#BladesAgainstDarkness Playable Alpha
Here it is. Try it out. Tell me how it goes. There’s lots of work left to be done, but I’m excited to get it in your hands.
I would remind anyone that this is a playable alpha . There are going to be changes and many things are still, very much, a work in progress.
That being said, I believe there is enough here for you to play the game, even if you have to fill some bits on your own.
I would love to hear how this goes for you, any questions you might have or comments.
Good luck adventurers!
Still to come:
Additional Crew Sheets
Artwork and Maps
Life-paths for the various peoples
Special Permissions and worked examples
Agartha Zones Encounters
Advanced Dungeon Design and Delving
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4bjxjnr2p_INmVYQVN6emMzR1E/view?usp=sharing
I’m not going to test it anytime soon, but I’m already loving it. Nice work!
Yeah, this looks great!
First thing that springs to mind at a glance is offering “no resistance roll” as a Devil’s Bargain. Unless the rules of Devil’s Bargains has been changed in BAD Devil’s Bargains are supposed to be things that happen regardless of the result of the roll. If there is a possibility for a resistance roll not occurring then “no resistance roll” isn’t an appropriate devil’s bargain.
Looking good! I’d love an example or two of your definition of monster to get a feel of the atmosphere you’re creating.
Just WOW!
Going to playtest it within our Blades in the Sigil game group as spin-off. Thanks!
Also if you are interested in Russian translation of the final edition of your hack — it would be pleasure for me to do it.
Dylan Durrant I often use Devils Bargains as things that are simply added to the stakes because I like the “push your luck” nature of it. It won’t break the game. I promise : )
Greg Krywusha Yeah I figured that would be something people would want. I want to encourage people to make their monsters weird and I simply haven’t written up this section yet. Metroid and Alien are the main touchstones here. Look at deep sea creatures and arthropods some of your imagery and abilities.
I’ll give you a couple examples of how I’ve done it at my table. I tend to think of monsters in terms of the hard/soft moves they might take against the players. It’s then up to them to determine what they want to resist.
Both of these are from the White Forest.
Shrieker: Communal arthropods roughly resembling an armored starfish with an eye in the center. They live in hives and stretch lines of adhesive silk to catch prey. When threatened they will latch on to their attacker and begin to emit a high pitched shriek before exploding, sacrificing themselves for the hive.
Dangers: Silk, swarms, exploding
Silk
Soft move: Entangle a limb or weapon in silk
Hard move: Trap you in silk stopping all movement.
Swarms:
Soft move: Retreat to the hive
Hard move: Return with the swarm
Exploding
Soft move: Latch on and begin to glow and shriek
Hard move: Explode like an overpowered light bulb
Razormaw:
This creature lies stationary in safe place. Those who have seen it say it resembles a mass of triangular leaves surrounding a toothy maw. It is known that a type of glowing fly makes its nest among its leaves and acts as a scout of sorts, identifying prey and letting the host who then sends out tendrils to drag the prey off into the dark.
Dangers: Inhuman strength, binding tentacles,
Inhuman Strength:
Soft move: casually knock them aside
Hard move: Drag them away into the dark
Binding Tentacles:
Soft move: disable a limb or steal an item
Hard move: Bind them hand and foot.
Soporific spores:
Soft move: You start to feel drowsy
Hard move: You collapse in slumber
Aleksandr Ermakov Absolutely. I think were a long way from that, but I’m completely down for it!
Beyond that, let me say, please touch base with me when you play the game. I’d really value some insight into your experience. Questions, comments, concerns. Anything.
The feel of this really reminds me of Torchbearer and Darkest Dungeon. That’s a good thing, as I love both of those. Looks great so far! May run this soon during a lull in one of my weekly games. 🙂
Nihzlet Unsurprisingly, those were two of my strongest inspirations. I’m glad that it shows. : )
Dylan Green Very intrigued by your touchstones section. I love fantasy western themes and your description is very enticing. I’m surprised Torchbearer and Darkest Dungeon aren’t mentioned.
Adam Minnie yeah I will readily admit the touchstones section does not give enough credit to enough sources. The truth is it should probably be called “aesthetics” and a list of inspirational material should be placed elsewhere.
I figured a long list of other things you should look at only tells the reader anything if they are familiar with the work in question. I wanted to build a context for how this or that inspired me an how you should use it.
DD and TB need some credit as does Sean Nittner for his amazing crew moves which I totally stole.
I’ll make sure the next version gives propper credit.
Man, I’m just gonna write a whole bunch of stuff here in the order I see it, but first thanks for making and posting this. It was fun to read, even if I probably won’t have time to get it to the table (hardly get to play blades enough as it is).
Camping – mechanic seems cool, sort of like the short rest mechanic in 5E and other systems.
Heat – I don’t mind the change, but then I think the name should change to reflect it. Sounds more like fame or notoriety than heat.
Payoff – Will it always be clear who the target is, and if so will they have tier? If we’re going to raid the Cinder Beehive for some Napalm Honey that we’ll sell to Growers Union, is the target the Cinder Bees, and if so do they have a tier?
I like that Prowl has been split up, because even in standard blades this action seems too generally useful. I don’t necessarily agree with moving Finesse to resolve, but your compromise was to get rid of consort (which I agree has a lot of overlap with sway and is a good candidate for removal), so you didn’t have much choice. Another potential option is to remove Wreck and split it’s functionality between skirmish (busting stuff with a sledge hammer) and tinker (sabotaging shit), and leave finesse where it is. This lets you replace consort with something else if you really want to get rid of it and have other ideas (like if you wanted to have one action for intimidate and one action for inspiring followers).
As a general note I read the setting and got very little out of it because the people names came fast and furious, were hard to pronounce and didn’t mean much to me. I read it again after reading the people entry and things were a little clearer. Maybe their order could be swapped? In general this prose needs work, but since this is an Alpha I’m sure that’s your last concern.
I really liked the people section, you managed to give these various groups of humans personalities that I think would be cool in play.
In the people section you mention the god of debt Malok, and in the group section there is the House of Maloch that seems to be related. I assume one of those spellings is correct.
Maybe I’m a total weirdo (I am), but I really want to know more about licenses and contracts for delving in Agartha. Seems there are at least 3 groups offering contracts, but I doubt they respect contracts made by other groups. What’s in these documents, and who respects them as valid except for the people who issue them?
Can you speak as to why you went with this turn structure mechanic as oppose to how normal blades (and Apocalypse styled games) tend to work where you describe the fictional world and have it change and take actions as appropriate? I’d be curious to see an example of play, but I imagine that will come much later.
Does the equipment listed on your player sheet always come back between scores? If I drop my tower shield in the dungeon so I can carry more treasure out, do I still have access to the tower shield during the next score, or must I buy a new one?
WIDOWMAKER
Looks like Live By the Sword got hit with a nerf, which makes me sad. I assume you changed this because it was too similar to nephilim, but I would have preferred this one stay because I think the widowmaker needed the cool ability more.
How is the hesitation in Eat Iron, Shit Nails different from that in Eastwood? Does it have an in game mechanical effect as well?
WARDEN
As a player, +1 effect doesn’t seem a worthwhile trade to drop from Dominant to Desperate
I’m a fan of the Druid move
We’d discussed this before, but I still think Over the Hills and Far Away needs to specify that the person place or thing needs to be labeled important and in the similar DW move.
I find it odd that your pet counts against your load. Generally they carry themselves, and they might even carry some shit for you.
I wish there was one advance that interacted with the hunting pet in some way, although different from the Hound’s move to better reflect this setting.
CHOSEN
I really like this playbook in general, seems super fun.
With Lay on Hands, what effect does treating wounds have during a score?
Curious what those fine bracers do
COPPERHEAD
Looks like a good playbook that combines the Leech and the Lurk. I’m curious why you decided to roll them into one?
CHIMERA
I love this playbook, the biggest issue I have with it is that it’s significantly cooler than every other playbook. I feel like I have 3 players who would all be fighting to play the Chimera (yes, I know they could all play one, but they generally don’t like to repeat classes). I don’t want you to make the chimera less cool though, just make everything else as cool as this (that’s a tall order).
Do I get a new ability every time I eat the heart of a Cinder Bee, or just the first time I eat the heart of a Cinder Bee?
How do you heal “harm” created by Altered Beast, the same way you heal all the other harms? Can I heal it by eating a persons heart?
TOMB ROBBERS
Because individual coin is worth less in BAD than in regular blades, should the Claims that offer coin give you more than just +1 coin? I realize this is the kind of thing that requires play testing to get right.
Elite Armsmen? Are there different types of cohorts were don’t know about yet?
Anyway, that was a lot of words (I have the best words), too many to go back and edit. This alpha looks great Dylan, in a perfect world I’d play the crap out of it.
Good alpha document! There is a lot to like here. Forgive me for comparing below, but I have been testing a Blades hack like this for adventure things for a couple months, and I can’t help but compare your work to mine due to the similarities in genre and touchstones.
Re: Vault action. I split it off from Prowl in my adventure hack too, but I call it Traverse. As in “difficult terrain, especially water, cliffs, gaps or ledges”. Just a thought.
Re: Consort action. Consort has different connotation than Sway, and useful fiction; disagree with its removal. “What will I do when I go to build rapport with someone: Sway? But I just want to spend time with them so we grow closer”
Re: economy
I don’t like messing with the vanilla balance of Need vs Have that coin, costs, and payoffs in BitD produces. I get that the focus is different for this sort of adventure fiction, but perhaps Torchbearer influence is seeping in Too much. I found Reinterpretation a better route for my table. I will say this: my players didn’t have fun tracking common or cheap items – unless the fiction demanded it. Like, if they couldn’t stop for provisions before heading into the next set of abandoned temples, because murderous tribes, then yes, an extra coin/flashback for things like torches or pitons might become important, but otherwise tracking and paying for it just took away from the fun of what happened inside the place they explored.
Mark Cleveland Massengale So what action did you remove to make room for Traverse?
Generally I have no problem with rolling up sway and consort into one action, just change it’s name to something more broadly applicable and let it do both things. Plenty of actions already do multiple semi related things (finesse, hunt, and wreck for instance).
Well, its hard to say anymore. I kinda ..didn’t? Instead, I’ve redefined pretty much all of the actions, such that ive still got 12 actions, some with the same name, but it’s four sets of three actions that mean similar, but different things.
Ah that makes a little more sense about Sway. I guess i should wait to see how it shapes up.
It’s worth noting at this point that I’m working with a far flung future fantasy/horror/adventure. As such, my set of actions might be of less use for Blades Against Darkness since I am working towards something else. and maybe direct message if you care to know more.
Thanks everyone for the excellent feedback. I’ll ensure the next version takes all of this into account. It’s the last two weeks of my EE program so the next version won’t be for a few weeks at least.
Looks awesome