Just finished first session of blades and it went well 🙂 took a bit of getting used to the system for them but flowed well.
We had three players, “Umbzuzu” a ghost hunting whisper from a tribe from inland Severos, a “Isabel” a Lurk from Tycheros with a penchant for murder and “Thornton” a cutter from the dagger isles who was brought up on ships and turned to thug work to support his illegitimate child. They started out as Hawkers, they couldn’t decide crew so rolled for it for the first session but may well change playbook.
I started them in the session by heading to the leaky Bucket where they had a chat with Mardin Gull, also the cutters vice purveyor. He filled them in on the impending situation and who may have work for them.
They decided to speak with Bazso Baz first and headed to the lampblack headquarters and spoke with him, he offered a few jobs and gave more information about a possible crooked magistrate that was in possession of ledgers that contained the whereabouts of a stash of illicit drugs of cooked up demons blood. The crew decided they wanted to consider things and left to discuss but were warned they’d either have to be with him or against him.
They left and had a discussion in a smoke shop and decided they wanted to speak with Mylera. They decided to group action to sneak out the back in case the Lampblacks were keeping an eye on their decision.
They then spoke to Mylera, who was rather brash with them but offered payment for the war treasury score to prove their worth. They accepted and she disclosed it was in a secure four story ex-bunkhouse building on the canal, on the edge of crowsfoot. She expressed under no circumstance was any heat to come back on her, she also told them of a guy called Viktor was Baz’s accountant at the lock up.
The crew decided that Thornton would try and capture Viktor and interrogate him, then the crew would break-in subterfuge style with what they found out. I performed a set up with Thornton, he skirmished and got a 5 and managed to grab Viktor (not before he cried out) and dragged him into an alley. A bluecoat came to the scene hearing the cry but Thornton was able to keep hold of Viktor and stay hidden. He first used prowl to hide and I started a clock for “Viktor wriggles free”. He then threatened him to “shut up and stay still” with a knife under the neck and rolled a 6 and the bluecoat left. He was able to threaten out of him the location of the safe and get his keys. He then was able to get back to the group with Viktor tied up and hidden.
They then rolled engagement and Thornton joined them, breaking in on the floor with the safe. They rolled a 5 and I had them swing across to the balcony only to discover what looked like sensors for an electroplasmic alarm skirting the window ledge. The whisper decided to use his Tempest ability to try and overload the alarm with energy, he had assistance and pushed himself for greater effect. He rolled a 6 and the the system went down without causing any suspicion inside, probably a fault of some kind. The Lurk then picked the window lock rolling a 5, it turned out the lock wasn’t very good as the guards thought the alarm to be sufficient, so it gave way too easily and they tumbled through the window with a thud. 4 segment Clock started, guards alerted with one tick.
They rolled another group prowl commanded by Thornton, rolling a 5. They successfully sneaked down the corridor towards a metal framed door that they knew to be the safe room. Thornton was so focused on keeping the group in order that I made him drop an item, he chose to have some manacles on him and the clunked to the floor, one more tick on the clock. Voices in the room can be heard “Did you hear something, nah probably nothing” kind of thing.
At this point they decided to flash back and say they would have used disguise to dress one of them up as Viktor and tell the guards they were relieved from duty. I gave a two stress flashback as it’s pretty out there plus they rolled finesse for their make up efforts and rolled a 6. I made their position risky from the 6 on the disguise, plus the fact that they had the keys to the room brought the roll down from desperate. Another 6 followed on their command roll and the guards left. They all took sacks as equipment and emptied the safe and then successfully sneaked back to their entry point. A failed fortune roll meant that the alarm system had come back on. The whisper did the same as before with aid, on a risky roll and hit a crit. I had the system downstairs backfire and explode, they then escaped onto a rooftop, picked up Viktor and escaped back to their lair. The building burnt to the ground in electroplasmic fire. A bit too successful and as it ended up looking like an accident. Viktor was handed to Mylera and assumed dead by the Lampblacks. She was very happy. The crew came away with a fair bit of cash and very little heat.
I think maybe I should have ticked more clock segments on the 5 rolls, two rather than one? I still don’t know if the disguise should have been desperate or risky, even with the 6 in doing the make up for the disguise? Any other thoughts on play or what you would have done differently are appreciated. I think the second session will be much more comfortable to run, as I know what kind of thing they may do, it’s not going in quite as blind as session number 1! The session felt like it flowed really well though and everyone is keen for another one. Making up the scores on the fly is fun but before hand a little daunting 🙂
For the clocks and how many segments to fill, the easiest way is to determine the position and fill it in accordingly. 1 segment for controlled, 2 for risky, 3 for desperate. Of course, you can change it however you want for whatever feels proper. Eventually, you’ll have a good feeling on how gritty or adventurous you want the story to be and you can ask the players for their opinion too!
As for where to decide if it is risky or any of the other options, just keep in mind scale, quality, and potency. I learned that from one of the posts here that Jon commented on and it really helped me figure it out. That’ll give you a decent baseline. Just remember, it doesn’t have to be like that always and potency is kind of the “creativity” part that can strengthen or weaken scale/quality. A Bluecoat is a Tier 3 threat but if he is a drunk rookie, his potency might be weakened to Tier 1. If a Cutter ambushes the poor guy, that’ll even things out more or start giving advantage to the lucky scoundrel!
I hope to read more of your group’s misadventures soon!