I GM’d my first game of Blades last Sunday. Two questions:
1. “That guy just stabbed my friend, now I’m gonna paste him” – Our leech is tossing a grenade down a short hallway in the hold of a smugglers ship. What action is most appropriate? Despite the situation being a fight, and had the roll failed I might have had that guy run up and try to cut our unlucky Leech, skirmish didn’t feel right. We settled on wreck, although it felt more appropriate when the character previously threw a smoke bomb. In retrospect I’m thinking maybe finesse would have worked as well.
2. During downtime, if a player’s worst attribute rating is 0, can they recover stress using their vice?
I’d probably rule it either as Wreck or Hunt. The difference being if the character uses Wreck they are tossing the grenade to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible; it may damage the person but it’s not guaranteed to kill him. This is likely a Controlled or Risky position roll.
Hunt on the other hand is all about knowing where your target is and precisely aiming. So if they choose to use Hunt then the grenade will more likely land directly at their feet but it won’t do as much chaos and destruction as a Wreck roll — likely because the target’s body is taking the brunt of the blast. Unlike rolling Wreck it’s harder to Hunt with a grenade so this is likely a Risky or Desperate position.
Lobbing a grenade into a melee from a safe distance sure sounds like Wreck to me, but he could make a case for Finesse if he’s really good with bombs and able to be selective about who gets blown up and not his friends or the hull of the ship. If he’s in the shit with the rest of the team though, it’s probably Skirmish.
To answer the other question, yes if you have 0 then roll 2d6 and take the lowest. Rules for this are in the Rolling Dice section
Ask the player which action he thinks he is using, and then you determine the position and the effect of the roll based on that. The player (and the commenters above) could make the case for a number of different actions, and the implications of the chosen action can affect the roll and its consquences.
Skirmish with a grenade sounds dangerous as skirmish is all about close in fighting. Definitely a desperate roll in the very least, if not also an automatic resist roll.
Mark Griffin That is effectively what we were doing that night. This type of game was a first for all of us and we were particular about the note in best practices about “not being a weasel”. Perhaps too much
I appreciate the insights everybody. Thank you!
Erik O I appreciate that your players took that to heart. The example under don’t be a weasel in the book actually comes from one of my players (fortunately he’s never going to read rules). Sometimes however, multiple things do reasonably apply.
Don’t forget to check if there’s actually an obstacle that’s preventing you from accomplishing your action. If there isn’t any opposition or risk. You just do it.
Good answers, everyone! Thanks for posting your questions, Erik. It’s always good to see the questions new players have.
Erik O Just a quick note on vice. Colin above had the right answer (2d6 take the lowest) but I wanted to remind you and your players of a tidbit that’s important and will probably make vicing a little better or easier.
If you use a Crew Contact or a personal friend when doing downtimes you pick up +1d. So your terribad-probably-get-only-one vice roll has a more reasonable chance by that.
You may already be doing this ^_~ But I always call it out as one of the first things for newbie players, so I figured I’d mention it here. I find it helps incorporate some gang story, and also makes their early downtimes not as painful.