Author: Rob Wieland

My crew, the renamed Triflers, hit two scores today:

They dove into Strangford Manor to get the Key of Daemonostromos to deal with the fire demon they released last session. The score went off with out a hitch, outside of them picking up a haunted painting and the Whisper’s possessor ghost friend establishing a keen rivalry with their Cutter, Rockie.

Then they opened to help Lute clear a pesky Skovlander named Ulf Ironborn out of muscling in on their tavern. the Skovs saw through their poison ploy and put the Hound and Lurk in a desperate position. The newly dubbled Triflers came out in force, even going so far to inject Ulf with Drowning Oil as they were all arrested so that he died while being transported to the Bluecoat district house. Of course, when the Triflers got home thanks to a few greased palms to the Charhollow ward boss Sgt. Marconetti, they found that the Grinders had stolen their bakery boat in retaliation for sending Ulf to an unnatural watery grave.

(They were gonna let him live with some broken legs, but after they saw how he ‘collected’ on someone who didn’t pay his protection, the switch quickly flipped to ‘we gotta kill this asshole’.)

Despite their scoundrel behavior, they are winning over the citizenry of Charhollow by donating a lot of time and coin to the poor Widowhaven Hospice in the district. If it just so happens they have access to physickers to help them recover in between scores…so be it.

Looks like the next two scores on my crew’s plate:

Locating a copy of The Key of Daemonostromos to find out the name of the fire demon they accidentally released blowing up the Lampblacks’ War Treasury. They know there’s a copy of that banned book in Scurlock Manor…somewhere…

Helping the local tavern owner deal with some rowdy Skovs led by Ulf Ironborn. Seems like they aren’t the only ones looking to make their names in Crow’s Foot.

I ran my first score with my crew today. They made characters, I dropped them in Crow’s Foot and they decided to suck up to the Crows and go after the Lampblacks. I decided to drop them into the action after they made characters and let them pick a crew type based on how they handled the job.

They blew up the tobacconist’s shop above the Lampblack’s war treasury, but they rolled poorly on the engagement roll. (Seriouslt – 3d, roll of 1,1,1) So the bomb was too effective and started the block on fire. They dashed in, got the score, and used a Ghost Key to get out of the basement.

Their entanglement roll was Demonic Notice. Since they twigged to the hints that Bazso is a cult member, they didn’t realize he had some artifacts in the basement, one of which was destroyed in the blast. The public will think there’s an arsonist on the loose in Crow’s Foot, but the crew knows they’ve unleashed a demon of fire.

Based on how the score went, they’ve opted to become Bravos calling themselves The Doors, because they break ’em down.

Just got finished running my crew through the quick start.

The Job:

Lyssa hired the crew to steal Rorik’s body from the City Watch station before it was sent to the crematorium.

The plan:

The Slide and the Whisper get into a fight in the lobby of the watch station to distract the Bluecoats.

The Lurk cracks open a window while the Cutter watches out for patrols. 

The Cutter distracts one of the Bluecoats with a doxy, slits his throat and walks in the fog wearing his coat.

The Slide convinces the desk sergeant he’s a man of means and hired a coach to come pick him up.

the Whisper uses his ghost key to get out of jail. Per the whisper, the ghost key unlocks ghost doors by scraping the finger bone of a dead man against a wall in the proper sigil.

The Cutter comes up against a fresh young Bluecoat that doesn’t recognize him. The Whisper summons a ghost to possess the young lad and head directly for the vice district.

The Lurk gets the body out of the morgue and up on the roof.

The Slide’s carriage arrives. He gets in makes sure his rover takes the street where the lurk awaits to dump the body onto the roof of the coach.

Devil’s Bargains:

The Whisper isn’t pretending to be drunk.

The Slide bribes the desk sergeant with a fake gold pocketwatch that he discovers the next time he winds it.

The Crew left obvious evidence there’d been a break-in.

Strengths:

The setting elements gave concrete hooks on which to hang player concepts and ideas.

Character creation was fun and engaged everyone coming up with bits of their crew.

A lot of intriguing possibilities for the next job, from what Lyssa wants to do with the body to the old debt I rolled as part of development.

Weaknesses:

Their dice were hot – they rolled less than a 6 only once.

Some confusion on when to apply effect and when to apply action rolls.

I kept forgetting to ask about leading or overcoming.

Overall impression:

Good game. the quick start offered some excellent bits to build follow-up stories on, along with a lived in world that still allowed room for cool player invention. I look forward to the examples in the full book, since I think they will go a long way to illustrate how to use the system to its most efficient.