Author: Adam Sexton

Asking SLIGHTLY ahead of time, anybody interested in Alpha playtesting Household Renovation of Great and Terrible…

Asking SLIGHTLY ahead of time, anybody interested in Alpha playtesting Household Renovation of Great and Terrible…

Asking SLIGHTLY ahead of time, anybody interested in Alpha playtesting Household Renovation of Great and Terrible Power?

We can start…mostly… whenever we like but I’d like to work on the playbooks a little bit more and maybe make handouts for the more essential bits that wouldn’t be as easy for me to just word-of-mouth to you.

As usual for me, I run super casual, so if you just want to have a taste of the game and leave, that’s fine too. I don’t really hide my alphas from everyone, I just don’t feel comfortable having someone else GM or facilitate yet because many ideas are just in my head. When I do, then that will be my Beta v1.

Humble request: I’d love to see more portraits of fighter ladies in the final book like Mylera or Arcy.

Humble request: I’d love to see more portraits of fighter ladies in the final book like Mylera or Arcy.

Humble request: I’d love to see more portraits of fighter ladies in the final book like Mylera or Arcy. That would be badass.

So I gave it a try a month ago, and I want to say Blades runs fine if you start playing from the beginning and do…

So I gave it a try a month ago, and I want to say Blades runs fine if you start playing from the beginning and do…

So I gave it a try a month ago, and I want to say Blades runs fine if you start playing from the beginning and do character creation in flashbacks. I do want to give some advice that I’d give someone else (and myself) if they wanted to do this again.

There are a few things you do want to pick before you start, and I’d say they’re probably things like having your players grab a particular playbook, picking a name, picking their friends and rivals, and probably picking their individual faction statuses. The rest seems to be fine to flashback to, but I’d put the character creation page on the table so they know what extra stuff they’re entitled to and can fill in as it’s convenient to them in play.

And before anyone brings it up, YES, I let them pick special abilities and action dot assignments before a roll. Everyone’s OP in session 1, anyway; I also do it so the player knows what kind of vibe the crew is going for before making a choice.

But yeah it’s a pretty good technique for faster startup time. 😛 Hope it’s good for you if you use it!

I’m pulling some weird tricks with the mechanics of this Playbook.

I’m pulling some weird tricks with the mechanics of this Playbook.

I’m pulling some weird tricks with the mechanics of this Playbook. (Also I want to show off some progress on my character sheet layout and show what I’ve been talking about in other people’s posts)

Since the beginning, I’ve been entirely fucking captivated by designing a playbook where you play a vapid HGTV couple who sticks around for a little while and after not that long JUST CAN’T EVEN ANYMORE. I also had an epiphany this morning that this playbook is going to be (if it isn’t already) utter fucking poison to play. You begin with 8 action dots (the other playbooks start with 7, like Blades) and they’re more customizable, and your special abilities are all about finding ways to leverage EVEN MORE dice or manipulate the statistics of the game in your favor. This is a great incentive to play The Pair….. for a while. Your Stress Boxes and your Traumas are snipped by 1 and your XP tracks are increased by 2.

You have to do stress-costly actions to get enough XP to buy the abilities which just cost you even more stress to buy dice which diminish on their returns!

(Salivates at the delicious horror.) I can’t wait to watch the Pair suffer. YES!!! Just talk one more time about how you don’t like the house that we intend to renovate according to your every stupid whim! YEEEEESSS!

Also, the split action dot array is weird and I’m waiting to see it work.

Let’s talk about specialty coffee in Duskwall in a highly speculative way so we can mine this post for inspiration…

Let’s talk about specialty coffee in Duskwall in a highly speculative way so we can mine this post for inspiration…

Let’s talk about specialty coffee in Duskwall in a highly speculative way so we can mine this post for inspiration later.

I’ll start. Espresso is a violent and fucking insane process. You grind coffee really finely, press it down so hard it doesn’t come out when you flip its filter upside down, and then use an expensive machine (which, if not functioning properly, can hold such a high pressure it can actually turn into a bomb just like a pressure cooker can) to FORCE water through the tightly packed coffee grounds.

Now what would happen if instead of water, I used Thought Essences? Or told the coffee part to fuck off too and used Trance Powder?

Idk it’s 4 in the morning and my Thurs game is in a coffee shop.

Here’s an update about my current Alpha crap for Household Renovation of Great and Terrible Power.

Here’s an update about my current Alpha crap for Household Renovation of Great and Terrible Power.

Here’s an update about my current Alpha crap for Household Renovation of Great and Terrible Power. It’s currently written as a text to modify Blades instead of stand alone, because it sounds literally like a homework assignment to take on the task of restating in my own words how the core system of Blades works. 😛

Changelog from Blades in the Dark v6

1. (Overview) Household Renovation simply operates on a very different premise from Blades. You play gilded personalities who renovate houses in a well-lit hell with high production values. People must possess qualities such as ignorance, beauty, or abhorrence, or be violently altered by the agathokakological curators until they do.

2. (Actions and Attributes) New Actions! Your characters Blaspheme, Commune, Consult, Demo, Design, Dream, Expect, Handle, Host, Install, Read, and Sell their way past obstacles. The new attributes are the very straightforward (almost sterile or academic) Body, Mind, and Soul.

3. (Stress and Trauma) When you mark your last stress box, your character snaps emotionally and leaves as quickly as possible. This game’s selection of traumas is: Awkward, Combative, Dark, Haunted, Obsessed, Paranoid, Reckless, Unstable.

4. (The Action Roll) There is a fifth result level called a Critical of Great and Terrible Power, which suddenly alters an aspect of your character. Instead of pushing yourself, you must burn yourself out. It’s +2d for the cost of 4 stress. Renovations are Hell. If you snap at other characters in the process, you can off-load some of that stress onto them. If they stand up to you, you must take the stress yourself. (back-track here if you need to and don’t forget to be extra nice to their player)

5. (Consequences, Harm, and Resistance) Appropriate consequences to resist with Body, Mind or Soul correspond to Prowess, Insight, or Resolve, respectively.

6. (Factions, Tier, and Rep) This game doesn’t have claims. As great and terrible as the world is, it is plentiful. There’s enough for everyone. If you find yourself thinking, “Wait, but”, then don’t worry, all the things you’d expect from claims you can just buy as crew upgrades in a similar, claims-mappy sort of way.

7. (Planning and Engagement) The new plans are: Demolition: Tear down a structure; Detail: The tools, methods, and people you will use. Construction: Add utilities, structures, or protective surfaces; Detail: Method of remodeling . Decoration: Improve the aesthetic of a building Detail: The style you aim for. Feel free to use any of the ones from Blades, they still work too. Even an Occult plan works if you’re using Masonic structures and beings of Great and Terrible Power instead of

8. (Teamwork and Flashbacks) Don’t forget to use action rolls to convince unwilling teammates to help you.

9. (Advancement, Heat, and Wanted Level) Heat has become Ire. Wanted Level has become Torment. This is due to the fact that the source of eternally prying eyes is not the cops, but the omnipresence of beings of great and terrible power.

10. (Vice) Vice is flexible. Eat illegally imported candy one day, play story games another; relieve your stress however you like, but what will give you XP is your character indulging that itch to be a terrible human being.

11. (Coin, Entanglements, and Downtime) I did a bunch of poetry layer bullshit. Coin is now Cash. Entanglements are Tribulations (They’re weirder now and get weirder the more Ire you have). Downtime is now your Weekend. You only get payoff at the end of a week when you earn it, and may feel the financial pressure to pick a quick reno over a profitable one.

I could use a little general design advice for going forward on Household Renovation of Great and Terrible Power.

I could use a little general design advice for going forward on Household Renovation of Great and Terrible Power.

I could use a little general design advice for going forward on Household Renovation of Great and Terrible Power.

I can’t fucking create lists of character options or crew upgrades to save my life. Every game I’ve gotten this far on DOESN’T have them. Something about it ELUDES me. It’s taken me MONTHS to write 5 character special abilities on each sheet. Even now, I want to edit or trash some of them because they’re written as a “what thing do you get +1 effect in” instead of “how can I give mechanical teeth to the awesomeness inside the concept of this crew/playbook”. How should I go about it? Just keep stealing ideas from media? Anybody had a brighter idea? I’d love to hear it, cause I’m being driven slightly crazy from staring emptily at my lists of entanglements, abilities, etc.