Here is one of the ideas I’m toying with for a custom version of Blades in the Dark. Experience!

Here is one of the ideas I’m toying with for a custom version of Blades in the Dark. Experience!

Here is one of the ideas I’m toying with for a custom version of Blades in the Dark. Experience!

Get 1 for each desperate roll (as it is now.) Then, get 1 for each stress incurred. It costs 5 to gain a rating in an action, and (current rating x10) to raise a rating. Each special ability costs 20.

I like this because it rewards intense experiences and player-driven character effort.

8 thoughts on “Here is one of the ideas I’m toying with for a custom version of Blades in the Dark. Experience!”

  1. Thats a thing that needs a chunk of finetuning and testing. And also motivate players to always use as mcuh stress as possible without jumping the trauma edge instead of relying on the narrative consequences. I would do it oppositely, instead of rolling resistance agains a desperate consequence just take it, form a narrative and receive a second XP.

  2. Hm, I think what you’re saying is to get experience for taking conditions, harm. That could work, get 1 per tier you take.

    Of course it would need testing and experimentation, but I like the idea of player-driven experience that doesn’t require discussion with other players.

  3. I like the idea and the stress connection is similar to something Matthew Miller was considering for an anime re-skin, but I would be wary of how easy it is for players to give themselves stress. Assist all the time and make a few wild flashbacks and stock up without necessarily producing the player-driven behavior or narrative that you’re seeking.

    One of the balancers of course, is either the time it takes to relieve the stress (so you have room to take more), or limited trauma. I know you do trauma in reverse Andrew Shields, but it quickly seems that XP for stress would encourage taking some trauma quickly to boost your Vice so you can then take and get rid of more Stress in a faster loop. Similarly, players who get bad Vice rolls may begrudge their inability to take more stress, and therefore XP. PCs will grow most quickly when they live-fast-die-young, take lots of stress, dump it, take more, dump it, etc.

  4. Of course, if they chase stress, then they’re vulnerable to Trauma, then the character burns out and they’re done.

    If there is a lot of assisting, that’s great and the sort of thing that helps you develop (so I’m fine rewarding it with advances.) To me, the shallow pool of how much stress you can take is the limiting factor; if you get carried away with frivolous stress, that should be a self-correcting problem later in the score, or afterwards.

    I really don’t see that as MORE of a problem than rewarding players for making their characters cause trouble for the group by acting out on their issues.

    What do you mean by bad Vice rolls?

  5. Sorry, I didn’t see that Vice is just a flat bonus rather than a roll now. So basically, at campaign start, without overindulging, players can break even if they take no more than 4 stress on a score, but that burns all downtime on Vice.

    Also, I’ve only seen players seeking trouble for themselves as contributing to the story and plot. I anticipate that may be highly situational depending on the players.

  6. Adam Minnie Agreed, different players handle things differently. Oh, during down time you get TWO actions, so you can burn one on clearing stress and do something else (or if you really push it, two actions clearing stress.)

  7. You are right. And yes, this would be in the context of my reversed trauma construct, so you regain stress easily until you take some major blows, and that makes you less resilient. 

    So at first, you can shrug off that extra stress easily enough. But if you cross the line and take trauma, then your capacity for shrugging off stress reduces, and it’s harder to get as much experience. I’m fine with that.

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