I have two quick questions guys:
If my players are having trouble working in their beliefs, drives, heritage into play, would it be helpful to have them write out a explicit ones like in the burning wheel/mouseguard? Or is that not in the spirit of blades and its hacks?
Does anyone have any form fillable and/or roll20 scum and villainy sheets/playbooks? I don’t know if Stras Acimovic has made any available.
When I started playing a few weeks ago, I thought I was going to need to write them down so I knew whether I’d hit them or not, but it ended up not being necessary. I have a few things written down, but mostly it has come up naturally.
Some suggestions (from a reasonably new player):
– Start with freeplay in the next downtime or pre-score section. Chat with each of your players about what they feel is significant about their character or what their character thinks is important or how their background still impacts them. Then use that to inform a scene that gives them a chance to demonstrate it in character. (This is probably the most full-on suggestion. It might take most of a session and may feel awkward to some people, but it gives them a push to working out who their character is and gives them guaranteed XP.)
– Throughout the session, give the players opportunities to show off their beliefs/heritage/etc. by introducing NPCs who might bring it out of them. If they’re from a less commonly seen community (Dagger Isles perhaps), have an NPC be someone from a neighbouring community/tribe/family and let the player decide what that means to their PC.
– Same as above, but with environmental factors. Think about tempting them in to steering off-course for personal gain/interest. If they go for it, there’s XP for the PC and added complications for the crew.
– Ask questions about insignificant details. Their weapons, their clothing, footwear, lodgings, accent, the way they talk, walk, fight, smell. They might not give you anything (and get no XP in return), but every detail you add informs the character and world and that might affect future decisions they make.
That’s just a few that come to mind anyway. It might be quite GM driven at first. Just remind them that it’s in their interest to do it since it nets them XP and makes the world richer. Eventually, they’ll hopefully start adding details themselves (and if you’re really lucky, asking each other for details) without prompts and you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy.
I find it is smoother to allow expression at the end of the session as the text suggests. One reason: it’s often distracting to outline the reasons for each action as they occur. It’s more natural to express in the action when that makes sense, and other times talk about it later.
This trigger is the one that tells the GM what the player thinks is important to their character. I personally will never require players write down these things. It discourages change, and players end up writing them down if they have any they don’t want to change, which is fine too.
Re:spirit. I’m not sure anyone but John can confirm that, but my impression is that it’s not. as long as it’s expressed any time during the session (including the end, and even if they changed from last session), they should get their XP imho. This let’s many play styles work well, and keeps these things fluid (as they should be)
Mark Cleveland Massengale I totally agree with all that, but what if the players never seem to get the trigger. I suppose that part of it can be my fault, not giving them opportunities to do so (though I feel I did). I’m wondering if having them written down would help in that situation, where we just want to get anything in there, it doesn’t have to be amazing and fluid, you know?
Forgive my incredulity, but given that, How can they actually never meet the trigger?? This one should always get met, either earning 1 or 2 XP, every session. It’s like the “gimme” trigger.
And is why the initial determination of 0 is a cue for both you and the player to speak up/talk about it: they can say what beliefs, drives, etc were at work during this moment or that, after the fact, and still earn the XP. Or you can encourage them to talk about it right then by asking them if this moment or that was related to the background or heritage details they wrote down, or a drive or belief they’ve not talked about yet. This isn’t the Wheel; we can talk about those things after the fact here, and still earn all the XPs.
I immediately feel sorry for “this isn’t the Wheel” thing. That shouldn’t have been directed at you, but I recently had this discussion with Wheel players, and there was recoil at the idea. Just saying: it’s only the first trigger which must be met during the action in Blades. The other two (re: expression, and struggling) can be talked about afterwards.
I get you, and I was being hyperbolic by saying that it never gets triggered. I appreciate the advice.