Has anyone run BitD one-on-one (ie One GM, One player)?
Has anyone run BitD one-on-one (ie One GM, One player)?
A number of BitD systems are designed with groups in mind. Things like assisting actions, group actions etc. It strikes me that a single player is going to run through stress very fast without companions to assist.
What concessions/changes would you recommend ?
One obvious choice might be to give them a friendly NPC to assist, but assuming they wanted to run a ‘lone rogue’ what other changes might we make to assist this style of play?
If anyone is going to LongCon (https://www.thedodd.com/full-weekend-campaigns) in Sheffield, UK in July I will be…
If anyone is going to LongCon (https://www.thedodd.com/full-weekend-campaigns) in Sheffield, UK in July I will be running a game called ‘Gangs of Old London’. It’s a ‘Blades in the Dark’ reskin (it would be overly generous to call it a Hack) about.
The Elevator Pitch is:
A dozen gang members from a modern Tottenham street gang find themselves trapped in Victorian London and decide to make a name for themselves. (Tottenham is a region of London)
The idea behind LongCon is that its a Game lead con (with no dealer, seminars or anything like that), and GMs run either 1 day or 2 day mini-campaigns, as opposed to the usual short Con Games.
I’m posting stuff about my ‘Gangs of Old London’ game here:
http://ukroleplayers.freeforums.net/thread/114/gangs-old-london-longcon
and here:
https://www.gamingtavern.eu/tavern/index.php?threads/gangs-of-old-london-at-longcon.492/
https://www.gamingtavern.eu/tavern/index.php?threads/gangs-of-old-london-at-longcon.492/
I’ve started working on an Mecha inspired BitD hack, Hull Riders of the Imperial City.
I’ve started working on an Mecha inspired BitD hack, Hull Riders of the Imperial City. I like the Shattered Isles as a setting and was surprised to see John had built everything I needed into the setting. A cockpit appears to be a standard component of a Heavy Hull. Hence in this hack, each crew member will be attuned to a Humanoid shaped Heavy Hull (with an Interior Operators Chamber). In fact he even included reference to airships in the Kickstarter deluxe edition so I could have mecha/hull drops into combat with canon
I’m currently not too sure of the economies:
• Heat doesn’t make a lot of sense for this hack but it’s a really clever throttling mechanism. I may need to replace it with something to represent fallout (in a game where I may potentially have Hulls fighting Demons there is bound to be some sort of collateral) but initially I’m going to try dropping it from play tests
• I am replacing Stress with Sync (a measure of how closely the rider’s mind can attune to the Hull). One implication of not having a stress stat is Pilots wont be able to either push themselves without taking a Devil’s Bargain, or to resist effect when not in their hulls. The pilots in this game will be quite squishy and dependent on their hulls.
• Trauma is being replaced by Bleed (strong emotions from the rider/pilot which influence the Hull’s spirit causing indiosyncracies in the way it acts).
My intial thoughts for crew roles include: Gladiators, Enforcers (Vigilantes, Bluecoats etc), Workers (Rescue Workers, stevedores, etc), Mercenaries, Bodyguards and Hunters (Deal with Demon and Leviathan threats – this setting’s Kaiju).
From a sheet perspective, advances are going to be divided into Actions, Techniques and Fixtures. Actions and Techniques describe the ‘pilot’ and will be purchased with experience. Fixtures will be associated with the Hull, purchased with Coin, but reduce the maximum Sync.
One thing which is going to play a huge role in the fiction is the actual sizes of the hulls. Having looked at a variety of anime, films and games for inspiration I’ve come to the conclusion these Hulls are going to be tiny by Mecha standard (https://eruisar.deviantart.com/art/Height-Chart-v6-428719259). I want Urban combat to feel like urban Combat – I don’t want them just peering over buildings all the time to see their enemies, so anything over about 20 feet (6.5m) just isn’t going to work. So something possibly a little larger than the AMP suit from Avatar (14 foot), at most the same as the Mark IX Mantis from Halo (19 ft), and definitely smaller than even the tiniest Battletech mech (the Commando at 8.68m). This also works well with John Harper’s description of a Heavy Hull as Wagon sized. I can see the AMP suit as Wagon sized.
All of this of course sounds good, but it means nothing until I get it to the table to see what its like in play. My experience hacking PBtA tells me things which sound great often don’t play nearly as well – not without lots of tweaking anyway. I’m currently 4400 miles from home, skiing during the day, making lots of notes in OneNote in the evening. When I get home I’ll see how well my copious notes pull together to make a lite playtest pack and enlist a few playtesters.
https://eruisar.deviantart.com/art/Height-Chart-v6-428719259
In all three games of BitD I’ve played (or actual 2 games of BitD and 1 of S&V) I’ve encountered the same issue – a…
In all three games of BitD I’ve played (or actual 2 games of BitD and 1 of S&V) I’ve encountered the same issue – a player who’s XP criteria seemed entirely out of whack with the character..
“Mark XP when you address a difficult decision with X or Y”, but the character skills, abilities and the entire way the character is being played don’t match with the criteria. So for example, the leech who tends to approach everything through stealth and deception, who has a high ranks in Sway and Prowl, and has taken a few veteran abilities to support their play style.
I know there’s a section on changing playbooks – and I guess people could re-image their characters using a different playbook, so the player above could re-write their Leech as a Lurk or a Slide, but this seems overkill when the only issue is this one line.
However having spotted the issue I’m beginning to question the very nature of the line itself. Everything else in the game is pretty much player defined and the players are the final arbiters in what is right. Why is this one line pre-assigned for them? Has anyone experimented with swapping it out for a line along the lines of “Mark XP when you highlight your character’s modus operandi, through words, deeds or action”?
Can players push themselves whilst indulging their vices?
Can players push themselves whilst indulging their vices?
At first it sounds like madness, but for a character on 4 stress it removes the risk of overindulging, with the downside that its less likely to remove all stress (in fact you might end up with a point more stress).
Hi All
Hi All,
I’m looking for players to start a new bi-weekly Blades In The Dark campaign via Roll20 (running 1st and 3rd Friday in the month).
The sessions will be starting at 10pm UK time (to provide a vaguely friendly time to Europe, States and Australasia) and will run for 3 to 4 hours. If you’re not in the UK that’s this time:
The game will be set in U’Duasha, the city of fire and bronze (the City included in the Deluxe Kickstarter version of the rules). I’m really looking forward to playing a game with cultural influences from old Persia, Egypt, and India – I’ll probably be playing a lot of Prince of Persia between now and then.
This is my first time GM’ing BitD but I’ve been roleplaying for decades, and I’m a big fan of fiction first games like the various PbtA games, so I’m hoping I can do BitD justice.
There are full details of the game over here on Roll20:
First session will likely be used to resolve any techical issues, agree crew details, create characters and talk about our social contract. After that we can progress to the campaign proper in later sessions.
Cheers,
Declan
Note: Sign up on Roll20. Use the link above