Some question that came to my mind while running & prepping for our first Blades game. Most of these don’t really have single correct answers, but interested in your thoughts π
1) Payment from Scores: is the design intent that scores always (or almost always) generate some coin as a result, even if the score fiction does not directly talk about money? Or is a coin reward intended to be there only when it’s explicitly talked about? For example, a score for smugglers to open up a new import channel might not specifically talk about a direct coin reward… should there generally still be one?
2) Claims: according to my understanding, the PCs can seize a claim by stating that they want to do so, and then either asking the GM for suitable “open” opportunities or doing some rolls to find information. After that, the whole thing is run as a Score, and if successful the Crew gets the Claim (with status implications vs the factions which had the claim previously). Is this correct, or am I missing something?
3) The book talks about district crime bosses usually demanding a cut from profits. I didn’t do that in our first game, but it’s something I have to think about. Is that something you usually have in your games? The Crew is currently operating around Nightmarket, off barge moored nearby. What do you think, would Nightmarket tend to have a crime boss who would start putting pressure on the Crew to pay him/her off? Who or what faction would it be in your game? Suggestions welcome :). I don’t want to go for a strict “now you have to pay this criminal some taxes” approach without getting good story and some player options out of it.
4) I don’t think the book specifies where the Dimmer Sisters HQ is, other than it’s some sort of house/mansion. Where have you situated it in your games? Any other fun ideas about the Dimmers? (I’ll probably be using them a lot, due to player choices at PC/Crew generation).
Fun game π
1) Coin (or the equivalent value) doesn’t have to be pre-negotiated, it can also be found or stolen on site. But if it doesn’t make sense in the fiction, there doesn’t have to be a coin reward for the score (but consider another type of reward, like friendship with powerful people, the crew likes that feel of accomplishment).
2) Yes, that’s about it.
3) I ran a Shadows crew based in Nightmarket, they started with paying off the Bluecoats to ‘look the other way’, and when they grew stronger, they ended crossing paths with The Hive, who ‘owns’ most of the shops in Nightmarket, so the Hive approached them offering them a deal (‘pay regularly if you want to operate here or we will strike you down’). They took the deal but in the end they manipulated a Hive council member into forfeiting the deal.
4) I placed the Dimmer Sisters mansion in Six Towers, and our Crew did lots of jobs for them. They were building an army of hulls for Lord Scurlock who wanted to kill the Immortal Emperor. The crew supplied them with spirits and hull-machines (They stole a giant spider-like hull body from Rolan Wott (who kept it as a piece of art) and made it look like they actually saved him from the thieves, so they became friends with him), but in the end Scurlock killed almost all the sisters to cover his tracks.
Crews in their early careers will probably need to get coin each score to pay for stuff.
The GM should have already have given (or rolled) the ‘owner’ of each claim in a crew’s area (on the crew playsheet).
There’s always a bigger fish. The crew need to become that bigger fish but until then someone will come looking for the crew for a cut.
In earlier drafts the Dimmer Sisters had a location but I’ve not seen one in recent drafts.
Very helpful, thanks π
1) I (and my GM) give out Coin based on the score. A regular score yields 6 coin, and when we killed the demon Setarra, the GM ruled it to be a Major Score-10coin, and when my player’s blew up the Red Sashes temple I did the same.
Maybe they don’t get the loot from the score per se, but as a byproduct. When we killed Setarra, we narrated how donations to our church increased, how we got sligthly better deals and a couple of new oppourtunities, and some debts got slashed, and the likes.
Don’t skimp on coin, but:
3) … remember to have them tithe. Maybe they don’t pay the Crows directly, but it trickles upward. (In your case to The Hive and the Bluecoats.)
4) The Dimmer Sisters were in the old posh, but abandoned neighbourhood, maybe the Six Towers?, but I remember that in our Cult-game they did not have men in their house. (The guard we found & avoided was an automaton/clockwork design.)
1. Go with your gut and the fiction. Be aware that if a few scores go south on the crew and they end up without Coin (it did in my game), It will create additional pressure on them (which is generally good)
2. Yes. Occasionally I have also said “fictionally you have acquired this claim” but I am also not shy about other crews moving into ‘safe’ claim areas.
3. Depends on the district and who’s in charge, I guess… Tier 0 might be too low for the ward boss to worry about for a while, but as soon as they pop up on someone’s radar it’s another matter. It’s an interesting choice to put in front of the PCs.
4. I just put it where I needed it. Maybe they have more than one house? Maybe everyone thinks the sister’s live only in their district?
4. I imagine the Dimmer Sisters as some sort of hive mind, unable to permanently leave their manor; but able to use a number of identical copies to effect their will in the city at large simultaneously; a number that stays consistent no matter how many “copies” are unceremoniously murdered by rivals: an exact number of replacements will leave the manor during the hour of Thread after such unpleasantness. When engaging in conversation they only refer to themselves as “we” and can often be found in pairs, speaking simultaneously or finishing each others sentences.
1. Coin isn’t necessary. The list that they give of coin amounts is more of a guideline, so you know what the expected pay would be, but, sometimes you get payed differently. Your players might be payed in information, or they may get a favor, or they may be setting up a larger future payout.
2. Pretty much.
3. Once your crew gains enough power, it makes sense for the buzzards to start circling. While Nightmarket doesn’t really sound like it would have a boots-to-the-ground, skull-cracking gang, I like the idea of either the Brigade implicitly threatening to burn your place down if they aren’t payed (What are you going to do? Destroy the entire fire department?) Or have the Ink-Rakers start publishing your exploits if not payed hush-money (You get more Rep, but also more Heat.)
4. I imagined the Dimmers living in a Brightstone townhouse. They buy spirits to both power their electroplasmic hearts, as well as create rooms out of their memories. Their home, while decently sized, is sprawling on the inside, full of strange vistas and mismatched room, each taken and powered by a single ghost.