I hope to start a Band of Blades campaign tomorrow with players new to the BitD system. What advice do you have for both preparing myself to run the campaign/setting and/or teach new players? Which parts of the setting/lore/mechanics are key to get across early, and which can be discovered or covered through play?
I’m very experienced with BitD, but what surprises might I face in mission-play that are different in Band of Blades? Finally, I know I’m not too great at GMing in a horror/grimdark tone, so that will be out of my comfort zone. Are any particular Chosen or Broken easier or harder for players to engage or for me as GM to run effectively and evocatively?
There’s a lot to teach– IMHO. I’d focus on the initial mission with the characters and maybe leave the meta-roles off the table for a while. That’s something we discussed after our three sessions.
It’s key for them to know the immediate situation and the direction the force is moving. Unfortunately there’s also a lot of world material (nationality, etc) tied up in CC so be prepared to brief players on that.
Lowell Francis Thanks for this feedback. The meta-roles are definitely the most exciting part to me (being very familiar with BitD core), so that is a good reminder that it is likely too much all at once for players new to BitD gameplay just in itself.
Are you running f2f or online?
Lowell Francis I’ll be running it face to face.
There’s a separate online game I hope to join as a player running weekly in November (through the FB group Absolute Tabletop)
I think f2f makes things a lot easier– physical playbooks in hand, the ability to look at and pass around the map, etc. I think that will help a lot.
If you’re running online, having the map and the time clocks on a central page is handy.
Just saw this – so sorry for the delay. Let me know if you still have questions (or how it went!)
Stras Acimovic Not too late! I was overambitious. I’m gearing up to run it in November.