Andrej Poljak – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Again something that has probably been asked already:

Is there an endgame in BitD? How does it look like? I understand this is different for every group but what are generally some of the conditions that can indicate a game is over? Are these mechanical (tier, wanted level, crew XP, etc.) or rather narrative?

Also maybe related: can you break the game? E.g., a crew of cultists burn down Doskvol in anticipation of their Cthulhulian god appearing. However they fuck up, burn down 90% of the city and no celestial overlord appears. Society collapses and the city, as described in the materials, is largely lost. Such a scenario sounds awesome but is that considered breaking the game? What is?

Sorry about the super specific and odd questions. I just like to think about “what if” scenarios sometimes.

Hey guys.

Hey guys. Clocks are really cool shapes but my group didn’t find them very intuitive (especially 6-segment clocks where the segments are asymmetrical). I think they are a part of the Apocalypse World DNA still left in Blades but I wanted to see how other progression tracking methods might work. I figured people of to-day my be more familiar with “loading bars” and so I made this. Gonna experiment with it in my game but YOU’RE FREE TO USE IT as well.

Note that it’s just a prototype and I’m not much of a designer so it’ very much imperfect. I may or may not improve on it in the future. Still if you happen to use it in your game I’d greatly appreciate any feedback.

Thanks and enjoy!

This must’ve been asked countless times already but I’m not sure how to find the answer so bear with me please.

Due to scheduling issues my party will probably have a player joining the game only sporadically. I imagine this won’t be a problem due to the episodic format of play. How does the system handle it though? Anything to look out for?

This is the sheet I use to track progression in my game.

This is the sheet I use to track progression in my game. Nothing super fancy but I thought I might as well share it with you guys.

http://imgur.com/g1DLGUK

So I’m running my first session of BitD in 10 days or so.

So I’m running my first session of BitD in 10 days or so. It’s supposed to be a one-shot but I feel like it could spin off into a campaign. Now my dilemma is this: the quickstart rules tell me to either include the crew creation or to drop it.

On the one hand I see how including the crew rules can complicate and slow things down. Plus it’s totally unnecessary for a one-shot. On the other hand the “management” aspect of the game is one of its signature features and probably one of the most interesting aspects of the game. I’m sure this was already discussed before but still – what are your thoughts on this? Thanks for any opinions!

I made a little visual aid for Blades in the Dark.

I made a little visual aid for Blades in the Dark. It’s a bar chart showing the result/success chances depending on the dice pool rolled. I know Blades is fundamentally a narrative game but in my experience players will try to game any system so it’s good to “disclose” this kind of information as transparently as possible. In the end the least statistically savvy players will benefit the most I think.

OK that’s enough apologetics. I hope someone finds this useful.