Ran my first game of Blades as a GM last night, and it went really well! The players all dug it, and after two years of running d20 games for them, getting to play a game which invites and rewards cinematic scene framing and narrative elasticity thrilled me to no end. The other players were new to the system and “fiction-first” gaming in general, but they were already playing like naturals – thanks in large part, I think, to John Harper’s clear and compulsively readable rulebook, which two of them read and grokked without much trouble despite firm trad backgrounds. Taken simply as an introductory text for “fiction-first”/“indie”/“story” gaming, I think Blades is just about peerless.
I did come away with a couple of questions for you fine folks:
1. If the fiction demands it, do you think it’s okay for a character to have two vices? One of the PCs gives to charity out of guilt for the murders she commits (the crew type is Assassins), but she’s also a zealous believer in her dark gods who sacrifices people to them in service to the goal of bringing back the sun (at least, that’s what she thinks will happen).
Both of these fit the bill as vices, I think, and both exert an equal amount of influence on her life. I was thinking she could choose one of the two as her “active” vice at the beginning of every downtime phase, with the other one not counting until she chooses it in the next phase. Struggling with either or both would count toward end-of-session xp where applicable, but only to the usual maximum of 2 xp. I realize this makes being cut off from one’s vice a little less onerous, but I’m okay with that in exchange for the ability to make her life more complicated.
Does that sound workable to y’all? Any other issues you can foresee?
2. What are some good generic consequences for 1-3 and 4-5 rolls during social scores?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
1. Ok, so in a pinch, it’s not going to break anything if you allow 2 vices. The character might be more likely to get XP, so you’d need to watch for that out of a sense of fairness, but that’s about it.
But I wouldn’t recommend it. Not because it’s a bad idea, but because it’s more boring than doing something else. :). You have a character with two strongly driving motivations – why ground them both out as Vices when you could tap one or the other as a play generator.
As you describe it, it sounds like the charity is the vice. Awesome. Go with that.
But sacrificing people to a dark god? That sounds like a project. I would 100% set up a clock (probably a big one) that ticks up with every sacrifice. BUT – I would also make them work for it like any other project. A vice that involves killing people runs the risk of feeling weird because death is such a problem everywhere else in the game, it can feel like it gets a pass because of the vice rules. If every tick on that clock means killing someone, and all the risks associated with that, that feels much more toothy and play driving.
(Of course, if you want to invert it – that works too. A charitable act, like funding an orphanage could also be a project, with its own play-drivers)
2. The answer to this may seem a bit tangential, but it’s essential – start some clocks. Start a lot of clocks. Start them for all the people the crew might piss off, or who might miss one of their victims or for every other thing that might lead to trouble. And when you don’t have an obvious consequence on hand, tick one off. Once you have enough clocks in flight, the process becomes very organic with a very comfortable flow.
I’ve been thinking about this a fair bit, because I’ve seen some really good implementations of Vice, and some really weak ones.
A properly formed Vice will always have two sides: The benefit is that the character finds solace in the activity (a thus relieves Stress), but the danger is that overindulging has the potential to cause trouble for the rest of the crew (in the form of extra Entanglements, extra Heat, or the character going missing from time to time). If the second element isn’t there, it isn’t a Vice, it’s a hobby.
If Vices are properly constructed, I see no problem with letting a PC have more than one. It gives more opportunity to get in trouble.
2. Clocks for NPCs losing their patience, becoming suspicious, etc.
This is also a good time for “You lose your opportunity” to get some love.
And Harm as follows:
Anxious
Ashamed
Demoralized
Disrespected
Embarrassed
Enamored
Exposed
Furious
Ostracized
Uncertain
With social conflicts I find it good to keep action rolls and their goals small. If they are trying to sway/ grind their way through a clock the gm needs to be proactive. Don’t let them just build up their case. Have the npcs bring up reasonable objections. So then the pcs are rolling against this objection and not some nebulas clock. When you have this clear fiction, my favorite thing to do on a 4-5 is to demand a compromise. “Yes you have calmed me down about the risk but not enough for me not to ask for a compromise.” This could be coin for the extra security or a promise not to do something. Promises are great cause when they are broken later you can bring down consequences right away.
The answers for number 1 have all been good. For number 2, I’ll start by saying that you should avoid “generic” consequences. Consequences should always be grounded in the fiction. That said, some good templates are: you’ve made a permanent enemy of somebody; one of the people here is going to demand something of you later; one of these people is going to tell somebody else about what happened; or, always a classic, this isn’t a civil conversation anymore.
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1. I’d let the character get an additional Vice by using a long-term project with an appropriate amount of clock’s.
2. Depends on what actions you use in the social score. Good generic consequences would probably be people getting suspicious or ‘reading’ the character’s true motives, a threat of getting thrown out, increased or alerted security, drawing unwanted attention, being made a fool out, challenged to a duel or game, doing/saying something insulting and such.