Hacking Blades for a Mythic Approach: the Trickster
In play tests I’ve had two types of Trickster tend to emerge, the Clever one, who claims the most discoveries and inventions, hoards useful items and plays somewhere between Odysseus and Loki, and the Clown, fortune’s fool, who succeeds in spite of him or herself, something like Coyote, or Inspector Clouseau.
In real-life mythology these are frequently two sides of the same coin, so I’ve tried to fuse them both into the one playbook, hopefully it doesn’t get eaten by G+ this time.
Wow! That looks amazing! I can’t wait for a play test document to pour through!
Logan Shoup That’s going to take minute. What began life as 3 pages of tidy tables and instructions is in full bloat. My goal is to pare back down to a reasonable size and release a Quickstart doc in February.
‘Fool’ could do with a little more explanation. Does this mean you treat 1-3s as 6s, and 6s as 1-3s ?
Galen Pejeau awesome! As a fellow hacker, I completely understand the feeling.
Declan Feeney Yes, you are correct. Thank you, I will clarify that one.
I do like this example! In my opinion it has more of the Fortune’s Fool (Clown doesn’t seem right ;-)) than the Clever one. If you want more of a mix, maybe there should be one or two Special Abilities item-related. Currently it reminds me on a classical bard – which is good.
Also, a very small detail: Load 2 for the instrument? It seems a bit too much for an adventurers instrument like a flute or a fiddle.
I can’t wait to learn more about the spirits! All 5 spirits mentioned in the playbook sound great – with Korra leading 😉
Skasi Thank you for the feedback! Some kind of crafting ability? That’s a good suggestion, perhaps rewarding making the “first of its kind.”
This is looking really great. I can’t wait to see how the rules exchange changes the mouthfeel of the world!
Galen Pejeau Yes, maybe something inspired by the BitD Leech’s Alchemist ability.
I would replace Foresight with this new ability. Foresight is cool, but I expect players to take this ability rarely, because flashbacks are not as often usable as other abilities (in my opinion).
Flaws & Strictures sound like a very cool alternative to Trauma.
I feel it’s sorely lacking the ability to change/disguise one’s shape. This power is attributed to Anansi, Coyote, Loki, Maui … basically all classical tricksters can take other forms.
Marshall Brengle I was planning on making that an equipment thing. Since shamans, sorcerers and tricksters all change shape in the stories I was thinking a few simple “starter” shapechanging cloaks, rings, etc. Then more powerful ones could be treasures won.
Skasi Good advice!
Galen Pejeau are you thinking cloaks of change to exactly one shape, potions of many but once? In SW, it was easy to leave it to the arcane, but I’m less good at BitD style
Colin Campbell Near as I can tell, Blades is more front loaded on roleplaying prompts than Savage Worlds (a system we had been using for this world in the past)
In Savage Worlds it made sense to restrict shapechanging to Arcane Abilities, as anyone who really wanted them could buy them.
Blades seems more fiction forward, there’s nothing stopping any character from setting up a clock to develop shapechanging powers, so why not move it to equipment and make it more about the decision of “do I take my cloak of feathers and be able to turn into a seagull, or do I take my Spear and be able to defend myself?”
I need to get that Quickstart doc finished for these sweet scoundrels.
Galen Pejeau ok that makes sense and I’m super with it. Loving what you’re doing with this
If you wanted to add some disguise-y goodness, the Slide’s “Cloak & Dagger” is very cool.
This is really cool! I’d love to see more!
Pretty nice … with a lil’ tinkering here and there, the “Fortunas’ Fool” would fit very well in BitD too
Galen Pejeau I really love the concept, but I want to ask: are these characters meant to represent gods/demi-gods from Mythology? Because if they are, I think that you should make the Special Abilities feel a little more “special” (and a little less mechanical).
MisterTia86 They’re semi-hemi-demigods. 🙂
Humans that have taken up the identity of mythical heroes, or the humans who later become the basis for myth.
One of the most appealing things about Blades is how threatening each conflict can be. A hand to hand combat could end with Level 4 Harm, with one roll!
So I’m trying not to overpower the PC’s, they should have a chance at doing great things but no superman-level powers.
Galen Pejeau actually I meant something different 🙂 I meant that, in my opinion, the special abilities should have more “flair”. Some unrefined examples:
– You can spend 2 stress to Sway someone with illusions.
– When you resist Critical Harm in a physical conflict, instead of reducing the consequence you can fake your own death. When you plot revenge against the one responsible, you have +effect as long as you can hide the fact that you are still alive.
– You can change your appearence at will; spend +1 Stress for each of the following benefits: you mimic the appearence of another specific individual / your voice match your changing / etc.<
The idea is: they have (demi)godly capabilities, as mythic being should have, but are not invulnerable or indistructible. Also, maybe their enemies are on par with their abilities (if not superior in some cases).
MisterTia86 These are great! I salute your hacking skills. (and may steal from this!)
Galen Pejeau absolutely! As I said, I really love the idea for this hack and glad I could be of some kind of help 🙂