Heat and Wanted for Sense8-style Hack
Advice needed!
Hey folks! So, I’m working on a Blades in the Dark hack that revolves around a group of PCs that are psychically interlinked with one another, similar to Sense8 if you’ve seen that show.
I’m having some trouble coming up with a way to mechanically express a few ideas I have rolling around, namely:
The PCs are pursued by a “bad guy” entity that is better able to track them as they grow closer to one another / more psychically intertwined.
Here’s what I have so far:
Relationships
At chargen or shortly afterward, players right down short, Fate-style aspects describing their relationships with their fellow PCs. They’re created and can be modified based on mutual concensus of the players involved, two players don’t need to have the same aspect for one another.
Intimacy Bennies
Players have “intimacy” points that effectively act as Bennies or Fate points. They can use them by invoking a relationship they have with another character to gain a re-roll or some other mechanical benefit. Players start each session with X amount, can gain more by invoking a relationship against themselves to worsen their position. The entire “crew” can only have a maximum of Y intimacy points, and points are spent out of a collective pool.
Heat
Whenever players use these intimacy points, it increases their “Heat” level. When “Heat” reaches 9 points, it increases their “Resonance”
Resonance
Resonance is the big one, it makes it so the “bad guy” entity is better able to track the players. This is what I’m planning to replace “Wanted” with.
Rites
PCs can perform special Rites to protect their shared conciousness from the “bad guy.” Right now, I’m thinking they involve PCs making special contracts / commitments to one another, or collectively sacrificing some of their abilities. By doing so, they can lower their “Resonance”, perhaps reduce the maximum level of Resonance they can attain?
Entanglements
This is the big one, that should tie all these mechanics together. Frankly, I’m not sure how to do it yet. I want it to feel like the “enemy” is getting stronger along with the players, and mustering greater forces against them as they pose more of a threat. Then, when the players start using Rites, they’re able to start taking some of the power back, without negating the threat completely. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Some existing friendship/bond mechanics you could lean on:
Friends grant each other +1D on downtime actions. Seems like all of this could this for each other.
Cult Ability: Bound in Darkness – You may use teamwork maneuvers with any cult member, regardless of the distance separating you. By taking 1 stress, your whispered message is heard by every cultist.
Entanglement: Demonic Notice (for the big bad): A demon approaches the crew with a dark offer. Accept their bargain, hide until it loses interest (forfeit 3 rep), or deal with it another way.
Refer to the guidelines on page 212 for demonic aspects and powers.
Rather than make a new currency, I’d personally lean on stress. Change the ways the both spend and relieve it. Maybe they can spend it for each other. Maybe they have some version Rooks gambit where each of them can spend two stress to give one of their action ratings to any other member. Maybe they regain it by all having sex / partying / killing at the same time (even if apart).
For any (or all of these things) trade the benefit for heat. It’s like an intrinsic devil’s bargain. You get these cool abilities, but some dark force notices the more you use it.
Another touchstone for this kind of trade off is The Matrix. As the free minds did more cool stuff, the agents were more aware of their presence.
Sean Nittner Great advice! Thanks a ton!
Have you looked at headspace? As an existing PBTA sense8 hack, it might have some useful ideas to borrow