So I came to Blades straight off of playing Alpha Protocol, which is lovely/janky modern spy RPG. I also really love the Spider playbook, so I wanted to make a crew that is to Spider as Breakers are to Cutter. So I made the Spies!
The goal was to make players who pick this crew playbook feel extremely, unimaginably smug about everything they do, while simultaneously feeling like they’re constantly one bad turn away from the crows. To that end, it does a few weird things with the “expert” type of cohort, which don’t really get that much air time in the rules as is. So, uh, caveat emptor.
I also feel like playbooks generally need a certain kind of background setting and opposition, so I also added a couple of factions that have more to do with information flow than crime.
Finally, the best thing I can say about the program I used to make the PDF is that it was free, so the resulting file is noticeably below the high standard of quality set by John. Hopefully, it’s still printable on machines other than mine.
There’s also a Google Docs version here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1xdevqz6mzr7sez/AABkqXGT7wotQSiWHfglN0FZa?dl=0
This looks really cool. I think it’s great that you’re adding to the types of crews that are out there. One thing I notice is that Information Broker and Public Office do the same thing, at least in game terms. Which I have a hard time squaring with the fiction in my head about what each of those things would do for the crew. Am I crazy?
You may well be, but I doubt it has anything to do with this particular doubt. What’s happening here is that I really wanted to give Spies access to a Public Office fiction-wise, and I also wanted to give them two of the Blades-standard ‘steady income’ claims mechanics-wise. This is the compromise.
If I could have thought up a cool enough alternate power for Public Office, I would’ve. Alas!
Fair enough. One other thing I wanted to ask: what do you mean by a Public Office? What are Public Offices supposed to do in the fiction? Thanks!
It’s supposed to represent sway with or control of one of the more official gangs of Doskvol – Bluecoats, Brigade, etc., to the point that they can get kickbacks from influencing certain decisions (let that house burn, arrest that man, etc.). It allows you to participate in the graft and corruption these places are already partaking in.
This is pretty cool. A couple of comments/questions.
– Face Thieves is an awesome ability, and I love when the crews abilities feed into their XP generation goals (infiltration in this case).
– Inconceivable needs an extra N.
– Frame Job seems to be the weakest advance, I think it should be +2 heat or add another bonus.
– In Sweet betrayal consider calling it faction status, because it took me a second to realize what you were referring to.
– Ulf Ironborn is tier 1, seems weird that a crew starting at tier 0 would have him as a cohort (if you don’t want him to be tier 1, I suggest using a different name)
All in all looks like a ton of fun, good work.
Mark Griffin
-Inconceivable typo, clarification for Sweet Betrayal – done!
-Face Thieves is pretty damned cool, I agree. Every crew seems to have one creepyweird power, and this one is a no-brainer for Spies.
-Frame Job – I don’t want the automatic heat reduction be so good that it takes the teeth out of the Entanglements phase entirely, especially considering that the Spies already get really early access to a great heat reduction claim.
Frame Job has two edges over the Smuggler’s Just Passing Through, the only other heat-reducing crew move. One is that it applies immediately after the score rather than at downtime, and so immediately affects the Entanglements roll. But perhaps that’s more minor than I initially thought. The cooler thing, I think, is the soft edge – you get to narrate how you implicate some poor schlub without making a roll for it, and so the crew becomes very well situated to send someone other than a crew-member to clear off Wanted levels. But then there’s not clear limits to what you can and cannot narrate with this.
As I’m sitting here defending the move, I’m finding that it’s not so much not powerful enough as poorly constructed. Doesn’t communicate its purpose clearly and its interactions with other game systems are muddy.. I’ll fiddle with it a bit and get back to you.
– Ulf Ironborn – it is weird! But it’s also something you can totally do. On your very first job you could, say, abduct the Lord Governor, have one of your lackies face-swap with him, and have the new leader of the City Council as your cohort. Having a leader of a pre-existing faction already be your cohort is supposed to communicate that possibility.
I also admit that the idea of brutal gang boss secretly being a part of a fledling spy cell just tickles my funnybone the right way.
I admit I hadn’t considered the implications of sending your enemies against your other enemies which is cool. I was actually comparing it to the thief ability Slippery, which gives you +1d when rolling for heat reduction and let’s you roll twice for entanglements. My crew of thieves makes great use of that ability.
So the newest text for Frame job is as follows:
Frame Job – Take 1 less heat at the end of a score. When you frame someone, plant evidence or shift blame, gain potency.
Does that communicate the “go forth and be naughty at someone else’s expense” intent behind the move well enough?