Author: Michael Esperum

Wow! Long-time player/GM, (since v.1.0), but the mileage isn’t that great and we usually had to use new playbook-sheets when the next session arrived for our Cults-game. Thanks for making this game, John Harper and everyone involved, including the wonderful G+ crew!

Now I’m running a summer-ditto, with three sessions so far, and I also played in a one-on-one rules test, and a few questions have propped up:

(Please excuse any confusing, as I have one or two games in most iterations.)

1) How big-ish is Duskwall supposed to be? (I seem to recollect it being a million, but it would seem that 2000-3000 thousand Skovlanders are a really small minority then.

As the crew went to Silkshore to broker a deal in the distribution of Yellow Lotus I’ve/we’ve made a triad of three tier 2 factions (Crimson Lace, Black Velvet and Purple Rain), and they met Madame Salùt who entagled them into a demonic notice. I was trying the “Little [Not-exactly-China-but-rather-a-fantasy-version-amalgate, with inspirations from an old fantasy game I ran]”

2) I was wondering how much room there is for new factions? I always thought the game was settled in Crow’s Foot and one would expand when needed, but then I noticed the Crows (tier 2) had operations in Crow’s Foot as well as the Docks. I know this is decided around the table, but I guess there’s reasons to only involve things the table is really interested in, and I could remake them to a tier 2 or even tier 3 faction: The Triad?

3) Have you made factions that added to the Game?

4) Fortune rolls, I think I finally grocked them tonight, after the game. Pluralis and some different stakes and watch for effect? (I really like them, and the engagement-roll, as I like to disclaim dcicion making in games were there’s such a complicated matrix.)

Contacts on Playbook-sheets: I seem to recall someone asking what you do when you have two characters. How come your fresh lurk knows all the people my veteran does?

I also remember Andrew Shields had a list of names, by groupings (shady friends, dangerous friends, weird friends, etc). Would you be willing to share it, please?

Contacts/friends and same-playbooks in the same crew. What’s up with that?

No, really. Yes, I realize that if I make a new cutter I just rename the dangerous friends, or even give them a different tag or two. Maybe I even take the Lurk’s Bluecoat friend and he’s our childhood friend or something. (I roll like that, I really do.)

BUT, what do the good folks of the Blades in the Dark Comminity do?

I ask this partly because I’ve wondered this since forever, and like Basco Baz being friends with the crew’s Slidesss and all, but recently the new player made a lurk replacement for his first score-encarcerated Cutter and chose for his ability the very same Shadow Form I based my character “The Ghost of Crow”s Foot”, or Ark(emis) which people call him to his face, on ….

…AND his backstory was that he had been adopted by Rosly Kelis, A Noble – the very same my character has had for a mistress for quite some time. We’re all Tycherosi complete with Devil’s Marks, by the way.

As the new Lurk declared his backstory EVERYONE became enthused, while I had to consider if I’ve ever spawned someone akin to myself or if my longtime lover just has a weird fetish for shadowy tycherosi.

So: 1. How do you handle the contacts/friends on the playbook sheet?

2. Any cool, interesting or plain weird stories on how character sheet-friends has impacted play?