Has anyone run Blades as an open table game?
I organize 2-4 hour tabletop happy hours at a local bar. They’re about an even split off one shots and D&D open table games, a la West Marches or the Alexandrian. I’m considering running an ongoing Blades game…
The Scoundrels would be part of a big, amorphous gang. Every session would be a single score, downtime actions would be handled at the beginning of each session, and maybe I’d introduce some sort of in-gang rank tracking a la rep or faction affinity, but for each Scoundrel.
Has anyone else done something like this? Can anyone see pitfalls I may be missing? Any suggestions on a district to start them in?
This is my solution.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QtJxtygvG33wWTfUt14Z10RxHUIkVbAICznRwwHwt3Y/edit?usp=sharing
Not only do you get some advantage that you would normally get from a crew, but the group of players that’s there in the moment tells you what kind of game they want to play–in character.
Also, you can emphasize elements you want by having them come down from the Crows, and de-emphasize things you want to put off by pointing a group elsewhere. So if Gary has a sub-plot he’s super into, and he misses a week, you don’t have to resolve it without him.
I used Andrews system and a variant of it in my home game, and can confirm it worked rather well and gave me the right blend of detail for a one-shot-esque game.
What you are doing with in-gang rank could be handled in-character (if you respect this character’s leadership, then their command can help you or change your mind, otherwise you don’t benefit from it). If you wanted to enforce a ranking system which benefits return players, maybe just compare stashes and the one with the highest total is considered to “have rank” over the others.
Yep, I ran one for like six months with Blades in the Dark, with the system as normal. It’s perfect for it. Blades has a fictional reason for not doing the whole tedious “and so you meet another random person who joins your group” scene, we just say they’ve always been a member of the crew, they just were in the background of shots until now. I made no modifications and the only issue I ever ran into was having 5-6 players at a single table. This is mainly down to group actions being unbalanced at those numbers.
I’m about to kick off my own open table – have you learned anything from yours?
Hey! So, the biggest thing I’ve learned is that some kind of hack to crews is probably necessary. The one upthread is good, but I didn’t use it. I’m now considering how I should change going forward.
Here’s the issue: my first two open tables had no overlapping players, and the crew generated at the first session had a very…specific…tone. I saw two options: have try to represent the tone of the crew in the absence of the original players (sort of approximating the upthread solution); or start a whole new crew. I went with the latter.
It’s lead to a vibrant and living Doskvol (rumors have been fun and easy), but I also have people who showed up for a crew’s creation and are therefore fundamental to it, but may never show up for another session.
A third effect, which I see as a weak positive, is that in our third session there were members of both crews present, which increased tension in some fun ways.
I’ve kind of been rambling, so let me know how much sense this makes and if you have any questions!