Author: William Watkins

 Sea Travel in Duskwall/Blades

I was looking at the Smugglers Crew playbook, thinking about how interesting it looked, especially for the larger possibility of travelling beyond the walls of Duskwall than other groups when I started musing on the state and nature of sea travel in this setting.

The most likely vehicles for Smugglers, IMO, are a ship of some sort, since I presume private vehicles on the ghost rails are an exceptionally rare or near unheard of thing and that other ground vehicles like wagons aren’t exactly suited for long-distance travel between cities.

What does everyone think ships are like in the setting? Given the electroplasmic technology I figure most are of a similar technological style and level of complexity as mid 1800s steam ships. Ships larger than jolly-boats and fishing boats typically employing steam/electroplasm powered paddle-wheels or screw propellers, though possibly with classic sail rigging as backup against breakdown or fuel issues or for additional speed. In fact sails would probably be useful for a smuggler ship because of their quietness compared to mechanical propulsion.

I could see a Smuggler crew sized ship being something sized and looking like this paddle steamer here. Not big, not well suited for long journeys, but just big enough to carry a modest cargo, get into trouble, and be a right pain to manage.

I also wonder about navigation. Depending on how one perceives the perpetual twilight that the world resides in this could be fairly normal or exceptionally difficult. If the skies are sometimes clear and the sun is just a dim disk in the sky, then standard navigation with things like sextants isn’t too hard. But if the world is dim because of a constant thick overcast, than navigation by star and sun sighting becomes near impossible. All you’ve got is the compass and rough estimates of speed and heading to do math off of (while worrying about stuff like slippage).

In the later case I imagine most ships  stick very close to shore and rarely venture more than a few dozen miles to sea. Journeys between islands are mostly just following a specific course as best as possible to hit the target island and then just figuring out where along the coastline you are once you finally sight it. Woe to those that somehow miss their target island. They could sail for ages and get totally lost even if they reversed course. Of course, some of that depends on just how big the scale of the map at the end of the quickstart is. Is Akaros small like the size of Hawaii or Puerto Rico? Medium sized like Iceland or Ireland? Continental sized like Australia? Like everything else, this is probably up to the group, of course.

I imagine the large rail bridges crossing between islands are a popular navigational assistance. Just follow the bridge and no worry about getting lost. Of course, this means such places would likely be well patrolled, not very good for smugglers.

I had some more thoughts, but I’m starting to ramble at this point, so I think I’ll leave it at this for now. Anyways, what thoughts did some of you have regarding Sea Travel and/or a ship crewing group of Smugglers?

Thoughts on Gangs, Claims, and “Turf”:

I’ve been bouncing loose ideas for a cyberpunk themed hack around in my head for a while. I know a cyberpunk hack is supposed to come out as a stretch goal, but whats the fun in waiting for that? 

One problem I’ve stumbled upon recently is how you would handle the “Claims” part of the crew sheet for a typical group of “Runners”. Most cyberpunk blackops mercenaries/Runners don’t exactly keep “turf”. They’ve got a safehouse or three, but that is about it. That said, a few of the claims are more like useful assets/contacts (the fences) so maybe one could just eliminate the generic “Turf” ones and throw in more of the specialized ones.

I’ve actually somewhat had this problem with Claims in general. It is a nice thematic thing, but what if my crew doesn’t want to be a large gang with turf and minions and stuff? What if we just want to be a group of elite crooks who rob mansions and banks before retiring to our secret hideouts without having to worry about turf and stuff?

A lot of the thief types I think of as examples don’t have large gangs and turf. People like Danny Ocean, Garret (Thief series), the Payday Crew, typical Shadowrunners, etc. Turf and gangs works well for other crew types (Breakers, Hawkers, Cultists, etc) but it doesn’t feel quite right for Thieves to me.

I guess one could always just reflavor turf in some other way. Or you could ignore it, but ignoring the hold turf can give leaves a gang awfully weak, especially in tier transitions.

So, with the new Quickstart, I have one small question that jumped out to me. The Thief crew gets a Street Fence and a Luxury Fence. One boosts Robberies, the other boosts Burglaries. What is the difference?

Going by the dictionary: 

Burglary – entry into a building illegally with intent to commit a crime, especially theft.

Robbery – the action of robbing a person or place.

Very similar, of course. However, going by the names of the fences, I would guess/say that the Street Fence applies to more common stuff, things one might steal from common business or maybe other gangs (equipment, weapons, drugs, etc), while the Luxury Fence would apply to the kind of things one might steal from the rich and powerful (gold, jewels, artwork, etc).

What does everyone else think?

I had a question about the items. Character creation simply says to “Choose Items Carried” and the various loads, in addition, downtime also lets you choose your carried items.

I take it this means you have that entire list theoretically available to you every occasion you get to choose your items? I assume this is the case, I just want affirmation I guess.

One thing I’m looking forward to in the full book is just how the city manages to deal with all its dead, or perhaps more accurate how well. I mean, I know there are the crematoriums or whatever that incinerate the dead using plasmic oils or whatever, but collecting all the deceased must be quite a chore. I’m sure plenty of them fall through the cracks even without factoring in those who intentionally try to avoid cremation for whatever reason.

The sewers are probably full of spirits from cut-throats and murderers dumping bodies, for example.