Sorry about the delay in posting this for those who like the show.
Sorry about the delay in posting this for those who like the show. Got distracted by some offline things Wednesday evening and totally forgot to drop this for you all.
Please enjoy!
Originally shared by Colin Matter
Hello! Please join the Wednesday Night Crew for our second session of Blades in the Dark! Blades in the Dark is a game written by John Harper and published by Evil Hat. It’s a game of daring scoundrels pulling heists and jobs in an industrial fantasy…
The Whiskeyjacks had a great little job last night.
The Whiskeyjacks had a great little job last night.
They were trying to defuse their war with the Imperial Military (yes, they aim too high), and so they decided that their best bet would be a deception mission to convince the army that City Council was coming after them via assassinating an Imperial agent and framing a Duskvol magistrate.
It was an unbelievably complex plot, with a luminous tree Arboretum, stolen documents, an Iruvian prince, and my personal addition: it all takes place at a masquerade ball.
Decided to do weekly summary for the players, since there are two crews running on same city.
Decided to do weekly summary for the players, since there are two crews running on same city. Here’s the first one(English version; I make separate one for my local language):
Hey guys! Back with more Blades from the Wednesday Night Game crew. Come on in and listen to the exploits of the Cult of the Reconciler, The Eternals!
Originally shared by Colin Matter
Hello! Please join the Wednesday Night Crew for our second session of Blades in the Dark! Blades in the Dark is a game written by John Harper and published by Evil Hat. It’s a game of daring scoundrels pulling heists and jobs in an industrial fantasy…
Today was the first time I’ve ever run Blades (or in this case, a hack thereof) face to face. I got to introduce the rest of my game group to the system and it went great. We got through 2 runs and 2 downtimes – by comparison, my Hangouts games can take a month to do that.
My 3 players made a tribe of Raiders – straightforward mostly-reskinned Bravos who take what they want and burn the rest.
The Red Rocs are:
Howler the Driver, a former Last Cavalry gyro-pilot left for dead after a bungled assault, forced to survive in the wilderness.
BB the Feral, beastmaster and tracker, a teenager who never knew civilization.
Krondar the Reaper, amnesiac psycho. He’d be a Faceless in Apocalypse World. He’s the conductor of the poop train. He has the shiniest meat bicycle.
This was a one-shot, so we started off at Tier 1 with some extra tribe abilities, action dots, and special abilities. Nothing broke, and we were able to playtest a little more broadly than going through the same old new tribe starting situation. The players went full Beastmaster, taking the Gyros and Cars upgrades but reskinning them as mutant riding beasts. This didn’t present any problems either, and it really solidified the tribe’s aesthetic. The Red Rocs all rode beasts – the Driver had a custom flying beast instead of a car, and the BB the Feral took the “Good Dog” ability and granted his pet massive size, so he could ride Stabhawk into battle.
Taboos worked better here than in any prior playtest. Krondar took a taboo against all ranged attacks, forcing himself to literally dive into close combat. BB always took risks to scavenge everything, even as pursuers or encroaching storms drew nearer. Howler took a taboo against slavery and refused to accept medical help from a Monarch doctor because their faction took slaves.
Raiders pretty much work as advertised. The two runs were essentially smash and grab ambushes against a hostile faction, the Knight Riders. They were at war by their second downtime.
For the two players new to the Blades system, I think the main impressions I got from them were:
1. It’s fast. We did a lot of combat. Things were generally decided by the third time around the table.
2. Hard choices – and I’m really happy that this came through. What ability do you take? Do you push yourself? Do you roll to resist? How much stress do you have? Do you have enough supplies to indulge vice and do something else? Do you do a team action to maximize safety (better chance of 6) or roll separately so each person can tick clocks?
It would be cool to see this hammer of a tribe continue, and find out if they can make literally everything a nail.
So the crew finally went on the heist to steal the finger bone of the trigger finger of a saint of a forgotten god (Leviticus the Unforgiving, a deity of craftsmanship and discipline) from a cult of gunsmiths.
They entered through the front door, pretending to be cult members, but rolled a 3 for engagement. They were greeted by a Hull (they’ve never actually seen one before) who was baring down on them. Their disguise wasn’t going to work. The whisper managed, desperately, to Attune and provide a satisfactory spiritual identification.
They then decided to rummage through the front offices of the old factory to try and find out where the relic was stored. I didn’t really intend for this to result in anything useful, but the Hound rolled a crit and I felt compelled to have it pay off. They found a manifest, instead of a map, that indicated items of importance were stored in a basement vault.
They explored the factory floor a little, but there weren’t any finished weapons here. Just various parts of guns.
They found a locked door in the basement. The cutter decided to wreck it… and he did, although his consequence was a desperate situation. An ancient spirit in the vault (a loyal priest from before the god was forgotten) manifested and charged the group in a frenzy.
The Hound blasted the spirit with electroplasmic shots from his pistols, and the Cutter followed through with his huge mace and the Ghost Fighter ability. He hasn’t had a chance to shine in a bit, so I took the liberty to really elaborate on this attack. His mace frosted over and arcs of electricity trailed behind it as he swung through and destroyed the spirit.
They looted the vault and then escaped via an explosive charge they set (in a flashback) to blow a hole in a basement wall to give them access to the sewers.
Their entanglement, in downtime, was the Unquiet Dead.. the death of the ancient spirit has upset a balance which is going to come back on the crew as a complication in an upcoming score.
I still have a lot to learn, and still feel the need to build “meatier” scores, but this was the most fun I’ve had with the game to date.
Round 2 of playtest for the Highbinders Crewsheet – Conniving Political Crooks.
Round 2 of playtest for the Highbinders Crewsheet – Conniving Political Crooks.
Following their success in breaking up the connections between The Lost and the Anti-Ministry activists, the group was assigned to put an end to the Ministry once and for all. However, Lady Slane wanted them to take care of it more quietly this time, and so a goal to blackmail them was set.
After downtime – in which the Hound began to look for a silencer schematic, Jonathan (the Leech) begin to work on Painkillers, and Albrozad indulged his vice by going to see a mock-recreation of his diety – the Golden Stag – defeating the demon Tyraxis
Everyone set out to look for useful information to blackmail the group with, Viper (the Hound) managed to track one of the head boss’ (Constantin Hammette) wife to a jewelry shop in Silkshore, where she was purchasing things far above what she should have. Viper and DeEnvy (the Cutter) then went to talk with the wife, and passed a message to her to tell her husband: they wanted to speak with him.
Francine (the Squint), meanwhile, went to the Charterhall University library with Albrozad (the Slide) to research the financial status of the group, and found that there were large amounts of money not accounted for in the final billings. During this time she was noticed by a member of the activist group who worked in the library, failed to seduce her way out of it (getting a broken nose for her attempt), and then assisted her hull Assistant, Valentine, in kidnapping the man – he critted the roll, so that was a thing.
Cue interrogation, in which the Crew convinced the library worker to set up a meeting with Hammette, alone, at their HQ – a small shack along the Charterwall. The guards outside initially try to stop them, asking them why they’re here, and it almost looks like a fight is going to break out, but then Albrozad has an idea, and tells them “we’re here for the meeting.” Realizing who it was they’re were they let them in – save Deenvy who remains outside.
They manage to convince Hammette to send off his personal guards so they can talk in private, and then proceed to dump all of the knowledge they have to convince him to stop working against the Ministry, but also to start working for them. His group will begin to pay up to them, and as long as they do they’re free to continue any activities they want – save those against the Ministry. Meanwhile, outside Deenvy tries to intimidate the guards off, but fails and traumas for his trouble.
They rolled the Demonic Notice entanglement afterwards, so next session is going to be fun – sadly two folks won’t be there, so I’m anticipating a lot less – or maybe more – to happen.
me: “What does the ritual do and how is it weird?”
me: “What does the ritual do and how is it weird?”
whisper: “The ritual massively increases the impact that a particular person’s death will have on the ghost field – whatever emotion they’re feeling when they die, it’ll affect the ghost field as if a hundred people died feeling that emotion. It’s weird because, as long as ritual is in effect, the subject will gain increasingly intense visions of their own death.”
whisper: “What must I do to perform the ritual, and what is its price?”
me: “To perform the ritual, you need to eat hundred living deathseeker crows while chanting your goddess’ hundred names. Then, you need to cut out your own stomach, stich it with the crows inside, and bath it in the blood of one you truly love. The stomach you need to bury in a place you’ve conducted a massacre while whispering softly the name of the person you want to die.”
me “What new belief or fear does knowledge of this ritual and its attendant occult forces instill in you?”
whisper: “Man, exploiting metaphysical laws is hard!”
