Joel Short – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

I recently ran my group’s first session of Scum and Villainy in our custom setting, to great success.

I recently ran my group’s first session of Scum and Villainy in our custom setting, to great success. We were continuing our Fate campaign’s storyline, so having stolen a highly valuable data crystal from the Carthic governor of the Mycenae Reach, the crew of the not-so-good ship Cydonia stopped for fuel at a distant, broken-down space station. Their contact asked them to the bar for a drink, and when they arrived, he was dead. Cue the rest of the Stardancer’s starting situation.

This went very well, as did the downtime afterwards – each of my players started a Long-Term Project as they hadn’t taken much stress during the start (I may need to dial up the consequences from partial success, but they rolled a couple of key 6es and crits), and that generally worked well. However, I do have a question: for their Entanglement, I rolled Ship Trouble. Does that still apply if the crew has paid Upkeep? I didn’t apply it during Downtime, since they were at a port, but I could certainly apply it during the next job.

Also, can PCs make multiple Setup actions for a roll? I had a situation where two players wanted to Set Up a group Skulk to get back to the ship – our Arcanist (a custom playbook) cast a veil to turn the group invisible and our Muscle shot a pipe to create a distraction. Since both of these succeeded (and the Muscle’s setup was a crit) I put the Skulk to Controlled. Should I allow multiple PCs to Set Up a roll like this, or is that too much? Should PCs be limited to one Setup for a later roll, or should I simply apply logical consequences from repeated Setups or time pressure as needed?

Overall, the group seems to really be enjoying the system, and I’m excited to see where they go with their projects.

Stras Acimovic I have some Band of Blades questions:

(my game technically isn’t starting til september but I’m really into the concept and structure of BoB as well as the lore so I figured I’d ask questions now and note the answers)

1. What happens to Chosen after they’ve served the purpose they were Chosen for? Do they become mortal again, or do they just die?

2. Can gods Choose multiple people? The Zemyati Living God seems to have multiple active Chosen for a very long time.

3. How do muskets work in melee? In your streamed game you mention muskets having bayonets, and of course you can do a decent amount of damage with the butt of a musket, but the item description doesn’t reference using them in this way. If you can use muskets in melee, what’s the use of a rookie spending a load slot on a hand weapon? (other than fictional stuff)

4. How long can the Legion stay in one location? Is there anything that can force them to move on? In your streamed game, it seemed like the Legion was forced to leave Plainsworth by the advancing undead, but I can’t find anything in the rules to say the GM can force that (unless it’s the back at camp scene about the Legion having to relocate its camp, but that seems a bit too powerful for something like that).

5. Should the GM let players know about the special missions available in the area, or should they be kept in the dark? Many of the extra dice during the final battle at Skydagger Keep (Lighting the fires at Kevala, the head or chain of a Chosen, etc.) relate to things that may never be available to the Legion due to GM dice rolls, which seems a little unfair given how much of an emphasis BoB places on strategic planning from the Generals. Can the Quartermaster have long-term projects to pursue specific missions/objectives, or is that restricted to the Spymaster?

5b. Can the Quartermaster or Spymaster lure out/ambush a Broken via a long-term project, creating a scenario like the Archangel Bridge or Cavern Collapse missions?

5c. Can those campaign rewards from Special missions be gained via normal missions or long-term projects? Obviously this is context-specific, but if a squad decides to bring back a Warding Stone during a mission and pulls it off, do they get the bonus?

6. What kind of Traits do the Aldermanni have? Obviously there won’t be many Aldermanni in the Legion to begin with given their hostility to vestiges of the old Empire, but if players pick up Aldermanni recruits and play them, what traits do they get?

7. How are there still people living in the Dar if that’s where the Cinder King arose? (presuming the Crown of True Flame at the centre of the Dar was the same one the Cinder King now wears)

7b. Relatedly, given that Zora is apparently responsible for the current fate of Dar, is there a connection between that crown and her fiery circlet? Is that anything to do with Vlaisim and Zora’s apparent mission to kill the Cinder King?

8. What’s the date in the campaign? The timeline in the quickstart states that the current year is 843, but has prior events in 845. Adding the 427 years since the Legion’s founding in the Lorekeeper sheet to the Legion’s founding date in the timeline gives a date of 849.

9. Can Soldiers and Specialists put xp into the ‘Specialist’ Attribute to gain ranks in other Specialist actions? Does a Soldier keep their Grit when they Promote to a Specialist?

10. Does the Cavalry action trigger on the Quartermaster simply having horses, or do they need to specifically spend them for you to start mounted?

11. Can soldiers take items that are part of a higher Load level as Utility items? i know Rookies can take armour and hand weapons at Light load despite those being part of higher Loads, but can, say, a Heavy bring a Tower Shield at Normal load if they want? Can you discard items to get more Utility slots?

12. Is there a specific kind of template for Mercenary Work, or can it theoretically take the form of any mission but for money/supply? Would, say, clearing out a bandit camp for a merchant be a valid Mercenary Work mission?

13. When the Quartermaster rolls to acquire assets, can they specify what kind of asset they’re looking for, or is the kind of asset determined by the roll?

14. How does Tough stack with other harm reduction mechanics? If I Resist a Level 2 harm to Level 1, does Tough then activate to let me ignore it entirely? What about if I use armour? Does it stack with Tenacious to let me effectively ignore everything except Level 2 Harm? Can I resist Level 4 Harm entirely just by burning an armour and a Resist? Or am I reading this wrong, and ‘harm penalties’ refers to the mechanical impact of having Harm, not Harm itself?

15. Is this going to be a full game in the manner of Scum and Villainy, or an expansion to BitD?

Inspired by the amazing Roll20 playsheets people have shared on here, and my own excitement at putting together a…

Inspired by the amazing Roll20 playsheets people have shared on here, and my own excitement at putting together a group, I made a playsheet for an upcoming Band of Blades game. This one’s specifically for the Campaign Phase; I have actual uni work to do before I have time to make a Mission Phase one.

At first, I went for a more ‘traditional’ playbook with books and maps and documents strewn across a table texture, but I couldn’t get it to a point I was satisfied with. Then I remembered that the Legion is supposed to have Annals. What better way to fictionalise a playbook than to have it be a literal record of the campaign?

I’m particularly pleased with blending the game art into the book pages, although at a second go-through I might use the Fort Callisto art for the right page (the left one uses the Sunstrider Camp art, but it’s mostly hidden), although I do like the Western Front as a representation of how harried the Legion’s camp is supposed to be. The map doesn’t quite blend in, but a) I really couldn’t be bothered keying the black-and-white version to the book pages and b) I really like the bright colours on it; it gives BoB a different aesthetic than BitD.

The Time clocks are beneath the map, and Long-Term projects (and spy assignments) go on the facing page. There’s a lot of other stuff to track in the campaign, but not a whole lot that can easily be visually represented in Roll20, at least without breaking the ~aesthetic~. I’ll probably just ask my players to print their Roles and keep track on paper.

I’ll probably use the two key art pieces that frame the system and world sections for the Mission Phase map.