Mark Griffin – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

As requested, I’m going to put my reply from the previous Band of Blades thread into a new thread.

So I’ve finished reading both documents. As someone who reads a lot of these sorts of things I’m very excited to run this in a way I haven’t been since Orig Blades (so many years ago), or maybe 10 Candles. It reminds me of the new XCOM video games, which are probably my favorite modern games.

That said I took some notes while reading it and I have a lot of questions/comments, numbered and broken down by section (sorry for the incoming wall of text). They don’t all necessarily needs answers, because I’m comfortable ruling for myself if need be, but a few are more important than others (specifically 2, 12, 16, 19, 20, 26, 27). I’m going to apologize one more time before I paste these questions in here, feel free to ignore any/all of them.

Missions

1. Special Mission under Duresh Forest mentions that two gods were also in the war. What happened to them? It mentions them choosing, but also being phsyically present. Is that something just these gods do, or do other gods also interact with the world physically?

2. What does Vital mean as a mission requirement?

Heavy

3. Why is Anchor called Anchor, confusing word choice to me. Anchors are heavy, but aren’t known for fighting as small group.

4. Do Vanguard and War Machine stack(ie. you get both effects, and +1d or +effect for 2 stress)?

Scout

5. Sixth Sense – If I follow correctly, this lets the Scout replace likely their best action rating (seems like scout would be used for this roll) for their resolve resistance rating when gathering info? It’s an interesting mechanic, but unless they go out of their way to put a dot in each resolve action it’s probably not an upgrade. Might just be better to give them +1 effect or something?

6. The scout has the unique equipment “Seals and Reliquaries”, are these different from a regular reliquary in any way? Also why is the scout more religious than other specialists?

Sniper

7. Must Aim be used before a roll, or can it be used after? The name implies before, but it seems unfair to potentially make them waste such a limited resource on a miss.

8. When firing crimson shot does a fine weapon put you to threat 5, or is that already taken into account (ie. normal weapons can’t even fire them)?

Officer

9. How do group actions work with squads of rookies? If a squad of rookies fail a roll would you take 5 stress? That seems pretty harsh, but otherwise Tactician seems kind of weak in a game with only 2 or 3 other players.

Rookie + Soldier

10. Not A Rookie Anymore – Is there a reason why you don’t specify that the specialist action is Grit? Are there circumstances where it could be something else? I was very confused at first because I forgot Grit was also a specialist action (which is also confusing since soldiers are not specialists).

11. Is the text in Not A Rookie Anymore saying that you must choose it instead of any other second rookie advance (I know this is true already from the rules), or is it saying that once you become a soldier you have to specialize as your next advance? The latter doesn’t really make sense to me, but the former seems confusing because of the use of the word “Specialize” which doesn’t seem to fit turning from rookie to soldier.

12. Do you only make sheets for rookies played by the players? How do you track XP for NPC rookies, can they gain XP? How do you track harm and healing checks for NPC rookies? Do NPC rookies have a special ability/heritage/Load? Same questions for Soldiers?

Equipment

13. Heavy armor ignores lesser harm, is that limited use or permanent once you bring the armor? What about after you expend the armor?

14. Heavy Armor vs Fitted Heavy Plate. The only difference I see is heavy armor specifies vs physical attacks and heavy fitted plate does not. Does that mean heavy fitted plate works against magical attacks as well? Or are they functionally the same?

15. Shield vs Tower Shield. Tower shield specifies stopping missiles, shield does not, but does say physical (which missiles tend to be). Can a regular shield stop an arrow or bullet?

Marshal

16. Is it possible to have more than 30 soldiers? Do the specialists take up spots on squads, or are they in addition to the 30?

17. What are supposed to do with those tiny boxes next to specialists labeled abilities and actions?

Commander

18. Which squads distrust or don’t fear leadership? That question seems like it should arise from play, and perhaps be tracked by the marshal, but this question to the GM implies that perhaps this may spontaneously happen at GM whim?

19. There appear to be a minimum of 16 hexes that you must travel. Assuming you do at least one mission in each hex (which the GM sheet implies), that’s a minimum of 32 time, which means you’ll lose the game. Odds are you won’t roll the minimum, and sometimes the players will want to do multiple missions. In terms of mission rewards and penalties Time seems to be a wash, appearing 3 times in each column. Am I missing something? Must players just be sure to focus most on missions that have time rewards/penalties to ensure success?

20. Is every hex on the map assigned to one of the locations, or are some of them just space?

Quartermaster

21. Is the only way for non specialists to clear stress a boosted Liberty action?

22. Do the # of boxes imply a hard limit to # of personel or amount of supplies?

23. Do laborers put ticks on clocks even if the QM doesn’t take Long Term Project action?

Spymaster/Lore Keeper

24. Does having more players make the game significantly easier because of the added roles (not to mention the extra stress pools of more PCs)?

25. Does Lay Trap extend any other benefits to the assault mission, or just let it exist?

Chosen

26. It would be nice to just hear some general advice on playing your chosen. How often should they be helping on missions? What else are they up to if they aren’t on missions. How often should they perform tangible actions on their own like when Alanna eliminates an infamous between missions? Basically how do you make them seem more than just window dressing without making them a crutch/GMPC?

Broken

27. Do Elites only show up after their corresponding ability is gained, or do they just become more frequent?

28. I assume the Undead Advance clock is the same thing as the time clock? I never see it referred to as such.

Anyone else gonna be at unplugged? I plan on offering Blades and Phoenix Dawn Command for Games On Demand.

In my most recent game of Blades, The Runaways were approached by Setarra and asked to retrieve one of the many Red…

In my most recent game of Blades, The Runaways were approached by Setarra and asked to retrieve one of the many Red Sashes who had been bound to her ancient enemy, the Fire Demon Kyronax (they would have crowns of fire visible in the ghost field). It just so happened that I also rolled a random rumor and so the crew learned about the Drug Lure which was maybe turning users into demons? The crew decided to gather info on both leads (not sure they had a plan for Lure, but they found a thread and decided to tug on it a little bit), and they ALMOST! entered the Bloodletter’s Tattoo parlor at the docks. I was so excited to do my best (terrible) Cantor Haig impression.

Ultimately they decided to have a score where they kidnapped a Red Sash, which they did by going to a drug den and throwing money around until someone important showed up. Eventually a Red Sash in fancy dress with the telltale demon signs showed up, and he was accompanied by a crow with stone feathers on his shoulder. They eventually managed to drug the Sash and coax him outside, and put a diadem on him that Setarra gave them to cancel out his demon powers. Unfortunately the crow, who we learned could speak and was named Horus, escaped.

They brought the now unconscious man to a pier in the Docks district they had never seen before, and that held no people or ships. Stepping onto it they were transported into the ghost field and walked for what felt like miles atop rotting wood. Eventually they reached the end and were met by Setarra who was either impressed at their bravery or amused by their foolishness. The man and and others Sashes kept mentioning his sister all night, because this was the brother of Mylera Klev. Better hope that Horus didn’t get a good look at them, or the Runaways can prepare for war.

Got a golden opportunity in my recent Blades game, but haven’t quite decided what to do with it.

The crew of shadows got a jobto steal some high grade black lotus from a Red Sash vice den as a favor for one of their vice purveyors. Flash forward to setting off a trap in the storeroom and the crew is simultaneously hit by a mixture of drown powder and a darkness vial. The drown powder is resisted, but the darkness stays and when the red sashes inevitably show up I decide that they can see in the dark because of a dark gift from a bound fire demon (mostly so the whisper could see cool flaming eyes when she attuned through her spirit mask). The Whisper attempts to attune to the fire eyes to extinguish them and fails a desperate roll. In addition to taking some harm I also decided that the whisper would get noticed by the Iruvian Fire Demon for meddling with his gifts. Sadly this consequence was resisted, so while the Demon knows someone meddled, they don’t know who.

Cut ahead to the entanglement; the crew is full of heat and I fortunately rolled Demonic Notice. Clearly it must be related to the previous score. I can’t have the fire demon approach them because that would invalidate the resistance roll the player made to hide herself. My first thought is to have Setarra claim that she shrouded the whisper from the fire demon’s gaze, say that it’s her ancient enemy and send them on a mission to inconvenience it. However, I’m open to other suggestions?

My newest crew of shadows are called the Runaways, and they are teenagers.

My newest crew of shadows are called the Runaways, and they are teenagers. Most of their friends and rivals are also teens, and the stakes started off quite a bit lower. There has been no killing, and most of their scores have either been petty theft or sabotage. It’s been an interesting change of pace from the cult that murders anyone who looks at them sideways.

Things are set to change soon, now that the runaways have made enemies of the Grinders by setting fire to their fleet of canal boats. The Grinders will certainly try to employ deadly force, we’ll see if the Runaways respond in kind. In addition one of the teenage girls asked for a devils bargain one a roll at a party, and I slipped in that a certain Roethe Kinclaith saw and took an interest in her. She’s never seen the Bloodletters and so doesn’t know what kind of psychopath he is, but I suspect the group may find out soon.

I finally get to play in a game of BiTD!

I finally get to play in a game of BiTD! I’m actually the only player, and my wife is running it. The game was her idea because she’d like to practice before taking over our main game for a bit.

I’m playing Stigma the noble Iruvian Slide and Thorn the ex-imperial sniper Hound. Together they are the Black Rose, a crew of assassins for hire. I’m in the middle of the first score where we’ve been hired to assassinate an abusive brothel owner by his girls. Stigma also managed to convince the client (her best friend Nyryx) to let them use it as a claim, though we haven’t decided if it will be a vice den or informants. We were just about to get to the murder when my daughter woke up crying and we called it for the night, but I’m super excited to pick it up later.

Actually being a player is fun! Who knew?

Starting up a new crew, and my players are eyeing up Smugglers because they love Part of the Family.

Starting up a new crew, and my players are eyeing up Smugglers because they love Part of the Family. What kinds of vehicles have your smuggler crews used? Boats are the obvious choice, along with goat pulled carriages. Anyone have anything more exotic than that? Hulls, or dirigibles? Something occult?

How have your players made their cohort vehicles cool or weird or whatever?

I seem to recall someone saying they stripped the audio from the Bloodletters videos and made mp3s or something?

I seem to recall someone saying they stripped the audio from the Bloodletters videos and made mp3s or something? Do they exist somewhere I could get them? I want to get my wife into the show, but right now she’s just really into podcasts.

One of my cult players is bringing a date to our Blades game on Friday.

One of my cult players is bringing a date to our Blades game on Friday. Can’t decide if he really likes her and wants to introduce her to one of his hobbies, or if he’s planning on our group as a ripcord to this relationship. He’s told me not to tone it down, no pressure.

So my partial group created and ran their cult’s gang of rooks, the affectionately named B-Team, and did a score.

So my partial group created and ran their cult’s gang of rooks, the affectionately named B-Team, and did a score. A slide named Silver Fox, a spider named Babs, and a lurk named Night. They were given the task by the cult’s expert adept, Blankenship, to secure an industrial grade workshop somewhere in the city to start producing their Leviathan Blood substitute. Nothing but sixes during the gather info stage let them find an abandoned refinery with nothing inside but some squatting alchemy students from the Jayan School of Alchemy performing dangerous and illegal experiments on ghosts. Then a string of failures during the actual score nearly had them get beaten but a tierless group of students. Fortunately a well timed crit salvaged the mission.

Highlights

– Silver Fox and Night escaping from bluecoats on goatback, with Night holding on to both reigns as Silver Fox rode backwards and fired his pistols at the bluecoats.

– Night has a tattoo on his neck that he thinks says “Death” in Hadrathi, but actually just says Yogurt

– Babs’ vice is shoes. Before anyone had gotten violent one of the students scuffed her shoe while trying to shut a door on her. Without hesitation she pulled out her palm pistol and shot that student point blank in the face. After this everything went wrong.