Author: Andrew Shields

I realized there is another pitch-perfect genre that the Blades in the Dark rule set would accommodate with a little…

I realized there is another pitch-perfect genre that the Blades in the Dark rule set would accommodate with a little…

I realized there is another pitch-perfect genre that the Blades in the Dark rule set would accommodate with a little adjustment.

Racing. Especially illegal criminally connected racing. Either with cars, or with spaceships, or pods, or whatever.

The character types would have to change, but you could have the “heist” replaced with the race. Flashbacks to making deals with other factions and racers, with elements of corruption (throwing the race, sabotaging someone else’s vehicle, seducing a rival, killing a key resource, bolstering a vehicle with an infusion of cash, etc.)

The race determines prestige, requires repairs, involves a payout, and affects rivalries. While there is a pilot (and maybe gunner, depending on the kind of racing we’re talking about) you can have a character offering big-picture guidance to grant advantages and disadvantages, and to handle flashbacks to working with other factions. You could have a fixer who might have acquired the stuff you need at this moment in the race, before it started. You could have the saboteur/face, who deals with other groups to disrupt their unity or their gear, so they falter during the race at a critical moment as needed. And of course the artist/mechanic with the custom vision and methodology to make the perfect racing machine–and get a battered one back out on the track.

So you have like the pit crew and management, and that’s the crew. They have vehicles that they maintain and grant advantages to through custom gear, and sponsorship they must maintain to stay solvent (whether that’s criminal oversight, advertising companies, or a combination, or decadent nobles dueling by proxy.)

So you have downtime actions, then everybody gets a single action before the race (for a little role playing with a mechanical or fictional bite) then you have the race. During the race, mental focus is an issue, as is skill, the machine being driven, and the relationship to other drivers. As well as atmospheric conditions or other race-track specific things to make each race deliver its own challenges.

Then have a deck of challenges (or a table) for each track type, and at intervals, reveal a complication that the team as a whole prepared for ahead of time. If their prep isn’t enough, then there’s bad things that happen to the racer (or someone behind the scenes, depending on the kind of challenge.)

I have a suggestion for cards for speeding up character generation.

I have a suggestion for cards for speeding up character generation.

I have a suggestion for cards for speeding up character generation.

The two biggest slow-downs in making characters and crew with a new group? First is nationality. The table has to strike a balance between speed and absorption, making the information on the various nationalities available to the players and they ponder, then decide.

Even on the scale of a few sentences each for a few nations, that slows the generation down significantly and uses up a chunk of the player decision making energy.

The second, and much bigger slowdown is when it comes time for each player to pick faction relations. Players (quite reasonably) want to understand what they’re deciding. And there’s a LOT to take in. For each and every player, and then synergies between players are possible, so there is discussion that can (should?) be taking place there. Not only understanding the factions, but then making decisions about them, and THEN contextualizing those decisions as appropriate.

What would be super handy is if there were cards that had the faction name and the brief description on them. Give every player two cards. Tell the players as a whole that those are the factions they may have dealt with, and let them pick which ones are friends and which are enemies.

Still let them have a +1 and a -1 each, but limit the playing field and give them easy obvious readable access to the factions.

As for the tier 3 they get a +1 and a -1 with, either put the tier 3 on different cards and give the players 2, or replace that part with asking them their status with the Crows, + or -, and if they choose -, give them 3 Coin that they didn’t pay as a tithe to the criminal masters.

Having the nationalities on cards would be handy too. I would make 3 cards for each nationality, then deal each player 2 cards and let them choose one or both to be their cultural identity. =)

Here is a story, introducing a brand new crew in Doskvol.

Here is a story, introducing a brand new crew in Doskvol.

Here is a story, introducing a brand new crew in Doskvol.

Find out why they set out to make their own crew, what their first heist will be, and how it turns out. If you’re into that sort of thing, smile at the suggestion of game mechanics behind a “fiction only” context. =)

I hope you enjoy reading it.

https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/the-gallows-tower-heist.pdf

I’m putting it in the “art” category because that seems closest.

https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/the-gallows-tower-heist.pdf

You guys like to curse your characters, right?

You guys like to curse your characters, right?

You guys like to curse your characters, right? Here is a way to slam a starting character or unfortunate traumatized character with some additional weirdness. Forever more, it’s up to them to contain the Thing inside, so they become the Cursed Cage.

https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/cursed-cage-ams-7-22-16.pdf

https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/cursed-cage-ams-7-22-16.pdf

Blades in the Dark is about scoundrels and rogues, thieves and killers.

Blades in the Dark is about scoundrels and rogues, thieves and killers.

Blades in the Dark is about scoundrels and rogues, thieves and killers. Here is a way to focus on the greatest among them–the nobility.

https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/peerage-ams-7-22-16.pdf

There’s a way to handle nobility with tiers and hold, and provide a way to track the Coin and favors they can access on short notice, and their general lifestyles. Plus, a great subsystem for a favor bank.

https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/peerage-ams-7-22-16.pdf

I have a few ideas for Blades in the Dark queued up. Here is a subsystem for workspaces.

I have a few ideas for Blades in the Dark queued up. Here is a subsystem for workspaces.

I have a few ideas for Blades in the Dark queued up. Here is a subsystem for workspaces.

https://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/workspace-ams-7-22-161.pdf

This is how Leeches have laboratories and Whispers have libraries, how all the characters can get their supernatural consumables or equipment replaced, and how to mechanize that for those who are interested.

Two pages for the workspace (including answers to lots of questions that might emerge around its use) and one page with an optional entanglement table, for occasional use to change it up from the standard table.

This is what happens when Whispers are also weavers, and they want a ghost room they can take with them.

This is what happens when Whispers are also weavers, and they want a ghost room they can take with them.

This is what happens when Whispers are also weavers, and they want a ghost room they can take with them. Let’s cross Gothic noir with Loony Toons with a dash of D&D for a great portable getaway. Or goaway, depending what’s down there.

I couldn’t immediately put my hand on the effect of spending Coin to assist with a stress reduction down time action.

I couldn’t immediately put my hand on the effect of spending Coin to assist with a stress reduction down time action.

I couldn’t immediately put my hand on the effect of spending Coin to assist with a stress reduction down time action. So, I figured Coin being as precious as it is, it would replace a roll and allow the character to just clear all stress.

Pay 1 Coin, clear all stress.

It is such a vital function (clearing stress) that I figured that would allow those who were more risk averse to pay a pretty steep cost, and protect the character.

What’s the official rule on spending Coin for stress?

In the future, it would be great to have a reference in the “Stress and Trauma” section with a page number for how you clear stress off.

I had a chance to run Blades in the Dark rules-as-written (almost entirely, the only exception being giving them…

I had a chance to run Blades in the Dark rules-as-written (almost entirely, the only exception being giving them…

I had a chance to run Blades in the Dark rules-as-written (almost entirely, the only exception being giving them more opportunity to act and inquire before a heist.)

One of the players had played the game with me at a previous game day. Another was a pretty experienced gamer who was curious. And I also had the fantastic luck to have a game store patron who walked in looking for board games but sat down to try this game out. We had a great time!

The session was under four hours, with a leisurely character and crew generation process. My only prep was to read through the rules and try to remember how to play the game.

We still blazed through two heists and two down time cycles. When we quit, the story wasn’t DONE, and I could feel it tugging at the players as they reluctantly packed up.

Because Blades in the Dark is awesome.

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/blades-in-the-dark-the-horsemen/

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/blades-in-the-dark-the-horsemen