I ran 6 hours of Blades in the Dark today.
I ran 6 hours of Blades in the Dark today. The first session was for 4 people. One had played at my Blades in the Dark game before at a game day. Two were experienced players who never played Blades in the Dark. One was a board gamer trying out role playing games.
We had a good time. I got my players in three waves, so that complicated character generation, but we took the time and worked it out. Then I walked them through the gang questions and gave them my abbreviated rules summary, and we got started.
After the heist, during the lunch break, I talked to one of the experienced gamers who was new to this game. She said the premise made them sound like cool characters, as did the special abilities, but she found it frustrating (echoing the frustration of the table) how difficult it was to get successes without feeling hobbled by the complications. It felt like the characters just weren’t good at their jobs.
OKAY, the LAST thing I need is to get clobbered with the discussion of “we like it dirty and hard and our characters screwed up bad and the game is pointless without constant complications” line of reasoning. I’ve heard it over and over and I know it by heart. I can say that I soft-pedal the game with new people and one shots and STILL get consistent feedback that while they like the game overall, new players often struggle at the incompetence of their characters.
I will also note I allowed them to get all the bonus dice they paid for, instead of limiting it to just one. If they got support from another character’s stress, and also a devil’s bargain, and also spent stress for a die, I let them have all three. And I offered devil’s bargains that weren’t absolutely wrenching all the time. And the new players were still struggling with the sense that their characters were incompetent. It’s easy for four dice to come up with a high number of 2. And no, I could not care less for your statistical projections–this is how it plays out, on a frequent basis, whether it should or not.
PLEASE DON’T ARGUE WITH MY PLAYERS’ FEEDBACK BY PROXY. I am not them and I’ve already had every flavor of this conversation I care to. If you disagree with them it’s fine to note that in the privacy of your head and move on. The game isn’t going to change, so you will get it the way you like it.
ANYWAY.
The players had so much fun all four came back for the afternoon session, plus a new one. One of my players enthusiastically took on the task of helping the new guy make a character. We picked up where we left off, turning a complication on an acquisition flashback roll (protect a vendor’s daughter, some guy is stalking her) into the focus for the heist.
After that, we did another heist inspired by previous events of the day. They spun one heist into 3 separate parts of the plan, and I dialed the scope way out so we used a combination of rolls, expenditures of stress, snips of conversation, and delegation to gangs to take care of business up to the climactic final step. We were totally outside the heist/down time structure.
Part of the reason for this was because we were playing gangs instead of making a crew. So, downtime basically clears injuries and stress and hurls them back into action.
They tried out 3 of the gang types, and all 3 underbosses, but stuck with the same gang of aristocratic rooks because they loved Rusty and his ne’er do wells and were reluctant to give them up.
And the goat humor. So much goat humor. In part because one character set a wagon on fire and rolled it down the hill, crushing a blue coat and smashing the finest Red Sash carriage, setting the hindquarters of two of the regal goats on fire, so they went berserk. In a previous heist I invented “goat-amp” which is smelling salts for goats, administered at the end of a stick to prevent immediate death from startled and angry goat. The gang of rooks experimented with drinking some flakes in wine and were sick for a week.
As they were escaping the flaming wagon heist, one of the players offered a devil’s bargain; if there is a complication, it will be related to a flaming goat. The player took that bargain, attempting to escape the bluecoats. So, according to a flashback, they hired an organ grinder to put fireworks in his rig so he could stage a distraction as they were escaping. The noise triggered the goat’s fighting instinct where it hid in the alley, and it rushed out, singed hindquarters and all, and leaped at the character (who resisted getting hit.) The goat fell into the canal and made hysterical noises, however briefly, as they escaped.
My players had a good time visiting the city and playing with the flashbacks and flavor of the game. It was a great experience overall, and I think they’ll think of Blades in the Dark as a fun game in the future. I got to do some experimental things structure wise (unfurling a 3 part adventure over the course of just over an hour is pretty intense if you drive the pace as the players try to reach consensus on next steps while managing different agendas and capacities.)
Blades in the Dark is still great!
