Hello all,
I am a big fan of Blades in the Dark, having followed it since I first heard about it on Fear the Boot over a year ago.
After a long time of reading it over and over again I finally get the opportunity to run it. Two friends of mine who are big gamers are both turning 30 and we are taking a 3 day weekend to run a mini-campaign. I suggested Blades to almost universal acceptance.
So I’d like to ask some advice of the community.
What is something that surprised you the first time you ran Blades and what would you do to avoid it (if bad) or capture that (if good)?
Given 3 days with planning on playing about 12 hours a day, how fast should I expect them to advance?
How often did you expect playbook turnover? Both in players switching and in them needing a new one.
What are some ways other games have ended so I have some idea of what terrible ends might be in store?
Finally, how problematic is it to have duplicate play books? I have two players eyeing the spider and the leech and I was curious how same-y those characters would feel if I let them duplicate play books?
Play kit.
The other thing I wanted to do was make a campaign play kit. I wanted to include knick knacks, useful player info, reference sheets etc.
Is there anything you all have found that would be useful to add to that kit, either as a play aid or just as a mood setter or neat trick to use.
That’s about it for now. Any help at all would be appreciated.
I think duplicate playbooks are no problem at all. It would be a fun game with a whole crew of one type of playbook.
I had one game arc end with the crew taking over a theater (as well as some other businesses) and rising above their enemies to become legit businessmen (more or less.) The second arc ended with unlocking a space/time puzzle where one Chosen character absorbed the ghost of a previous Chosen character, and released the ghost of his unborn child to come into the world. (Maybe that arc was a little weirder.)
I say lean into the speed; I don’t like to dawdle over one scene, I’d rather layer it than paint one thing at a time. Better to unpack over three heists than to get bogged down in long conversations. Your mileage may vary. The game is designed to skip the slow parts; dig into that and push. Also, the path unfolds under the wheels as the game goes, so you can keep an eye on big landmarks, but follow where the action goes and it surprises everyone (even the players making the decisions.)
As for a game kit, this one is the most amazing I can recall.
plus.google.com – My collection of game aids and ‘props’ for blades at +Ettin Con continue to e…
Yeah, if your players want two characters to feel different, they will. Even with all the same things on their playbook, the fiction first approach means it only really matters how they play them. The playbooks are way less restrictive mechanically than in other RPGs, especially since you can use Veteran Advances to take abilities from other playbooks. I picked my first character’s playbook based on the XP trigger matching with the type of role I wanted to play, even though I then mostly took advances from a different playbook, and that’s worked out well.
Advancement is mainly based on what your players think they’ve earned, so it will be somewhat controlled by that, combined with how often you let them advance. Depending on how often you want to take breaks, maybe at least every 3-4 hours, though with two PCs per heist, they may end up losing characters to trauma and having to make new ones, so they may need more frequent downtime and advancement opportunities, I don’t know. Do what feels fun.
I’d say if you don’t want to interrupt the flow too much and your players want some ability to take a wider array of jobs and have a reasonable chance of them succeeding, maybe get them to have at least one back-up character each, in case one is removed from the game by four traumas or level 4 harm. I love having extra PCs ready to go.
(Also, it’s nice to see another Booter who got in to Blades the same way as I did. Thanks, Chad.)
What caught me off guard
– XP is a little slower than you expect unless shit it going wrong
– it takes conscious effort to remember to say what position a roll is in
– once you get some clocks going, they greatly increase your options for 4-5 results, which reduces work and stress
– if the crew’s motive is clear, everything flows smoothly from that.
– it is important to see how flashbacks allow rolling “useless” skills mid-heist in order to internalize it.
This is exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for. My players are really stoked and I’m excited to run this too. I’m absorbing a bunch of actual plays to see how others have run the game and getting my kit built. Thank you so much. 🙂
Just don’t expect everything to go perfect the first session and give your players the warning that some things might end up retconned or changed for the next session and you’ll be fine.
Don’t worry too much about getting everything perfectly right. If you can’t remember or easily find a rule, house rule it and look it up later. Nothing kills first session enthusiasm faster than waiting while someone looks up a rule, and with a new system, that’s even more important.
Don’t worry about having all the complexity out of the gate if it is confusing you/them. You can add it in as you go.
Basically just have fun getting everyone involved and immersed, then come back here to share stories and ask for any help you need. 🙂