A B – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Hi all (and maybe +Sean Nittner ?)

Is there a specific reason why the Vigilantes crew begins with five Crew upgrades when all other crews begin with only four ? I imagine it is for reasons of balance, but what is the specific weakness of the Vigilantes that has to be compensated by a “free” upgrade ?

Hi all

Hi all,

Hope you all had a merry scoundrel’s Christmas !

When re-reading the examples for “Skirmish” on page 176 I noticed a possible mistake : in the “Desperate” example, the PC makes a 4/5 but is only punished by “level 2 Harm”, which seems not to be in conformity with the page 23’s table, where it should be “sever harm (level 3)”. Am I missing something ?

Then the example led me to thinking.

– In such a situation, if the opponent is approx. the same force as the PC, I (the PC) make an Action Roll. Desperate position, so if any other result than a 6, then : boom, “severe harm” to me. But if the opponent is much better than me, I don’t even roll the dice at the beginning of the fight (see p. 167). So the GM can choose to inflict any harm to me, from level 1 (if the NPC wants to play cat and mouse) to level 4, death by sword through the heart, and any result in between (level : sword through the thigh, because he wants to get me as a prisoner and make me talk etc). The result of this is that : lighter wounds are possible only if the opponent is much better. If he is not that good and I choose to fight, then it’s level 3 harm… (in such a Desperate ” situation, me being unarmed).

That’s a kind of fictional contradiction that gave me some thought.

– The next set was : is “level 4 Harm” = Death only possible through the fiction and by GM fiat ? (except if you already are wounded to level 3 Harm and get another level 3 which is then bumped to fatal). Or is there some place in the game that I have missed, which makes it possible to get a Fatal Harm because of the dice mechanic ?

OK, tonight an iconoclastic and theorical question…

If difficulty level (which are NPC’s competence or the environment’s resistance to PC’s action) are absent from the dice mechanic of BitD (and all PbtA games really) and people are cool with this… then, for coherence, shouldn’t PC’s competence (ie Action ratings) be irrelevant too ? Or to be more precise, not irrelevant, but not providing more dice to roll : they should be taken into account by the GM ONLY to set the Position and Effect. Same for assistance, pushing yourself, Devil’s Bargain.

Then we always shoot two dice only… faster, simpler, and above all more logical.

What do you think?

Hi all

Brand new in the community, and from France (so please excuse my poor English !)

I’ve been reading all BITD material I could put my hand on for a few months now, and I have to say that it has been hard for me to come to grips with some aspect of the system (especially the absence of difficulty levels). But the positive things in the system and the whole game are too many to ignore. I just have to find players now.

I have one question and one comment:

– The question : armor. Does armor (both light and heavy) bring only ONCE (or twice for heavy) a benefit in any score (When you check the box) ? Or do you also take your armor into account each time you estimate your position in a fight (desperate, risky, controlled) ? So the box-checking is just added benefit ?

– The comment : about Tier.

Tier appears to me to be “too much” simplified. Especially when you have to take it into account in a challenge/fight. I have read on many posts in this community that it symbolises training, gear, scale, influence of the faction. But this is not consistent. The Red Sashes have “master sword-fighters” (good training), they are “very well connected”… but only Tier II. Would a master sword-fighter from them be at disadvantage in a duel against a Leviathan Hunter (Tier V) captain from the nobility… that he has maybe trained ? The Skov refugees are desperate, poor refugees, no training, no contacts… but Tier III.

Moreover the training of the foe is already dealt with in NC threat levels (page 167), so should not come into play when you estimate your Position or Effect. Or it would be double punition for the PCs.

My take is that the factions should have not one number to mechanically characterise them, but at least two to : Scale, Gear. Training would be in the fiction and could vary inside the faction.

I don’t know if i have been clear enough. Thanks for your input.