Adam Schwaninger – Page 2 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Copperhead County: Let’s Be Cops

Copperhead County: Let’s Be Cops

After an expensive recovery downtime last session, the Hunnicutts manage to pull off a stick-up job assisted by a roll20.net RNG that finally took pity on them.

The Hunnicutts are a Blood crew, which is based on using family ties to increase your crew’s prestige. Many abilities are feud-based or involve family ties. Our particular family got into crime to raise money for the family patriarch, Ezekiel Hunnicutt, and his struggle with COPD.

Zeke the Stringer (planning, group actions, setups), failed start-up entrepreneur played by Adam Maunz

Earl the Cleaner (stealth, hunting, murder), corrupt cop played by Tyler Ellis

Eustace the Mover (speed, daring, cars), ex-con dirtbag played by me

Jason Eley as the GM

We decided to go after some Turf and chose the Gia Dinh Nui (Vietnamese protection racket) as our targets, as they had strongarmed our NPC cousin, Wayne, during a previous Entanglement result. This session saw the first of many crits during our opening Gather Information roll. We staked out the strip where Wayne had informed us the GDN operate, and ended up in a perfect position to witness a drug handoff at a Vietnamese market between the Barnett mob (higher-tier west-side old-school) and four GDN members (including Danny Tran, who was the guy who’d roughed up Wayne).

We deliberated whether we should go for all six guys and try for the drugs and the money, but we were gun-shy after our abject failure two sessions ago and waited for the Barnetts to leave before we moved in. Our plan? Use Earl’s connections to the police and pretend to be cops.

Earl flashed back to the precinct supply room, and although he got some badges for us to use, he ended up seducing his lieutenant in a great scene. Detective Lind will be poking her head into Earl’s business more often now, which isn’t good for criming, but we got our symbols of systemic abuse and white privilege.

Engagement roll was a 6 (again, a marked improvement over our 1 previously). We didn’t start off yelling (well, not too much), but our attempts at playing the dirty cops just looking for their cut weren’t enough. Last crew upgrade, we all took bonus dice in Fight because it’s a good plan B. Zeke also has several great Stringer abilities that boost setups and group actions. Mechanically, we were able to work together much more efficiently than in the past, and critted a controlled group Fight roll to put the GDN boys on the pavement.

I played Eustace’s Vicious trauma here, pistol whipping Danny well after he’d been taken down. It took Zeke to physically get Eustace off Danny, which was an opportunity for one or some of the guys to make a break for it. Zeke kept rolling sixes though, and the danger didn’t manifest.

We scared them into staying north of the strip, allowing us to move in on some new turf of our own. We didn’t let slip we weren’t really cops. We made off with some kush for Wayne to move. We tiered up to Tier 1. We didn’t leave any bodies (really, our choices were no bodies or four bodies).

It also (for me, anyway) felt really skeevy. It was a nasty plan to basically use some of the worst things about our country and have it work that well, you know?

Seriously, our dice rolls: 6, 2, 4, 6, (66, 6, 6) (a group roll), 2, 4, 6, 6, 3, 3, 5, 2, (5, 66, 5), 6, 6, 5

#copperheadcounty

So excited!

Lots of red pen so far, but very excited!

Learn wtf bleed margins are and why you need to plan for them. 🙂

Ordered the first print proof of Glow in the Dark!

Ordered the first print proof of Glow in the Dark! I’m excited, although I know that there’ll be a need for at least three proofs. This first one I already know isn’t correct, plus who knows what mechanical printing errors are waiting for me (bleeds and so on). Just because I got the file format correct doesn’t meant the book is right. The second proof will probably be invalidated after I’ve ordered it and while I’m waiting for it to ship. I’ll find some typo somewhere or a wrong page number reference (if I’m lucky). That leaves the third proof as the earliest “final” version. Not that I really know what I’m talking about; I’ve never done this before.

#glowinthedarkrpg

I’ma let you finish, but Stringfellow Hawke had the best Vice of all time.

I’ma let you finish, but Stringfellow Hawke had the best Vice of all time.

Pictured: Hawke and his vice purveyor, Cello. He often overindulged.

Glow in the Dark: At Last a Raiders Playtest

Glow in the Dark: At Last a Raiders Playtest

Today was the first time I’ve ever run Blades (or in this case, a hack thereof) face to face. I got to introduce the rest of my game group to the system and it went great. We got through 2 runs and 2 downtimes – by comparison, my Hangouts games can take a month to do that.

My 3 players made a tribe of Raiders – straightforward mostly-reskinned Bravos who take what they want and burn the rest.

The Red Rocs are:

Howler the Driver, a former Last Cavalry gyro-pilot left for dead after a bungled assault, forced to survive in the wilderness.

BB the Feral, beastmaster and tracker, a teenager who never knew civilization.

Krondar the Reaper, amnesiac psycho. He’d be a Faceless in Apocalypse World. He’s the conductor of the poop train. He has the shiniest meat bicycle.

This was a one-shot, so we started off at Tier 1 with some extra tribe abilities, action dots, and special abilities. Nothing broke, and we were able to playtest a little more broadly than going through the same old new tribe starting situation. The players went full Beastmaster, taking the Gyros and Cars upgrades but reskinning them as mutant riding beasts. This didn’t present any problems either, and it really solidified the tribe’s aesthetic. The Red Rocs all rode beasts – the Driver had a custom flying beast instead of a car, and the BB the Feral took the “Good Dog” ability and granted his pet massive size, so he could ride Stabhawk into battle.

Taboos worked better here than in any prior playtest. Krondar took a taboo against all ranged attacks, forcing himself to literally dive into close combat. BB always took risks to scavenge everything, even as pursuers or encroaching storms drew nearer. Howler took a taboo against slavery and refused to accept medical help from a Monarch doctor because their faction took slaves.

Raiders pretty much work as advertised. The two runs were essentially smash and grab ambushes against a hostile faction, the Knight Riders. They were at war by their second downtime.

For the two players new to the Blades system, I think the main impressions I got from them were:

1. It’s fast. We did a lot of combat. Things were generally decided by the third time around the table.

2. Hard choices – and I’m really happy that this came through. What ability do you take? Do you push yourself? Do you roll to resist? How much stress do you have? Do you have enough supplies to indulge vice and do something else? Do you do a team action to maximize safety (better chance of 6) or roll separately so each person can tick clocks?

It would be cool to see this hammer of a tribe continue, and find out if they can make literally everything a nail.

#glowinthedarkrpg

I saw this image and thought of this thing running around in Duskvol.

I saw this image and thought of this thing running around in Duskvol. Probably it’s not pen ink spewing from its noggin.

Originally shared by Sarah Perry-Shipp

Ink Demons are the source of Writer’s Block

https://brotherbaston.deviantart.com/art/Ink-Demon-644067371

The Dead Setters leave their mark on Duskwall in The Retirement Caper.

The Dead Setters leave their mark on Duskwall in The Retirement Caper.

After the Brightstone Riots leave their ugly scars on the homes and safety taken for granted by the nobility, the Dead Setters use their rising influence to infiltrate the largest gangs of all: government.

Trains

Rook the Cutter can’t beat them, so he joins them. Unable to simply tear down Imperial authority, he uses his folk hero status and leads Ulf Ironborn, the Reconciled, and the Skovs (still galvanized after the riots) to reclaim the Lost District. With protections supplied from Teatime the Whisper and grudging help from the Silver Nails, the Skovs take back the District and claim it as their own. Rook becomes something of a robber baron, going straight for railroad construction and expansion into the Deathlands. The Dead Setters’ Ghost Market ability and their alliance with the Reconciled, plus ample supply of leviathan essence allow them to make more headway into the wastelands than any expedition in decades. Rook retires into rail tycoon-hood, sort of a combination of Daniel Day-Lewis’ roles from Gangs of New York plus There Will Be Blood.

Birds

Raven the Hound murders Magistrate Rolan Wott and then shoots herself on Bowmore bridge. Her spirit is torn between her Reconciled friend Nyryx, who was possessing her at the time, her spirit-linked ghost-form raven Zeramore, her Tycherosi blood, and her rituals from the Path of Echoes that should have returned her to the crew’s spirit well.

Weeks later, rumors abound of a spectral raven that plucks the life from those who would harm the Dead Setters. Months and years after that, a small cult following of assassins springs up, taking the storied name of the then-defunct gang the Crows. Raven becomes the spectral and enigmatic leader of the new Crows, styled after the Assassin’s Creed brotherhood.

Gears

Deemo the Leech, now a Hull, disappears after the Brightstone Riots. Left with only the desires to discover, acquire, and destroy, she continues her sparkcraft, refining her automatons, and seeding them into Duskwall’s various vital industries. Deemo becomes an information broker, as her clockwork spies are everywhere. Those who cross her are seldom seen again, but rumor has it her hull spies are often powered by the spirits of her former enemies.

Heirs

Teatime the Whisper, aka Habel Tinriver, aka Heir of Scurlock. He travels outside the lightning barriers to claim Lord Scurlock’s ancient castle for his own. Accompanied only by Mr. Clicks, Scurlock’s former hull manservant, Teatime explores forbidden knowledge.

He rejects vampiric immortality in favor of taking on apprentices, passing his accumulated lore to better and brighter (and saner) minds. He is of course murdered by one of these apprentices years later.

Badges

Richter the Spider weasels his way into the vacancy left by Bluecoats commander Bowmore, tragically killed in the riots in an “accident” involving a sack of hand grenades. He uses his cohort of loyal “yellowcoats”, a sort of internal affairs Stasi, to keep one step ahead of regular Bluecoats corruption and assassination attempts. Richter eventually manages to use his connections to the Imperial Navy to get a seat on the Council, and from there he institutes a sort of anonymous “criminal court”, where underworld disputes can be settled with minimal violence. Less violence means more business, which means more graft for the people in charge. Hardly anyone argues with the new way of doing things… for now.

Richter dies of old age, a miracle for someone as divisive and ambitious as he was. His children are not up the task of holding Duskwall’s criminal elements in sync with its corrupt government. Things start to fall apart, a perfect starting situation for a theoretical continuation of our campaign.

~~~

We really shook the pillars of heaven with this campaign. We played weekly since ~March 2016, going from v4 quickstart all the way to 8.1 release. Huuuge thanks to all of you who read these APs and everyone who streamed/APed Blades during that time – I probably watched some if not all your stuff in my attempts to be a better Blades GM.

I’m still running playtests for my #glowinthedarkrpg post-apocalypse hack and I’m playing in a #copperheadcounty crime hack. Blades in the Dark has insinuated itself into my gaming thoughts like nothing since, well, probably the idea of Fate aspects. I’m just so appreciative of this community and John, Sean, and everyone being transparent and available.

For the final time, and for reals this time, #heestcomplete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVGdZXKMuY

Yeah, Those Are Good Cop Names, aka The Hunnicutts Participate in an After School Special, a #CopperheadCounty story

Yeah, Those Are Good Cop Names, aka The Hunnicutts Participate in an After School Special, a #CopperheadCounty story

Jason Eley the GM

Tyler Ellis as Earl Hunnicutt the Cleaner

Adam Maunz as Zeke Hunnicutt the Stringer

Adam Schwaninger as Eustace Hunicutt the Mover

Our bubbling rivalry with the College Street Crew, a bunch of molly pushers, was something the Hunnicutt clan couldn’t let fester, not after their muscle came after our cousin Wayne at his place of work. We decided to track down the CSC chemist. We didn’t have much of an endgame, but we figured if we found their chemist, we could maybe steal some of their gear, maybe kidnap their chemist, we didn’t know but we knew whatever we did would hurt the CSC.

Earl, using his authority as a Patterson PD detective, got a minor hit on them in the police database. He followed the trail to Patterson State University and spoke to Bobby Ballard, an unusually recalcitrant PSU rent-a-cop. Seriously, Bobby was really loath to divulge information to an actual legit cop, so much so that Earl’s pressure made Bobby suspicious (devil’s bargains: engagement roll penalty), but Bobby caved enough to meet Earl later that night. Earl would be bringing Zeke and Eustace, of course, in disguise as undercover officers Michael Steel and Dan Hardcastle, which are totally great cop names.

“Yeah, those are good cop names.” – Tyler

Our engagement roll was a 1.

So of course Bobby was in on it – it made sense that the college drug ring would have campus safety buttoned up, and although Zeke helped Eustace grab Bobby’s phone and get warning of the impending ambush, the Hunnicutts couldn’t do much to stop Mark Bryant (rising football star and something of a recurring nemesis for Eustace) and 2 other CSC kids with guns from coming out of the nearby maintenance building.

Everyone exchanged fire, but thanks to Earl’s police training the CSC got it worse. We had to decide whether to fight it out, go stealth, or cut and run. We decided to try to flank them, and Eustace played out a flashback idea to survey the maintenance building – back in the 90s when he was just a teenage dirtbag, trying to score college girls. Guns & Roses on the radio, making out with Bobbie June Holloway in the back stairwell of the maintenance building…

There was a back stairwell. The Hunnicutts darted around back but Mark confronted them as they reached the back door. Mechanically, Mark was a tough cookie. Eustace had to resist his charge before he could open fire, but he did. Eustace ripped off the rest of his Glock 18’s magazine, spraying Mark and putting the star down (not dead, but close). They got the door open and burst into what must have been the CSC’s drug kitchen. Earl tasered Roy Reyes (whom we suspected of being their cook but couldn’t tell for sure).

Bobby used his campus safety powers to call the real cops on us next. Eustace booked it out the front door while Zeke packed up the gear. Eustace made it to the van and just off-roaded it across campus back to the building. Bobby was at the back door and the surprisingly badass rent-a-cop plugged Eustace in the shoulder right before he bounced off the van’s hood, ragdolling across the grass.

We bundled Roy and the lab equipment into the van and made it out just before the cops arrived.

We’re at war with the CSC now and hit our first Wanted level. This was a costly success and although we’re into actual crime now with our first Drug Game claim, in the short term we’ll be in dire straits as we try to recover our stress and injuries.

I have Roll20 survivor and tribe sheets working for my #glowinthedarkrpg hack.

I have Roll20 survivor and tribe sheets working for my #glowinthedarkrpg hack. Many thanks to Tim Denee and Jakob Oesinghaus for their BitD sheet work, and Chris McDonald for adapting that to Scum & Villainy. I learned vastly more from comparing the two than trying to decipher just the one.

EDIT: If you’re inclined to hack or peek, my sheets aren’t on roll20 but I do have them here: https://github.com/aschwaninger/glowinthedarkrpg-roll20-character-sheet