Yay! I finally organized some friends for a multi-session game of Blades in the Dark — scheduling as adults is hard.
So for those of you who have run it, do you have a recommended way of getting everyone going? Obviously I could just do it as written: explain the situation, make characters, make crew. However, part of me is feeling that it would be better to just jump into the action and do crew creation later, like after the first score or during a slow point in the first score.
Anyone run it this way before with crew creation later? Or did you run it as written and have advice to make it smoother so we can jump into the action faster.
I ran as written: PC and crew creation did everything I needed: Between working out their name, reputation, the situation in Crows Foot and (most importantly for us) their positive and negative relationships, they already knew what they wanted to do and who they were keen to butt heads with and rob (the Foghounds in our case).
Baso Baz’s “invitation” to join the gang war on his side gave them the kick to get started and things naturally took off from there.
You could prossibly do crew creation as a series of flashbacks during the first job though?
That might work.
Dan Voyce That’s good to hear that it worked as written. About how long did character/crew creation take?
I like the idea of flashbacks during the job.
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My recommendation is to start them off as a gang, have them run a score, and they can decide if they want to start a crew or not. If they do, then they already know some things about themselves and they can leverage their alliances and possibly in-game events to get a hideout etc. started.
I like gangs because to start play they tell you how they want to play, what backup material they want to matter, and what sort of challenge they want to face. Then you’re into it.
For the first session, you could offer a version of a devil’s bargain where they get +1d if they explain how their connection to another character before the game started helps them in the situation.
Yeah I definitely like your method Andrew Shields of starting them off as a gang and then step up to being a crew. This gets them into the game without forcing players to sort out all the added stuff ahead of time and it acts as a nice stepping stone where they gain an instant sense of satisfaction between first and second session like they are stepping up in the world — “We’re a real crew now!”
Though I also like the flashback approach of starting off with a heist and then stopping to fill out the crew’s backstory through flashbacks mid heist and afterword. It’s nice as it’s a very cinematic approach.
That said, I’m curious to hear from others who have run the start of a game as written. How long did it take to get going with both character creation and crew creation? Were there stumbling blocks introducing the players to it all? Or did it just go smoothly and awesome?
I’ve used the default start like twice. It has worked REALLY well for me. Every decision they make tells them more about who they are; starting in Baz’s office, figuring whether that’s the heist or the setup.
Then there’s a moment between the office and whatever else they are doing–I highly recommend leveraging that transition by telling them to pick equipment, and jotting some notes about where they’re going and what they’re doing while they do that, so there’s no dead space.
Let’s see. The Unrecommendables chose to work for Baz (BFF of a character) to kidnap the Red Sash leader. Another group took the job and hit a Red Sash drug treasury.
Andrew Shields did you use the default start with them also filling out their crew sheet as well or did you do it with your gang approach?
Crew sheet first. I did my best to start out RAW.
First time RAW. As I look back at the report, the part with Baz was really understated; they had some options for where to side in the gang war, didn’t like the Red Sashes, and targeted them. It went from there, we didn’t have an office scene.
https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/blades-in-the-dark-adventure-summary/
Second time. We skimmed through the meeting with Baz because he was a PC’s BFF.
https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/another-blades-in-the-dark-adventure-summary/
I wanted to get them fired through creation and stuck in to see how the game worked, rather than dawdling around and establishing special snowflake backgrounds and connections between the characters and so forth–I wanted to get straight into the game, and we sure as hell did. I like that approach best, your mileage may vary.
Check out Charlie Vick’s recent play report.
http://imaginaryhallways.blogspot.com/2015/08/antigencon-blades-in-dark-actual-play.html
Nice! Thanks for the links to your play reports too. I had been meaning to read them and it gave me reason to. Impressive that you got in character creation and two heists in 3hrs of play. The retroactive planning heist mechanic really speeds up play.
I’m definitely going to stick with the quickstart Baz setup. Whether I have them build their crew sheet ahead of time or along the way I think will be a “play it by ear” sorta thing. If all the players are really into building out their relationships and fleshing out Duskwall, then I’ll let them continue. If they are stumbling trying to come up with descriptions or if one or more players looks antsy to take their blades out then I’ll just throw them into the meeting with Baz.
It’s funny how different groups are. Both those sessions had 2 players each. The first one, the players were grouchy and didn’t want to play the game again. The second one (online) the players had a great time and were eager to play again.
After the first session went so poorly, I eased way back on difficulty for the second group, and they had a lot more fun. Neither group were story gamers.
I’d like to say I’ve found the balance of difficulty and delight in the system, but it still eludes me. I still have sessions with groups that have a blast, and sessions with groups that… don’t.
Yeah finding the right balance of difficulty and delight for a group of players is a tough balance for any game really. But certainly I can see it being a bit tougher with BitD as it sits in an odd place where it’s both crunchy and indie storygamey.
I describe Blades in the Dark as “story game adjacent.” =)
My days of running open table are numbered, I really hope others step forward to provide excellent entry points into the game.
Andrew Shields good job running open table games! I prefer in-person gaming so instead of open table online I’m doing the hard work of organizing a game night with my friends aka sorting out the convoluted schedules of my friend’s adult lives.
“So, roll Sway. A four? Okay, all but one of your friends are available that night.”
“Damn, anybody got a devil’s bargain for me?”
“Uh, however it turns out, you’ll irritate your household by choosing that date.”
“Fine, I’ll take it. I roll–damn, a 2.”
“Okay, so all but one. Do you go with that, or keep looking for a time all of you can make it?”
“They’ll show up but no matter what happens at the table, there’s gonna be some fallout from this game.”
I ran the in-the-quickstart scenario as well. The players had pregen characters thanks to Andrew, and making a crew was pretty fast – we didn’t name it, nor establish its reputation, just got through the ‘here are the good things the crew has’ parts. Have to strongly second the idea of flashbacks determining what the crew has, if people don’t have strong opinions.
My crew decided to kill Baz pretty quickly, and we started out in a flashback. That is a very interesting thing to do, as the flashback completely changed the initial scenario, from them talking to Baz, to them operating on Baz. As the rules say, hold on lightly.
I wonder if the jobs on offer for rogues need to have a semi-explicit difficulty from the start. Like, you could go after the Lampblacks or the Red Sashes, but if you mess with the Crows expect more ‘resistance reduces consequences’ rather than eliminating them, as the Crows mean serious business. Certainly that wasn’t something I did in my game, so I erred on the side of not permanently maiming rogues.
(Also, Andrew, sad to hear the open-table days are numbered, but it’s understandable. We’ll see if I can fill that gap, but probably not very soon – lately work has been kicking my ass.)
My guys seriously discussed betraying Baz rather than joining him – in the end they only went with him because he was the friend of our Slide.
Baz’s invite is just a kicker to get things moving. Some players might just need it pointed out that there are other options than just following his lead.
Colin Fahrion crew creation took a while – but mainly because the players were asking questions about Duskwall or who the factions are.
It felt like play, so we didn’t feel that it got in the way of the ‘real’ game. My players really enjoyed it.
Yeah Dan Voyce I totally get where that intro character/world building can become like play. Though I’m also a firm believer in the idea that you can get more interesting and more interconnected backstory during play itself as then it is more likely to tie directly what is happening in the story being played out. Finding that right balance is key as backstory can give ideas for future narrative but also too much backstory at the beginning leads to the possibility that much of it will be ignored.
In any case, I’ll read where the players are at and see how it goes. You can usually tell when one or more players are getting antsy to do something.
Blades in the Dark is an interconnected series of mini-games. There’s the character and crew generation game, the game element with heists, the game element with down time, and the game element of crew asset management.
There are lots of ways to play, lots of paces to choose, lots of places to draw focus. This is fine.
I agree that the crew could be made as you play, or after a session.