So.

So.

So… with the release of the SRD and the possibility to properly hack Blades, I have two project ideas buzzing around my head. What I am asking YOU people is to tell me which of these you would find more interesting / valuable, and why 🙂

1. Whispers in the Dark (totally temporary name)

Arkham, Massachusetts, 1920s. You play worshippers and cultists of the Great Old Ones (because of faith, greed, thirst for knowledge or desperate need).

Will you achieve your goals, or relinquish your humanity and become One with the Master?

Crews replaced by the Great Old One you serve/worship/call upon.

Playbooks: Hatchet (brute), Book (celebrant), Hook (mastermind), Rag (rogue) and Scalpel (“scientist”).

2. Blood Red Blossoms

The demoness Ōshirogumo fed on the nightmares of the living and birthed a new world, a ruined island where dark spirits roam free. A dark fantasy setting based on Japanese folklore and the Sengoku period of constant feudal warring. Forget the bureaucracy and convoluted etiquette of Edo: the land is awash in bloodshed, warring clans threaten the rule of the Crimson Princess and a warrior’s loyalty belongs to the highest bidder.

As I see it, this one could go in one of two directions:

a) Crews replaced by Clans (heavy focus on clan vs. clan conflict, retainers, scores completely reworked, less “daring scoundrels” and more “ruthless lords”); Playbooks replaced by Scrolls (soldier, mage, shaman, assassin, courtier…); think Kurosawa war movies + Ni-Oh + Kuon.

b) You play as a clan of Shinobi. Regardless of your specialization, you work as an agent for other clans while furthering your own agenda (you might be assassins, spies, or even demon slayers). This is closer to normal Blades; think Ni-Oh + Ku-On + Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun + 13 Assassins.

Discuss! And thanks for the attention 🙂

Art: Vanishing of Ethan Carter Screen (The Astronauts) & Gashadokuro (Utagawa Kuniyoshi)

40 thoughts on “So.”

  16. Charles Simon my goal is for it to be L5R without the butchering of Eastern cultures and languages, and with non-d&d-ish magic. Also, a reasonable explanation of why people write and speak Japanese despite this being a fantasy world.

  21. Not to hijack your thread!–but I wanted this project to be a fairly light hack, so the structure will be very similar to vanilla blades. One city with a clear boundary (a volcanic island covered in swampy jungles and marshlands), in a land ruled by a powerful emperor (an undead skeletal druid-like figure), with lots of competing factions in the city. I’ll probably leave the crews mostly intact and then remix the playbooks. Still hammering out the magic level of the setting.

  25. Everyone is saying 2a (which I agree is the best answer), but thought I’d throw a little love towards 1 as well. Would be good if there was an option to play as a family/group that are trying to resist the others, that would be cool too (think Hunters from World of Darkness, or most protagonists from Lovecraftian stories).

  29. Renaud van Strydonck I only worry about the loss of game focus, and am unsure about the clan’s nature: specifically, are the PCs from the same family? Are they the ones who make decisions, or servants to a daimyo? (I’d prefer the former, but feudal system makes it hard to justify). Also, in Blades you start small, but here you start quite big, with lots of people below your station. I need to find a way to make it not too overwhelming ☝️😕

  31. Mark Cleveland Massengale not really epiphanies, just wanted to know what people were more interested in. Call it “selective hobbyism” 😂

  32. RoosterEma that’s a good point.

    I would be tempted to separate crew from clan and let the players’ crew define how they want to serve their clan (and thus prove their worth and rise in the ranks).

    Clans could connect at the player level with something similar to Heritage in Band of Blades and at the crew level with opportunities and duties… or maybe even special player & crew moves!

    Crews on the other hand could vary within a single clan. I quite like the idea that each crew is defined by its stronghold (a la Scum & Villainy’s ships) so that players can build trading posts, messenger stations, barracks & schools to alter the shape of their crew.

    I think such crews could easily have a population of peasants attached to it by default, which players can elevate to various cohorts based on their crew advancements.

    I imagine the game starts with players being assigned to a backwater province as reward or punishment, and the players must find a way to make their name and gain the emperor’s attention while dealing with their province’s various blessings and curses… and most probably province-specific duties.

    I’m sure an unhealthy brew of Dungeon World’s steadings, Diaspora’s clusters and Reign’s… whatever they were called, could make for some fascinating geopolitical situations.

    …damn, now I want to make this!

  33. Renaud van Strydonck I was reaching that conclusion too, clan as a heritage and “base of operations” as a crew sheet. This also allows for multi-clan groups, which are less boring, and for wildly different campaigns.

  35. Renaud van Strydonck I’ll keep that in mind!! However, this will take a good while… not only because of the mechanics, but because of language (I have to keep checking names with native Japanese speakers) and artwork/graphics 🙂

  37. Mark Cleveland Massengale well, watching a couple movies fixes it. Also, this is not based on Edo Japan, so all the complex etiquette, bushido, and rigid caste system is absent. The war and danger of the dark spirits emanating from the Noroi (the resting place of Ōshirogumo) make for a lot of social mobility. Female warriors abound, a peasant can become a war hero, and such. This is a nightmare dimension born from Japan’s dark dreams.

  40. Lex Permann yup, I know both Sigil & Sign and Cultos Innombrables do the “you play the cultist” thing. I still think Blades’ system allows for better faction-focused games, but I see your point.

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