35 thoughts on “#BladesAgainstDarkness”

  2. Dan Hall​ that’s a good question. I think crew sheets are pretty vital to Blades. A hack without them would be pretty unique in my eyes. Right now I’m testing the Tomb Robbers sheet because I want to polish the core dungeon crawling game. Other crew sheets will try and handle some of the other Swords and Sorcery tropes. Things like Explorers (overland adventures), Zealots (agents of a particular diety) or even Heroes (for characters who are more epic and less fragile freebooters.) I’m experimenting with different crew sheets handling “Heat” differently. I’m not sure all of these will be in the initial release.

  10. Dan Hall Tomb Robbers are meant to be the sorta the core loot grabbing treasure hunters. Their crew abilities are meant to help them succeed in the dungeon environment.  Whether they are thieves or not I’ll leave to the fine folks at your table 😉

  11. Donogh McCarthy Zealots would be anyone driven by a cause greater than lining their pockets. They might be crusaders driving the unclean out, a dedicated team of monster hunters, or pilgrims establishing holy shines. Or some combination of the above. Their crew sheet will be centered around a particular deity whose cause they follow, but they could very easily be political as well.

  12. Johan Nilsson Downtime has been altered a bit. The primary change is that partial stress recovery is available in the dungeon by making camp. The cost is that the GM advances their threats. Downtime recovery simply heals all a character’s stress. The reason for this is that dungeon crawling is a war of attrition against the character’s resources and having to abandon a mission, and go back to town (through monster infested territory) is too much to ask for a little stress relief.  Recovery rolls have more to do with frictional fallout than how much stress you heal. Most other Downtime elements are unchanged at this point.

    Factions, tier, and rep are something I’m tinkering a lot with right now. Primarily, i’m basing things on the theory that you’re not Murder Hobos. You won’t simply pack up and leave town after a job. There are no better jobs for a dungeon crawler anywhere in the world. That means you are a citizen of Ironwood. You have to participate in the society. You are a selling your services as an “Acquisitions Expert” and you are trying to establish your organization as the premier band of Adventure Archaeologist in the city. You take a job from someone and do well, they’ll spread the word and you’ll get better, more dangerous, more profitable, jobs. More “apprentices” (torch bearers/hirelings/cannon fodder) will flock to your cause.

    As you build a better reputation for yourself you gain influence in the city. Powerful individuals want you to acquire this particular item for them. So do their rivals. Who’s play do you back? Who do you trust? Who do you think will back you when the shit hits the fan. Ironwood is a civil war just waiting to happen. 

    Claims are the hardest part of this equation and I’m not totally satisfied with my solutions at the moment. 

    … It occurs to me all of that might not have actually answered your question. Anything I didn’t really answer?

  14. I’d see the claims as annex of a guild Hall or something. For exemple, It could be trophy rooms(equivalent to REP, need a special monster killed), smiths (improve the gear), magic/alchemy room, trinket store (improve coin for each adventure), Chapel, ect

    The thing is, you cannot just build things and hope it simply work, you need patrons, employees, allies, special material and of course money. You could make a specific job to make sure the smith works for you or to acquire the support of the merchant guild unless you hire a mercenary group to make sure no thug shows up on your door to saccage everything while you’re out. 

    Claims could also be specific favor from contacts (or the actual contacts themselves). For exemple, you could be friend with a merchant but if you want it to become a real claim you need to be ready to make something for him. Once he has been acquired you need to maintain your relationship and maybe a certain level of friendship with his organisation, but he’ll keep giving you a discount on equipment.

    That’s my two cents. I’m really looking foward knowing more on your Hack. I love that you seems to be keeping the political and difficult decisions feel of BitD. 

    ——-

    Do you plan on building some kind of Bestiaries? Will it feel more creepy (undeads and horrors) a bit like the ghosts of BitD or will we see a more heroic feel (Dragons and big monsters). 

    Oh, and is magic gonna have an important place in your hack?

  15. Maxime Girard I’m of a similar mindset for Claims.

    It’s funny you’d ask about Bestiaries and magic because they are both intertwined.

    I picture going on an expedition into the depths of a dungeon a little like deep sea diving. It’s plumbing a lightless and incredibly hostile environment. It is ancient and alien and hungry. In keeping with that the monsters in B.a.D are weird.

    The world of B.a.D makes a clear hard distinction between people and monsters. There are no lizard men, elves, or goblins. The general theme is Conan meets The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Every one who is human is obviously not a monster. Every thing that is a monster is obviously not a human. They might be tool using. They might even be intelligent. But they are always inhuman.

    So… what does this have to do with magic. Well, you see monsters are unnatural. They come from… somewhere else. They are inherently magical and the primary source of magic is harvesting their flesh. Especially their hearts. Monsters are chopped up, rendered down, ground and processed into all kinds of alchemical substances. The equivalent to the magic user in B.a.D is The Chimera who eats the hearts of monsters and gains their powers. There are a couple of other forms of magic… but I’ll leave those for later.

    My goal is build something like encounter tables for the various zones of Agartha (the mega-dungeon in which the game takes place) and include some of the monsters encountered in those various zones.

  17. That’s a hard question to answer.

    If by tone you mean lethal, gritty, and focused on the hard choices and sacrifices of dungeon crawling then that is my goal. Both Torchbearer and Adam Koebel’s Old School Adventures Campaign have been very influential in this respect. Core Blades doesn’t always want to play nicely with these ideas. Due to stuff like resistance rolls, stress, and trauma characters simply aren’t as fragile and vulnerable in Blades. But I’m working on some stuff that will hopefully offer a compromise.

    If by tone you mean Darkest Dungeon’s Lovecraftian vibe then I will say that is something I consciously avoided. I love DD to death, but I didn’t want to imitate it. Instead I opted for viewing Swords and Sorcery through the lens of the Western.

    There are motifs common to both genres: A vast unexplored land full of riches; well armed and highly trained explorers; natural hazards in the form of wild animals and the terrain itself.

    At the same time certain elements are unique to the western: Colonialism and a native resistance; Prospectors and land grabs. Barons of industry “civilizing” a wild land; Hardy frontiersmen desiring freedom from the pageantry of civilization.

    Blended with this are elements that are distinctly Swords and Sorcery, particularly the work of Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber. Ancient cities lying in ruin. Strange and hideous monsters. Rough cut sword slingers looking for their next job and the thrill of Adventure. Enigmatic wizards and petty gods.

    Long ago there was an old PlayStation game called Wild Arms and this is my attempt at what I always wanted that game to be.

  18. How tricky would it be to include some of the playbooks from BitD into BaD? Could a Leech or Whisper join and go into Agartha, given some minor alterations for the skills, etc?

    Also, it would be great to include a blank char sheet like in the BitD QS for those inclined to fill in as they go (some of my players like that style, while I prefer the options printed out)

  19. Dylan Green thank you very much for the response. I meant more about setting tone. To me, Darkest Dungeon’s tone isn’t just gritty, it’s bleak. Adventuring is something only the insane or deathwished, and/or destitute would do. The civilized world is decrepit or at least tearing at the seams to entropy and malcontent. Moldvay dnd, torchbearer, and darkest dungeon share this sentiment. It sounds like blades against the darkness will to, to many a degree, but your additional twists of Western/swords and sorcery provide a sufficient difference to the expected. I look forward to talking to you more about the game in the future and certainly looking forward to playing this someday.

  20. A blank character sheet is a good idea. I’ll definitely include one.

    As for core characters, there’s enough changes (Actions, trauma, gear) that you’ll probably need to use said blank character sheet and say “I’m a Cutter” or whatever and just use those moves. 

    B.a.D thief analog is The Copperhead and they have a lot of moves stolen from The Lurk and The Leech, so you might need to just remove The Copperhead from play if you go this route. 

  22. Eric Levanduski Yeah, the horror of B.a.D is human horror. Hell is other people. Not something inherent to the nature of the cosmos and epitomized by tenticular monstrosities from beyond the stars. There’s nothing stopping you from going full nihilist at your table, but that’s not the intent. 

    Most people see adventures crazy or desperate, but that is why they stay safe at home in their beds. At the same time, the world of B.a.D is one in which an adventurer could strike it rich and retire on their spoils. They are akin to the prospectors of the gold rush. Most died penniless. Lots died due to vice.   But some struck it rich and their stories meant every day there were more prospectors showing up at the mines hoping for their big break. 

    I look forward to seeing what you do with the game!

  23. So, from what I gather we’ll see the Copperhead, Chimera, Warden and Widowmaker playbooks in BaD. Have you any further ones up you sleeve that you’d like to hint about?

    Having played more BitD I’ve come to wonder about whether time in Agartha will feature flashbacks in the same ways as they do during BitD scores? Perhaps the dungeon and the heist are different in tone, but I like the flashback mechanics, so I thought I’d ask about BaD.

  24. As for other playbooks, you’ll notice that there is one of the classics that’s missing from that list.

    Warden = Ranger

    Widowmaker = Fighter

    Chimera = Wizard

    Copperhead = Thief

    So… take a guess 😉

    I’m tinkering with some stuff like the Special Abilities and Permissions Iruvian Sword Arts stuff. This will hopefully cover some of the more setting specific stuff that isn’t handled by core classes.

    As for flashbacks those are totally unchanged from the core game.

    Recently I’ve had an idea about how to overcome some of the issues with wear and tear on characters, so that might change from the core sheets soon.

  25. Quick note on the subject of playbooks:

    How much interest is there in more retro flavored playbooks?

    My goal has been to make the main ones easily convertable, but I’m currious how they are resonating with the audience?

  27. I’m very excited about the Chimera, but wouldn’t mind a Witch or similarly Wisper-like playbook for a more occult type. That’s one of the reasons I pondered compability with BitD playbooks. Would be to satisfy a player who likes their classic arcane spellcasters when dungeoneering.

  28. (Not sure if this question goes here or if it ought to be a separate post)

    Have you any plans for when we’ll see a first version of BaD Dylan Green? Is it likely to be one of the playsets coming up around the end of the month or so that John has mentioned in his last update?

  29. I wont have a finished product by the end of january. But, I should be able to put together a alpha playtest packet for people who would be willing to playtest for me.

  32. I have a lot of bits and pieces floating around now that need to be compiled. But I’d like to have an alpha ready by this weekend.

    Would any possible testers be able / willing to record the audio of their sessions?

  34. Okay. I have a pseudo-functional alpha packet. Anyone willing to commit to reading it over, commenting it up? In particular, I need some insight into what’s lacking for it to be something you can use at your table.

Comments are closed.