We had our third session of my Age of Blades game (campaign set in the Blades in the Dark setting but using a tweaked, “classless” version of Fantasy AGE as the system) last night, and it went really well.
The PCs are a crew of Shadows (thieves) with something of a weird bent. So far, they’ve stolen the Red Sash’s war chest for the Lampblacks, becoming somewhat embroiled in the escalating gang war between the two groups, and stolen an ancient Iruvian necklace in a daring heist during a society party at eccentric nobleman and amateur archaeologist Cecil Penderyn’s townhouse at the behest of their patroness, bohemian black sheep noblewoman Adelaide Phroiag.
Last night’s session was all “downtime”, with PCs following up leads and indulging in vices (I introduced a mechanic where characters have one “scoundrel’s luck” point that they can use for a re-roll among other things, and which they get back only by indulging in their vices and risking over-doing it).
Moon-Eye, their whisper (spooky/magicky guy), went off to be possessed by his ghost associate, while the rest of the crew went to watch Jailya, their Skov bruiser, get beaten to a pulp in a dockside fighting pit (Jailya’s player failed her Willpower roll to not overindulge, and just kept fighting until she was knocked out).
Baszo Baz, leader of the Lampblacks, approached the crew’s Slide Saiya (an old flame of his) and negotiated letting a couple of his wounded foot soldiers recuperate in Saiya’s inn/brothel, which is the group’s lair.
Hishan, their Spider, put some pressure on his contact at the Blue Coats archives, and got copy of the investigation report/notes about the necklace heist, and found that an anonymous tipster had alerted Inspector Kristov Mariden that the crew might have been involved.
The Dimmer Sisters sent a ghostly summons to Moon-Eye and called in a favor, asking the group to get a weird artifact (a thin clay tablet covered in serpentine runes) on board one of their rivals, the Fog Hounds’, boats, break it, and flee (quickly…) They cased the Fog Hounds and made a plan, and we’ll launch into the score next session.
I had been worried that I didn’t have enough material prepped for the session, but there was some great characterization and interaction with NPC’s/factions. I think folks are settling into their characters, and the setting is feeling more “organic” and real (despite the players making regular jokes about the demon-based economy of Duskwall…).
I’m using the organization rules from the FAGE Companion to handle the crew level game. The raid on the Red Sash’s HQ was a plot action (doing very minimal damage to the Sashes due to the difference in tier), and they rolled a great success with stunt points on their first Growth roll, moving up from Tier 0 to tier 1. They are getting something of a rep, and flexing their criminal “muscles”.
All in all, I’m really happy with the campaign so far, and happy with the decision to use FAGE which I chose for its simplicty, even though one of my more casual players is still having a hard time grasping the system…