Hey, I had a question for people here. Have people come up with a way to mechanically incorporate relationships (Like Apocalypse World Hx or Masks Influence) into Blades?
I know much of the fiction that inspired blades often involves inner power struggles, strained relationships and building trust. Personally I like that kind of mechanics fueled character interaction and I was wondering if there was a good way to incorporate it into Blade’s existing systems. Any ideas?
I’ve actually been trying to figure this out for a hack I’m working on. Would love to hear other people’s ideas. Right now, I’m thinking of having a Hx-style rating with each other PC (just like your Action ratings) and having that replace Assist and maybe have some other interactions. But I’m still very uncertain about it.
Blades assumes a fair degree of unity in the crew. AWs interpersonal conflict is shifted to the faction game. Blades have in tough enough without too much infighting. I would keep that in mind when porting Hx into the mix.
That is true, I understand that blades can be a challenging game, depending on how punishing the GM is with the consequences. That being said, it would make sense if the mechanic tied into the assisting mechanic. (Spending a stress to add a die to a roll)
Maybe if there’s a conflict you can’t assist, but if you have a good relationship you can add 2 dice? I mean it could work if you add an experience trigger if you have interpersonal conflict.
However that risks messing up the balance of the difficulty or experience, but not both because you’d either have to choose to be good friends and get bonuses or cause drama and get experience.
Alternatively you could add a “cohesion” stat to the crew sheet influencing how the crew is getting along at the moment. It could influence how easy it is to command your cohorts and allies. Increasing it could make your crew better, but causing trouble could get you crew XP.
Anyway, that’s my take on it.