Author: Oliver Granger (watergoesred)

Downtime – Session 2 for #theHulls

Downtime – Session 2 for #theHulls

Downtime – Session 2 for #theHulls  

Payoff: 2 coin, mainly from loose cargo they found tidying up the warehouse.

Heat: +2

Entanglements

Usual Suspects: One of the Rat’s (the Lurk) friends in the nobility, Roslyn Kellis, gets picked up by the Bluecoats after she’s caught on a gondolier, loaded with contraband. Rat pays of the Bluecoats to get Roslyn off before they question her too hard.

Extra entanglement from Devil’s bargain

Unquiet dead: The ghost of Ashyln Daava, who as an occult collector and Talon’s last bounty and the one around which the Hulls formed, has been sighted amongst the ship’s graveyard the crew now calls home, searching for something.

Rat overindulges his Vice Stupor, through imbibing refined leviathan blood procured at the Red Lamp in Silkshore. Rat becomes a little unhinged, somehow getting to the distillery area underneath the Red lamp and opening up the still of leviathan blood, burning the first two floors of the Red Lamp and incinerating the body and spirit of an unknown number of patrons and workers in electroplasmic inferno.

Extra Entanglement from Rat’s overindulgence

Unquiet dead: The spirt of Nigel Posselthwaite, Duskwall Councillor and blood addict, escaped the Red Lamp inferno and has been trying to find his way home to Brightstone. In the meantime, he has been haunting Rat, taunting him that he knows the truth about Red Lamp, whispering the names of those he killed, and he will find a way to have him punished for his crimes.

Because of these hauntings, Rat Acquires an Asset: Vixen, an ex-railjack Whisper, to help them handle the ghosts themselves.

Dust Reduces Heat back to zero. Something to do with quelling the rumours about the Hulls stealing turf from the Seaside Dockers.

And finally, Dust Gathers Info through his friend Nyrx about rumours Baszo’s Whisky supply. Turns out, the Foghounds are going out to ships, particularly Skovlan merchant and refugee ships, before they reach the safety of Duskwall’s harbour, to unload contraband and bring it ashore and avoid customs. How do they protect themselves outside the fence? Anyhow, the Seaside Dockers won’t much like this when they find out.

NPC factions

Seaside Dockers have 4 segment clock: Take back North Dock turf.

The Foghounds seize turf from the Canal Dockers, friends of the Hulls, after failing to get North Dock. It’s an old Ink Manufactory on the South side of Crow’s Foot.’ And they have a 6 segment clock: Find a patron.

The war between Lampblacks and Red Sashes swings heavily toward the Red Sashes. Calling in a favour from the Seaside Dockers, the Red Sashes raid a Lampblack’s brothel, disappearing all who worked there and leaving a trail of damage. 2 ticks toward the Red Sashes destroying the Lampblacks.

Under increasing pressure, Dust hears word Baszo Baz is doubling down on favours. Soon he’ll realise her soothing words ain’t winning him the war. So another tick on the clock toward Baszo Baz demanding an answer to whether the Hulls with him or against him?

Furthermore, the Lampblacks Acquire an Asset: the well-known Whisper twins “Kain and Tory”, who are said to have been passengers on an electric train who took down a demon that had overcome the trains Railjacks.

There was an extra Action by one of these Factions from a Devil’s Bargain, but the crew haven’t discovered info about that yet.

I’m running an online game of Blades in the Dark using the Quick Start rules with three players, though often only…

I’m running an online game of Blades in the Dark using the Quick Start rules with three players, though often only…

I’m running an online game of Blades in the Dark using the Quick Start rules with three players, though often only two can attend.

Session 2 of #theHulls

The players immediately launched into long-term strategising to play factions against factions. Given they dodged Baszo’s question, they make their own work and decide to steal turf. This ends up being an disused dock of the Seaside Dockers, that’s been largely disused since a leviathan ship wrecked at the pier end.

Deception plan, they’re dropped off in a fog on the North Dock dressed as Customs Officers from the Ministry of Transport. The hope is the Seaside Dockers have the place not well guarded, on account that word has they’re busy helping the Red Sashes out.

A poor engagement result means, unfortunately, the Foghounds have the same idea and they spot four short shallow hulled dinghy hidden under the dock.

I setup three clocks

– Convincing the Dockers, Clock: 6 segments

– The Docker calls reinforcements, Clock: 4 segments

– Foghounds start shooting, Clock: 4 segments

Rat and Dust hear a loud conversation in the warehouse at the head of the dock. Rat (the Lurk) gets on the roof, but only because Dust (the Slide) creates a distraction by loudly banging the door open in full Customs Officer disguise.

Inside there is one swarthy, huge Docker (Clave) sitting at little card table playing cards and largely ignoring the four well armed Foghounds confronting him.

The Foghounds leader (Moon) sends one of Foghound to dismiss the intruder. Dust (aka Officer Strathmill) begins convincing them he’s an official representing the Strathmill’s, the noble house that owns the shipwrecked Leviathan Hunting Ship sunk at the end of North Dock. She casts an appraising eye on the opposition, and summarily shouts “Stand down men!”, glancing at the roof. There’s shuffling and answers in return thanks to Rat’s acrobatic skill, adding +effect to convincing the Docker (and by corrollary the Foghounds) that Dust has significant backup. 3 ticks toward Convincing the Dockers. The Docker stops playing cards.

The Foghounds look trigger happy, trying to decide whether to start shooting or back out. 1 tick toward the Foghounds start shooting.

Rat has a flashback about reaching out to his connections with the Inspectors and asking for a couple of Inspectors to take a short detour on their patrol past North Dock at this time. A complication from the flashback roll made most sense as another tick toward the Foghounds start shooting.

Anyhow, back in the present, two Inspectors walk past, stopping asking the Custom Officer still in the doorway if he’s having any trouble. Inspector Booker takes a particular interest in Dust’s (fake) family name and a case she is working on. Accepted Devil’s Bargain: Inspector Booker wants Customs Officer Strathmill (Dust in disguise) to drop by her office in White Chapel to discuss a case.

Anyway, with a Critical Success, Dust fills out the clock Convinces the Docker (and the Foghounds by corollary) that she’s the real deal and has legit claim on North Dock.

The Foghounds were close to shooting the place up, but the Docker stands up and gentleman-like escorts the Foghounds off the premises. The Docker agrees to relay terms to allow a small outfit “The Hulls” use of the premises as they working as agents for the Strathmills.

https://pinitto.me/n/thehulls#

When can a player push their character to add potency to their effect?

When can a player push their character to add potency to their effect?

When can a player push their character to add potency to their effect? Can they do on an action roll where they have already got +1d from either their character pushing themselves or accepting a devil’s bargain?  

What does advancing an NPC faction’s long-term clock entail? Is determined by a fortune roll, is it just adding a tick if the fiction expects one?

Scores against higher tier factions

Scores against higher tier factions

Scores against higher tier factions

Can the actions of a Tier 0 crew effect a Tier 4 faction?

I’ve been eyeballing my Score: The Apex and wondering if it is basically impossible as a starting situation for a fresh crew, because the odds are very much against a Tier 0 crew, and not until Tier 2 would they have any reasonable shot.

Say the fresh Tier 0 crew’s Lurk is trying to pick a lock on a crumbling terrace belonging to the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh. Is the Lurk’s effect on the lock dropped by four levels, one for each tier difference?

The Lurk could use fine lock picks to reduce the tier difference by one, as well as take extra time to reduce it one more. But extra time would probably worsen their position if there was a risk of discovery by guard patrols or other stuff.

Yet, even with all that, the Lurk would have no effect on the lock. That is unless they rolled a critical, getting increased effect, then they could have limited effect on the lock. So basically impossible to pick.

Moreover, if it was a fine lock (or fine safe, fine door, etc.) belonging to the Church then they ain’t ever beating it. Likewise, a fresh crew ain’t ever picking a lock belonging to Ironhook Prison.

Am I grokking the rules right?

It all sounds right and makes sense fictionally. I’m just starting to realise I may need to re-calibrate how difficult it is for a crew to act against a higher faction, and work on getting that across to players. 

I made a score.

I made a score.

I made a score. It worked great for a first session but it should also work mid-campaign. I didn’t flesh out the complications section, but if inspiration strikes I will.

Obviously this uses the same structure as Sean Nittner’s Gaddoc Rail Station: https://plus.google.com/+SeanNittner/posts/TMfsEZm7NfU

Kudos also to Chris Boyd’s thoughts that provoked me to think about the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh and its opponents: https://plus.google.com/114451952512667903737/posts/bqmpCEoA38t

I also reference Dirk Detweiler Leichty’s excellent one-pager Bleakwood House oddities. When I ran this score, this sheet gave just enough to inspire.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/2273443

Really hope Jhereg happens this time round for Steven. And for John, for keeping the dream alive.

Really hope Jhereg happens this time round for Steven. And for John, for keeping the dream alive.

Really hope Jhereg happens this time round for Steven. And for John, for keeping the dream alive.

http://mightyatom.blogspot.com.au/2005_05_01_archive.html

Jhereg

In college, I worked pretty seriously on a game based on the Vlad Taltos books of Steven Brust, around 1991-92. I was corresponding with Brust regularly, and I thought I might have a shot at working out a publishing deal. He ultimately decided to go with Steve Jackson Games, who managed a first draft of a GURPS Jhereg book but never took it any further. My version used the core Action Table system from Talislanta, and was honestly a pretty boring stat+skill+dice affair. Better than GURPS, but that’s not saying much.

http://mightyatom.blogspot.com.au/2005_05_01_archive.html

Second session co-GMing the Quick Start scenario with our crew The Twelve.

Second session co-GMing the Quick Start scenario with our crew The Twelve.

Second session co-GMing the Quick Start scenario with our crew The Twelve.

Last session ended with the Whisper creating a diversion to allow the Lurk and Hound to infiltrate the Red Sashes HQ and empty the treasury. The Whisper challenged the school to produce a champion to duel. He made enough of a commotion to allow his crewmates to infiltrate with little resistance.

The Whisper’s player ran this sessio as GM more or less. I think they had too much fun.

My Lurk’s vice is betting on boxing matches and other fights where men bloody each other viciously. So Bird had to resist the effect of lingering too long watching instead of get to the infiltrating already. Unfortunately, she took 4 stress resisting. An auspicious start. I guess she really enjoys watching men hurt each other. O, and making bets.

My Lurk had “previously” borrowed a partial blueprint of the HQ from a city clerk friend. The map was out-of-date, partly because of the recent renovations upgrading the vault. This flowed from my big mistake for this session: accepting a Devil’s Bargain at this point which made the treasury lock harder to overcome. Not just a regular Ice Turn Ball lock, it was a custom Grated Ice Turn Ball lock. A 4-segment became a 8-segment clock. No problems I thought.

NEVER TAKE A DEVIL’S BARGAIN MAKING THE MISSION GOAL HARDER. O. MY. GANDALF.

Anyway, finding our way through the HQ was easy enough with a Lead a Group action. Here sprung Question 1, which I ask below. The Hound and I smartly overcame the clock and quickly found our way to the vault, although some servants were silenced along the way, unfortunately. So far so good.

The antechamber to the vault was full of alchemical experiments. The Hound got into some chicanery with the Elderly Alchemist and a moonlighting bluecoat, who he had “previously” bribed to fall. 

Meanwhile, my Lurk ignored all that commotion and got to work cracking open the treasury vault and, you know, getting a mission successful badge. Five segments boom! (4 + 1 for Scout).

That would have done it. End game, treasure zonk, hand shakes all round! Not quite ghosts but clean for a rookie crew. Except. EXCEPT. That Devil’s Bargain.

Trauma: I overloaded my stress and got trauma on the 1–3 the Risky Action roll trying to crack the safe, while the Hound kicked the snot out of the elderly Alchemist with his Steel Capped Boots. This mean I got no closer to unlocking the vault. At least I dodged the sticky blue chemical dye that sprayed out from the trapped vault, which would have marked me as the vault cracker to the 20-odd incoming master swords. Unfortunately the dye reacted poorly with some chemicals strewn about, starting a fire.

Burnt: I ignored the spreading fire and re-rolled, getting a 4–5 on the Desperate Action roll. So still no closer to unlocking. I probably should have taken the stress, but I really didn’t want to get two trauma on my first mission. Here sprung Question 2, asked below. O, and I will never again try to crack another Ice Turn Ball lock, custom or not. Too traumatic.

Trapped: I finally got a 6 when I re-rolled. Which I unlocked the vault, easily. Unfortunately the antechamber collapsed into an burning inferno, cutting off my escape route. At least the Red Sashes weren’t going to stab me just yet. O, and something I was wearing was on fire. Bloody Uncle Aldo, getting me stung by my own Devil’s Bargain.

After that I actually escaped, carrying a treasury of alchemical warfare, with the help of some Elite Shadows I had arranged earlier for just such a situation. And the Hound just hobbled out, masquerading as a Bluecoat, next to the moonlighting Bluecoat he’d bribed. 

We’re going to do the Downtime and advancement stuff next week when all four players are at the table. I think the Red Sashes will like us less. Interestingly, they’ve got a passionate personal vendetta against the Whisper, thanks to a Devil’s Bargain. The eight-segment clock that came with that Bargain seemed plenty until we killed their servants, stole their alchemical armoury, and burnt their HQ down. Some people are just “sensitive” to shit like that.

Fun times! Cheers for the excellent game.

Question 1 Can a Backup Assist the Point in Lead a Group Action if the Backup is involved and rolling in that Group action? We said no but I couldn’t see any direct contradiction in the rules.

Question 2 Can I choose to take the effect after making the Effect roll and seeing how much stress I would have to take? Some of your examples suggest yes but it felt a little like cheating and wasn’t super clear.

There’s been a great conversation at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DuamnFigueroa/posts/9NSHAivGdH1.

There’s been a great conversation at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DuamnFigueroa/posts/9NSHAivGdH1.

There’s been a great conversation at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DuamnFigueroa/posts/9NSHAivGdH1. Giving me heaps of ideas.

 

I want to riff off the idea of turning the work of fencing stolen goods into a score itself, to see how the current rules can let a crew of thieves make more coin from a big steal.

 

You know how with a crew of hawkers, their story doesn’t end after they’ve grabbed some turf to sell their wares. It’s really just the beginning. They need to defend that turf, defend their supply lines, defend their customers, bribe bluecoasts, etc. Lots of juicy play.

 

Same goes with a crew of thieves. Their story doesn’t end after they’ve stolen loot; that’s where things start to get really dangerous, really juicy.

 

Here’s one way to breakdown the work of thieves:

1) Steal stuff

2) Keep what you’ve stolen

3) Turn stolen stuff into coin

 

These steps can be rolled up into a single score or broken into separate scores.

Scores that bring a small haul are more manageable precisely because you can skip steps. Steal coin and you skip 2 and 3. Steal small expensive goods—like jewellery—and maybe skip 2. Just carry the stuff around fence-to-fence, client-to-client. The risk is if things get nasty, you might face a threat or a devil’s bargain where you’ll lose some of the goods on you. This might lose you dice on your Development roll.

 

If you score big, you can skip 2 and 3. That means you basically don’t want the hassle of (2) stashing and (3) fencing. You haggle a few coin and let someone else take the heat. You make less coin, but you get clean fast and can move on to other things.

 

But if you want to make more coin, you gotta put in the effort and take the risks. Put in the work (1) getting, (2) keeping and (3) moving stuff, and you’ll reap the rewards.

 

This means making each step its own score. This will broaden the games’ focus, not just on doing heists but on making a living as a criminal. As a score, each step gets it’s own downtime and development rolls, bringing in more coin and skill as the crew makes big on the haul. Do step 2 right and you can spend the time to find the right buyer for each piece, making more money. Maybe use a long-term project clock if you’ve got some really unique goods where finding the right buyer is no easy task. Either way, getting the goods to that perfect buyer can be a whole score in itself.

 

But making each step it’s own score, or fencing each loot seperately, brings risks. More chance for heat, getting more factions off side, more thieves trying to find and take the stuff you’ve stolen, not to mention the stress and the trauma. For big hauls this makes sense; more expensive the things stolen, the madder people tend to get, and the more they try to or or hurt the thieves.

 

You could try to skip 2 and just stash the loot in your hidden lair, but your lair might not stay hidden long, what with other thief crews hearing about your haul and stalking you, thugs ruffing you up, bluecoats asking questions, and informants wanting a quick coin. No, if you want to make big off a big steal, you gotta get dirty and do the work.

 

At least, that’s what I think it means to be a crew of thieves.