Looks like I’m officially running Blades at PAXEast for Indie Games on Demand. My time slots are Friday 11-1 and Saturday 1-3. It’s gonna be tight to do rules and a decent chunk of game in that time frame, so I’m probably going to fully generate characters and cut out some of the more complicated systems.
Technically I’m offering Blades and Dungeon World during my slots, so it’s possible that the groups will choose DW and I’ll be sad (even though DW is great and I love it!).
Anybody have the link to Andrew Shield’s quick setup doc that replaces crews? Andrew Shields where are you?
The link is pinned on the Community’s homepage. I did pre-gen characters for my last one-shot at a Con: I just left the special ability blank – worked pretty well
Ah yes, thanks for the heads up.
See, I think that special ability is the last thing I’d want to leave blank. That’s the most text heavy part of the sheet, and players reading each of those (or even worse, me explaining them all) will take too much time. Also a number of the abilities will interact with systems I won’t be mentioning, the biggest example being +1 effect. After my very first game of Blades, I no longer introduce players to the concept of effect until game 2 or 3. Position is enough for them to chew on in a single 2 hour session.
Blades isn’t super one-shot friendly, but it can be done.
I don’t do crew creation or deal with crew stuff at all (except to mention it: “You’re a crew of thieves.”)
I do character creation in a 4-hour slot. In a 2-hour slot, pregens are a good idea.
Don’t explain the rules up front. Just give an overview of the game (“You’re scoundrels in a haunted city who are going to pull off a criminal score”) and briefly describe the characters so they can choose.
Start the game. Introduce your score (maybe use Sean Nittner’s one-shot sheets, like Gaddoc Station). Ask them for a plan type and detail, then get to the engagement roll and the beginning of the action. Try to spend 5 minutes on this part, at most.
When it’s time to make a roll, ask them what action they use, tell them the position, and demonstrate the roll.
Ask them to burn some stress for a bonus die. It’s a one-shot, so they can go nuts with stress spending.
Mention effect if it comes up (“This is a ghost, so your weapons won’t have much effect against it. Can someone do a setup action that will help you hurt it better?”)
Play through the score, maybe talk about downtime briefly, and you’re done.
Anybody got a link to gaddoc rail station? All I have is my phone and I’m failing at googe
I let you down guys. Despite talking up Blades every chance I could, I ended up only running Dungeon World. Ultimately the choice belongs to the players. I did see another GM at PAX East had Blades on his schedule, but I don’t know if he ever got to run it or not.
On the plus side, I hadn’t run DW in over a year, and it reminded me how much fun it is.
No worries, Mark! I hope you had fun with DW. 🙂
Thanks John, I did. However I’m more excited to be playing Blades again this Friday with my cult crew. It’s been awhile since our last game, but I’m curious what the whisper player does with the trauma she received at the end of last session after tangling with the demon Setara while traveling through a ghost door.