Glow in the Dark: At Last a Raiders Playtest

Glow in the Dark: At Last a Raiders Playtest

Today was the first time I’ve ever run Blades (or in this case, a hack thereof) face to face. I got to introduce the rest of my game group to the system and it went great. We got through 2 runs and 2 downtimes – by comparison, my Hangouts games can take a month to do that.

My 3 players made a tribe of Raiders – straightforward mostly-reskinned Bravos who take what they want and burn the rest.

The Red Rocs are:

Howler the Driver, a former Last Cavalry gyro-pilot left for dead after a bungled assault, forced to survive in the wilderness.

BB the Feral, beastmaster and tracker, a teenager who never knew civilization.

Krondar the Reaper, amnesiac psycho. He’d be a Faceless in Apocalypse World. He’s the conductor of the poop train. He has the shiniest meat bicycle.

This was a one-shot, so we started off at Tier 1 with some extra tribe abilities, action dots, and special abilities. Nothing broke, and we were able to playtest a little more broadly than going through the same old new tribe starting situation. The players went full Beastmaster, taking the Gyros and Cars upgrades but reskinning them as mutant riding beasts. This didn’t present any problems either, and it really solidified the tribe’s aesthetic. The Red Rocs all rode beasts – the Driver had a custom flying beast instead of a car, and the BB the Feral took the “Good Dog” ability and granted his pet massive size, so he could ride Stabhawk into battle.

Taboos worked better here than in any prior playtest. Krondar took a taboo against all ranged attacks, forcing himself to literally dive into close combat. BB always took risks to scavenge everything, even as pursuers or encroaching storms drew nearer. Howler took a taboo against slavery and refused to accept medical help from a Monarch doctor because their faction took slaves.

Raiders pretty much work as advertised. The two runs were essentially smash and grab ambushes against a hostile faction, the Knight Riders. They were at war by their second downtime.

For the two players new to the Blades system, I think the main impressions I got from them were:

1. It’s fast. We did a lot of combat. Things were generally decided by the third time around the table.

2. Hard choices – and I’m really happy that this came through. What ability do you take? Do you push yourself? Do you roll to resist? How much stress do you have? Do you have enough supplies to indulge vice and do something else? Do you do a team action to maximize safety (better chance of 6) or roll separately so each person can tick clocks?

It would be cool to see this hammer of a tribe continue, and find out if they can make literally everything a nail.

#glowinthedarkrpg