March 2017 – Page 27 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Makin’ another crew. :)

Makin’ another crew. 🙂

Makin’ another crew. 🙂

Did anybody miss out on the Special Edition?

Did anybody miss out on the Special Edition? If so, we grabbed an extra and would love to gift it to somebody who wasn’t able to get it. Why? Cuz this community fucking rocks and spreading goodwill is awesome. 🙂

I was doing some math on AnyDice, and from what I gathered, it looks like a character in BitD “decays” over time, to…

I was doing some math on AnyDice, and from what I gathered, it looks like a character in BitD “decays” over time, to the point where, at some point during play, death becomes unavoidable. Play a Blade long enough, eventually they will run out of Trauma.

For example, looking at the rules, I found that on average, a starting character will recover (on average) 3.5 stress from indulging their Vice. I also found that, on average, a given character will take 1.5 stress when rolling 2 dice to resist a consequence. Taken together, it means that a character could resist a maximum of 2 consequences (again, on average) before the average amount of punishment they take outpaces the recovery they get back.

Furthermore, there are no hard stress clears, the only way to clear all your stress is Trauma. So, unless you resist on average only 2 consequences, eventually, your stress track will fill, and you will take Trauma, and after you take 4 Trauma, your character is off the board.

Thanks to Jakob the new character sheet is now live and official for Roll20 – available to all users!

Thanks to Jakob the new character sheet is now live and official for Roll20 – available to all users! If you were running a game with the old sheet, you’ll have to manually switch over under game settings.

Note that the new sheet uses different attribute names to both the old sheet and the github version of my sheet, so if you used either of those you’ll want to make a copy of your game before you switch over. A lot of the data won’t automatically repopulate on the new sheet. You’ll need to spend a few minutes copy-pasting information into the new sheet, but it’s a one-off job.

John Harper Question about Not to be Trifled With, and Sharpshooter.

How long are these types of abilities supposed to last once activated?

It seems inferred that it only occurs when the player pushed themselves meaning for any given roll where it would be applicable the player would have to pay the 2 stress cost to get the benefit.

However it also seems likely it could be a grammar wording error and the ability is supposed to last for up to the entire scene.

Or is it something in between?

Today is the last day to pre-order the special edition!

Today is the last day to pre-order the special edition!

We closed down the BackerKit last night and just realized that we never announced we were going to do that in this group! Many apologies!

To make it up, we’re re-opening the pre-orders for just one day. If you’d like to get the special edition of Blades in the Dark (with an amazing not-for-retail cover and the U’Duasha content) you can get it here until midnight tonight!

https://bladesinthedark.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

After that the standard edition hardcover will be available online and in retail stores once the book is printed!

https://bladesinthedark.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Sean Nittner I tried to preorder my special edition, but get the message “Preorders are disabled”.

Sean Nittner I tried to preorder my special edition, but get the message “Preorders are disabled”. What’s wrong here? Can you help me please?

Mothlands Game 4: Grave Robbers

Last time on Mothlands, our crew had seized territory from the Serpent’s Coil: a band of hawkers with exclusive access to a predecessor temple.

With the temple now in their control, there was only one thing to do: find a way into it’s unplumbed depths and haul the plunder back to the surface.

It was a simple job, but potentially a lucrative one. We began the mission repelling down an ancient elevator shaft into the eerily pristine hallways of what the players understood to be an ancient hospital. Sneaking forward, our Mouse, Pi (think Lurk) quickly spots someone toiling away in an operating theater, working on some unseen object. A partial success also meant I got to describe the black iris of a camera watching her back.

Minutes later the crew is dealing with their first demon, an AI android referred to as Sera. Sera is on a singular mission to repair her damaged sisters but doesn’t have the parts. Sera is also critically damaged and this leaves her open to suggestion. The crew uses this to their advantage and promptly distracts her so as to loot the ancient surgical auger from the ceiling (think a surgical robot that can be controlled with a thought). They also manage to score a bundle of predecessor clothing and some surprisingly fresh predecessor food from the vending machine in the lobby.

But, this entire time I’d been ticking a clock labeled “Alerted.” The party had assumed it was attached to Sera when in fact it had been for her sister, and her sister had a different mission: security of the compound.

A brutal fight ensued. Quick thinking and teamwork, as well as the fortunate fact that the demon didn’t immediately recognize the crew’s primitive weapons as dangerous, allowed our Spear, Sarzi, to lop the things head off. We ended the fight with a first person view of her foot stomping its face. A new trophy for their lair.

Our Recluse (think Leach) also went deep down the crafting hole deciding to take up the Medicine special ability to supplement his penchant for dabbling with auger. I’m a little concerned he’ll put two and two together and create some horrible abomination of flesh and ageless predecessor metal but sometimes the worst decisions are the best to roleplay.

Overall, my players are really starting to get a feel for the rules this time around and I was very happy with how much character development we got out of even a simple job like this one. What’s more, a few of my players got to shine like they never had before, in part thanks to two of the more social characters being absent for this session. I look forward to seeing how our little crew of upstarts moves into Tier 1 as we approach the Month of Moths. 1 day left ….

Woah, I just realized how easily S&V could work for a Borderlands hack.

Just replace “the Way” with “Eridium”. Also, assume when you fill your stress track you actually die, then you either have to take trauma or lose 4 coin (likely out of your stash) to come back at a nearby New-U Station. I’d also add “Local Catch-a-Ride” as a friend for all playbooks.

Factions would differ of course, replacing Hegemony with Coprorations consisting of the main manufacturers (Bandit, Dahl, Hyperion, Jakobs, Maliwan, Tediore, Torgue, Vladof, as well as more esoteric ones like Atlas, Pangolin‎, S&S Munitions, Scav, and Anshin), maybe with subsidiaries.

Then Underworld would be populated with local gangs and groups like Captain Scarlett, Captain Flynt’s ship, Bassanova’s Arena.

Then there may be local authorities, like the Crimson Raiders, Zafords, Hodunks, Terramorphous (& Spawn), train authorities, Wilhelm (and loaders), and maybe Angel and/or various Vaults and their guardians.

Different locations (Three Horns, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, The Highlands, Lynchwood, etc.) could then have mini-stats and notables like S&V’s worlds.

Hello!

Due to some RL problems, the play-by-post that was happening on Google+ is now… no longer happening on Google+ (it is instead happening on www.Tavern-Keeper.com). The TLDR; is that we’re down to two PCs at the moment, so there are PLENTY OF OPENINGS for this exciting gang.

If you would like to join the play-by-post game, just comment below or send me a message. We’d love to have you!

Note that although there are currently two PCs, we’ll re-open crew decisions, although that should be done snappily you scoundrels!