I finally had the chance to watch the first 3 seasons of Peaky Blinders. (I won’t be spoiling anything significant, so you’re free to read this regardless of whether you’ve seen it or not.)
Season 1 is, for me, a near perfect example of a low tier Blades game. The interfaction fighting, the scheming, the things that were planned in flashbacks; it nailed it. And it’s a hugely enjoyable show to boot. I consider it almost mandatory viewing for someome wanting to get in to Blades.
Unfortunately, seasons 2 and even more so season 3 take huge steps forward in terms of tier and the show was both less enjoyable for me personally and felt less like Blades (though admittedly, I’ve only played low tier stuff so far).
Still, it has some great moments; trauma, infighting, loss and gain of turf, double agents, etc.
What did other people think? Again, try to keep it spoiler free for those who would like to see it fresh, but the comments section may contain spoilers, so if you’re worried, go watch the show first.
Agreed on all counts, whether or not you’re comparing the show to Blades. It also raises a good discussion of how fast you really want to go up in tier/scale, something which has become an actual IC discussion in our gang as we stare tier 3 in the face and are deliberately holding back growth for now.
Rebecca W interesting. I can see as a GM how it’s dangerous to grow too quickly in this game, but my players don’t seem to care! Which.. now I’m curious, since I have not had a group grow from tier 0 to 3 yet in a dozen groups (you might say my groups are more focused on the “Blades” than the “in the Dark”). Roughly how many sessions has that campaign been going?
finally started watching Season 1 because of this post (been on my watch list for awhile)
So I looked back on the community, and it has been TWO YEARS since I watched Peakey Blinders and designed a mechanical alternative to claims and crew sheets because of it.
Anyway, another big takeaway was I felt that gangs answering to crews should generate trouble and have leadership issues as part of entanglements, and that should escalate as the tier goes up and there’s more money and more people involved.
That’s been awhile back now.
Andrew Shields What was your mechanical alternative to claims and crew sheets? Not sure I’ve seen them.
Mark Cleveland Massengale I hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think.
Mark Cleveland Massengale Over FIFTY sessions and counting! You can read the sessions here on the Blades channel as updated by our GM Ben Morgan or check them out on his site ad1066.com. We’ve gotten very broadly entangled in settling personal scores (there are many), local rival gangs, and very various organizations in Doskvol and the chief decided about 10 games ago, “there are too many balls in the air, and if I add any more, I’ll lose control and have to start making sacrifices, let’s slow down,” and amazingly, none of the crew has expressed impatience with her decisions to slow down and get things under control. She probably wouldn’t even throw them off a clock tower if they did!
Andrew Shields In our game this past week we paid our (increasingly high) tribute to the Crows and bailed out one of our cohorts. and as if to illustrate the balancing act of priorities there, in the very next scene the chief Constance said to a new arrival, “you won’t get rich tomorrow, but you’ll never go hungry, we’ll keep you out of Ironhook, and every one of us will get your back.”
Jason Lee I’m only sharing this because you asked me to. For the people who don’t like it, that’s cool, I know, and I don’t really need to hear about it. I used it and liked it. The bottom line is, we are comfortable with different abstractions. It’s a matter of style, and what makes us itchy, and what feels like it works.
https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/enterprises-for-blades-in-the-dark-6-22-15.pdf
Andrew Shields Oh, I didn’t realise I was kicking a hornets’ nest.
Looked interesting to me. Not sure I’d necessarily use it, but it’s definitely something I’ll bear in mind as a possibility.
Thanks for sharing.
Andrew Shields Oh, I didn’t realise I was kicking a hornets’ nest.
Looked interesting to me. Not sure I’d necessarily use it, but it’s definitely something I’ll bear in mind as a possibility.
Thanks for sharing.
Okay wow, so my groups are just slow at tier advances. I played ~20 sessions with one group staying at tier 0
xD
Mark Cleveland Massengale Part of it can be a bookkeeping issue too. We really had to train ourselves to bug our GM at the end of every job for Rep AND Crew XP, as very often we’d forget one or the other. Also, tiering up is always (thankfully!) a conscious decision: you have to bank and choose to spend the requisite Coin.
Why not stay at Tier 0 forever and avoid mo’ money, mo’ problems? Simple. Your Engagement rolls will be at a disadvantage against EVERYone, FOREVER, and eventually that’s going to catch up with you. Among other things.
Andrew Shields I didn’t see anyone attacking or criticizing your house rule. Did I miss a controversy somewhere?
No worries, it’s just a thing that’s very different than the base and I did it to fit my own style better. This is a very polite forum, and I just wanted to be clear it’s not a case of what’s better or attacking or defending anything. If people like it, that’s cool, and if not, then it’s easy to scroll by.