Game Structure

Game Structure

Game Structure

Here’s a preview from the book regarding game structure. This is something that a lot of you have given feedback on, so I thought you might like to see how the general overview looks. Of course, I go into more detail for each phase further on, but hopefully this is a good starter to set the right expectations.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Y3ZE1Ar-fDVEVuUzNFSXB5YzA/view?usp=sharing

30 thoughts on “Game Structure”

  1. This has been what my game has equalized to over time, though I usually …. encourage free play to be directed towards a score of some sort.

    I guess my one question/thought about this (which is awesome overall) is that the size of the `Free Play’ ink splot is larger than any other phase – where as I never found that to be the focus of Blades play. (This is probably due in equal parts between my own style preference and the emphasis on describing scores/downtime in the QS guides in detail while not really focusing on ‘Free play’ a great deal ( similar to how some systems focus a lot of text on combat, but not ‘free play’))

    Thanks for the teaser!

  2. Yeah, Ben… maybe the size of the Free Play area is sending the wrong message. It’s not more time, really… more like more freedom of options? I’ll think about trimming the size down a bit.

  4. Eric Vulgaris i liked the take away from the last bloodletters game of “it’s the rp bullshit” which isn’t actually derogatory. Like take several episodes back when Arcy in a drunken stupor went to her husband’s house to relieve stress but it turned into nearly an hour long rp session including non vice related fall out. That’s all “rp bullshit” or “free play” but it isn’t a score or even related to a score. There was no planning or payoff or direct heat stuff. It was just the stuff the characters would do between scores. Sometimes it’s a mini score sometimes it’s just their lives. And you probably don’t wanna extend free play all the way to mundane things like buying groceries, but maybe look at it as it’s the space the characters breathe in between jobs. That’s my take away anyways. Both of the games I’ve seen John GM support the idea to me at least.

  5. Yeah, Chris, that’s a good explanation of how I do it.

    Eric Vulgaris You could think of free play that way, but it’s not necessary to be so strict. I decided to give it its own name as a way to give players permission for “rp bullshit.” I’ve seen a few people really struggle with a too-strict reading of the score > downtime > score structure, so I wanted to shine a spotlight on the idea that there’s still free play in Blades.

  7. I’ve actually been doing a free play phase in my games without really realizing it, specifically because the score -> downtime -> score format did indeed feel too strict. Great to see my line of thought has been on the right track. 🙂

  8. The diagram reads like it goes counter-clockwise to me. Probably because there’s no arrows? The word balloon shape sort of makes it look like you’re supposed to go from free play to downtime and then work back up.

  9. John Harper My group was one of the ones going from score > downtime > score without adequate rp bullshit. I’m glad you’re taking steps to reduce that interpretation of the book. Thanks!

  11. John Harper If “Gather Information” is a free play activity, what’s the point of wasting a downtime action to gather information? Won’t the result be the same, just without losing an action for downtime?

  12. Antimatter  you get +1 effect in downtime for gather info, and can add +1d when you use contacts. This is disregarding any benefit from crew/playbook abilities or it being a hunting ground. Additionally, no consequences for the roll in downtime. (I believe… )

  13. Very neat. I reckon downtime and freeplay phases overlap much more than the diagram shows. Listening to your Rollplay and Bloodletters series, downtime and freeplay interwine all the time. Downtime can be much drier and more procedural, but I think the ‘return to freeplay’ in Downtime bubble really undersells how magic the peanut and jelly combo can be.

  14. Antimatter Gathering info in downtime is different… different enough that I’m changing the name of that downtime activity to “Investigate” just to avoid confusion like this.

  15. John Harper I honestly find it somewhat confusing…

    Shouldn’t “roleplaying scenes” be floating around regardless of the phase?

    Also, isn’t Free play kinda concurrent with Downtime (except for the choose target/plan part)?

  18. Echoing what a few others have said, to my mind, Free Play and Downtime are intertwined, and it feels a bit off to formally separate them into discrete phases carried out in a particular order. Downtime is when you rest, recuperate, plot, plan and recon. Sometimes you do this with formal Downtime Actions. Sometimes you make Fortune or Action rolls, possibly a series of them. Sometimes you just talk it out.

    I do think it’s worth making it clear that you can do things during Downtime that aren’t formal Downtime Actions — something that I felt was inferred in places, but never explicitly stated.

    On the other hand, I’ve known about the existence of Blades for about two weeks and have no actual play experience whatsoever, so I may have no idea what I’m on about. 😉

  22. Antimatter No; The difference is that you don’t get consequences, that you automatically get +1 effect, AND those two things you mentioned.

    Also, John, I agree with Ben Wright that the size of the “Free play” circle was sortof confusing, and I also took away the idea that it was supposed to somehow be the “largest part” of the game. My game, probably like Blaze Azelski doesn’t feature that much free play. Most of the action is centered around scores, probably due to my inferences from earlier versions of the rules.

  23. I liked it. It helps to prevent the misunderstanding that BitD is a game of just making jobs. It is possible that you can interpret this guide as that there is this free play and all the rest is rigidly structured, which is not the case. Probably some tendrils from free play could go to other parts as well to illustrate this?

  24. Mike Pureka Where does the +1 effect come from? I can’t find it in my copy of the rules (V7.1). Also, surely if you gather info in a risky way, such as eavesdropping or beating someone, then there would be consequences to the roll.

  26. Antimatter

    I’m pretty sure that Downtime rolls don’t have consequences.  The only consequence you can get on a downtime gather info is “The info isn’t very good.”

  28. +Mike Pureka I think the rules allow for risky Downtime rolls, though it’s a little ambiguous. The section on Gathering Information, Version 7.1 page 15, could be read either as saying Downtime rolls are always at your leisure or that sometimes they are and sometimes there’s an obstacle.

    When you want to know something specific about the fictional world, your character can gather information. The GM will ask you how your character gathers the info (or how they learned it in the past). If it’s common knowledge, the GM will simply answer your questions. If there’s an obstacle to the discovery of the answer, an action roll is called for. If there’s no obstacle (or you do it at your leisure during downtime) a simple fortune roll determines the quality of the information you gather. When a gather info roll is made during downtime, the player gets a +1d bonus when a friend or contact is involved, and may spend coin to boost the result level of their roll.

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