Was there ever a crew sheet made for academics? I seem to recall one but I’m having trouble locating it. I know Sean Nittner has several AP reports of a scholarly crew. Are they using one of the default crew types?
Was there ever a crew sheet made for academics?
Was there ever a crew sheet made for academics?
I was going to say I ran them as a standard shadow crew, but I forgot I was using my enterprise system instead. Anyway, here’s a session with an academic crew, if you’re interested.
fictivefantasies.wordpress.com – Blades in the Dark: The Professors
We’re using Smugglers but we’ve been adapting it slowly to be more focused on academics. I put out a primer on Academia (which made it into the book, yay!) but we haven’t made a crew type…yet.
“Well, that book was exhausting! Now for some downtime!”
May I offer “Specs” as a potential playbook name for the academic crew?
Also, this sounds like a really fun idea and I can think of a bunch of ideas off the top of my head already. Instead of hunting grounds, they’d have a research domain “Spectrology” “Alchemy” “Sparkcraft” “Politics and History”.
“Brains over Brawn”: each PC may add +1 action rating to Study, Tinker or Attune.
“I Swear it’s For Research”: Once per downtime, when doing any downtime activity (other than Long-Term Project), each PC may explain how the action helps inform one of their long-term projects and add 1 tick to that project’s clock.
Academics? But.. that doesn’t suggest dangerous criminality at all. What’s their forte: cheating on tests? Stealing the school mascot uniform? Kidnapping teachers?
I’d make the academic stuff a layer added to explain their action ratings (background, etc) or reputation.
I’m picturing something like the good guys who work against the cultist. University students who stumble upon a conspiracy. Basically CoC in Duskwall. They have to operate in the underworld because the Spirit Wardens and church of Ecstasy suppress any real knowledge of the arcane arts.
Mark Cleveland Massengale Similar to Cult, Hawkers and Smugglers, they can just delve in to the illegal side of the profession, cult is like a religion, Hawkers are traders illegal products, Smugglers transport illegal or forbidden things. It’s not much of a stretch to frame Academics or something adjacent to it that way. Not even something illegal, just something where there is enough tension for there to be meaningful play in a format provided by the game.
Mark Cleveland Massengale I’m thinking they study things that are dangerous to the powers that be. The nature of ghosts, different Lightning Barrier techiniques, the true history of the Immortal Emperor. The wrong idea (or the right idea) can be extremely dangerous to certain people and power structures.
Scholars are hilarious fun as criminals if you have truths that the Powers that Be are concealing. Put a couple big mass graves and impossible choices behind the curtain, and let them pick at the edges.
Each scholar was near a hypothesis or experience that resulted in a disproportionate response from the Establishment. Now they’re out of public view, but the only way to get their lives back is to be vindicated. At what cost?
One scholar suggested that leviathan blood could be infused into inert matter to give it mobility and feeling; he thought it could be used to make interesting statues for the super-rich. The Spirit Wardens collected and burned all his work, and his colleagues are all in jail.
Another scholar ran tests to determine the frequency modulation of ghosts relative to lightning walls, with an eye to creating new efficiencies. She found that the frequencies are nowhere near each other, and the conventional wisdom about how lightning walls work could not possibly be true. And she’s still dodging that assassin that showed up after she told her tenured mentor.
Another scholar was befriended by an eccentric old scholar, who shoved a sheaf of coded notes into her hands before being cut down mysteriously in an alley. That starts the trail of research towards an account of the death of a leviathan. Could it be true?
And so on.
True. These mysteries exist all around Doskvol, and need exposing. Scholars perhaps..?
But now that I’m smelling a crew book, I am seeing a stronger commonality with the responses. Is it rebellion against “the Man”?
Smuggling is illegal transport. Cults are illegal in Doskvol. If this game was set in modern times, Hawkers would probably be Dealers. All these words sound like things “the man” would say. Maybe it’s just the word Academics that bothers me. It just doesn’t sound… criminal or disdainful enough. Call them Whistleblowers. Extremists. Radicals even.
I dunno. Or ignore me Aaron Berger. I admit I kind of don’t know what you want to do with this crewbook – other than have PCs with lots of dots in Study – and something to study the SHIT out of (and that something should eventually murder their sanity lol)
Mmm. Thinking about the Cthulhu hook, I’d love to see what a Patients or Committed book looks like.. all the PCs are declared insane lol
I do think something other that Scholars would work better but dismissing or mocking that idea is not a good place to start, as shown there is plenty of room in BitD and Doskvol for that.
Radicals seem like a better fit, idk if the best but I think closer, not “Blades” enough. Not exactly rebellion against “The Man” but having a sort of strong political agenda that you want to push for through various means, seeking this sensitive information to sell it, use it to bolster you position, ect.
Gain hidden information, discredit opposing views, weaken the hold it has on the public discourse, ect. That could be a good way to frame these people that poke at the seams of control, of the powers that be, not because they hate it, but because there is something of value behind the veil.
If a game wanted to be about scholars, there are ways to give it a few tweaks and let it fly.
You could take subjects scholars care about and they could complete long term projects for research and then crafting a paper or a book on the subject, and have rep be for academic glory.
“Crew” could be replaced by “School” since a university is an umbrella hosting many schools, and you could be working to elevate yours.
Factions could focus more on patrons of the arts like noble houses and government organs as well as oversight groups and existing schools.
Cohorts could be professors attracted to the cause, and there could be a rating for students, which generate coin.
So what could you do for heists?
* Competitive boasting that requires flashbacks to discredit the other side’s story or to arrange for embarrassing circumstances.
* Gaining access to forbidden materials, in a traditional heisty way.
* “Defend your thesis” takes on a new tone when rivals try to take it from the printers, or introduce errors into it when it is out of your reach, and you’ve got to use flashbacks and cohorts to defend it.
* They took a hostage to compel your coorpation, and you are taking the hostage back.
* A rival challenges a character to a duel to prove a point of theology or philosophy, and flashbacks may affect the duel’s outcome.
* There is a trial because of misdeeds, and you have to defend your case in flashbacks as well as in the courtroom.
Also, you can interview ghosts! So that’s exciting.
Overall, aim for a swashbuckling sort of game where you cleave to scholarship like Indiana Jones clung to archaeology; it’s a backdrop for adventure that mixes some supernatural and fisticuffs in to the story in place of the long boring parts. =)