As requested, I’m going to put my reply from the previous Band of Blades thread into a new thread.

As requested, I’m going to put my reply from the previous Band of Blades thread into a new thread.

As requested, I’m going to put my reply from the previous Band of Blades thread into a new thread.

So I’ve finished reading both documents. As someone who reads a lot of these sorts of things I’m very excited to run this in a way I haven’t been since Orig Blades (so many years ago), or maybe 10 Candles. It reminds me of the new XCOM video games, which are probably my favorite modern games.

That said I took some notes while reading it and I have a lot of questions/comments, numbered and broken down by section (sorry for the incoming wall of text). They don’t all necessarily needs answers, because I’m comfortable ruling for myself if need be, but a few are more important than others (specifically 2, 12, 16, 19, 20, 26, 27). I’m going to apologize one more time before I paste these questions in here, feel free to ignore any/all of them.

Missions

1. Special Mission under Duresh Forest mentions that two gods were also in the war. What happened to them? It mentions them choosing, but also being phsyically present. Is that something just these gods do, or do other gods also interact with the world physically?

2. What does Vital mean as a mission requirement?

Heavy

3. Why is Anchor called Anchor, confusing word choice to me. Anchors are heavy, but aren’t known for fighting as small group.

4. Do Vanguard and War Machine stack(ie. you get both effects, and +1d or +effect for 2 stress)?

Scout

5. Sixth Sense – If I follow correctly, this lets the Scout replace likely their best action rating (seems like scout would be used for this roll) for their resolve resistance rating when gathering info? It’s an interesting mechanic, but unless they go out of their way to put a dot in each resolve action it’s probably not an upgrade. Might just be better to give them +1 effect or something?

6. The scout has the unique equipment “Seals and Reliquaries”, are these different from a regular reliquary in any way? Also why is the scout more religious than other specialists?

Sniper

7. Must Aim be used before a roll, or can it be used after? The name implies before, but it seems unfair to potentially make them waste such a limited resource on a miss.

8. When firing crimson shot does a fine weapon put you to threat 5, or is that already taken into account (ie. normal weapons can’t even fire them)?

Officer

9. How do group actions work with squads of rookies? If a squad of rookies fail a roll would you take 5 stress? That seems pretty harsh, but otherwise Tactician seems kind of weak in a game with only 2 or 3 other players.

Rookie + Soldier

10. Not A Rookie Anymore – Is there a reason why you don’t specify that the specialist action is Grit? Are there circumstances where it could be something else? I was very confused at first because I forgot Grit was also a specialist action (which is also confusing since soldiers are not specialists).

11. Is the text in Not A Rookie Anymore saying that you must choose it instead of any other second rookie advance (I know this is true already from the rules), or is it saying that once you become a soldier you have to specialize as your next advance? The latter doesn’t really make sense to me, but the former seems confusing because of the use of the word “Specialize” which doesn’t seem to fit turning from rookie to soldier.

12. Do you only make sheets for rookies played by the players? How do you track XP for NPC rookies, can they gain XP? How do you track harm and healing checks for NPC rookies? Do NPC rookies have a special ability/heritage/Load? Same questions for Soldiers?

Equipment

13. Heavy armor ignores lesser harm, is that limited use or permanent once you bring the armor? What about after you expend the armor?

14. Heavy Armor vs Fitted Heavy Plate. The only difference I see is heavy armor specifies vs physical attacks and heavy fitted plate does not. Does that mean heavy fitted plate works against magical attacks as well? Or are they functionally the same?

15. Shield vs Tower Shield. Tower shield specifies stopping missiles, shield does not, but does say physical (which missiles tend to be). Can a regular shield stop an arrow or bullet?

Marshal

16. Is it possible to have more than 30 soldiers? Do the specialists take up spots on squads, or are they in addition to the 30?

17. What are supposed to do with those tiny boxes next to specialists labeled abilities and actions?

Commander

18. Which squads distrust or don’t fear leadership? That question seems like it should arise from play, and perhaps be tracked by the marshal, but this question to the GM implies that perhaps this may spontaneously happen at GM whim?

19. There appear to be a minimum of 16 hexes that you must travel. Assuming you do at least one mission in each hex (which the GM sheet implies), that’s a minimum of 32 time, which means you’ll lose the game. Odds are you won’t roll the minimum, and sometimes the players will want to do multiple missions. In terms of mission rewards and penalties Time seems to be a wash, appearing 3 times in each column. Am I missing something? Must players just be sure to focus most on missions that have time rewards/penalties to ensure success?

20. Is every hex on the map assigned to one of the locations, or are some of them just space?

Quartermaster

21. Is the only way for non specialists to clear stress a boosted Liberty action?

22. Do the # of boxes imply a hard limit to # of personel or amount of supplies?

23. Do laborers put ticks on clocks even if the QM doesn’t take Long Term Project action?

Spymaster/Lore Keeper

24. Does having more players make the game significantly easier because of the added roles (not to mention the extra stress pools of more PCs)?

25. Does Lay Trap extend any other benefits to the assault mission, or just let it exist?

Chosen

26. It would be nice to just hear some general advice on playing your chosen. How often should they be helping on missions? What else are they up to if they aren’t on missions. How often should they perform tangible actions on their own like when Alanna eliminates an infamous between missions? Basically how do you make them seem more than just window dressing without making them a crutch/GMPC?

Broken

27. Do Elites only show up after their corresponding ability is gained, or do they just become more frequent?

28. I assume the Undead Advance clock is the same thing as the time clock? I never see it referred to as such.

33 thoughts on “As requested, I’m going to put my reply from the previous Band of Blades thread into a new thread.”

  2. I was going to post my notes, but having read John’s comments I think he said everything I was going to say but better and more authoritatively.

    So, my note boil down to “Yeah. What John said.”

  3. Here’s the reply, amended where necessary:

    +Mark Griffin

    Missions

    1. Aldermark has two Chosen – brothers. One was Broken, the other was not. They were not ‘physically present’ but they did choose together.

    2. Vital means it must be a priority mission. We’ll make sure to add that text – I thought we’d gotten that already.

    Heavy

    3. Anchor as in to anchor your squad – it implies a weight around which the tide of undead break. It also means you’re unmovable, and that you stand mighty in defense.

    4. Yes, Vanguard and WarMachine stack, as do all push powers that say ‘when you push’.

    Scout

    5. Scout is used to find out things scout can find out. Where, how many, what do they look like. You must also be scouting. Sixth sense, as the name implies, gives you a radical new vector to gather information about the undead, and often reveals deeper/different information.

    6. At one point, they were subtly distinct. At this point, I think you can treat them largely the same. This does not make the scout more religious. Reliquaries are a tool, much like a gun or a knife or a tent. How your scout feels about this tool is up to them, but they’re standard issue for scouts because scouts are often deployed forward, looking for the enemy.

    7. Aim may NOT be used after a roll. Spend uses for effect.

    8. Ah, the bullet vs gun argument. If you fire a threat 4 bullet with a threat 2 gun, take the highest (threat 4). “Fine” augments the rifle, which by default would be Threat 1 (standard legion gear.)

    Officer

    9. No, you only take one for the squad of rookies as a whole. (Often, we let someone playing a Rookie make that representative roll.) If your rookies do a group action with you, another specialist, and your medic, you could suffer 4 stress. We might revisit Tactician though.

    Rookie + Soldier

    10. Nope. That should probably specify Grit.

    11. The former. We’ll clean up the wording.

    12. Correct. Unplayed rookies don’t get XP. If you must, generate sheets for any Rookie that you want to assign some XP to. NPC rookies also don’t get harmed – they die or survive. NPC rookies are carrying ‘standard gear’ for their load level and have no additional utility load.

    12b. Soldiers follow Rookie rules when not being actively played. Yes, if you send a squad of vets out on a second mission, and they 1-3, only two of them come back.

    Equipment

    13. I think it’s more accurate to say a lot of ‘lesser harm’ isn’t really a thing for people in heavy armor. You can get lightly sliced or bruised while wearing a bunch of plate – there’s too much protection. But a curse that isn’t impeded by armor, or one of Blighter’s minions’ gas attacks, or simple exhaustion are all still options. Interrogate the fiction and see what makes sense.

    14. Fitted heavy plate is yours and looks like yours. It’s recognizable, it may have a standard of your line on it. It’s also fitted, which means it’s comfortable and you’ve practiced in it quite a lot. These are almost entirely fictional differences, but they are there.

    15. A regular shield can absolutely stop a bullet or (more likely) a crossbow bolt from a Crow. However, a tower shield gives you a dominant position for most missile fire. In most cases, I would ask myself whether it’s even possible for the person behind the tower shield to be hit. Pushing forward against a bunch of arrows behind a tower shield isn’t really a roll to see if you’re hit. It might be a Maneuver roll to determine if you can move quickly, but that would be controlled, for sure, with the potential consequence that the reduced effect. These are not the case with a simple shield. The interactions of armor and weaponry are more fictional than mechanical.

    16. narrows eyes, booms in quartermaster voice DO YOU THINK THE LEGION IS MADE OF COIN? WHERE ARE WE GOING TO FIND THIRTY VETERAN SOLDIERS? (Seriously though, if you have more than 30 soldiers, I am very impressed. No, you may not have more than 30 soldiers; they must be assigned to squads, and you may not have more than six squads.)

    17. Stras says they’re for counts of special abilities/actions. They’re notational, so use them as you see fit.

    Commander

    18. This usually isn’t a factor for the first few games. If a squad is starting to distrust command, I would make a clock for it and tick it when it’s relevant, perhaps as a result of rolls. We’ve had all sorts of drama in the legion at our table.

    One time, our Marshal jammed two half-filled squads together to constitute another squad, and a fight broke out about which patches they would wear. If that’d gone badly, the mission might’ve had a different answer to that question. I would give the GM this advice: don’t be a dick, but let the legionnaires be proud, headstrong, passionate, and bold about things they care about.

    19. Oh! No, you don’t travel by hex, you travel from location to location. There are exactly 14 locations and your longest route will be 8 locations.

    20. See above.

    Quartermaster

    21. Huh. That’s unintended. We really meant everyone with a sheet. We’ll amend.

    22. Yes.

    23. Yes.

    Spymaster/Lorekeeper

    24. Yes. The game is slightly harder but plays just fine with 3 generals a GM. We’ve carefully calibrated what the optional roles can and cannot affect to keep the experience still pretty tight. The game does not play well with more than five people (four players and a GM) at the table.

    25. Fictionally, you’re laying a trap, so presumptively, there’s a strong case for advantages – flashbacks should be relatively easy to justify. But you still roll the same engagement roll, and the rewards and penalties for the mission should also be rolled as for a normal mission.

    Chosen

    26. I answered this on the KS post, but I’ll repeat some of that advice here. “Chosen are powerful forces in the story that protect the legion. One of the buy-ins for the game is that the camp is frequently attacked by undead. Chosen are often tasked with keeping the Legion or the location they’re at safe while the troops are away. They’re mostly present during the campaign cycle, such as during free play, back at camp scenes, etc.

    During free play, or Back at Camp scenes, the Chosen is portrayed by the GM. If needed, you can make fortune rolls for the Chosen to determine their stance on things. One time, my players were split on trying to ally with a Lieutenant of Breaker’s to sow dissent in her ranks. I wasn’t sure how the Chosen would feel about making deals with “the enemy” so I made a fortune roll. (High was unwilling to agree, and I subtracted dice for solid arguments the Generals made.)

    On missions it’s best to not have them handle all the problems. If they’re on the field of battle have them take on a difficult or impossible task that enables the players to achieve a key objective. They often engage with other extremely powerful entities on even footing, including Broken or Lieutenants, or very large groups of undead.

    Mechanically, this often works out as dual clocks – one for the Chosen, and one for the threat they’re engaging. You roll a fortune pool based on the Threat each provides – Chosen are Threat 4 so usually that’s 4 dice. Broken are Threat 5, so that’s usually 5 dice. Sometimes you add or remove dice based on circumstances. Apply effect modifiers as appropriate. In terms of clock sizes, I would put a Chosen or Broken as a 10 clock, though as always, that’s based on position, circumstance, and your gut.”

    Broken

    27. We have been playing it as ‘These Elites are unlocked by the respective Broken ability.’

    28. Yeah, sorry. Thought we caught all the Undead Advance references. I guess we missed one? It’s now supposed to be the Time clock.

    PHEW. That’s a ton of questions. Thanks for being so interested in the game! (NB: As this is a beta, we may change our answer on some of these. But I wouldn’t expect a ton to shift as we do have a lot of playtesting on these things.)

  4. Mark Griffin Yeah, it’s a little unclear. Something for the 1.1 pass! As for the hexes, it’s something we’re looking at. We tried to commission an illustrated map, and the artist fell through on it, so we’ve been using the HexKit map as a stop-gap. It works well, but the hexes communicate something we don’t really mean.

  5. tl;dr on my repost: I was off on AIM, that’s pre-roll spends, and also the wording on Heavy Armor has apparently been in there a lot longer and I don’t read as well as I should.

  6. Mark Griffin since john re-posted I removed the copy of his stuff if that’s ok (not trying to abuse mod powers here).

    I wanted to elaborate on a few things if it’s ok.

    4. Things stack if you meet their conditions. So War Machine and Vanguard stack, because they both work in melee. But it wouldn’t stack with something like sharpshooter. As you can imagine having full class writeups (another 50+ pages >_>) will help clear what works where and with what when.

    5. Ever tried figuring out if there were undead on the other side of a wall? Scout can’t handle that. Sixth sense can (for example). Ambushed? Sixth sense gives you a NOPE resolve resist for example. Resolve is our kind of mystical trait as well.

    6. Reliquaries can react to the presence of undead. When you want to send a troop forward to look for the enemy you equip them with a detector and protection agent if you can spare it.

    You have a bunch of questions about fictional positioning here. So if I’m a soldier in a shirt with a knife, and an undead with corrupting claws and bites jumps me, that’s a risky or possibly desperate position. If I’m a soldier in full plate, your average zombie doesn’t scare me much. I’m in a controlled position.

    Apply the same question to “I’m advancing into enemy ranged fire. I have a shield about the size of manhole cover” vs “I have a wall that comes up to my chest I’m marching behind”. One of these is a desperate maneuver, the other probably controlled (if you rule a roll required at all).

    14. Fitted heavy is “special”. Heavy plate is good plate-mail, and it protects well, but fitted heavy is custom to you. We had an Orite heavy with clockwork in his, and his War Machine talent worked by pumping alchemicals into his suit. He also fought with a morningstar which was a chain attached to a clockwork winch on the back. Fitted heavy is not statistically better, but it should be detailed an unique. It might have interesting or rare metals, cool house designs. It’s all narrative, but it’s the difference between a Heavy and some soldier in heavy armor.

    27. John is mostly right. If I know Blighter is working on say Gut-sacks, I might have a mission where there is a lab experimenting on people, where if they break in the troops can see a few gut sacks being made, and maybe some break loose and advance. Don’t just sprinkle them everywhere, but also don’t let the fact that you don’t have the advance stop you from foreshadowing what’s happening (I call this GM liberty :P)

    28. Heh it used to be called “Winter” but everyone kept making game of thrones jokes, so we called it “Undead Advance” even though we used “time” to refer to ticks. We just changed it to “Time” at the end so some language slipped through. Blame this on me.

  8. John LeBoeuf-Little to briefly go back to the question of soldier limit (and for the record in this instance I meant soldier in the generic sense, perhaps legionnaire is the right word here), are the specialists also in squads or are they in addition to the 30? If they are in addition, then does a promoted soldier leave an empty space in a squad?

  12. What make firing a Crimson Seeker Shell so traumatic? does it require part of your soul to consume? does it made from the blood of the Cinder-King, acquired in a special operation in which a Breaking took place and melting apart the mind of the shooter? does it make a momentary emphatic link between the sniper and the target and make you feel them in a way that help you put a bullet in their brain but also feel them die?

  13. Yep. They’re weapons left over from the Godswar. To prime the shell you usually cut yourself and have to bleed on it, it definitely takes a piece of you to fire.

    It’s not made FROM the Cinder King (he’s a relatively new thing in the world) but the rest of it is up to your table. And your interpretation sounds very cool!

  14. Just so you know, I’m dying to try this game, if I had less exams incoming I would have probably been playing a session right now. I was looking for a game that would let me tell a proper story in which main characters can die because the world is fucked up and uncaring for ages now, and it looks like you just NAILED it.

  15. So I will be running this on Friday, though likely only getting through setup, some rules (everyone is already familiar with Blades thankfully), and setting. Anyone who has run it have any particular advice for session 0 tips beyond whats in the pdf?

  16. Honestly, I’ve been in a bunch of session 0s (we’ve done a few one shots) and the best advice I can give is to trust the procedures.

    ESPECIALLY the Chosen’s starting missions. DO NOT attempt to write your own starting mission for your first game. At this point I’ve played through every starting mission, some more than once as PC and GM, and I still find it hard to write a really good starting mission.

    There’s a lot of good and subtle setup in those missions that will help you start your campaign off right, and teach you how to run a good mission.

    Study those starting missions.

  17. The wording on Alanna’s Book of Hours ability is a little confusing. What if it’s gained as your second ability, do already active specialists still gain the +2 actions? Do promoted specialist gain the actions? Do mission reward specialists gain the actions? Or is it only the ones you start out with (meaning you should choose this ability first or not at all)? I would interpret it in it’s most liberal sense such that every specialist benefits regardless of when they were created/promoted/awarded and when Alanna got the ability, but maybe I’m being too nice.

  18. What’s the deal with ammunition? Is it marked at a rate of 1 circle per shot? Is a sniper really running around with only 10 bullets? Does a single circle count for a single scenes worth of ammo? Or is it marked as a consequence of failures and partial successes as the GM deems necessary (if it’s the latter, might be cool to make a sniper move that expends ammo for benefits)? Same questions for black shot as well, is it 3 bullets or something else?

  21. If the sniper wanted to use all of his utility load to bring extra ammo, would you allow him to write than in one of the black spots (essentially bringing him up to 15 shoot rolls), or is ammo too scarce?

  22. Define “allow”? It’s not broken or anything, it’s just kind of a dumb idea. I’ve never seen anyone get CLOSE to needing 15 shoot rolls on a mission. Before you’ve made 15 shoot rolls, you’re probably dead from consequences or stressed out from resistances.

    Honestly, in playtests ammo was about twice as abundant as it is now, but it got reduced because no one ever thought about spending it. It was ALWAYS worth it.

    The reduced numbers mean you might occasionally think about conserving shots, but mostly you won’t need to worry.

  23. Mark Griffin excited to hear how your game goes.

    Alanna: Book of Hours. Active specialists get +2 actions. If you gain one (say from a mission) they get +2 actions. If you promote a soldier, they get +2 actions. The game is rough, your chosen is the only thing that gives you an edge. Interpret that generously. Your ruling would be how we plan to elaborate it in the full text.

    Ammo: Dylan is right. It’s not literal bullets. You’re assumed to fire a few shots in a volley, or reload 2 pistols. It’s actions, and you’re perfectly right to cut some ammo as consequences (takes a few shots to get them, you spill some out etc).

    Bear in mind there isn’t high grade industrialization in this world, so most bullets are made by the Quartermasters laborers by hand, or a handful bought in town from someone that carries that sort of thing. Supplies are just not that common. This is closer in terms of production to colonial times than the engine that WW2 pushed through.

    That said, there are some ways around that (Flashbacks, Officers Channeling up some supplies for folks etc).

  24. While on the question of load. Are utility items selected before a mission, or is it like regular blades where you can decide to mark things as you go, up to your limit? Do Crimson Shot and the Bandolier (the two items granted by abilities) count against your load limit?

  25. Before a mission (I think that’s in the “So you’ve played blades” session). Military stories are more about making do with what you have than heist films, where brilliant thieves have just the right solution ^_~

    Crimson Shot and Bandolier do not count against your limit. I should add that to the notes (version 1.1 is coming with some fixes, grenadier also gives you +1 utility).

  26. There is only one dot on your sheet for special armor, but most things that grant special armor have multiple uses (Anchor, Scrounge, Grit, Med Kits). Can you only use special armor once per mission, or can I spend multiple Anchor as special armor over a mission? What about one point of Anchor and my special armor from Horned One’s Thews?

  27. Anchor has uses. There’s a uses line. Use that.

    I guess if you’re a blades player that might be confusing.

    Yep the rule is the uses as special armor are one-for-one but outside of that you have one “special armor” if you have a power that utilizes it. I’ll talk to john about cleaning up the language or streamlining the rule so it’s more clear.

  28. Thanks. I somehow missed the uses line completely, despite actively looking for something like that.

    Having regular access to other special armor is pretty rare, and also mutually exclusive, coming from two abilities from different chosen. There technically is one case of getting a one use special armor from the Loremaster, but that’s about as edgy as edge cases get. Had I noticed the uses line, it wouldn’t have been a question.

  29. Can you grab all this stuff and put it in a FAQ somewhere central I can check back in on? This game has been dancing in my head for a while and it’s a lot of questions 🙂

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