So, I’m going to GM Blades tomorrow and unlike my disastrous first attempt (where I was asked to GM Blades on the fly with the first version) I actually feel prepared now. Unless something else strikes me after Character/Guild creation I’m going to go with the Crow’s Foot situation.
So I wondered if you folks have any tips and tricks, not explicitly stated in the book or any suggestions about things I that’s vital to remember while GM’ing Blades int he Dark. (I do have some experience with GM’ing ApW/DW, although I don’t feel I do it gracefully yet).
Vital things to remember:
1.) The game is narrative driven, don’t waste time with overcomplicated dice rolls or rolling dice for mundane tasks
2.) Let the PC decide what dice pool he/she rolls. Rather than them saying “I want to unlock the door” and you responding “roll me tinker”, respond instead with “how do you unlock the door?” And let them decide the way in which they do it (tinker, Wreck, finesse, sway etc).
3.) Plan little, leave the session open to what the pcs want their characters to do. Don’t plan out an entire heist only for your group to say “should we run a bar?” Or “should we beat up that guy that looked at you funny?”. Let them choose what they do, and work on the fly (using clocks where necessary to illustrate obsticals)
4.) Don’t dictate the narrative, let the pcs have some of the input (within reason) with you having the final say. If they say “is there chains hanging from the ceiling that I could use?” And it fits with the setting, say yes. Chances are that they want to do something cool with it and it builds up a more vivid scene in the players’ minds.
You probably knew most of this already, just my list of things that I keep in mind 😛
Keep clocks abstract and general. One for when the bluecoats (or spirit wardens if they kill someone off the bat) arriving. Maybe one for a gang, and maybe one for reinforcements. ticking clocks on a 4-5 result is a good way to keep things moving.
If its your first session, give the group 1 round of downtime actions, so they get use to the dice. Treat them like downtime actions where low rolls just give poor information, instead of further complication. Get to a plan and detail and go with the engagement roll. It’ll probably go poorly but that’s when I would talk about flashbacks.
I would stick with standard effect for the first session. Unless you really want to get gritty with it. When they approach an obstacle describe the situation and the possible danger. This makes adjucating rolls easier. When they succeed describe how they overcome but then run into another problem.
As an example, lets say there is a 4-segment clock called vault security. The first obstacle might be how there is a reinforced door blocking the way into the vault room. They roll a 4-5, so mark a tick on reinforcements/bluecoats, but they get pass the door. They’re in but there’s still 2 segments left. Once inside the chamber, describe how they’re ambushed by a thug.
The idea being, the clock keeps generating dangers, until the crew put forth enough effort to wipe it out.
Stay loose: players will always surprise you with their input, so it’s important you don’t spend long thinking about what may be. Spend prep time focusing on what Is: the motivations and character of the important NPCs and factions in the starting scenario. Expand your knowledge as they do, or create it together (ask your players for input on intrigues they imagine are going on in their favor or against them, for example).
Let the players guide you: Resist the urge to immediately ask “What’s the plan” without letting them really talk about their stakes in the narrative of being caught up in the starting situation. After the character introductions, I may remind them that I don’t know their motivations, and ask them for those. Then I let their first score flow from that.
Act as a buffer to the downtime/planning process: Let the conversation inform when a plan is being made, and ask them their intent to see if you understand the plan/detail already. If they do, tell them “Great” and clarify the situation before moving quickly to the engagement roll (“Let’s do that!”). If they don’t, tell them what their characters should know, or how to get it (downtime actions like Gather Info).
Talk about it: Discuss the factors you consider important to a roll (especially engagement rolls), and ask if others would agree with your assessment. Players will appreciate being at the center of this conversation, and this lets everyone clarify fiction as needed (and this is honestly the best time to clear things up anyways – before the dice hit the table).
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Thanks for some great answers guys, will try to keep plans loose. My current starting plan is for them get the mission to undermine one of the Red Sashes’ turfs in Crows Foot and then play it fast and loose from there.
So we managed to create characters, find out which factions the characters were friendly with/had pissed off, and ran a short heist. Well, we managed show the system, but both the playstyle and the GMstyle takes some getting used to. I mean, I DM Dungeon World OK, not great but still manage to get it flowing. I feel Blades takes it up a notch or two from DW. I had printed out several copies of pages 22-34 so gave my players (and myself) homework. So when we play again tomorrow, I hope we’re more on the same page. 🙂
It’s a good point; GMing this game is very different from games like the Dungeon World and _ World games. They are very different from Blades in terms of GMing likely because of a much lower reliance on narrative mechanics (or just, a different framing process for those). I have spent a lot of time thinking about this and I think it comes down to a major difference in when you are setting risks in Blades. I found the skills which help me GM in _ World are only transferrable to Blades when pressed through a very special filter. And in fact, some are complete useless here.
Surprise surprise, when I review p.32 (GM Actions) I notice when we are directed to make our moves is vastly different way from _ World games, and the things we are told to do are different as well. Instead of “on a low roll” it’s before those rolls. As a previous GM of DW and AW, I found this section was very helpful, and might point you closer to where you should spend time honing your performance as a GM of this game rather than _ World games (while sharing some of the same ideas, they are quite different).
Yeah, learning that while Blades has the principle of “the conversation” like the PbtA games, it’s a different conversation than Apocalypse World and its likes. The same thing about the rest of the methodology (Player Actions/GM moves) etc. It seems quite similar to Apocalypse World, superficially, but when you scratch the surface it’s quite different. That said, I think contrary to the *world games, it seems that Blades had enough meat on the system that one of my trad players really liked the system.
I’ve mostly GM’ed and played Fate lately, with my ordinary group and I think we all have to unlearn Fate for the moment and try to get into Blades’ playstyle. It’s the old story, I GM Blades, because I want to play it, but I also wanted to introduce my players to it, because it looks awesome. I really like the group sheet and the faction sheet. It seems like it’s hackable to any type of game where political positioning is important. I had a visit from a friend that I occasionally play with on saturday and he currently plays Blades. After talking about our frustrations with Ars Magica, we fantasized that a Blades hack would do the job better. (I love Ars Magica but playing it I agree with Vincent Bakers Venn diagram (Playing Ars Magica and having fun)(Playing Ars Magica by the rules))
Had a session yesterday and this time it went better. While I was eating a gourmet meal of frozen pizza, the others studied the pages the homework I had assigned them. One of the players couldn’t make it so it was just three players.
Tonight’s heist was against the Fog Hounds who held a gambling den owner’s daughter hostage who they would rescue for a cut of the income (claim: gambling den). They were tipped off by their contact in the Red Sashes (who they’re friendly with). I let the Hound tell me about how he got information on the district the Fog Hounds held the daughter, then we cut to the action.
We had a couple of nice Devils Bargains. The first was when they tried to enter from the roof and encountered a sentry with a torch. The Lurk backstabbed him and the devils bargain was that the torch set fire to the dry leafs in the drainage (and to the roof). Now that I think about it, I should have set a clock for the roof to cave in. They came down into the first floor and heard voices below. The Hound had overwatch on the stairs, The Leech was trying to lockpick the padlocked door and the Lurk search the bedrooms and office. I set a clock for the lockpicking and one for the guards discovery of the characters.The Hound had changed from pistols to throwing knifes, but managed to miss the Fog Hound who started going up the stairs. I said “The Fog Hounds gun goes of and the bullet shatters your shoulder. What do you do”? The poor Hound had to take a couple of resistance roll before he managed to finish of the storming guards.
They managed to get the turf, not without some heat, but we’ll see next time if they manage to hold onto it.
All in all I think we were all better prepared and managed to get a better feel for how Blades should be played. The rules flowed better, even now its mostly risky situation and standard effect, but we’ll branch out when we are comfortable The players said I could have been even harder on them, but we’ll see next time. They started out as unfriendly with the Fog Honds, and now they stole a claim from them? This means war. 🙂
Sounds like it went great to me 🙂
Gang wars are pretty tough on the players btw, but my table had a lot of fun with that