Darren Miguez – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

SO, in Scum and Villainy we have 3 ship types.

SO, in Scum and Villainy we have 3 ship types. The smuggler/blockade runner, the bounty hunter/extraction specialists, and the rebels.

I just finished Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell, and the novel could easily fit within S&V, but their ship is part of a well-regarded organization called the House of Reclamation. The House field ships to help ships in trouble – whether adrift in space or sinking on a water world surrounded by hostile ocean life. They are a search and rescue organization, but folks there often join because they wanted to something good with their lives in a world recently at war. Many of those who join the house are running from something, or have lost everything.

So, you COULD do something like that with the current ships, but you could possibly soften the focus and make it less specific in order to create a space EMT with shades of salvage oriented ship.

I’m hoping to run S&V soon, but haven’t played it as yet. Does this sound like a possible alt. 4th ship type?

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Looking for ideas/advice on painting things even blacker… (Honest Odds – stay out!)

So, second season of my Blades game just began. In the season finale, I told all the players to prepare to give a cliffhanger/predicament for their character.

The end of the game saw Crow’s Foot in the grip of a plague thanks to Lord Scurlock/PC cooperation, and the Crew set up to take the fall for an explosion that took out a Silkshore Lightning Tower. Ghosts and other horrors poured in, the plague-ridden streets were inundated with death, and so on. Players gave some great precarious fates for their characters as the closing credits rolled.

A Spider who decided to turn himself in to reduce Heat was sidelined by a mysterious Noble, Lord Valkenveer. The Whisper was yanked into the Ghost Field by parties unknown. The Lurk ran off into the night in the grips of the Black Tear Plague. The Slide was by all accounts murdered by Lord Valkenveer, if a ritual was to be believed. And the Cutter was blown up when the Tower exploded thanks to a vengeful Baszo Baz with nothing left to live for.

SO Season 2 opener sees the Crew being reassembled. The Whisper is now a ghost, and her body is missing. The Slide is alive but… has a complicated relationship with some Iruvian special forces camping out in the Crew’s lair, as war is brewing. Etc. etc. All very cool as the Crew is reassembled.

My thought, however, is that I need to get across how Crow’s Foot was decimated.

The place is now a real ghost town, with many lives lost. Factions have been eliminated, and new ones scrabble up to take their place. The only one for sure that I’ve thrown in new is The Bell and the Candle, which are remnants of ruined criminal factions that were saved by a shadowy cult when the plague and ghostpocalypse wracked the district. Survivors bound by a savior-religion.

The District itself is a mess, with only small pockets of light and people amidst empty haunted buildings. It’s harder to make money from crime, as there are just fewer people.

SO, I ask you for cool things.

Vignettes that might drive home the new status quo.

New factions worming their way up in the desolation of Crow’s Foot – I’ve removed a few of the smaller factions and reduced the Hold of others to show the loss of life and surety after the plague and the ghostpocalypse hit.

Basically, though the city stands and the military was able to close the gap on the wall, the district has been seriously hammered. And the Honest Odds, our crew of Hawkers/Spies have been blamed for a great deal of it.

I want some ideas on how to reflect this even crappier version of Crow’s Foot…

I’m looking at using Love Letters in my Blades game to tie folks into the setting, give folks some interesting…

I’m looking at using Love Letters in my Blades game to tie folks into the setting, give folks some interesting choices to make, and show the setting moving along outside of each sessions Score with faction clocks being created/ticking along based on what people choose in their Love Letters.

Anyone do anything similar?

Are there any good resources for Love Letters people can point me to?

So, if you’re a Tier 0 Hawker crew, do you not have any gang members outside of your PCs?

So, if you’re a Tier 0 Hawker crew, do you not have any gang members outside of your PCs? Do I need to spend both floating Crew Upgrades to have a couple of dudes at the outset? Or can I do 1 at crewgen? I only ask as the Bravos has a Cohort as one of their starters – it is worth 1 upgrade or 2?

Is there a Duskwall Factions Google Sheet out there that anyone has put together?

I was kind of hoping my players would be inclined to make Shadows for their crew, but there’s some talk of Hawkers,…

I was kind of hoping my players would be inclined to make Shadows for their crew, but there’s some talk of Hawkers, Smugglers, and Bravos. Hawkers I can refer to The Wire and plenty of other media touchstones. Bravos I can look to Peaky Blinders and others.

But Smugglers I seem to be coming up blank. Anyone have any media that comes to mind when they think Smugglers in a way that might inform a Blades game?

Once upon a time I thought I saw some laminated progress clock cards for use with PbtA games and Blades.

Once upon a time I thought I saw some laminated progress clock cards for use with PbtA games and Blades. Was this a dream? I’ve been trying to dig up something like them but to no avail. Any similar resources out there?