Author: Colin Fahrion

This Tumblr post “Rations for various RPG Races” is pretty great though very D&D focused http://artemis-entreri.tumblr.com/post/160744381948/rations-for-various-rpg-races

It has gotten my brain stewing on what sort of day ration pack Duskvol Scavengers would take with them…

– Mushrooms

– Smoked eel

– Seaweed crackers

– Strong scented cheese from blind albino goats

Also all this would make for good bar small plates at any tavern in Duskvol.

Anyone else have ideas for what sort of food you’d find in a ration pack, maybe even Heritage specific? Like what would an Iruvian carry? Or maybe your gaming group already has a list of foods they commonly eat at the their local Duskvol tavern? I’m curious to hear!

http://artemis-entreri.tumblr.com/post/160744381948/rations-for-various-rpg-races

I just want to give kudos to John Harper for the idea of creating Long-Term Project as a freely adaptable rule to allow players to break the rules or create new rules and introduce new ideas/concepts to their game. It’s one of the most inspired aspects of Blades in the Dark.

Apocalypse World has a lot of excellent content in the book about putting the power in the MCs hand to make new moves as needed. The Warren takes this a step further by with the Innovate Move which puts the power of creating new Moves in the players hand. I’ve run the Warren multiple times and have seen great examples of Innovate being used creatively for great effect on the story.

The BitD Long-Term Project takes this one step further still putting changing nearly any aspect of the game into the player’s hands. This really takes the “play to see what happens” mindset to another level where the game rules and core aspects of the setting can shift and grow along with the story.

Great example of how minimal and innocent seeming a “lair” can be even for a high end crime org: The Midnight Rose Candy Store run by an run by a little old lady in her 60’s, Mrs. Rosie Gold was the headquarters for Murder Inc, one of the most infamous and deadly assassin groups of the 1930s.

“Exact numbers aren’t known, but it is estimated that Murder Inc., carried out 400-1000 executions, making the innocent looking candy store responsible for more murders than anywhere else in the United States… Rosie Gold kept a wall of pay phones along the back wall of the candy store; the members of Murder Inc., would pass the time at the Midnight Rose, sipping on Rosie’s malted milks until one of the phones rang, giving the details of the hit.”

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-old-headquarters-of-murder-inc

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-old-headquarters-of-murder-inc

The most recent Bundle of Holding offering is Tribe8, which hands down has to be one of my favorite far too deep for it’s own good roleplaying game settings — which I read passionately but never played. Strange post-apocalyptic fantasy with humans living under the harsh protective rule of earth goddesses called Fatimas and surrounded by alien demon Z’bri horrors who wish to enslave them all once again.

From a simple inspiration perspective, the society of Tribe8 could very likely serve as great inspiration for those of the Dagger Isles. The Z’bri are definitely more viscerally horrific entities than the more elementally aligned demons of BitD but still potentially useful to read — especially if you want your demons to be darker than what it says in BitD. The Serfs of the Z’bri are good inspiration for the demon influenced people from the far off land of Tycheros.

Taking it one step further, it’s easy to imagine that humans may have survived through more than one apocalypse. The first apocalypse resulted in the world of Tribe8 with demons enslaving humans as serfs and strange goddesses protecting the humans. The Immortal Emperor could have been one of the fallen 8th Tribe who mastered a mixing of Synthesis magic and Sundering allowing them the ability to bind the demons and imprison them. This was the start of war between the 8the Tribe, the Z’bri and the Fatimas. At the height of the conflict, the mysterious Melanis of the Z’bri attempted to do what they always dreamed break open a door back to their land. This severing of walls of reality broke the Gates of Death and caused the Cataclysm, leading to the world of Blades in the Dark.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Tribe8

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Tribe8

I was listening to The Dollop, which is a great and hilarious history podcast, about the history of American Firefighting. Specifically, it’s about volunteer firefighting which it all was as first — it’s insane with firefighting companies competing for who gets to the fire first resulting in huge street brawls between rival firefighting companies and houses ignored as they burn down. Street gangs even aligned themselves with various companies.

I highly recommend you check out the podcast as it’s a great example of various factions (even ones that are supposed to be good) aligning with each other and/or fighting each other over turf and loot.

Makes me think that Firefighters should totally be a faction in Blades in the Dark.

http://thedollop.libsyn.com/138-history-of-american-figherfighters

Some idea generation for weird weapons from these Cracked article http://www.cracked.com/article_19702_7-awesomely-insane-guns-people-actually-used.html and the followup http://www.cracked.com/article_21802_6-awesomely-insane-guns-people-actually-used-pt.-2.html 

http://www.cracked.com/article_19702_7-awesomely-insane-guns-people-actually-used.html