In the book, the crew infiltrate the Dimmer Sisters’ Inner Sanctum in order to grab the Artifact. It is a rather short, small Score.
I dont have the text at hand to count the obstacles but if I recall correctly after Engagement there’s 1. Jumping to the Window. 2. Dealing with the Aunt Ghost. 3. Prowling to the Ritual Room. 4. Interrupting the Ritual and 5. Grabbing the Artifact. Then 6. The flashback that lets them escape.
Id like to have a ballpark idea of number of obstacles for each score size.
How many minimum Action Rolls (i.e. obstacles that are bypassed on a 6) should we have for minor, small, standard, big and major scores?
Scores aren’t meant to be measured that way — that’s why the book doesn’t tell you to do that. 🙂
Running scores by number of obstacles will make the game feel contrived.
Follow the fiction. Imagine the obstacles at hand, based on the Tier of the opposition and the circumstances preceding. Follow the actions and consequences until the PCs do the thing that completes the score (or else they abandon it).
i’ve been finding the Devil’s Bargain a fruitful source of complications during Scores. Nothing like a half-dozen clocks on the table to ramp up tension and help the players trim their sails.
Instead of thinking of scores in terms of a set number of obstacles, I find it helpful to focus on two things: the starting point (given to you by the Plan the crew picked) and the Goal. The crew has something they want from the score – steal something, kill somebody, make a deal, etc – and the engagement roll tells you how well the first part of their plan is going. If everybody keeps that goal central in mind, all you have to do is follow the path from point A to point B and obstacles should flow pretty naturally from there.
My least successful Blades sessions have come from nobody at the table having a clear idea of the goal of a score, or from me putting arbitrary obstacles in the way of the crew. But when everybody can clearly see the finish line and you just let consequences flow from their rolls and the goals of the opposition, the game really shines.
I ran a score for a crew who rolled 6 after 6 after 6 (this gets even sexier with Synchronized), breezing through it quickly. It was by no means boring, just quick. Most of the score was a group Prowl, but it made sense in the fiction, as they were skulking and climbing and sneaking. Had they engaged with the security it would’ve gone drastically different, possibly leading to more rolls than they did through Prowling and sheer luck.
Their second score went from bad to worse to worst, resulting in more rolling to deal with the mounting obstacles. They stayed the course, there was two Traumas and they were (barely) successful.
Now, by all rights the first score “should’ve” taken longer and involved more rolling, if only due to the scale of the area. However, the aforementioned choice to Prowl and the luck of the dice compacted it. The second “doom score” involved a much smaller area with less security, but the fiction snowballed into craziness.
Don’t think that “short and sweet” means “boring”. When your crew of thieves glides through a noble’s estate like ghosts, working like a ninja squad and damn near speed-running the score, that’s great! Love it…embrace it…and by all means realize that’s not always going to be the case. 🙂
In my experience scores can be really short if the crew is setup in a good position from the start. They have all the resources at hand and are ready to go. This isn’t because of planning the score, it’s because their actions thusfar have given them certain access or leverage that they are taking advantage of. In fact I think our shortest score was resolved with one action roll!
On the other hand, when the crew decides to take on something new I go back to the factions involved, think about how prepared they are and what actions they might take if they thought something was up, and then we see where that takes us. I know it’s been repeated over and over, but I think the best thing is just to follow your players, and when it’s clear they’ve reached their goal, or given up on it, the score is over.
I played a one on one test game this Saturday. The shortest score was an assault on the warehouse that the previous score was set in. Just tying up a loose end by killing a warehouse manager. The player begins with the engagement roll being pulled off flawlessly, allowing their Wreck effect to be greater when they ripped off the roof in order to murder a target at gunpoint. So the rolls consisted of:
Engagement
Wreck
Hunt
Then the job was done and the player and his cohort were set to easily flee the location without reprisals (player didnt even need to spring a flashback to secure the escape!)
Has anybody gotten any such short scores? It basically means that the player gets to spend two extra downtime actions and received two coins in exchange for increased heat and an entanglement roll. I think it is a fair trade off?
Yes, that sounds good!
Try not to worry about what’s “fair.” Follow the action of the game where it leads. Sometimes the PCs will get off easy. Sometimes things will be horrible. Don’t try to artificially manage how things turn out.