Ran my first session of Blades last night over Roll20! It went super well.
More time was spent on Character and Crew Creation than I thought it would be, because my player’s had really cool ideas for characters and had to spend some time getting their heads around the rules. But we still got to the start of our first score and did the engagement roll and everything.
The characters are as follows:
Clave “Cleave” Skelkallan: Cutter, son of Skovlan refugees, born and raised in Doskvol. Used to be a Bluecoat, but got let go for unseemly behaviour on the job (he took Not To Be Trifled With as his special ability, so we figured his propensity to hulk out is what lost him his job). His Vice is getting the shit kicked out of him in the fighting pits.
Arthur “Coil” Nightingale: Leech, former academic from Imperial City, come to Doskvol to start a new life. He’s got some controversial opinions about natural philosophy, which has put him in conflict with some of the more academic factions of the city, most notably the Sparkwrights. His Vice is hobnobbing with the elite in the fancy clubs and restaurants of the city. The special ability he took was Ghost Ward – his player is very excited about being a Ghostbuster.
Therren Telvar: Hound, from Severos. He was part of a nomadic tribe that roamed the Deathlands, but they’re all gone now and he’s come to Doskvol because he’s out of options. Appropriately, he picked Survivor as his special ability. His Vice is drugs, probably Spark, but I don’t think he settled on that.
They decided to be a crew of Shadows, specializing in burglary. They picked Daring as their reputation, the idea being that they are going to be known for pulling off crazy heists. Second Story was their special ability, and for upgrades they took Underground Maps and Passkeys and a Workshop (for the Leech). They picked the Docks as their Hunting Grounds and I used that to tie them into the starting situation, giving them negative status with the Red Sashes, who didn’t appreciate them horning in on their turf.
Actual play started in Baszo’s office. Fitz, the crew’s contact, goes way back with Baszo and so he brought the crew in for the job Baszo most needed doing: steal the Red Sashes war treasury. Apparently, the Lampblacks had discovered that the Iruvian Consulate was keeping the treasury safe for the Sashes and so Baszo needed somebody to take it out. The crew agreed. (I used such a big target specifically because they had picked the Daring rep. Otherwise, I might have gone with a simple safe house, but they really seemed in a go big or go home mood.)
They quickly came up with a plan to get Arthur into the embassy and have him start a fire so that Cleave and Therren could use the opportunity to sneak in through the basement (making use of their underground maps). Arthur reached out to a friend from Imperial City who worked as a clerk at the Imperial Consulate and invited himself over for tea. He rolled Consort and failed, so I made the situation Desperate: turns out, this friendship really wasn’t that close and the clerk rushed Arthur out. So he ran to the bathroom and shoved some Fire Oil into a a stack of papers on the way, rolling 5 on a Desperate Wreck. The fire was started, but the panic occurred too quickly: now Arthur’s stuck in the mob with no easy way out of the building!
Then we moved to the Engagement roll and the Crew nailed it with a 6! So Therren and Cleave got in through the basement, no problem and found the corridors completely empty, as everyone rushed upstairs to leave the building. That’s where we ended the session and next time will probably start with them trying to find the war chest.
Overall, I was ecstatic with how things went and I think the players were happy too. I think they characters they picked were awesome and I’m especially happy that they seem so willing to throw themselves into danger. We played Dungeon World before this and while it was fun, people felt a bit cautious, so I think it’s a testament to the design of Blades that they jumped in head first.
As for myself, I think I need to move a bit more slowly – I was rushing at the end because I wanted to get to the engagement roll before we ran out of time. Next time, I’ll make sure to describe things more deliberately so everyone’s clear on what’s happening.