Hello everyone! Big Blades in the Dark fan here, and I ran my first session last night. Things didn’t go smoothly in the pregame, since the players decided to be smugglers, so I prepared for a smuggler game, and then at the last minute swapped over to Hawkers, so I had to throw out all my notes.
Their plan is to essentially peddle gambling and vice. They want their own casino/sin parlor. Which is pretty cool, I’m totally for it. Right now though they essentially run a floating craps game in a bunch of alleyways, so long way to go. I’ve got a Hound who’s the former captain of the guard for a fallen noble house, a Lurk who used to be an Inspector, a Slide who specializes in infiltrating the upper crust despite his very low and humble origins and a Spider who used to be the accountant and planner for a now-defunct criminal organization. They’ve decided to work out of Silkshore, in an old paddleboat which can’t (currently) go anywhere.
Which has brought about good and interesting. I love the Blades in the Dark factions, but they lacked the sort of boots on the ground gangs I needed for Silkshore. Sure, the Crows, the Sashes and the Lampblacks (especially them, Baszo Baz is the Slide’s rival) are present, but I wanted some of my own gangs for the district.
So, I’ve currently got two gangs and two casinos for some higher level rivals. The Viceroys rule the street gambling in the district. In fact, their whole thing is the sort of Silkshore side entertainments. Their main issue is complacency. There are also the Furies, a gang made up of many former courtesans, performers, acrobats and entertainers of Silkshore, at first banded together for protection but now more criminals than protectors.
The Furies are also the ones the PCs paid off when they started their operations. The Furies had a clock about investigating the murder of a performer, the Alabaster, which I expected to go on in the background while the PCs carved out their turf, but instead our “heroes” decided to go right for it. So it wasn’t really a traditional job, but I was able to improvise pretty well. Still, going around investigating places isn’t exactly the Blades in the Dark way but we managed. It’ll hopefully lead to all kinds of darkness, criminality and maybe even our heroes controlling a theater!
Other interesting note. I ended up having to throw the Spirit Wardens in as the PCs investigated the murder. Since they aren’t super-detailed in the book I added some of my own touches. I gave them plague doctor masks, long jackets, tricorns and a surprising amount of physicality. PARKOUR! And the PCs picked up a clock for the attention of the Spirit Wardens, so that should be interesting.
All in all, a pretty cool first session.
This all sounds pretty awesome to me!!
“Still, going around investigating places isn’t exactly the Blades in the Dark”
Unless you’re playing a group of Vigilantes, then it’s exactly Blades in the Dark 😉
Yeah, investigative scores are awesome!
Nathan, I agree! It just wasn’t really what I expected or had prepared for. Currently, my idea is to have a first investigative chunk, which the PCs have done, then a small traditional score (in this case to breach the warehouse a suspect is set up in), then some downtime and then another chunk of investigation, potentially topping it all off with one bigger score once they get to the bottom of things. Which means, of course, that they won’t Hawk a darn thing for the first couple sessions for sure. No wonder all they’ve got is a rundown boat and dreams…
Leif Mogren
Keep in mind that sometimes the crew that sounds good in theory is not the one that is good in practice i.e. if the players ever show a pattern of preferring non-Hawker activities propose a crew playbook swap….
Ahhh hawkers with no thugs, labours or adepts. Those were the good times. Just watch out when they get some businesses going lol
I’m also starting a game set primarily in Silkshore, and ran into the same problem of a lack of solid factions. Just letting you know, I’m absolutely stealing some of this. It’s too good.