Completely straightforward question: Do you think it’s possible to play Blades “the way it’s intended to be played” (I know, a heavy statement, but I mean it) with only a GM + two players? I happen to only have two regulars at the moment, and can’t really bring myself to play online.
Completely straightforward question: Do you think it’s possible to play Blades “the way it’s intended to be played”…
Completely straightforward question: Do you think it’s possible to play Blades “the way it’s intended to be played”…
I don’t see why not.
Thomas Berton well, it revolves around the classic “tv series cast” which usually amounts to 4-5 people. That’s what’s making me hesitant.
Yep! I like 2-player games. I just ran one for Big Bad online, in fact. Works great.
You might consider starting without a crew sheet, then establishing the creation of one (or not) in play.
Yep. John’s preferred number is 3 but 2 can work. If you feel the “cast” is thing encourage players to take cohorts or experts and flesh the cast out with some npcs that matter.
Mechanically though it works fine with 2, it pushes the stress economy more but it still works fine.
I was running my game with just two players for a while, but they had two characters each, so there was still a sizable group of PCs.
I’m curious where you see this reference of “the way it’s intended to be played”? I see the book says “players: two to four, plus one GM”(page 4), but that’s not saying 2+gm is the ideal.
Also, why do you not trust the very experienced game designers to know what their system is made to support?
I’m running two 2-player games and they’re brilliant. I’m especially fond of how well the Shadows game is going.
Benjamin Kramer Benjamin,I’m afraid there was a misunderstanding. I trust the designer A LOT (otherwise I wouldn’t have devoted time to a hack which I posted here some weeks ago), but I’ve seen it played online with a larger number of players. I was not referencing the book, simply asking whether my perception of it being designed for 3-4 people was right. Apparently it wasn’t, which is great. If anything, I’d like to do the system justice and was asking for opinions 🙂
Anyways, you got me convinced. I won’t go the “multiple characters per player” route (my players repeatedly told me they don’t like it), but will probably up the cohorts and npc game.
I also like John Harper ‘s idea of starting without a crew and building it up as a session zero, plaing through the “pilot episode” basically.
Your players can always add second characters down the line when their primary characters need a break. Then it’s up to you and them whether you let them take multiple PCs to a score.
Yup. It’s fine. Stress is more of a concern, sorta. You don’t need to change anything.
Pretty sure you can play Blades with 1 player + 1 GM as well. The difference is mainly in the independence of the player and how much npc interaction might be necessary to achieve things and how high your goals might be per score. But this is all up to the way you and your players want to approach Blades. Considering how different the game can be depending on the choice of crew i imagine it being no issue at all.
John Wick’s playing a solo Blades campaign except his dice only have sixes on them.
Adam Schwaninger Oh man, I kinda want to write a GM + 1 player John Wick Blades hack now.
I think John Wick might have a 5 on one of his dice, just to keep things interesting. 🙂
Thats a good idea John. Maybe he has some ability that allows him to transform a 5 into a 6 for upping the effect but lets him suffer harm as a result. Not like he really cares about getting hurt…. ^^
We are learning the system with 2 players+1GM. We felt it was natural to start without creating a crew. We played from the starting scene proposed in the book.Then after the first game they created a crew. We totally play “as it is intended to play”, or if you prefer, “by the book” because we want to learn the rules.
We focus a lot on roleplay, for instance, they indulge their vices last week and we played the whole scenes by cutting to one action then the other. The first session (3 hours) covered the character’s creation and the score. It gave them idea to play a crew. The second session (3 hours) covered the crew creation and we did some roleplay generated by the downtime action.
I have 2 other plays that will come for a game when these 2 ones are not there and we’re gonna create characters for the same crew (everybody agreed) instead of a new one to play 2-3 games. It fits very well.
It totally works and we intend to play your hack with 2 players. (My preference is for 3 but often we only have 2 players). So there’s totally room for this!
Grégory Meurant Sounds cool. I myself am unsure whether my players will prefer to play standard Blades or my hack 😅 Pretty sure Blades of the Inquisition can work with two players if you really bring the investigation aspect into play. I mean, fighting is for the cohorts… and Veteran is always there if you need to pick combat abilities from Guardsman or Arbitrator!
Alright! We ended up with 4 PCs (two friends threw themselves in the game when they heard the magic word “Inquisition”) 😬 We played my Dark Heresy hack: the game went nicely, the Arbitrator and Guardsman held their ground and the assassin did some crazy stunts. The psyker roasted some cyber-mastiffs but an old rival, a radical witchfinder, is searching for him. I must say that character and crew creation exceeded my expectations: the story REALLY starts flowing organically from the very moment you sit at the table. Downtime required some page-flipping, but the actual action was pretty fluid. In the end, the psyker overindulged (and endured flagellation to atone for their carnal desires) and we had some hive riots due to the “enthusiastic methods” of the group.
Tons of fun 😉
If you like hacking, I’ve rolled a different version of this mechanic into MORTALLYBANKRUPT, but I’ll give you my Blades version.
Stress and Crew Morale
Every PC starts with 8 stress boxes instead of 9, and the Crew gets its own “morale tracker” (5 boxes for sessions with 2 players, 4 boxes for 3 players, and 3 boxes for 4 players). Whenever a player embodies their character’s look and voice in an entertaining manner, they can spend 1 of the crew’s morale to clear 1 stress. You regain all of your morale when you have a scene in free play where you bond or rally together as a crew.
If you want to hack deeper, you can weave the morale system into custom special abilities
The Best Medicine
When you tell a joke to one of your crewmates, spend 1 morale. If your joke lands, both of you clear 1 stress.
See if that helps!
I couldn’t tell if you meant John Wick the movie character or the rpg designer.
Why choose? 🙂