What do you think of a Blades Hack about Vikings in a low magic midgard?
I was working on a project in the last weeks. I already have some playbooks and some “Clan Sheets”.
More than anything I took skills from several playbooks of several hacks and normal blades and I was giving shape to mine, because I was busy and I could not dedicate the time I wanted. The idea is to personalize it with time and playtesting.
Also i meaby change “Stress” for “Courage” or somethng like that.
I wanted to know what they thought of the idea? Do you see the blades system viable for a game like this?
Sory for the english, it is not my native language.
I considered Blades for Nordsaga, a game very similar to what you mention that I’ve been working on for a year now. In the end, I went with a different engine, because I wanted something a little bit more traditional.
However, Blades could work very well for a low fantasy Vikings game. Go for it!
I was thinking of using more traditional systems, but the blades mechanics in terms of “making a game on the fly” and that the master does not need the same preparation as in most systems made me end up deciding to use the system. There are also the rules for factions, cohorts, etc. All very adaptable.
Not to mention that personally i like more the blades
narrative style for playing. .Matt Kay
Sure, all great reasons, and Blades is a great system!
I also have some doubts about the action ratings.
I ended up adding one more action rating in each attribute. (15 action ratings divided into 3 attributes)
I would like to hear what you think, although I still have to do the playtest and talk to a friend who is an English teacher, because I do not know much about the language and I have trouble finding specific words.
Resolve
Skirmish is now Battle (or meaby bleed)
Prowl is Prowl
Wreck is Wreck
Finesse is Finesse
And the new one, Feast. It would be related to eating and drinking a lot, telling anecdotes about battles and knowing what happens around even with large amounts of alcohol in blood.
Insight
Survey is now Watch.
Study is now Read, more related to runes.
Tinker is now Craft.
and the new one, Heal.
Resolve
Attune
Command
Consort
Sway
and the new one, Inspire. Similar to Command maybe, but it is the main skill that a Skald (Bard) or someone who knows Galdr would use. It can be used to sing, play an instrument and inspire terror or bravery
Sounds like a fun setting! I know a lot of people say Blades is designed to model heist and crime stories, but there’s plenty of general TV arc modeling to be useful in any genre.
I mean, Sagas of the Icelanders and Ironsworn both scratch the itch pretty damn well.
Franco bianchini I love the idea of feast. I wouldn’t go with an action like inspire if it really only intended for one type of character.
Eric Brunsell
I thought the same! It is the one that I have more doubts. I’m thinking another while, but I can not think other to replace it of D:
Since it is singing, I think you can assume that the skald can sing and use the appropriate action of the intended effect. So, of the song is to inspire before combat,use sway or command. If it is used for entertainment, use consort. If it is writing a new song use study / read.
Franco bianchini the only concern I have with changing the number of actions is maintaining balance with starting ratings, xp, and resistance rolls.
YES! but I think that is a matter of playtesting. I was watching the videos of John Harper and Adam Koebel about Hacking Blades and mention the fact of adding or taking action ratings several times. I calculate that adding one in each attribute will not make much difference. The first version of Blades had 4 attributes with 4 action ratings each.
Anyway, we’ll have to play to see what happens!
Eric Brunsell
Eric Brunsell i love that idea for replace the Inspiring action.
I’m going to rethink this! But i also love the idea of Feast. Is something i want to keep!
Franco bianchini perhaps feast could replace consort or attune.
Or Feast as a replacement for Indulge Vice, perhaps? A lot of interesting things could happen when you…overindulge!
If you read the sagas you’ll find this stories in where’s always involucrated eating and drinking a lot. And having feast as an action rating it seems important to me because the Feast is the place where all the soldiers, hersirs, warriors, etc has his most social interaction.
Bella idea.
But I think you have to keep Study as a action for planning and solve problems.
Attune can work fine for runes divination.
Maybe you need something to manage a Drakkar and the sea hazards.
Stefano Borri good idea! I will make some changes and come with the result!
Actions are much more powerful than abilities which add function to actions, due to their flexibility. You could add actions if they truly deserve that much attention, but making an ability to preserve the specialized feeling you get from being a PC with it might be better (see Physicker and how it expands Tinker to create synergy and fork off special functions of Recovery)
Blades system seems great for this. I like this idea of courage: when courage (stress) is depleted, suffer one fear (trauma).
Great idea to add that. Trauma is now Fear.. i like it!! see what you say about the action ratings , they’re indeed more powerful than habilities, i’ll check that.