I’m curious what other people do to prep scores for their scoundrels. Like, how much do you like to have ready? Are there specific things you try to be ready for? Specific things you don’t worry about prepping for?
I have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with prepping. I want to feel ready, but I never know how much is enough and I get a bit of decision paralysis.
In general I’m pretty comfortable improvising a lot of stuff at the table, but Blades seems like the kind of game I should come to the table with at least something.
So far I’ve just run one job, which was for the crew to ransom some information out of a guy. All I came to the table with was the target, the client, and where the target lived. I feel like it went okay, but I feel like it could have gone better if I’d had a little more in my back pocket.
Any input/advice is appreciated!
I use the guidelines from the book for coming to the table with an opportunity: Target, Location, Situation, an obvious Vector for the score, Factions who care, a weird Vector for the score, and cool tricks/secrets/foreshadowing. If I write it all down bullet-point style, it’s not much info, but it gives me something to look over and nod at when my players start coming up with plans.
Honestly, the book has a very good system for prepping scores. It has worked for me with everything my players have done.
Do you have any specific process for coming up with that info? Using some of the random generation tables?
I’d especially love to see if you have an example of one you’ve done before. Seeing examples really helps things click for me.
Do you have a page reference for the guidelines in the book? I swear I’ve seen what you’re talking about, but looking through the book now I can’t find anything helpful.
Thanks for your input!
My process is mostly thinking about what would be fun, what might make a neat score… my crew are a bunch of robbers, so I think about dramatic hold ups and B&Es. I think about who might give them a job (because they’ve done that a few times) and what those people might need. I look at who they have a good relationship with and want a favor, and who they have a bad relationship with who wants them to pay up. I look at who the players hate and think about robbing them.
And of course, yeah, I’m rolling on the random tables to kickstart my brain or fill in blanks or give me a handle on picturing my ideas better.
I do have examples! Let me dig them up and get back to you.
The page is 189! The problem is this very important piece of prep and GM advice is called an “opportunity” but it’s not listed in the index under that heading, or at all as far as I can tell.
Yeah, I expect more things to fall in place as we really get going. But with just one session under our belt, I don’t have a lot of fiction to pull from just yet.
Thanks! This is really helpful stuff.
So, I left my GM notebook at work, but I’ll try to reconstruct one that I wrote up that didn’t get used, since I’ve got players in this community.
SCORE: Raid the North Hook Co. Lock Up
Target: The Hive (IV)
Location: The Docks, North Hook Co. offices
Situation: The Hive has been invited to The Wraiths’ illicit sale — the invitation is somewhere in the North Hook Offices, so go grab it to find your payday.
Vector: [Assault/Stealth] Everyone takes a lunch break sometime. Kick in the door when the office is less crowded and take what you want. Or, ya know, just slink in after business hours, I guess.
Obstacles: Hive Mercenaries (IV); Employees Fear their Masters; Where is the Invitation?; Decode the Invitation; Locks on the Petty Cash; Sparkcraft Security: Wall Engraving Gargoyles (II); The Floor is Madness
Connected Factions:
> The Circle of Flame is expecting an idol of a Forgotten God, but it has been marked contraband and is to be destroyed; if someone were to complete the delivery, they would make a friend.
> The Foghounds are negotiating with the master of the Company for employment; screwing with the Hive’s money will make them tighten their belts, costing the Foghounds a contract.
Other Vectors: [Social] All you have to do is get the name of somebody the North Hook Co. always treats right, always takes directly to their boss, and then show up saying you represent them: once you’re away from prying eyes in the back-office, then the blades come out.
Secrets: The master of the company is secretly deeply into the occult, despite the Hives distaste for all matters supernatural or infernal. In his study, which is locked at all times, he keeps a curious Ritual of Shadow-stepping among he journals. In his humble study, he has also thrown the idol to the Broken Stag into the fire, because his Hive masters found out about it before he could hide it. The fire didn’t quite take. Now, his study has become home to a Ghost Echo: the cremation of the Broken Stag, frozen in time like a painting and broken into pieces like a shredded canvas. Somewhere in the dangerous and mind-bending pocket realm within the company house, the Ritual can be found.
———So, there’s a lot going on here. What did I do. I picked a target, a location, and a situation very easily: I wanted my players to get in on a big illegal sale, and I wanted them to have to steal the info about the sale. I picked some people to rob, done and done.
Vector? I picked what they wanted to do: rob people. Bam, kick in the door, wave your guns around. I also picked another obvious one that shouldn’t really take any research… just go in at night, duh.
For Obstacles I just wrote in things that sounded cool and worked for me. There’s probably guards, why not. I bet the employees fear the Hive and won’t cooperate, yeah that’s awesome. Gotta find the dang invite you’re looking for. I already had reasons for the invite to be in code… but what if the players don’t want to let on that they’re here for the invite? Okay, then breaking the code is an obstacle. Throw in some locks, because duh you can rob the petty cash drawers while you’re there… bonus Coin! I wanted something weeeeird, so I threw in clockwork gargoyle watchdogs in the walls, mostly for use at night. Finally “The Floor is Madness” was specifically a note on a twist to be used in my “Secret” later on.
So I’ve got a good Heist there. Place, target, thing, a variety of obstacles that just get me excited, nothing more. But for more variety, I fill out the rest of the details.
Other factions. I think about this in terms of “who am I pissing off, who am I making happy.” The Circle of Flame will be happy to see the Hive get messed with after the statue debacle (that I just make up and throw in for fun — but inspires me a little for later). The Foghounds will be so upset because this is going to cost them a sweet gig. Players can find out about these knock-on ripple effects if they dig around with gather info.
Other Vectors. Well, what might be another cool way to handle this robbery? Well, what if it was a Con instead? Maybe some gather info will teach the PCs the right name, or right relationship to lean on to just walk right in to the back office and get the info they want — by force, or by social play. I doubt it will happen, but it’s an angle that might be interesting.
Finally, Secrets. Here, I had no inspiration, so I rolled up a random NPC to see what kind of person ran the Trade Co. I got a dude who was into demons, which I scaled back into occult stuff like rituals. Thinking about the Circle of Flame, I noodled around about what’s going on with the Forgotten God Idol they want — rolling up a Forgotten God while thinking about it — and finally decided to really embrace my love of the weirder aspects of Dishonored. So, I made up a really weirdo sidequest, basically. Here is a mind-bending horror room that is bigger on the inside, with a dying forgotten god suspended across the sky, and a book of spells, if somebody wants to go for it. Because, hey, why not. I wanted a secret that seemed super cool, and opened up some ideas off the beaten path of the main heist. It was for this Secret that I wrote down the Obstacle “the floor is madness” to represent the weirdness I wanted to evoke when describing the scene locked behind the study door, if necessary.
Inspiration for Scores will naturally unfold…think of the aftermath from your last session. What places did they visit? What important npcs did they talk to?
What factions were involved and what are those factions working on?
What are the character’s interests? Would any of their goals or projects make a good Score?
Look at the Crew sheet Claims! What claim does the crew want first? Who’s in control of it?
Look at the location of the Lair. Who’s influential in that district? What do they want?
Alfred Rudzki That is some quality stuff. And a lot of stuff for me to chew on and digest. Which is perfect! I’m hoping to sit down this weekend and look over notes, gang and character sheets, and some factions and see what inspiration I can find.
That was really helpful. Thank you!