In my (limited) experience, Blades is ideally suited to a two-session arc at minimum. This Friday, I’ll be running it as a one shot for some people online. Anybody know where I can find tips for running just a single session of Blades?
Should I provide pregens scoundrels/crew? Looking for any advice anyone’s got.
I would provide pregens of each playbook with everything but name/background/etc filled in. Depending on how much prep you want to do or how comfortable you feel improving you could either tell them they’re a crew of Bravos/Assassins/whatever and have a job based on that, or let them decide what crew type they are and have an option for each one. Regardless I wouldn’t do any mechanical crew creation and I’d leave out the crew rules entirely.
Otherwise I don’t really see an issue with a one-shot. A satisfying mission can easily be run in 2-3 hours and you don’t have to do downtime.
Absolutely provide pregens.
I would not bother to provide a crew.
Perhaps you can add questions to the character sheets, to flesh them out rapidly AND/OR link them to the heist.
“Slide, Why does Lord Rye trust you?”
“Why the oblivion that the black lotus produces is particularly sweet to you? Is there something you’re trying to forget?”
“You have a snitch in the bluecoats, the easily bribed guards of the city. Who is she? Why she advises you to postpone the heist? What would be more difficult if you don’t act now?”
Pregens is good, maybe grab one of the Scores posted online, like Gaddoc Rail.
If you’re in communication with the players before the game (forum, Discord, Facebook, Slack, etc.) let them create their own characters and guide them along. Otherwise, pregens are a good idea.
The starting situation in the book works perfectly well as a one-shot. Additionately, seannittner.com – Sean Nittner | – Gamer, Podcaster, and Convention Host has some sweet one-shot scenarios you can try.
If the players haven’t played before, make sure to teach the rules as you go along. When they first reach for the dice, explain Position/Effect, pushing, Devil’s Bargains. When you give a consequence, explain Resistance. When they ask about their items, explain Load and Gear. When they say “I would have planned for that!” explain Flashbacks.
Thanks for the advice, everyone! I’d really love for the players to make their own characters but the reminder about pre-made starting situations is great. I also agree it’ll be best to gloss over the Crew playbook. Maybe take the special ability from whatever Crew they want and skip the rest.
I ran a one-shot a while back and will second “skip the crew” either as A- just ignore it, or B- set them up as “you’re new recruits of a crew that already exists and I chose all their stuff, you get {x}.” (If you go route B it also means you can have one of the senior members of that crew point them in a direction for something to do.) Otherwise, I just gave them the playbooks and let them go wild but skewed towards “For Heritage: if you know the setting and want to be from somewhere else, pick your own heritage, otherwise you’re Akorosi and from Duskvol” and “If you have a specific idea around Background cool, otherwise assume you’re someone who grew up on the streets in the city here scraping to get by.”
One more thing to keep in mind: In a one-shot anything you might try to lean on them for in terms of Crew blowback from the Score is pretty much meaningless. “It’s going to cause extra heat on the the Crew” isn’t going to matter unless they’re playing longer term, and Downtime in general as the end of a one-shot feels…meh. (It’s kind of like taking the time to wash and fill the gas of the car you stole before you push it off a cliff abandoning it forever.)
I was planning on putting together some notes to try offering Blades as a con game and was thinking I might try blacking out a few of the special ability options from the playbooks as well. (I don’t feel like potentially spending time on figuring out what Ritual the Whisper may know and all the details around it is a great use of a limited chunk of time with people new to the game.)
The character creation chapter has suggested starting builds for all of the playbooks. Have them pick a playbook, and then have them pick a starting builds. To save time, I’d probably provide a pre-gen crew of a type amenable to the score they’ll be doing. I’ve had success running Trouble in Crowsfoot as a one shot in the past. Both times, when I got to the part in the intro where you ask the players if they’re there to kill Bazo for the Red Sashes, the players without hesitation said yes. (This sort of disappointed me, as I have a whole speech planned out for Bazo to give them that I’ve never gotten a chance to use).