Any tips for lazily managing other faction downtime actions?
I’m a lazy GM. I’ve run about 12-15 sessions for my players running the cult crew The Society of Horus, but I’ve been realizing they’ve had it somewhat easy since I have failed to adequately do downtime actions for other factions.
Of course there’s been a bold moves by main enemies and even their closest ally who’s leader they drove mad, but I can’t help but feel there needs to be more repercussions to all the craziness they’re whipping out each session.
How do you manage faction downtime actions for a dynamic-feeling setting without spending too much time on it outside of the game?
I need to run more BitD so I hit this issue. I too am a lazy DM.
If you don’t want to track npc down times you can present their missions for the week as all repurcussions of their actions. For example you cab put ‘defend your base against’ ‘deal with a blue coat investigation’ and ‘lord blank is blackmailing you’ as they’re options for their heist.
I would always keep countdown clocks for the various factions. Then speed them up or slow them down based on PC actions. It also gave me something fun to do between sessions. Have you tried that yet?
A random table would be nice rather than having to keep a bunch of Faction clocks spinning, especially for Factions that aren’t directly involved in recent heists.
I did try that at first Chris Bennett but it seems too much work for me. Colin Fahrion I think I too would love a table especially for long-term goals (unless the final book includes a number of awesome ones for each faction).
David Rothfeder That’s mostly how I’ve been doing it. Though it seems strange that they only can do 1 or 2, but ignoring something like that can be catastrophic. Earlier the PCs’ cult exploited the Lampblacks vulnerability to raise a tier, so at a semi-finale last time (since a player was leaving), Baszo set up a big nasty bomb for them in their lair.
It’s a different way of generating the narrative. Instead of thinking about it as the consequences of their actions, think of it as the players choosing which trouble is most interesting. Maybe the season finale is Baszo’s bomb, or maybe it’s the cutter getting thrown in jail. My style would say the correct choice is the one most interesting to the players.
I like the random as there should be random things happening in the background that doesn’t involve the characters crew too. Other gangs at war or bluecoats arresting a bunch of another crew. Random things that the crew can decide to take advantage or random stuff that ruins the crew’s plans. Stuff like that makes the world a more living breathing world.
I made a randomizer-like thing in the convoluted way I know how. It draws from the NPC downtime action types, items from the Scores Generator in BitD, and some additional flavor of my own. Generator Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ukg80uE2ygvp2J4RmtJ3m8g2rrOLsUcF7-_bzX5PulI/edit?usp=sharing
I added a new tab with something like an NPC Downtime Generator to my NPC Generator (linked as “NPC Generator (2)” under the sticky links in this community or at the link at the end of this post).
Using the yellow cells, you can change the chance of generating downtime actions either by the PC crew’s enemies/allies or targeting the PC crew or their allies. You can also change the chance of generating from a list of fan-made gangs (“newcomers”) from this thread: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105095951838305103055/posts/MFwkyu75XH7
I have a few touchstones that help me out, but not a terribly formal process. For one, I love the entanglement each down time, that offers great and useful reference points of some random event that gets interpreted.
Second, I draw from what factions or endeavors have the attention of the players, and also stuff that I want to play with at the game table. When a cypher pops up and needs interpretation, I bend it into one of those two things unless something wild and brilliant hits me in the moment.
Aim for the player interests because they’re likely to care, and my interests because the world is bigger than them and if I am fired up and playing with neat toys that’s more fun for players than if I’m dutifully filling in blanks with what I think they want. A mix is good.
I like the IDEA of faction clocks filling in the background, and think it is a great tool, but in actual play it has not proved useful yet. I just don’t use them much. If I did, it would be because a faction was working on something the PCs knew about and wanted to know the outcome; OR, I would put in a mysterious clock like “They are going to get you” and as they investigated, make something up or riff off their table talk and asides to play into their worst suspicions or most amusing whimsy.
Page 8 of this has an adapted entanglement roll I was toying with that leaves more room for getting sideswiped unexpectedly, if you’re curious. As for deciding who and how and why in the moment, fall back on their table talk/interests, and what you’d like to see at the table. (I wanted to see what the Hollows were all about, so the Wax Masks made a move in Crow’s Foot and my poor gangs and crews have been coping with it.)
https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/enterprises-for-blades-in-the-dark-6-22-15.pdf
I think another way into this would be Heat. Every time they gain a point of Heat, make a clock; 8 when they hit Heat 2, 6 for Heat 3, 4 for Heat 4. When the clock fills, all the karma and pent-up aggression of your enemies finds its way out, or the bluecoats hit hard. Another option.
I like your alternate entanglements chart Andrew Shields.
Thanks, Adam Minnie! I worked in what was in the various levels of the entanglements in the quickstart, but this was at least 1, maybe 2 iterations ago. The main down sides are that it has a 2d6 cumulative roll and nothing else does, and also that it hits DAMN HARD if you get a rough roll. Something you’ve been working on can just get blown away by random fate.
This is not necessarily all bad, and it may not be gone for good if the crew acts quickly.