Please somebody make a hack where you don’t start with any action dots. I would play the fuck out of that. You have to
I mention it because I’m toying with starting my playbooks off with 1 dot in two different actions this week, instead of 2 in one action and 1 in another action.
Funnel in the Dark?
Pretty much 😛
I’m considering a hack where characters only have two stats, paired with increasingly unlockable Lady Blackbird-like tags that then serve as flexible “dots.” All the existing BitD actions are all unlocked tags you can take, but so is specialization in gear/weapon types, or contexts for action. Each tag grants only 1 dot and players are free to specialize their PCs however they wish with the unlocked tag options.
This hack has more frequent PC death, hence players have more of a stable of characters and super simple method of creating starters that are defined through play and specialty selection. Playbook abilities then apply to all PCs a player may ever have in their stable.
Adam Minnie One of the first playtest forms of Blades had Lady Blackbird tags. They faded away from the core as the game developed, but I still think it’s a solid idea. Here’s one of the old sheets with the tags:
http://onesevendesign.com/blades/old_blades_v1.pdf
One sentence is incomplete, but I would guess you were going to say: they have to earn the dots in play
Is the funnel story (many characters being dwindled down through a meat grinder) the Thing you want? or is it more the detailed story around each dot?
John Harper Awesome! I think I’ve actually seen that sheet before. I was somehow feeling that the idea was somewhat “John Harper canon” in some way. I’m mostly seeing what sorts of design fun are possible by interchanging parts of your various games (Blackbird, The Regiment, Ghost Lines) as well as bits from some BitD hacks within a mostly Blades-core crew-and-playbook-based chassis and resolution engine.
I’m having a blast, and trying hard to see how little can be changed at a time to various effects in play. Nothing testable yet, but maybe next week.
I’m excited to see what you make!