Author: Nathaniel Bennett

John Harper Your evocative description of Brightstone in Six Towers Gang Ep VI makes me hungry for more details about the rest of the city. Any chance you can share short descriptions similar to the Faction and Shattered Isles write ups?

Un-Ticking Clock Segments?

Hey Blades community, I’ve run 2 campaign sessions of Blades and the subject of characters taking actions to remove clock segments has come up several times. The players are Thieves who are trying to be as low Heat as possible and I appear to be fond of an “alert the guards clock” for their Scores. As that clock fills they keep wanting to do things to un-tick the Alert clock.

I’m torn about this because if they can justify it in the fiction it should be allowed but it seems against the spirit. Am I being influenced too much by pre-conceptions from 30 years of more traditional games and fiction-first means it’s totally cool to untick clocks?

If unticking clocks is a thing, does that mean opponents can work against the characters Long Term Projects and undo their progress?

One of the things I like about Blades is as a GM I’m totally comfortable giving Downtime Actions to characters who miss sessions. It takes the sting out of missing and provides more avenues to drive the fiction. I’m looking for opinions on how many Actions players get.

Caveat: I have a tendency to be a stingy bastard when it comes to rewards.

My thinking is that although characters normally gets 2 Downtime Actions after a score, most of the time they will be using one or both for Vice or Recovery to heal up from the Score. So in practical terms characters will end up with <1 "Free" Action after a Score.

Based on that, I think 1 Downtime Action is fair. It still hurts to miss a session, but still gives to player a resource to spend and interesting decisions to make.

The alternative opinion: characters earn several xp per Score, so 2-3 Downtime Actions gives the character the ability to Train to make up some lost XP, and still have actions to do “interesting” things like Gather Info or work on a project.

Is 2 the middle group? What say you, Blades GMs?

I have already got a ton of value from Blades in dark – reading it, playing it and now running it. The ROI just went through the roof after starting and falling in love with the Lies of Locke Lamora. Thank you, John Harper for the introduction to the Gentlemen Bastards!

Heritage and Background?

This afternoon’s mechanics question: what is the use of Heritage and Background. Based on the actual play videos it seems like a match earned +1d in older versions of the rules, but they don’t seem to actually do anything in v5. In a demo session last night we ended up using them like FATE Aspects: if the player could justify how it was useful they earned +1d. This was satisfying but feels open to abuse. Maybe a way for the GM to leverage Heritage and Background against the character would help.

What is the mechanical effect of Hold? I understand that it can go up and down, but what’s the benefit of having Strong hold and what’s the downside to having a Weak hold?

I understand the narrative impact and that the game is fiction-first, but one of the things I really like about BitD is that there is a strong relationship between narrative and game. Also, mechanics are a tangible feedback to the players about their choices, and making interesting choices is a key fun factor for my group.

So, what’s the use of Hold?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good demo score and preferably one that has some level of write-up currently available so I can focus on learning the rules? I’d like a heist scenario that shows off the Thief side of things, with maybe some supernatural elements. The PCs will all be pre-gens so I’m not focusing particularly on character connections or specific faction relationships. Yes, I know I could randomly determine one using the score generator, but again, I’m trying to focus on figuring out the rules and am looking to outsource the score.

I’m starting to get serious interest from my player group, but a common theme I’m hearing is “where is the setting info?”. Which is good because they’ve taken the hook, but I’m worried I won’t be able to set it with what’s in v5. I know the full game will have more robust setting coverage, but is there more info about Duskwall and the islands online somewhere? Will more be coming out soonish?