So having picked up a copy of Blades a few weeks ago, yesterday we ran through our first session. And it seemed to go really well! I decided to use the War in Crow’s Foot starting scenario and my players just dived right in! They’re playing a gang of Hawkers called the Crimson Snow and have already decided that they’re working towards eventually taking over the Red Sashes territory/role.
The gang currently consists of three members:
“Lord” Banks Bowmore, the crew’s Cutter, an ostracized member of the Bowmore family, implicated in a rather embarrassing incident involving a goat and some chickens and other things best left unsaid…
Hadius Silver, the crew’s Slide, a “merchant” from the Dagger Isles looking into expanding the family business
Vestine “Nightshade” Kingclaith, the crew’s Whisper, from a Skovlani military family, formerly a lecturer working at Charterhall University (perhaps until some rumors spread concerning their family after the war lead to them losing their position)
Their first score, which was selling some new product for Bazro Baz, went incredibly smoothly. Possibly too smoothly honestly, some clever planning and playing to their strengths meant that not much actually went wrong, and they succeeded in getting into a party hosted by a minor noble family and selling the merchandise to a wealthy young member of the Penderyn family, for them to sell it on to those among his friends who are into that sort of thing. Of course, the young mans family was less impressed on hearing about it, so they took a hit to their reputation among the City Council and the family itself. But I figure at this stage, they’re still relative nobodies in the city so I doubt there’ll be any actual consequences of that, yet.
But plans they have a plenty, and during downtime they set about starting some long-term projects – mapping the Red Sash drug supply lines, and analyzing the leftover drugs in order to replicate the product in the future. They’re also looking into getting a “Chemist” expert to help them make and analyse the drugs they intend to sell. They seem to have really grabbed onto the kind of “self-directed style” of Blades. And i’m fascinated to see how it all plays out honestly! 🙂
As the GM I did have a few questions for others GMing Blades:
1. How do folks go about coming up with devil’s bargains that players are willing to actually take? It might have been that they didn’t find their first score overly difficult, but they seemed very resistant to the idea of having to deal with some sort of consequence even if they rolled a 6. I think they’d be far more likely to simply push themselves if they wanted an extra dice.
2. How do you go about sorting out the difficulty of scores? Our first one was easy, and that felt like the right way for it to go – their approach was good and they rolled well. Would you deliberately try and ensure the next score is more taxing, throw in some curveballs? Or should I just go with what feels right score to score? And let the difficulty ramp up as they piss off more factions in Doskvol?
As a very beginner Blades GM, my 2 cents:
1) I’m pretty sure they’ll start asking for Devil’s Bargains when they really start needing those dice. First score went smoothly and they didn’t really need more dice? No problem. I would not actively push Devil’s Bargains at them if they didn’t ask for them or if the situation wasn’t all that dire — just make sure they are aware of the possibility and ride with it. Unless I suddenly came up with a really nice one which fits the situation, of course.
2) I would personally just concentrate on the fiction and go with that tells you about the situation. Add one or two surprises, but otherwise let events flow naturally. Due to how random dice work, it’s guaranteed that shit will hit the fan, sooner rather than later — and it’s even more amusing when a “simple” score suddenly goes south in a bit way. 😉
For Devil’s Bargains I would ask the other players what is appropriate. They will come up with really inventive ways to screw each other.
For devils bargains, when I can’t think of one, I often put it to the table to see if a player who isn’t rolling can come up with one. They’re usually fun.
When I can think of one, it has to be something both immediately gratifying with minor consequence now, but greater consequence later.
Some of my favourites:
“You can gain an extra die if you let me fill in X segments on this clock.”
“You can gain an extra die, but whatever happens, these guys arent gonna be happy. They’ll want revenge later.”
“You can gain an extra die if she falls madly in love with you (or you fall madly in love with her!)”
I like to use devils bargains to set up golden opportunities to make hard moves later on. In the above examples, a clock fills faster meaning more pressure to get things done before it fills; a gang who wants revenge now factors into your faction game between sessions; there is now either a stalker or someone your PC loves who you can put in danger at a later date.
hmm yeah some good ideas there guys! Thanks. We’ll see how score #2 goes 🙂
Andrew Shields wrote a very good analysis about Devil’s Bargains. Check his posts, it was some time ago.
Actually it’s a good thing if the players don’t take every bargain you offer. Good is, when you manage to offer something they/the PCs really wants, like “Did you say you want a new piece of equipment? Aren’t you working on this LTP to find a contact to sell it to you? Guess what, during you conversation with that noble in Lord Penderyn’s house you see a this storeroom by chance. The door is slightly open and you see equipment X there. Will you take it? Sure, they will know that someone stole it and they will know that your crew took it (add segements to a clock)? your choice, what do you do?”. This will be easy after some session when you know you PCs better.
About 2: No, i wont adjust. If they prepared well and had lucky rolls, give them what they deserve. It will be the other way soon enought. But remember to adjust difficulties for higher tiers, too. Maybe they were newcomers and noone cared, yet. Next time the penderyns may change that and the next party a Tier III noble may not be so kind to those Tier 0 upstarts, meaning risky or even desperate position or reduced effect due to Tier. Play what is fun and brings a cool story. This does not mean that is has to be easy, opposite is true either.
Bottom line, I feel the devil’s bargain is a tool to use to let the players calibrate the risk and noise they’re willing to take on as characters and as players.
The essay on the subject is a deeper dive than a GM needs, but it can be really helpful for some ways to think about what you can do with a devil’s bargain.
fictivefantasies.wordpress.com – Devil’s Bargain
Andrew Shields wow thanks for that! hmm I hadn’t considered presenting the consequences from devil’s bargains as only potentially coming to fruition. I think that’ll appeal to my players – makes it more of a gamble