So I have begun working on a musical band hack of Blades.

So I have begun working on a musical band hack of Blades.

So I have begun working on a musical band hack of Blades. Other than BitD it’s based on games like Starchildren: Velvet Generation and Monsters of Glam and inspired by stuff like Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Metalocalypse, The Gorillaz, and so on.

I started out with the action list to get a basic dea of what I want the players to be able to do. Here it is, let me know what you think might need tweaks and if you have any other suggestions/must haves let me know.

ACTIONS

FLAIR

PERFORM a rehearsed set or otherwise prepared songs; Play to sheet music.

SLIDE an object out of or into someone’s pocket; traverse or bypass obstacles unseen; employ subtle misdirection or sleight-of-hand;

BLITZ an opponent in combat; brawl and wrestle; fire at or throw; force your way into or through.

GYRATE wildly or suggestively to the music; perform sexually.

VISION

COMPOSE a musical work of art for performance; develop a song and lyrics with the ability to influence others.

DIG into the details of a document, or item with to gather information and apply knowledge; gain a deeper understanding; do research.

INTERPRET a crowd, location or situation to understand what’s going on; sense trouble before it happens; gather information about opportunities or exploits.

FIDDLE with mechanisms or electronics to create, modify, disable, or repair; disable a trap, pick a lock, or crack a safe. Use recording and other programs to your advantage.

PRESENCE

JAM with the band by improvising songs on the fly; perform unplanned musical solos.

CONDUCT group plans by force of personality; direct roadies to perform actions.

SWAY someone with charm, logic, deception, disguise, or bluff; change attitudes or behavior with manipulation or seduction.

NEGOTIATE with connections from your heritage, background, friends, or rivals

to gain access to resources, information,

people, or places.

9 thoughts on “So I have begun working on a musical band hack of Blades.”

  2. YES- I worked on a musical hack too! I am encouraged to see some of the same action interpretations I was thinking of. I got stuck on the playbooks, and I felt obligated to shelve the idea while I finish aNother hack. I am really digging your action list; but given what I just said, I of course have input..

    consider Engineer instead of Fiddle, since the word “fiddle” holds special meaning for violinists (and my silly mind even thought it was that for a moment). you wrote it covers using recording programs to your advantage (which is totally what audio engineers do).

    consider Schmooze instead of Negotiate – because negotiation is covered sufficiently by Sway. Besides, this is the action which will take up the fictional space place that Consort does in Blades – which in the music biz is more like.. chilling with those contacts, friends, etc, being okay with their drinking and drugging, impressing with shared interests

    nitpicks: Flair. It’s more like PHYSIQUE isn’t it? Also, Slide seems a touch too.. criminal. Consider Finesse instead, and giving it musical context, like fancy footwork, acrobatics, or subtly performing a surprise encore. Also consider Fight instead of Blitz, because natural language, and barfights will be a thing. Naturally, I am in love with Gyrate and wish I had thought of that. Consider Mosh instead of Perform; perform is too broad, and its more important how and what you do to perform (and I would be sad to see no dancing equivalent of Wreck)

  3. With most of the actions I tried to title them with something that had a sort of double meaning, with one of them likely relating to music.

    I really like Fiddle for that reason. Schmooze is a much better word and I might try to alter the description a bit based though I don’t want to butt too into Sway.

    Flair/Physique is the category I had the most trouble with. Perform is probably the hardest to find the right word for, I basically need a word that is an antonym to jam which is your jazzy improv perform action.

    For playbooks I am thinking broad strokes for now. Something like:

    Frontman- The charismatic face of the band +Sway, Interpret. Virtuoso- The dedicated talent of the band +Perform, Jam.

    Dreamer-The creative visionary of the band +Compose, Fiddle.

    Hedonist- The rough thrillseeker of the band +Blitz, Gyrate.

    Impresario- The business-minded promoter of the band +Dig, Schmooze.

    I am trying to decide if I want to add in some different “heritages” or save them for advanced playbooks. The two would be Starchild- Your Ziggy Stardust alien lookalikes. Beautiful but Frail, perhaps with space powers.

    Darkbound- The musicians that sold their soul for the talent or are destined to cause the apocalypse(dethklok). Powers at a cost.

    Crews would be… maybe genres or a general ‘why are we a band?’ reasoning.

  4. “I basically need a word that is an antonym to jam..”

    Perform is too general, and intrinsic to what bands do. Heck, half of jamming is just recitation of lines you have cultivated through peformance. It’s also this other thing though, so i agree Jam should be an action.

    What makes Jam special, is that these are arranged on the fly, which is definitely a thing that players will roll to respond to issues during a show

    Further, I think that determining when the performance goes wrong should be the subject of the engagement roll, reflecting their overall preparation and decision making about the show plan, and when the discussed risks coming to bear.

    That being said: Some playtest will more quickly guide you to what is best though..

  6. Sorry to resurrect this thread from antiquity here just because it came up in a vanity search, but I figured it was appropriate to mention that the new version of Starchildren is pretty heavily influenced by Blades. So…great minds, etc.?

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