Has anyone tried a FitD game where the PCs are not in a crew together? I’m working on something like that, where it’s more of a situation like Urban Shadows, with the characters are a mix of different groups navigating the situations they all get thrust into while maintaining their own background agendas.
So basically, there is no shared crew sheet stuff (although there eventually could be if eveyone decides to be of the same faction). I would like to include crew things that the characters might have access to from their own factions– sortof chopping up the different crew options and sprinkling them into the different character playbooks that represent the (currently) five factions in the setting.
I’ve already roughed in Rep on the playbooks to represent a character’s standing within their own group, with Turf being replaced by something like Distinctions. Distinctions would be similar to Claims, but would be things that the characters do that their own group recognizes as great achievements that make raising your rank (tier) easier.
So overall, there would be faction dynamics, but they’d be more personal, and less of the team-vs-the-world way the original Blades works .
Does this make sense? I can’t tell, I’ve have very little sleep the past couple days…
I’d be careful. Without assistance from a teammate the cost of ability rolls rises pretty fast and peaks lower. Players will have a lower max threshold as they can’t get the assistance die, and they will need to push themselves more often on important rolls.
Are you prepared for the PCs to betray each other left and right? Because without being members of the same crew they really have no reason to trust or be loyal to each other, and since part of the premise is that they’re all untrustworthy scoundrels anyway, it’s not a question of if the game turns to PVP but when.
sounds like a bloodbath… I’m in.
Thanks guys!
So, this won’t be Blades in the Dark. It’s not focused on crime and faction growth. The setting and tone will be different. The groups that the characters will be from are big and fully established, so what happens in-game will be more on a personal level and won’t affect the factions on a broad scale. While the factions are not allies per sé, they’re not outright enemies. The game will be about dealing with situations and figuring out common ground and goals with the other characters while maintaining your duty to your faction.
Assisting other characters will still be an option, being in the same “team” isn’t a requirement for assistance to me.
this formula is literally every CW show, should work smashingly at the table. Good Luck.
you should check out Legacy: Life Among the Ruins and its offshoots. each player gets two playbooks, one for their faction and one for an individual character.
It sounds to me like you’re looking at the wrong system. BitD is a great system, but it sounds like you’re trying to hammer a square through a round hole. If you hit it hard enough it will go, but it wont go nearly as easily as a system designed for this type of game.
The game you want is Cortex+ Drama (as used in Smallville from Margeret Weis Productions) or the Drama System (as used for Hillfolk from Pelgrane Press). Prime Time Adventures would work well too. You might also want to look at Cold City or Hot War (by Contested Ground Studios), or Uprising (by Evil Hat).
Declan Feeney I disagree. Everything so far has fit nicely. Blades has everything I want for this hack, I’m just moving things around a little bit. The core of the system (actions, stress, downtime etc.) can be used without even touching on the crew mechanics at all, so I’m just using bits and pieces of that stuff where they may be interesting. Doesn’t feel forced or broken at all.
I think it’s possible but you’ll have to really examine what the system is doing for you. Stress and trauma, for example, really lend themselves to a particular narrative. One I could see in other genres beyond crime fiction, to be sure.
Taking away the crew means you might want to look at replacing some of the more important structural elements with something else that tracks the game’s progress.
Sounds great! I think one thing that would be worth considering would be a currency (xp or otherwise) related to forming (and leveraging) relationships across factions. The debts in Undying (and oaths in the de-vampired All Men Must Die) could provide good examples of this.
Michael Dunn-O’Connor That’s a good idea. I’ll definitely look into that. That type of interaction will be very common in this game. Maybe they’ll let me try this out at Pax Unplugged for Games on Demand…
This is really interesting. I’ve been tinkering with a Dark Souls inspired hack, and the PCs as seperate entities that “summon” into each other’s worlds when they venture out has been something I’ve considered.
In my hack the crew sheet is being replaced by hubs that the PCs share and upgrade together. So, collectively they are still contributing to bring in new NPC vendors and unlock things in the world without being part of a “crew”. I’m still not sure if it will work in play, but that’s more or less where I’m at currently.
John Scott That’s a great idea! Do you have anything down for that yet? I’d love to know how it works. I like that because even if everyone has different agendas and allegiances, just by the virtue of crossing paths and getting into shit together, their circles converge and overlap.
Mostly just brainstormed notes, nothing that I’m ready to show. Like you, I’m struggling with how to make it gel nicely with the FitD system.
Something I’m considering is creating “goals” or “quests” that must be met in order to acquire my version of claims. It will require the PCs to have different things they’re trying to accomplish when they set out into the world, and only if they all meet their individual objectives do they unlock the thing they want.
Eric Swanson What if you were to tie different factions to Playbooks? I just had a thought, instead of differentiating playbooks purely by “class” you could impose an affiliation as well. To use D&D as an example, the Rogue class could be tied to a “Thieves’ Guild” type organization by default. It doesn’t mean they only hang out with other members of the guild, but it often means they’re persuing the guild’s interests as well as their own position within the guild.
Another idea is to make each characters’ faction affiliation similar to the stress/vice mechanic. Reputation with your faction could be an expendable resource, and to recover that resource you must commit time or energy to the faction in the same way you’d indulge your vice.