Next Question: Is Blades in the Dark a game without GM-Screen?
Rolling the GM dice seems to be an “open” die cast, placing index cards and clocks in front of the GM is a invitation for the players to pick them up storywise etc. I found many clues in the text that BinD is an open and thereby an no cheating game.
Which is cool, but…
|Confession Mode activated| I’m a cheater as a GM.
Now, before you bann my from this list, let my explain a bit. I happily cheat on rolling dice everytime I think that it will help the drama and the tension in the story. I cheat too to let the players reach the big final climax instead of being critically wounded during the first encounter.
This all to add to the fun for the players and for me as GM. Story and Fun is first, rules are second.
Last weekend I GMed a game of Star Wars Roleplaying for my kids and their friends (age 9 til 16). I rolled the dice behind the screen mainly to provide the correct sound of rolled dice. They had a blast!
Now, Blades is different, right? It’s not: That’s the story and this is the way to get there. Instead it’s: “What do you want to do? … and can you bear the results?”
Reminds me a bit of Call of Cthulhu games, where the choice in the end is dead or insane and not happily ever after ๐
How do your play our games? Do you use a screen? Do you show your GM dice results to the players?
Mmm… thinking of it. Are there many GM die cast in the first place? They seems to be mainly on the player side of the game anyway. Fascinating indeed.
BTW old-school again: I prefer players gathered around a table over using skype/hangouts therefor I don’t have a camera as an implicit GM screen.
Not sure you understand how BitD works.
Yepp. No cheating, open dice, no screen.
Occasional Quality roll and clocks all out in the open. We’re playing to find out.
a) if you need to break the rules to create a satisfying gameplay session, maybe those rules are not very well designed for what you want to do. Maybe you should play a game where the rules are designed to support what you’re trying to do, and then you won’t have to break them. And then there’s no need for secrecy.
b) if you as the GM feel you need secrecy to push the players into what you consider the “better” story options, then that’s cool man, but that’s not a style of play I enjoy. I don’t want to play through someone else’s notion of what makes a good story, I want to let the story emerge through the actions of play.๏ปฟ
Thanks for the feedback. Helpful and I will try this (for me) new style and I’m sure it will be fun ๐
Nigel Clarke For me BitD is very different to the old-school RPGs I used to play. I think I understand the game theoretically but lacking the pratice I still have to find out if this ist true in practice.
Your feedback is helpful for me in preparing the game and pitching it to my (old-school) players. Thanks for that.
It will be useful for you to watch/listen to ย an actual play of BitD or, if you can’t find one, any PbtA game would give you the general feel and style.
If you have access to the early QS then there is a relatively complete walk through written up there (true it’s older mechanics but you’ll get the idea).
I normally only roll dice to generate things outside the game and the players roll for everything else. The Fortune Roll/Engagement Roll are the only die rolls I ever make during a Blades game.
Old school players are going to find the style of a PbtA style game very different to what they are used to unless you currently run everything a very role playing intensive/immersive. If they have difficulty narrating what their character is doing (other than I hit it with my axe) they are going to struggle with the narrative intensive Blades.
Remember page 21 (I think)of the QS ย “After every GM move, ask “What do you do?” The advice in that section under GM:Goals, Principles, and Actions is very important.
Nigel Clarke Thanks for the practical input. I will follow those leads and re-read the “Principles” again. I already plan to start with my best role players instead of the hard core munchkins. ๐ Thanks for your time!
Stefan Struck if you’re going to change the way your group plays, it definitely worth discussing it up front (albeit that prospect is the kind of thing that makes me nervous ๐ !)
Like “here’s how this game is designed to be played…and this is how that’ll change how we usually do things at the table…”
Donogh McCarthy good advice, thanks!
People claim that a lot of old school game’s rules were lacking, thus leading to cheating on the part of the GM. I would contend that the point of old school games like D&D (even through its current iteration) was to challenge, and yes even kill, the PCs. PbtA and BitD are different beasts, as was stated earlier, where you play to find out…
You will find yourself doing almost no dice rolling as the GM, and there will be no need to cheat to achieve the drama you wish. If you want the drama of some PC taking a knife to the eye socket, you simply say “this guy is a deadly combatant, he rushes at you faster than you can react and puts a knife in your eye socket.” You have now established an NPC who is a significant threat, and this will certainly add drama to your game. Be prepared of course for your PC to say “No way, I definitely grab his hand while the knife is an inch away from my eye and then push the knife into his shoulder instead!” At which point the PC will roll to resist the knife to the eye, and then probably roll a skirmish for the counter attack. Instant and easy drama without needing to cheat.
You’re on the right track, Stefan. There’s no hard rule about secrecy in Blades, but the GM is instructed to make clocks public as a good practice. Sometimes I’ll do something sneaky like calling a clock “The bad thing looming over you” and if the PCs never investigate that, then that’s on them. ๐
All dice rolls are in the open. Players make all of the important rolls, anyway, so you can’t fudge things as the GM that way.
Sounds like you’re open to trying a new way of playing. Have fun exploring it! I’m sure you’ll develop your own style as you experiment with the tools, which is the idea.
Oh, to actually answer your question: Yes, Blades is a game without a GM screen.
Are Faction long-term project clocks meant to be public?
I don’t believe so as sometimes the projects they are working on are unknown to the crew unless they happen across them.
Will Scottย I think the answer there is “it depends”. In one of my games the red sashes have a project clock to find the PC’s hidden hideout. I frequently add ticks or remove ticks from this clock publicly in response to actions the PCs take. As it gets closer to full the PCs really feel the tension, because they know it’s gonna be bad. The players are going to know when it’s full, but I have made it clear that this is player knowledge, not character knowledge. The PCs know the red sashes are searching for them, but may or may not know when they’ve been found, depending on the fiction.