Does anyone have a recommendation for a good demo score and preferably one that has some level of write-up currently…

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good demo score and preferably one that has some level of write-up currently…

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good demo score and preferably one that has some level of write-up currently available so I can focus on learning the rules? I’d like a heist scenario that shows off the Thief side of things, with maybe some supernatural elements. The PCs will all be pre-gens so I’m not focusing particularly on character connections or specific faction relationships. Yes, I know I could randomly determine one using the score generator, but again, I’m trying to focus on figuring out the rules and am looking to outsource the score.

13 thoughts on “Does anyone have a recommendation for a good demo score and preferably one that has some level of write-up currently…”

  6. Andrew Shields I’ve been pouring over your stuff for the past week. Love your world building, scores and actual play reports. A tip of the cap to you, sir!

    In repose to my OP, I think I’m going to convert the D&D adventure “Three Days to Kill” by John Tynes. Dyed in the wool story gamers may need smelling salts after the suggestion that a pre-published D&D module for BitD, but consider that the author of the module is the same guy who wrote/co-wrote Unknown Armies, Delta Green, Puppetland, etc. Also, the setup is essentially “spec ops mission” which fits BitD really well. If I get ambitious I’ll post a Score sheet for folks.

  8. No smelling salts needed. 🙂 John Tynes was one of my first mentors in the game industry 20 years go when I was publishing Talislanta. He’s a great designer.

  9. I do recommend being wary of too much structure. I focus on the target, and as the players come up with how to deal with the target, expect that more information will come in and I didn’t know it all ahead of time.

    As I deal with pre-fab stuff I pull frames and ideas, but keep it super loose. For example, I might jot down that I want to use a catacomb/factory/prison/temple like Cragscleft, give it a name, and keep that in mind as a possibility. I might note that an underground hidden brothel dedicated to the Forgotten Gods is a cool idea. I might scribble down an idea for an NPC that hunts leviathans, but respects and fears them, even though he is pitiless and contemptuous towards humans.

    Rather than copying a whole scenario, I break them down into blocks and timbers. Then I pull in those elements as the players do things that invite them.

    Let’s say the players hate the church and want to target it. You can pull in the Horn of Quintus, but suggest it affects the Ghost Field and calms spirits. They’ve hidden it somewhere in their temple, outside the city, with its own energy curtains to protect the upper levels. The lower levels are given over to the restless dead as part of the defenses. Sneak in, past the factory level where they refine plasm, through the prison, and up to the temple level. Have a plan to get out and back, probably involving a rover gang of outlanders or rail jacks.

    Pieces of scenarios let you be more responsive than whole scenarios. Stockpiling those ideas and bits helps you be flexible when the time comes. =)

  11. Andrew Shields John Harper In general I agree that pre-written material isn’t much use for a BitD campaign since so much of the game is generated at the table. That said, for this first session I’m running a one-shot to convince my players to start a campaign and give them some mechanical context to build characters.

    +John Harper Tynes was your mentor! Wow. You are a lucky man.

    Here’s the draft Score I’ve developed based on “Three Days to Kill”. Feedback appreciated!

    Design notes:

    1) I like the setup of the Quickstart, with Roric dead and the Lampblacks and Red Sashes at war. I want to save that for the actual campaign, so this Score is setup as a prequel. Roric is still alive, and the gang war hasn’t started. Maybe this Score sheds some light onto why Roric was murdered?

    2)The original has a hedonistic festival so I yoinked the one from “The Apex” since it does a nice job of introducing important setting elements.

    3) The original has the Patrons providing some magic items to the characters which mimic tech items (ex. Wand of Fireballs which is a grenade launcher analog). I decided not to include these though it might be a nice way to introduce electroplasm and reinforce the steampunk elements.

    Score: Three Days to Kill

    The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh sponsors The Festival of Plenty, a three day Bacchanalia of naked passion and gluttony, in its various brothels, drug dens, and bathhouses. At its climax, at Bleakwood House, the Elders announce the new Apex, a virile or nubile youth to draw in new followers, embody the heights of hedonistic delight and be the lusty catalyst of many future ritual orgies. The Church refers to the spirit as “The Devil Inside”; you are your body, the spirit a corrupting influence. As a reward, the Apex ceremony cuts the Devil out of them, leaving the Apex free to feast their fill on ecstatic bodily delights and follow the tenets of the Church without the corrupt impulses of the spirit.

    Your Crew was approached by Dorangus, a sniveling toady, to meet his employers about a job. Dorangus led you to an abandoned warehouse where you met a group of people dressed in their holiday finest and wearing colorful festival masks to hide their identities. They greeted you in a friendly manner, assured you that hiding their identities was as much for your protection and theirs, gave Dorangus a small sack of coin for his help, and offered to share a nice bottle of wine while you talk business.

    The Job: Roric, the leader of The Crows and ward boss of the Crow’s Foot district, has invited an unknown group to his personal villa for the purposes of making an alliance. Your job is to disrupt the meeting and make Roric look incompetent. If successful you’ll earn 6 coin.

    Since the Festival is a major opportunity, most of Roric’s men will be working the street, leaving him with only a few men to guard him and the villa.

    You don’t have to kill anyone, but you’ll earn 8 COIN if you do manage to kill Roric.

    Progress Clocks:

    1) Disrupt the Meet: 8 segments

    2) Alert The Crows: 6 segments

    3) Additional clocks based on The Plan (Exterior Security, Interior Security, Fight with Roric, etc)

  12. Pretty good setup. If I were to use it, this is what I would do.

    Tell ’em about the job fast, splashes of color and broad strokes. Just a few minutes, disrupting the meet with strangers or spies if I have to. Minimal play; don’t linger on the setup.

    Get to picking a plan. If the players have questions, give each one a single relevant thing for their character to check out. (The player can ask something, and the character either knows it, rolls to find it out and risks complications, pays for the information, etc. Make up answers to the questions as they’re asked. If you feel like it, ask the players for possible answers, or encourage leading questions, like, “there’s a play performed for this, right? And I know the director?”) Keep it moving.

    Once they have the bones of the plan, the general gist of what they’re trying to do, push them into the obstacles between them and the objective. Let them solve those obstacles with flashbacks. 

    I don’t pre-plan clocks, not one. I get a sense of the fiction. Then, as they try to do things, we look at whether that’s a single roll attempt, or whether there’s a clock to fill. If there is a menace gathering steam in the background, then that clock fills a segment every time they take an action and climaxes, screwing with their situation, when the clock fills.

    So, if they decided to get his right-hand man to witness Roric’s daughter’s indiscretion, then maybe start a clock for “Hey they’re not supposed to be here” as people realize they’re crashing the party. Persuade or trick the right-hand man, give the daughter the illusion that she’s in a safe spot. 

    Or maybe the plan is to get Roric to embarrass himself during a very public speech. Either possess him with a spirit, or slip him some doctored drink; maybe there’s a clock to get past the people around him to get to his liquor, but they have a complication along the way and have to deal with a frenemy from one of the character’s pasts.

    Or perhaps the plan all along is to stab him, and there’s going to be a play, so they wear masks and hide in the chorus. The mission starts with them in place, the bribed director of the production sweating bullets and about to crack, their target thirty feet away and bored to tears. Maybe the heist will be as simple as rushing him and stabbing him, and then they’ve got a flashback and a couple simple rolls to escape.

    After all, you don’t have to worry about the heist being too short. Then you do the entanglement roll after they get paid, and either something happens or they are approached with another job. They’ll likely start something with their down time that shows you what sort of project interests them.

    Whip up another heist, build on the world. Someone from the party that was interesting either hires them or angered them so they target him or her. Maybe the law has taken an interest and they’re trapped in their lair, that’s where the “heist” starts, and they have to escape with flashbacks and rolls.

    Let it breathe. Let it flex. If the players get boring, make things happen to them; if they have ambition, pave the way to see how it turns out. 

    Have fun with it! Good luck. =)

Comments are closed.