So, the first session with Blades in the Dark was played …. and my players (and they themselves) surprised me! We did not start with the choice of characters, we chose the crew first. After much discussion, they have opted for the Hawkers. Okay, we thought of gambling and brothels at the beginning, but then one of the players read the Special Ability “Ghost Market” and they decided to go with it. An absolute game changer in my opinion ^^
So now the “problem”. The Ability states that the crew has found a way to develop and sell a “product” for ghosts and demons. At the end of the session, the characters had developed and built a machine that absorbs the essence of life from fresh corpses and processes them into a liquid. That spirits and demons have an interest in something like that is out of the question for us.
Now my two questions:
1. The Ability leaves open how this new clientele pays. The first idea of me and my players was that consumers pay with services, meaning information and services (perhaps similar to summoned spirits at Shadowrun). That this does not always bring positive effects is already provided by the game mechanics and philosophy. Do you see any other ways to pay for this liquid? What do I overlook?
Another option that I would find fitting would be to create a Progress Clock which fills up every time the product is sold. As soon as this clock is filled – the spirits / demons in Duskwall have neatly “fueled” – something happens for the setting eminent. I do not have a real idea of it yet.
2. How would you handle the production and sale of the liquid from the game mechanic? We imagined that we would handle this process as a downtime activity. In general, we would like to handle this rather roughly, so we do not want to worry about things like the amount of liquid produced, etc.
The current prototype of the machine was designed quite crude, which is why a litter on this activity in principle assumes a risky / desperate position. If the machine is improved later, that could of course develop in favor of the characters. We have not talked about the effect level yet because there was no room for it and we are not very familiar with the system yet.
What ideas would you have to implement?