I ran my first session yesterday! I have some thoughts!
I played with Chelsey Eaton Kevin Farnworth Andrea Gardner and Mark George. Also adding Jason Pitre, because he might find this interesting.
Other than Kevin and myself, the group is fairly new to role-playing games. Mark has some DnD background, Chelsey has been playing light-weight story games with us for about a year and Andrea’s almost brand new to the hobby.
Also important to note, I introduce new games to a lot of people. Spreading new indie games is my thing. My comments mostly concern teaching and learning how to play, and how new players interact with the rules.
I had read the rules cover to cover twice, Kevin and Andrea skimmed them.
Here are some observations:
Character and crew creation
This took longer than expected. I was expecting something along the lines of Apocalypse World, but there are a lot more options to consider. I found myself wishing the character creation rules were integrated to each character sheet. The heritage and background bit gave some pause to the less improvisational players. I feel like more examples under each category would help out a lot.
I think using heritage and background as a starting point for actions is great.
Another little note, the name list is way too big. It’s fine for a list of npc names, but my players agonized over the list. It might be more effective to have a series of shorter lists split by island of origin.
Crew creation is great, but again, there are so many options for upgrades that it took forever for them to pick two. Opting for a less democratic approach might speed things up a lot(First player chooses social ability, next one reputation, next one first upgrade and so on). It’s how it’s done for the faction relation sheet and it works really well.
The faction relationship sheet is great and building it is fast and effective. I’m a fan. It got all the players curious about the different groups, got them asking questions about NPCs and their place in Duskwall.
In short, character creation is cool and evocative, but kind of sluggish and heavy. The sheets are on the overwhelming side.
They created The Pilfering Players, a troupe of street performers and actors/thieves made of Usher (a crow defector and adopted son of late Rorric), Stev (a lusty Iruvian circus performer), Sil (a mysterious and magnetic Thycherosi expat) and Whisper(who’s name is subject to change, an Iruvian apprentice sorcerer, who’s master has disappeared)
The mechanics
Blades is a little deceptive. It seems like a fairly light game on the surface, but there is a lot of mechanics. Actions, effects, resistance, stress, harm, many experience tracks to keep an eye on, faction relations, and so on. It’s a lot to keep track of for newer players. I feel like a less tightly packed character sheet which integrates more rules explanations might help a lot with that. Or maybe a more robust player reference sheet.
The players got confused about how resistance worked every time it was brought up. I feel like there’s a way to get around it through layout.
The actions are ask great, evocative and clear. We didn’t really feel like one was used more than others. We did, however, notice that specialization early on can discourage the more shy players to take point and use their actions creatively. I would love to see something more structured for deciding who’s on point than “choose as a group”. This slows down the game and discourages characters who are out of their element to get involved.
A solution might be to discourage specialization at character creation so that every character has a wider array of skills, or a enforce specific order for deciding who’s on point.
I really love the devil’s bargain mechanic, but it seemed easy to forget on the players’ side. The newer players weren’t really coming up with them either. Stronger guidelines for creating them might help. Examples of bargains on the player reference sheet would be great too.
The effect system felt a little sluggish. Whenever a roll was made, we has to stop and analyze the circumstances. It seemed really cool on paper but ended up breaking up the action. This may change with better familiar with the rules, but on our first game, it felt like it slowed things down significantly.
I also wished consequences were on the GM reference sheet.
Flashback mechanics weren’t really engaged, I’m assuming because the players weren’t clear about what they could and couldn’t do with it. I don’t think that the writings fault. Just new players, playing a new game without knowing exactly where the boundaries are.
Conclusion
I really like this game, but it feels like a gamer’s game. There’s a lot of information that needs to be absorbed upfront, it plays significantly better if the people at the table have some level of rule mastery before the game starts. It made me think of Burning Wheel a lot, that way. A lot of mechanics, a lot of upfront information, a focus on advancement. It felt hard to teach, for me.
I’m totally on board for more mechanically heavy games, but I didn’t feel like I had the tools I would’ve liked to make the other players “get” Blades quickly.
The game relies on momentum a lot (you do a thing, sweet, this happens, who’s on point next) but has a couple of breaks in the action that distract from that.
I’m really looking forward to getting another session or three in to see if these issues float away and I’m just a crazy person.
I encourage the players to share their side of the story. Especially the newer ones. I figure your perspective is an important one.
Questions
Does everybody get effect from a group action? Does that mean that if they sneak as a group of four, they get four times the effect? Do they just get bonus effect for scale?
Very well written analysis. Pretty much exactly where I’m at with the game, as well. It seems like a light, fast-playing game, but in truth it’s deceptively crunchy.
I don’t mind the game’s mechanical weight. That scratches am itch for me, and I think it works very well. But I did wish I had better teaching tools.
Fixed the hideous and strange mistakes. Wrote this on my phone at work, which isn’t ideal. I think I got most of them.
I think this is the most complex game I’ve played in over a year. The last time I had to spend almost a full session on building the character, learning the backstory, and learning the rules was…Burning Wheel? I agree it felt a lot like BW.
To do an action, you have to figure out who’s on point, pick a skill, decide if it’s a regular action, teamwork action, etc, then figure out if it’s controlled, risky, desperate, then figure out how many dice you roll and roll them, then figure out effects, deal with consequences, which will likely be figuring out stress and harm which has a few options, one of which is another roll. Writing it all out makes it feel even more nuts.
I love the crew sheet, I think having it just lends so much collaboration and cohesion to the group, and I love how it models building up your crew and lair. I can’t wait to take turf from other factions and claim it as our own, make contacts and gain reputation.
I’m not a big fan of the clock, though I know Alex is. I feel like they restrict the fiction instead of guiding it, and I can easily see how it can just become a game about figuring out how to fill out the most wedges instead of coming up with the best story, or being daring and adventurous. Maybe they’re too much of an abstraction for me? I might like them better if they were tied into fiction more, like how AW wrote in events that happen at 6, 9, 12. But even then, I’m not sold on them as a way to represent the fiction.
I think part of the complexity comes from the pre-made setting. I don’t play many games anymore where you have to read a few pages of different countries, historical backdrop, and faction relationships before you can understand what kind of character you can make. I’ve just gotten used to making these things up on the fly, I guess.
Otherwise I agree with what’s been said. I do want to play it more, I want to get to the point where it flows smoothly and the rules support me instead of slow me down. I don’t know, we might have to fiddle with them a bit before we find something that works for our table.
Kevin Farnworth I think there’s another way to look at this. Rather than all actions going through the player’s filter in that way, it’s more the GM’s filter; what do I apply to this?
So, if the player declares an action, the GM thinks: is this an automatic success? If not, is it controlled, risky, or desperate? Then collaborate with the player on the best action to use. If complications or failures arise, what to use? A lasting condition, or a shift in circumstance? Then the player can choose whether to resist that and potentially take stress, or let it ride. As for teamwork actions, those are pulled in when they are needed, but are certainly not used all the time (and may not even be the norm for a heist’s rolling.)
My point is that when I run the game it is more a matter of figuring out what I need to model the action’s mechanical effects, rather than rummaging through all the tools for each attempted action. For group actions, the flow chart branches this way. For extended actions, it branches towards a clock. For dangerous actions, it branches into consequence and resistance territory. But seldom does all that come up at once.
I’m a little confused about one thing – how much “specialization at the start” can you actually have when you are limited to two “dots” in any given action?
Four actions at 2 and one at 1 (I might have the numbers wrong). That’s only 5 actions out of 16, which can leave you behind on most group rolls, and really cripple you if you aren’t comfortable enough with the game to improvise wacky uses for your actions.
It’s not a huge deal, but you’ll absolutely see it frustrate newer gamers.
The mechanics can be difficult, both in running the heists and managing down time. Overall I think it is worth it because the game lets me run heists in a way no other game has, and that’s pretty impressive. I also like the setting a great deal. It has been interesting watching the game develop.
This is an interesting thread. I love Blades mechanically, but I’ve wondered how it might go for players who prefer a lighter experience (which I am not). I’ve taught the game to two different groups who mostly play heavier games and had a lot of success.
I agree with Andrew Shields that a lot of those steps in taking an action are through the GM. In my experience, players work out who is on point, what they’re doing/what action they’re going to take, roll the dice (which is pretty straightforward), and meanwhile I assess position, their result, and their effect and/or consequences. That’s the mechanical meat of GMing for me and I’ve found it very satisfying.
I think it took my current group a little bit to fully grasp teamwork, and individual actions vs leading a group action vs setting up, but in our second session it went smoothly. I always make sure to make them be very clear about what they’re trying to do.
Blades is a weird mix of game forms but it really hits the sweet spot for me; and that mix is what has made the game really fascinating and fun for my group.
(Also, of course, some issues with learning and communicating the game are based in playing a game that’s in development, and a partial version of it at that, and an incomplete draft version of it at that; and the game has seen some fairly significant changes over the versions and will likely see more even before QS 3 is finished. For one, John said on twitter recently that the Actions list will be pared down to 12.)
Twelve actually sounds like a perfect number to me.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of the commentary is to be taken with a grain of salt given that it was our first session, and that the current rules are in draft form.
Don’t forget that the rules (Like Burning Wheel) revolve around a core mechanic of the Action roll, that can be used without adding all the extra ‘bits’. There was a section on this ‘introduction of mechanics’ in the first and second drafts of the playtest rules. I introduce these mechanics slowly. Once the players have a handle of the action / effect roll, start adding teamwork rules. By the time you get to your first Downtime it is starting to click a little more.
Flashbacks are the best bit of the game!