Hey all, I’m new to Blades and reading through the rules to run Scum and Villainy.

Hey all, I’m new to Blades and reading through the rules to run Scum and Villainy.

Hey all, I’m new to Blades and reading through the rules to run Scum and Villainy. Can someone explain special armor to me? I’m not getting a good idea of how special armor works.

Here’s what I DO understand: there are abilities that let characters mark the “Special” armor box to do different things (like the Cutter’s Battleborn special ability) by expending your special armor. Presumably if I pick a special ability that lets me expend my special armor use, I detail what it is fictionally when I take the ability.

What I DON’T understand is: do you have to bring armor with you in your initial Load to use it? Do you have to ALSO bring heavy armor? If I didn’t bring armor at all, do I have my special armor with Load weight appropriate to the fiction anyway? Can I use the special armor as just armor to reduce or negate harm, in addition to expending its use for my special armor ability?

I don’t have any experience playing Blades, and my only exposure is listening to the Marielda season of Friends at the Table (although it’s been a little while). I appreciate any help!

6 thoughts on “Hey all, I’m new to Blades and reading through the rules to run Scum and Villainy.”

  1. Special Armor is not physical armor. Quite often, the abilities that use it are allowing you to resist non-Harm consequences (The Lurk’s ability allows Special Armor to be used to resist being detected, for example). It’s basically an instance of Resistance that doesn’t cost Stress. The Special Armor checkbox is used to denote that you can only use the ability once her Job.

  2. It’s never a “thing.” In fact, most playbooks’ special armor are meant to be proof against very specific kinds of consequences, many of which are not physical at all (like being spotted).

  3. Hey, Steph Stack! Yeah, Special Armor is armor that you can use when you have an ability. You may have several abilities that allow you to expend your special armor under different circumstances. As a general note, no matter how many of these abilities you have, you can only expend your special armor once. And fictionally, the ability usually tells you more about what it looks like or why you are more resistant to certain kinds of problems. Hope that helps!

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