We played our first Blades session this week and ended with the end of the score. I’m looking ahead at the upcoming Entanglements roll, and with a new crew and not much heat yet, seems like Usual Suspects is the most likely one I’ll have to deal with as GM.
“The Bluecoats grab someone in the periphery of your crew. One player volunteers a friend or vice purveyor as the person most likely to be taken. Make a fortune roll to find out if they resist questioning (1-3: +2 heat, 4/5: level 2 harm), or pay the Bluecoats off with 1 coin.”
* So, that fortune roll. Based on the crew’s current Tier, ie, zero, so roll 2d pick worst? Or is it just roll 1d by default where not otherwise specified?
* If the partial success comes up, the level 2 harm goes to the contact? That just seems kind of—who cares? Seems like most of the things you do with contacts, it doesn’t matter if they have a busted shin or not.
Or is the idea that this is meant to be kind of a weak entanglement, so it’s okay that the consequences are pretty soft?
I’d probably use the same fortune roll suggested under ‘Questioning’ since they represent pretty similar situations.
The 1-3 level entanglements are less severe than the 4-6 levels, but that level 2 harm isn’t nothing.
A contact with a broken shin isn’t necessarily a big deal. A contact who got her leg busted because she refused to sell you out to the Bluecoats and now feels you owe her a big one or possibly just doesn’t want anything to do with you for a while could be seriously inconvenient.
Right. That “contact” might be one of the crew’s only friends. Or they might be a rival whose now seeking recompense for having been put in harms way or thrown under the bus. Focus on the entanglement as the result of the crews rash and nefarious actions.
Entanglements can be tricky, but the key thing to remember is to make it as important as you want.
If it’s early on and it doesn’t make sense, you can make it as small as “some Bluecoats come by and shake down some patrons of the [insert vice purveyor’s location]” setting up further trouble, but not acting on anything yet;
Or, make it a big deal to show them that no matter how small they are, there are always people trying to stamp them out. “Alright, as all of your characters are relieving their stress, the Bluecoats come knocking and take someone for questioning. Who is it?” Then narrate a little scene, maybe someone’s rival sold out the chosen friend or vice purveyor; give the Bluecoat who does the questioning a name; and then interpret what that means to the Characters and Players.
In my game, one of our first entanglements was Questioning, and the friend that was given up ended up taking a level 2 harm. I started a 4-segment clock called “[Friend] flips”, and whenever it made sense (or if I can’t think of another complication), it got a tick. Once it filled, the player had to do something to earn his Friend’s trust back again (he started a Long Term Project in Downtime to achieve this, but a small score was an equally viable option).