Author: Nigel Clarke

Ran a FTF game of Blades yesterday at Conception a UK con with two of my on-line game characters and three new to Blades players. The crew managed to do three scores in four hours including character generation and teh final one managed to take down Ulf Ironborn. The crew arranged for the spy who was the contact for one of the Hounds to lure him to a house for information where the Leech had previously arranged him to have  Sweeny Todd moment involving a chair, a trapdoor and an acid bath. A bad roll by the Tinkering Leech caused the chair to partly miss the acid bath but the Cutter’s blade did the job aided by two other characters. The noise alerted Ulf’s second in command who rushed in to the room above only to be shot right after the Hound had put a bullet into the head of his spy Friend to clean up the loose ends. A second shot dealt with the 2-i-c and the way was open to claim not only the purse from Mylera Klev for dealing with the spy but also to take down the Ironborn’s crew as well as acquire the street fence from them. The crew are definitely on the way up.

This morning’s game of Blades went faster than Friday’s game mostly because three of the four players were KS backers and knew a bit about the game and game system even not having played it.

After the usual intro from Bazso Baz he gave the crew the task of stopping a merchant who had been smuggling material lin for his business and threatening the livelihood of one of Baz’s preferred vendors. As the material was elctroplasm of high quality the trade had to be halted. The team traced the courier from the docks having identified him at the merchant’s house. The friendship of a guard at the dock allowed the crew to identify the potential routes used and the Whisper deployed his arcane knowledge to find the ghost tunnel that was getting past the customs house.

Follwing the courier on his next trip the team ambushed him as he exited the tunnel with two following him and doing tohe snatch and the oetrhs standing by to grab the bundle and snipe him from on high. The two man team fumbled the grab but the other managed to grab teh parcel but the courier got away. Luckily the backstop of the Hound took him down from a nearby roof. As a result Baz was well pleased and they got to do a downtime action before being summoned back to the coal warehouse for another job.

This time a merchant suspected his wife of having an affair and wanted proof. The crew followed teh wife and found out she was going ot a run down house and so were several others ate various times of day. A bit of digging revealed that the house contained one Grace and extortionist friend of the Cutter. A friendly chat in the gambling house that fed their mutual vice and the expenditure of 1 coin to gain an extra die meant that the truth was out. The woman wasn’t having an affair but was being blackmailed over her past behaviour. Keeping it secret from her family and her newish husband was all important.

This posed an interesting problem as the players brought some 20th century attitudes to the game and only teh Cutter’s insistence on not damaging his friendship with Grace and only telling Baz that the wife was not having and affair would do saved teh day. SO they good another ‘Well Done’ from Baz and some more Coin.

This ended two great games of Blades over the weekend and provided a look at the system for eight more players keen to see the finished product. All agreed that a longer game would be great fun and one suggested that bringing to Longcon next July for two days and about twelve hours of gaming might get a great campaign emerging from the longer/multiple sessions.

Ran a game at Indiecon in the UK this afternoon. The new 4a QS worked well and the majority of the four players picked up the system quickly. We did fulllchargen and most of the crew gen but skipped the bit about the factions as I could see they wanted to get on.

Baszo Bas offered then teh chance to work with the Lamblacks – they didn’t have much choice as disputing with Baz cost one character her little finger. The score was to kidnap a spice merchant for ransom as he hadn’t been paying his protection money. They scouted the are and located the security before deciding to enter the shop, kill  the guard and abduct the man. Poor die rolls meant his wife came back early and had to be restrained and bullied into keeping quiet. They crew grabbed the merchant and put him in their coach before going to a safe house and extracting 8 coin. They gave 5 to Baz and he gave them 2 coin. However they kept 3 back from the original ransom so Baz might be coming after them for the balance when he finds out.

The second score involved the crew taking down a Hull (spirit controlled clockwork man) who was selling ‘product’ in Baz’s territory. They tracked one of the local dealers and made him call Tick-Tock who was promptly ambushed and attacked with a lightning hook armed Whisper in a spirit mask. The spirit was trapped into a spirit bottle and the crew brought the head of the clockwork automaton back to Baz as proof. They then sold on the clockwork bits and the spirit for more profit. 

Everybody enjoyed the game and two stayed behind to tell me how much they liked the background.

Have another slot scheduled for Sunday morning  so we’ll see if teh enthusiasm holds up with a new set of players.

I did a basic map for our crew’s hideout. It’s in the NE area of Crow’s Foot and has the potential for taking over the shop next door, adding an escape route to either the park or the canal. Although we are up to session 3 we still haven’t identified ourselves by name yet although we’ve dealt the Red Sashes grievous blows and made it to Tier 1. We’re now looking at acquiring a fence from Ulf Ironborn’s turf and engaging in a war with the remaining Sashes. Thanks to Phil Garrad for running the game.