Dont you (GM-)guys have a problem with dealing harm all the time?
We had a awesome session last night, but in mid-game I changed the rule to one level of harm less than stated in the book. This was because every action brings consequences meaning mostly harm during combat, which means resistance which means stress. Harm means less dice which means worst results which means more harm, more stress.
Yes, we don’t have 6es in every roll, so this is very frequent. After 3-5 actions the players were stressed out on the edge of Trauma which lots of harm, too.
We came to a point where the playses just dont wanted to act anymore to avoid bad consequences.
Don’t get me wrong: Dealing harm is ok/cool, esp. in combat, but the level of harm seems a bit to harsh for me.
This is not making the best of a bad situation but more a full party wipe when more and more PCs are out because of trauma.
How do you guys handle that issue?
You don’t have to give away harm every roll.
“A given circumstance might result in one, two, or even three consequences, depending on the situation.”
Just don’t give away so much harm.
Yes, not every roll needs to result in harm. They could end up in a dangerous situation as a result, dangling over a precipice, knocked off the boat into the sea, separated from the rest of the group.
That said, full out brawling continuously is probably going to get a little dicey over a prolonged period of time. Are your players remembering to use their armour? That gives an additional round of protection or two, but perhaps in those situations, they might need to consider a withdrawal and a new strategy playing to better strengths.
Why are they in combat? I totally agree that harm should be a frequent consequence of combat, but why don’t they avoid it?
Even if they’re a crew of bruisers or assassins, they should avoid “fair fights”…
Obviously it can create stress too, but remind them the idea of flashbacks is to retcon exactly the kind of prep that either reduces harm directly (“we stationed haywains outside every tower window for a soft landing'”), avoid fights entirely or give them a significant advantage (which you could then remove as an alternative to dishing out harm).
If they’re not Desperate yet, I like to escalate the positioning before I throw harm at them. And although I narrate some pretty nasty harm (level 3 or 4 is where I start), I’m super quick to lower that for nearly any resistance roll. Plus they have armor, thieves’ rigging (so it’s easier for them to say they have heavy armor too), and a Spider with Foresight and Mastermind. They hardly ever split up and so the Cutter and Hound, each of whom roll 4d to resist with prowess, often take the hits as well using teamwork.
They are some beefy, beefy thieves.
If my rogues choose combat as a first course of action I wouldn’t be shy about trowelling on the harm. Fighting is dangerous and you get stabbed. If they are doing things like leaping from rooftops onto moving carriages and they fall off, then maybe they should reconsider leaping from rooftops onto carriages all the time.
To me, Blades shines when it comes to giving the players tools to whip up non-lateral thinking and support it with previously taken action. There are piles of supernatural options that are explicit, and piles more that can be hazily worked out at the table as desired.
So if they are getting physically battered, poisoned, mauled by animals, and so forth all the time, then they really need to be smarter about how they get what they want. A little more finesse, a little more deception, a little more forethought, and they can slide around those obstacles without a confrontation.
If they can’t do that, then yeah, I think it’s fine for them to get wrecked and have to heal up.
Thanks everybody for answers and ideas. Really helpful!
Duamn Figueroa I was inspired by the Bloodletters and John deals out harm as if there is nothing else 🙂 Maybe this was a bit over the top.
Craig Payne Yes, armor was an issue. Had that fixed now. Going to desperate by default feels a bit cheesy. Hard to stay in fiction, too if it’s “ok, as usual you end up in a desperate position” Will try that more often, though.
Michael Esperum I already suggested “Prowl-o-rama” as the crews name, so they are already sneaky, sneaky, sneaky, but if you snatch a boy from a cult during a ritual in full swing its only a matter of time when the pistols come out. And yeah, “fair fights” are for losers, right 🙂
Dan Voyce Good point about flashbacks. My players love them so I will try that in the next session to avoid harm.
Adam Schwaninger Sounds good. The group had the problem that they burned a lot of stress to find the boy. I expected they would do a lot of foodwork to find him, but they pulled a cool flashback and were after him right away. So, no stress left for restistance at all. They just didn’t want the trauma (classic old school players…). Thank god they have a spider in the group, will check your hints. Thanks
Andrew Shields 🙂 I think my PCs are dead before they take that learning curve. Maybe I read your post to them next time and see how they react 🙂
Thanks for the input.
You can go Die Hard, you just have to understand that risk/reward. It’s very, very tempting to attempt stupid stupid shit because you know all you need is a 6. 🙂
You know, a temporary measure that may work for you is to acquaint your crew with an apothecary or leech.
Design some field medicine for them. A corset that will keep their guts in and reduce the penalty for torso damage. An elixer that burns out some of their nerve endings, dulling the pain to get them functional again. Maybe even an amulet with a spirit in it that is compelled to possess the body if they lose consciousness, and run to safety with it. Give someone a vampiric knife that heals cuts on the wielder if they inflict similar cuts on a victim.
You can make all kinds of magic to mitigate damage, and then during down time, all sorts of medicinal tomfoolry to accelerate their healing projects.
Mmmmh, some things I learned GMing BitD and dispensing consequences:
Break it down:
The thug headbutts you and goes all up on your face, you cannot use your sword cane in close quarters
He sounds the alarm, it’s fight or flight.
She locks you on a choke hold. You can still hit her, but for far less damage
Go Macro:
You shank him in the eye, there’s no way you can pull that out before reinforcements arrive
She’s better than you thought, as you land the final blow the clocktower strikes twelve, your companions are on the move an you still on this damned bridge
It’s a mess, 5 bodies lying around you. You’re in no shape to infiltrate the museum bloodstained like this.
Introduce Clocks!
The ghost is filling your lungs with its plasmic hands, start a three segmented clock, if you don’t defeat before I fill it out, get asphyxiating as a level 3 harm
Clock, reinforcements come in 4 segments
_That dam shadow beast threw you around like a ragdoll, its defenitely going to hurt in the morning. Start a 3 segment clock, when I fill it up get everything hurts as a level 2 harm, you may erase segments using rage essence vials.
I think my players just use dice that have like three 6s on them. It’s hard to get hurt when you never fail. I suggest your players look into cheating.
Stefan Struck “John deals out harm as if there was nothing else” What Bloodletters have YOU been watching?
You should re-watch the initial red sashes fight Blaze. We drink damage like water (I think it took me 4 sessions to recover from that scrap).
We did get thrown damage during the red-sash takedown, but planning, handfuls of coins, armor and a bunch of sixes mostly mitigated that.
Some solid advice here about lateral thinking though. Don’t go toe-to-toe if you can collapse ceilings, leave traps, or use wreck to find alternate routes. Fights are ugly things, and it’s best if you’re fighting on your terms.