Got to play Scum and Villainy with my Burning Wheel group (+2 more friends). It went great, I’m really liking this hack.
We were a big crew, with a Muscle, Mystic, Pilot, Scoundrel, Speaker and Stitch, so that slowed the start of the session.
We played through the starting situation but with a little tweak: since the crew had +1 status with the Cobalt Syndicate, I felt like cheating if I pulled the rug from them and have their allied faction screw them over their first score, so I took the Nightspeakers (a faction they already had -1 with) and have them setting up a false meeting withe the Syndicate, just to unmask themselves and take the box by force.
It was a blast, we had explosions, pursuit, deals, emergency jumps and debts. Overall, great session!
Whoa. I balanced this for 3-4 people, and haven’t really looked to push the math past that point.
Also, really happy to hear you had exactly what I was hoping the game would do: explosions, pursuit, deals, emergency jumps and debts.
That’s pretty much my ideal game right there Good work with swapping factions in on the fly (I always worry about rigid starts, glad to hear folks are using this very organically) and thanks for writing this up ^_^
Some actual feedback (shoot, this got longer that I thought):
The session ran smoothly, I love the setting in that it takes from really familiar pop-references (my girlfriend was cracking up with the Mass Effect name list), which makes easier for everybody to get in tune with the style of the game.
I like the different Heat mechanics: whereas in BitD the city becomes this claustrophobic experience where you have an enemy around every corner of Doskvol (which is awesome) in S&V you can totally bail on a system to escape consequences… for a time. I can totally see a group planning out their next jump, crossing out systems they have f*cked up already (… which is also awesome).
It was surprising to find no gather info downtime action. I ran it as a short long-term project clock on the fly.
Talking numbers, yeah, most game have problems when dealing with 6+ players (I run an open Stars Without Number table at our local roleplaying club which varies between 8-12 players… which is a mess). I know is not on the system.
I would love to see an alien special ability list on the final game, or even better, a special ability creation guide to come up with playable space-critters (the stress mechanic, dunno, I find it lacking).
Didn’t get Crew Quality during crew creation until we hit the first downtime, which was a shame because the players may had chosen that instead of upgrades (who am I kidding, of course they wouldn’t).
Love the departure from crews being starting factions in the game, something I was already eyeing up for my own hack. After this session, I’m totally stealing that.
Overall, I loved it.
Glad to hear you loved it! 😀
— I’ve had a lot of trouble with Gather Info in Blades. Namely folks get confused like whoa about whether it’s downtime or not downtime. Essentially the only reason to gather info during downtime is to get a small boost. You can just make the fortune roll (as per Free Play) to get the info. You don’t need to waste downtime actions except for the boost (and the boost wasn’t a thing till 7.1). And this is really confusing to new players. It’s the same term for two different things (gather info, and gather info downtime action). Also there was just bad mechanics play, newbies weren’t clear that they could just gather info during jobs and would dump a ton of cash during downtime for extra actions just to answer questions. There was nothing good coming from it.
So we cut it. And it works great. Want to pay someone for good info on something? Acquire Asset: Info. Oh you want to take the time to trail someone and build a case? Ok Long Term Project: Gather dirt on X. Oh you just want to case a joint? Standard Gather Info fortune roll.
No more confusion with newbies, and you don’t really need it for the main game.
— There will never be Xeno specific powers lists. If you want to add it to your game that’s on you, and good luck! But I grew up reading Valerian and lots of Euro Sci-fi. I love vibrant settings with 1000 different peoples in the same marketplace. And pre-written powers are actually limiting. You get folks trying to min-max (there’s a “right” Alien type for a class and a “wrong” Alien type for a class), and you are limited to someone elses imagination (you can only do something someone else specifically encoded).
Also in scifi many aliens come with a dozen caveats. K’o D’Argo from farscape can survive for short times in space, and has a tongue that has knockout saliva, but lives a few years, and blood has to be made to run clear etc. etc. That’s entire lists of powers. It’s way easier to say: Hey any time you do it – if it’s outlandish, it’ll cost some, and if it’s like “breathing underwater” it may cost nothing, talk to your table. That way folks can come up with whatever they want and you don’t even need a full list of things they can do before they start (you can reveal it during play like in most shows when they find out X can survive for brief periods in space or whatnot).
If you’re stuck on it – you may want to write up some preset or suggested lists of things with their costs and see what folks think. If you want to get really crazy you can even offer gambits if their negs come into play in some big way. This is sort of what we expected tables to do when someone decided to go Xeno anyway.
But if you do come up with giant lists for your own table – post em in case others want to run with it ^_^
Yeah, I have the same experience with Gather info, it can get confusing.
I guess that having special abilities/its own playbook for aliens feels a little more “gamey”, and also it reinforces the character niches: a special ability/playbook is who you are in the ship. So yeah, I’m totally down with making a xeno special ability list 😀
We also just played this, and I found it very frustrating there were no default alien species, since the game seems to have a setting built-in. Hard to engage with being a Xeno when you have just on the fly decided you are a Xeno and have not given any thought to how that works, rules-wise.
So Sean, what does “default alien species” mean to you in a setting that’s got a galaxy filled with hundreds of different aliens? What exactly are you looking for? Can you give an example?
Blades shines in providing some broad brush strokes, and letting your table set specifics. It’s really the kind of thing I’m following in the footsteps of.
I agree, coming up with xenos on the fly should be a great player/group activity, and the stress mechanics are good as they are. Special abilities guidelines would be awesome though.
After reading these comments I couldn’t help but to do some of my own. I’m sure most gaming groups can come up with far better things on the spot.
‘DROID
AI Network Connection: you can control the ship at range by spending 1 gambit. You also can attune to share some of the ship’s system upgrades capabilities for 1-4 stress.
Protocol Programming: you can understand and communicate with most sentient races of the Sector. Get +1d or gain potency in social situations by spending 1 stress.
Murderbot: you can always ask “what’s its weak spot” when you study a victim. You get +1d if you follow through that answer.
VAGUELY RACIST MERCHANT ALIEN
Got Just The Thing: you may roll your consort or sway to acquire asset. You may always get a poor quality asset as a free downtime action.
Sure, I Know A Guy: spend 1 gambit to get a new favorite contact on any given planet.
Papers: you get special armor while smuggling goods, presenting forged documents or carrying illegal upgrades. When you resist the consequences of contraband, get +1d.
HOT, BRIGHTLY-COLORED SEXY ALIEN
Mesmerizing: spend 1 stress to direct attention and charm a victim with your beauty. Spend 1 stress for each extra feature: It lasts for more than a moment — The victim doesn’t develop an obsession with you — It affects more than one person.
Close and Personal: you can attune to another person to read their mind when sharing an intimate moment with them.
Really Gets Around: you can spend 1-4 gambits to declare a character as a former lover.
SNOTTY, SUPERIOR RACE ALIEN
Spartan Training: when you lead a group action using your best action-
rating, you can suffer only 1 stress at most from any failed rolls.
Logical: you get special armor while presenting an argument or pushing for control over a situation. When you resist the consequences of being manipulated or convinced, get +1d.
Child of the Precursors: get +1 effect level when you study or doctor a Precursor artifact.
PROUD WARRIOR/BRUTE RACE ALIEN
Mighty: you get potency when fighting or threatening the puny species that populate civilized space.
Resilient: you get special armor while enduring though hostile environments. When you resist the hazardous effects of your surroundings, get +1d.
Top of the Food Chain: you get +1 effect level when trying to capture, tame or train savage beasts and alien monsters.
I have “Science and Strange Things” 3 pages to write up for 1.6. Some Xeno power cost guidelines might make the list.
Awesome.
That would be a great start. Also, maybe some touchstones on what a precursor artifact should be? I am playing the Mystic, and I was really having trouble thinking of something interesting for the precursor artifact on the playbook sheet.
Prothean artifacts in Mass Effect? The monolith in Space Odyssey? Space Jockeys in Alien?
I have a copy of Mass Effect which I still need to play. The Monolith from Odyssey 1 creates life, which seems overpowered.I admit to not being very familiar with the Alien canon.
FYI: There’s no Gather Info downtime action in v8 of core Blades. So hooray!
Well, that’s gonna be weird 😀 Any previews before my game tomorrow? (pleeeaaaseeee!?)
You can still gather info as normal in downtime, it just doesn’t cost a downtime activity to do that.
If you need to do a bigger investigation, then do that as a normal long-term project.