get used to, but then it helped me a lot, especially with introducing countdown clocks. New Harm worked great too, though I think the boxes on the character sheets could be clearer that 1 = Lesser Harm, 2 = Standard, etc. I also got a lot of good use out of fortune rolls.

  53. Alfredo Tarancón , I’ve run a game this draft of the Quick Start, and while there are a few minor issues – this draft has everything you need. Go ahead and start playing, it’s a blast 😀

    (And if you feel like you’re missing anything, just ask! The community here is awesome and helpful.)

  54. This draft has most of what you need to play, but it doesn’t have everything you need to run the QS because it is missing the Starting the Game page which frames the first scene. You would need to refer back to QS 2 for that.*

    That said, I have run two sessions with this draft and we’ve had a crew advancement and its been fine. I explained at the top that some things, like some of the crew upgrades, were missing from this draft and we’d work around it. There is plenty of stuff to do before the next update.

    *While I’m mentioning this page, I have a theory that the final QS 3 is going to be much longer than the previous, because this draft refers to Starting the Game being on page 58(!)

  55. Oh, goodness. Jason Eley , I’d read the v2 Quick Start, but that was months ago, and I’d completely missed how much great extra material there was. I didn’t use that starting scene at all.

    I guess the versions blurred together in my head, because I came to the v3 rules with a pretty clear idea of how the game’s meant to run.

    Another great resource is the Actual Play videos – they give you a great sense of how the mechanics are actually meant to play out. When you have the basic idea, you can manage just fine with the rest 🙂

  56. Jason Eley That page reference is due to the weird way I work. The pages that are cut from the draft are shuffled to the end of the document so they’re “out of the way” — but the page number link is still there, so it faithfully updates to the correct folio number.

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