I took a quick look through a few of the free Forged in the Dark hacks out there and I didn’t notice any Advanced…

10 thoughts on “I took a quick look through a few of the free Forged in the Dark hacks out there and I didn’t notice any Advanced…”

1. Scum & Villainy does. Dunno about Band, someone playtesting it probably knows about that.

   To answer the other question, speaking for myself as the fitful designer of a hack, I do have some fun ideas for such things but they take a backseat to actually playtesting, polishing the rough edges off my core rules, finishing a full write-up, doing graphic design on sheets and handouts, etc. etc.

   Before I would want to offer more things in my hack, which is already a lot to digest for a prospective player/GM, I would much prefer that what is there makes the best possible case for itself.

2. I hadn’t considered that, but yeah, I guess it is a bit of a surprise that’s not more common.

3. I wonder how often people end up using Permissions in play. Like Compendium Classes in Dungeon World, they’re a little tricky because the player sort of needs to know they exist to aim for them fictionally. It can be a bit chicken-and-egg.

   That said, I would love someone to come up with a bunch more special permissions for core Blades! That could be a lot fun.

4. I’ll echo what Charles said earlier. It’s not a huge priority for me at the moment, trying to wrangle my own hack to be comprehensive and still readable. There’s definitely room for it in the fiction, and I’ll probably do at least one “ghost” style playbook.

   Also I feel like the best “special ability” stuff I write comes when I have a good understanding of what the core rules are, so I know how to break them. So for me those special rules might not come until I’m a lot more certain of how my hack operates.

   Good question!

5. Thanks for the responses so far! In my own work to create a hack for this system, I’m relating it to the design work I did when creating a licensed setting for Savage Worlds.

   In Savage Worlds, it’s very rare that skills and attributes will change from setting to setting so most of the design work happens around custom Edges and Hindrances (basically feats and drawbacks if you’re unfamiliar) and the signature Setting Rules that make your project stand out from the rest of Savage Worlds. For example, my Blackwood setting is a mash-up of Grimm’s-style folktales and high-flying wuxia action. The Setting Rules include wilderness exploration, unique fighting styles, and a “I remember a folktale that could help me here” mechanic very similar to BitD Flashbacks.

   Blades in the Dark is explicit about making bone-deep changes in hacked material, so it makes sense that there’s a greater focus on the fundamental design of your hack. Still, I would have thought Advanced Rules would be an clear opportunity to make your setting really stand out.

6. The answers above are solid. I’ll add a few more.

   It’s a lot of work/playtesting for not so much payoff. If you’re playing Blades, many people will be Whispers, but few will want to join the Cult of Echoes specifically. These sorts of things are usually best left to GMs and homebrew (or expansions like the alternate Whisper permissions for Iruvia).

   Also the core/base game takes a significant amount of games to explore, so folks aren’t exactly short on content to deal with and looking for something external to dive into.

   It’s a great way to distinguish a different setting or place, but most folks are hacking the game entirely.

7. I think it’s because the permissions feel like they’re meant to be made by the players, not the designers. Sure, the book gives a couple examples, but it seems to be more about “My character has joined a cult and I want to do something with that, but in a more specific way than any of the regular advances allow.”

8. Based on what everyone is saying, it seems to me that Adv. Abilities and Permissions are functionally more like inspirational material than something that often gets used in games. Makes a lot more sense why they’re not as big a focus!

   Now I’m curious: IMO, Rituals and Crafting ride the line between core and advanced rules. They’re a bit of a departure from the rest of the game but their place outside the Adv. Abilities and Permissions section of the book implies that they’re part of the core experience nonetheless.

   So if you were working on a hack and considered a particular element to be outside the basic processes of the game (for example, a question-based situational mechanic like Rituals and Crafting), would you include that in an Adv. Abilities and Permissions section or elsewhere? I suppose it depends on whether you want the mechanic to be part of the core experience or not, right?

9. Yep. That’s in the designer, their hack intent, and kind of a per-hack basis answer imo.

10. I noticed as well. Simply because I have had one for Runners in the Shadows since a couple years ago. So yes.

    However, I didn’t present it as one in the published version (yet- my playtest version does include that as a section though). I think the reasons why were partly the state of development (not done) plus me not being clear what is the core game, what is optional, and what is simply inspirational fluff. So it’s just been lumped together to keep things somewhat usable as well

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