Hi, everyone! I’ve been working on a Blades hack for the past couple of weeks I’ve decided to call “Hunting Knives”. It’s a game about hunting giant monsters in the style of the Monster Hunter series of video games. Things are getting close to being somewhat playable, and I’ll post the character sheets and other rules here once I’ve made ones for all the playbooks + the town (which replaces crews) using something more pleasant on the eyes than a spreadsheet.
Important changes from Blades that I should mention so you have an idea how it functions:
– 9 total Actions instead of 12, because of the smaller scope. The actions are still divided up into Insight (Study, Survey, Craft), Prowess (Blast, Prowl, Skirmish), and Resolve (Gather, Direct, Clamber)
– Stress and Trauma are replaced with Stamina and Shame. Vice is gone.
– Crafting gear is a big part of the game, with coin being replaced by resources for crafting that advance project clocks. Instead of a stash, the hunters build up an Arsenal of gear that acts as an expanded item list.
– Friends have been replaced by Expertise, which all apply to various aspects of monsters.
– Right now the plan is for there to be 5 playbooks and one town type, but I might add more towns later.
Please tell me what you think about the idea! If you have any suggestions I’d be happy to hear them!
Not familiar with the video games but sounds interesting. What sort of playbooks? And whyd you nix stress and vice? Hunting monsters sounds pretty stressful
The playbooks are different ways to hunt monsters. There’s a swift one, a gunner/scout, a sort of commander/support person, a heavily armored one, and one that’s all about explosions. They each get a variety of hunting and downtime specials, and a different set of expertise, such as monster anatomy or behavior, for example.
Stress is still in there, but I’ve renamed it Stamina to match the video games. When Stamina runs out the Hunter is dragged of the battlefield because they just fall down where they stand. This then leads to Shame in town, as rumors start going about why this person failed. Were they too reckless or selfish, causing them to do something stupid? Once shame maxes out the town no longer supports that hunter and they have to retire disgraced, or leave town. It’s a lot more external compared to trauma.
I got rid of vice for now because I expect players to be resisting more wounds, and because a lot more downtime actions are going to go to crafting projects. If it turns out players end up with plenty of stamina to go around I might put it back in, but for now it just fully recovers once they get back to town.
This looks pretty cool! I like the idea of having crafting be more integrated into the whole coin/rep cycle… should make for some cool projects, and it’s a nice way to have player-driven advancement. And that set of abilities works really well for a monster hunting game.
One thing I’d suggest, if you aren’t already thinking about it, is having some rules that define what different monsters are like; things like the Blades demons automatically freezing people in terror unless they resist, or a monster having impenetrable hide or petrifying gaze or whatever. (Or a list of weaknesses – Monster X has a chink in its scales, monster Y is vulnerable to fire, etc) If I were GMing something like this, the first thing I’d look for is a set of tables to generate cool monsters on the fly.
Joe Adkisson The Expertise system ties into this. Every monster has at least one of the following features:
– Behavior (i.e. Pack Alpha, Territorial, etc.)
– Defense (Armor, Quick Movement)
– Prominent Anatomy (Wings, Appendage)
– Attack (Fire, Crushing)
– Movement (Flying, Swimming, Crawling, etc.)
So a monster could be “Territorial | Armored | Winged | Fiery | Flying” and you’d have a dragon, or you could pick “Nomadic | Environmental | Appendages | Crushing | Swimming” and make some kind of Kraken. The Expertise sets (5 sets of 6 options) are spread out over the playbooks and are given to the GM in a handy table, and affect the engagement roll. I expect more detailed things to be invented during play, but I might add more GM facing options if playtesting points things in that direction. As tiers go up the monsters get more of these options (default is one of each).
Individual monster species would be treated as factions, and while I have a list of all the Monster Hunter species sorted by tier, I don’t think that’ll be part of the final game because copyright is a thing.
I’m really interested in this! I’m not familiar with the videogame, but I was thinking of a “monster hunters” hack myself (something like Bloodborne meets the Witcher). Also, your take on Trauma is beautiful.
This sounds really interesting!
Did you ever read/play Annalise? It had an interesting way of structuring the “reveal” of the Monster which might be intriguing for you too…
…I’m imagining a system which allows each monster to be shaped by choices made during its hunt in a process analogous to engagement rolls perhaps.