Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports – Page 4

Just finished my first Band of Blades session, and boy it was fun.

Panyar sniper, Orite scout and Orite officer went with The Horned one to get the black shot back from the dead. They started with a six in the engagement roll, so I gave them the opening shot – they found Victor and the Red Hook very much Not Arguing while guarding the supplies. My lovely players had the element of surprise, so, naturally, they went looking for wild predators.

You see, they took The Horned One’s ability to speak with wild beasts. So, while the sniper kept watch on the Not Arguing enemy, the two royal Orites with consort through the roof went into a wolf den.

The officer channeled some really good meat, and after the wolfs got thoroughly spooked by the pair of TALKING HUMANS, the specialists convinced the pack Alpha to help them drive the dead of the wolf’s territory. of five wolf, two would survive the ensuing battle.

The battle started with both the sniper and the scout trying to get rid of Victor, as the wolfs told them he can set shit on fire really fucking well. The scout’s roll was controlled, and with help from the chosen her arrow seriously fucked with the good doctor, but than, with inhuman speed, Victor drew a bottle of special alchemist fire that was going to burn half the squad to death (as he is Threat 4)…

and the sniper got a six

from that point on, Victor coudn’t do much beside trying to not get killed by the chosen, which left the squad and their wolf allies to deal with a bunch of rotters and The Red Hook. The officer rolled for the rookies and wolf, and got nothing better than 3. So, the modified abomination ram into their formation like a train, killing the Alpha and two rookies, and breaking half the officers bones.

That is, it WOULD have done it if the scout wouldn’t have attack-on-titen–styled-prowess-resisted it and saved a bunch of rookies.

At this point the sniper got rid of one the the thing’s heads, and the officer channeled some really nasty acid for the scout, who is now standing on the fucking thing and trying to shove the acid into its remaining head.

me: sure you can do it, but it’s desperate, and if you get less than 6 you are immediately die

scout (HAVE THE DAREDEVIL ABILITY): sure

gets a six

finish the clock

shove the acid into Red Hook’s head

jump of the monster without a scratch while it very much dies

meanwhile, Victor tries to GTFO while the Horned one tries to get him dead. The sniper starts to get surrounded by rotters while Victor drinks some potion and start to run away like the wind. I offer a controlled roll to get away from the rotters, or desperate one to off Victor.

guess which one he took

So, while he aim to the running Doc, the zombies closing in, he mumbles “help me here, horned one” praying in an earshot from the incarnation of the god. I offer him to create a 4 clock with 3 segments filled, titled “horns of the lord”, and get a die. one more segment, and he lose the ability to speak to anyone BUT wild animals.

he take it, roll a six, and Victor is dead.

Infamous and Lieutenant down, Blighter is gonna be PISSED.

A NOCTURNE v0.8/0.9 — playtest sessions #9 and #10 “PR Offensive”

A NOCTURNE v0.8/0.9 — playtest sessions #9 and #10 “PR Offensive”

We’ve got a double whammy this time around, folks. Strap in.

We started session #9 with downtime in Remonstrance after the skirmish on Heaven. Nix did some more investigating into the digital disease they’ve contracted, called Castor’s Syndrome. Turns out they’ll need to go to the Gear-Queen or the Patriarch for more answers. It’s rumoured to be what made the Vordians the way they are now (empty pressure suits, unable to inhabit organic bodies). Meanwhile, as Bug and Nix train and externalise stress, Timothy heals up and starts working on his own long-term project, the addition of keratin armour to his goopy artificial flesh shell.

Then, it’s down to business. They’ve still got a job outstanding: utterly cripple the Remonstrance IV AgriCorp known as House Minor Vex’s ability to hold power on the planetary council, wiping out their entire line if need be. The crew head to the warm agricultural world, putting down in one of the many dry canyons outside the population centres and slipping into Arctura, one of the gleaming, steel-and-glass cities that stud the planet’s winding fertile valleys, dominated by corporate arcologies.

In the shadows of one such arcology stands an Apophatic Order temple. They convene with the abott there to get up to date with goings-on on Remonstrance IV. Apparently Vex is homing in on taking an unprecedented sway over the council. Their leader, Fashra Vex (fashionable clothing, slender but obviously industrial-grade armature) has gained a lot of popularity. Things just got a lot more urgent.

Timothy spends a few weeks digging up all the dirt he can find. There’s plenty, as it turns out – rumours of sloppy assassination attempts on other house overseers, and all manner of blatantly poor employment practices even compared to the other Houses (as alien as the rest of the cluster is, Remonstrance IV operates on pure crony capitalism and a level of technology somewhere only a hair past our modern world – while describing it, I was thinking of a cross between California, Dubai, and Singapore).

From here, we launch into the score. This was where I really got to stress-test A Nocturne and my own thinking regarding how scores work when time and space are blown up to such large scales. This score really stretched the default definition, but it was perfect for how A Nocturne operates: rather than one compact chain of cause and effect in a tight time-frame, we went through a series of short vignettes taking place over a few weeks, following short chains of actions and consequences within them. It actually worked remarkably well, and naturally lead up to an action-filled climax.

In brief: the aim was to completely discredit Vex, to make them look like, at best, evil morons, and at worst, actual villains. Bug went down into the dusty agricultural belts and, after a brief altercation in a worker’s bar, managed to plant the seed of unionising in a few workers’ heads. Meanwhile, Timothy embarked on a dirty campaign of misinformation, sowing bad info and outright confusing reports through the planet’s press network. Finally, Nix came on screen for the final blow, using their Mercurial special ability to impersonate a member of the House (a woman called Sand Obal-Vex) and call an emergency press conference to combat all these vile rumours floating around. Nix intentionally dug even deeper, outright admitting to all manner of nasty things and generally sowing even more doubt and confusion.

Unfortunately, as well as this was going, time was running out. Vex had obviously caught wind of this press conference immediately, and sent a detail to the corporate arcology it was being held in to confront “Sand”, whom the PR man dragged into another room to berate about stepping outside her bounds as a representative of the AgriCorp. It’s at this point that two things happen: first, Timothy emerges from his hiding place in this side room and engulfs the PR guy, crushing him to death. Second, Vex’s private security descend, a wing of black tringular VTOLs gunning in over Arctura’s skyline.

The crew make their escape in a ground vehicle stolen by Bug, across snaking eighteen-laned highway and down into trash-filled side streets. They manage to lose the VTOLs, but not without causing an almighty amount of chaos and property damage along the way. Camera drones raced behind them for most of the chase, broadcasting it to the megalopolis.

But, they did what they came to do, and made it to the payoff. The Apophatic Order quietly ships several tonnes of raw materials, oxygen, and water into orbit for Ghost to pick up, and we add enough Chaos to Remonstrance’s track to bump its next Chaos roll to three dice (that’s a lot of Chaos, lemme tell ya).

A fortnight later we pick up again for downtime, with just Brendon and Edwin this time as Roxanne couldn’t make it. We were expecting a quiet session. Boy, were we wrong.

This session I introduced a new change coming to v0.9: Fallout, which is basically a free-form entanglements phase before downtime proper. I’m adding this to pump some of the urgency and forward momentum back into A Nocturne’s downtime, which was sagging a little without Entanglements proper.

For this round, they rolled Revenge. After a spot of downtime activity, Nix picks up a transmission: they’re being hunted. A mercenary craft, likely hired by House Minor Vex. Luckily, the craft is having trouble finding Ghost thanks to Ghost’s lack of a meaningful heat signature, but it’s only a matter of time. They’re incredibly close, close enough for Ghost’s external cameras to pick the mercs up visually. Improvising, Timothy pulls their breaking-apart old in-system jumper out of storage once again, and leads the mercs on a merry months-long chase around the system, eventually managing to lose them.

Hoping to avoid further entanglements, the crew gun it out to the outer system, to wait it out in the shadow of a wrecked cannibal craft, going down for the long one in their coldsleep capsules. They knew that Vex is on the ropes, but they want to see what a few years might do. At this point, I basically laid bare the Movement rules to the players. They decided to wait a decade, and we rolled Remonstrance’s Chaos. Remember, three dice. Edwin made the roll.

He got a crit. A crit. Two movements, competing or tangled up with one another, and +2 Chaos. Remonstrance’s Chaos level was now at 4 dice. While Edwin and Brendon sucked in their breath and I laughed perhaps a little too much, I had Edwin roll 2d8 on the Movement table to see what was happening in Remonstrance. We got Decay and Deprivation. I couldn’t be happier.

They wake to months-old news transmissions flowing across Ghost’s sensors: Remonstrance is gripped by famine and civil war as the AgriCorps fight brutally amongst themselves in open battle across the planet’s surface, as well as in low orbit. Turns out the Vex situation that the crew precipitated was the straw that broke the camels back. The AgriCorps had been gearing up for war for years, and it all exploded while the crew slept their dreamless sleep at the system’s edge.

Naturally, when we went through XP and found that the craft had earned an advance, they picked the special ability “The Ends Justify the Means”, which means they only take stress for pushing themselves for violence or mayhem if they roll a 1-3. It’s evil and I love it.

Also, and I wrote this down specifically so I could mention it here, but Brendon’s closing remarks were brilliant: “Are we the baddies?”

Next time: The crew get ready to strike the final, fatal blow against Vex, likely plunging the entire system into a forever war if they’re not careful (seriously, Remonstrance IV is one Chaos away from maxing out, and another new thing is that when a system hits maximum Chaos, it tips over and takes on a new status quo based on what’s happened to it so far – think Traumas, but for the setting itself). That session’s tonight, by the way. I’m shaking with anticipation.

Stray thoughts: In case you can’t tell, I’m very, very pleased with how this last session turned out. This was my aim with A Nocturne all along: the crew’s actions having massive, lasting, horrendous effects on the systems they passed through and messed around with. This idea of rippling consequences and situations quickly spiraling out of control as the crew break the surface tension of panhuman society. Even before this was Forged in the Dark, back when it was just a creepy glimmer in my weeping compound eye, A Nocturne had this baked in. The more I can lean into this stuff, the better.

Blades in the Dark Session 12 – The Crimson Snow Season Finale!

This was it – the time for profit and power had arrived for the gangs of Crow’s Foot. The Crimson Snow set to embark on a daring raid to seize valuable military supplies and experimental electroplasmic equipment from under the noses of the Imperial Military. Every gang based in Crow’s Foot would need to pool their resources for the score, the biggest any of them had ever seen! After the requisite politicking and planning, the operation, named Ascending Griffon, began with exploiting the high state of alert in Duskwall to lure imperial military personnel away from Gaddoc Station – the Lampblacks succeeded in faking an attack by the sea demons, now loose in the city, in Nightmarket. Then the Snow moved in: Banks had procured an imperial officers uniform prior to the score and utilized it to great effect – diverting remaining soldiers from their watch on the train to Nightmarket.

The Crows meanwhile moved into the garrison at the station to clean up any stragglers. The Snow set about surveying the train itself. Hadius took the lead in checking out the second compartment where the most valuable supplies were to be found. However, he was disturbed to hear a voice calling from the chamber – the voice of a young boy. Moments later, the crew found themselves facing an active combat hull powered by the ghost of a child. Banks was hoping to circumvent the threat by speaking to the spirit child, but the Hull’s programming proved too strong and the crew were forced to fight. Ves, exploiting the distraction offered by Banks conversation with the spirit, drove a poleaxe through its back, causing serious damage to the hull. Unfortunately, the hull struck back, sending Ves flying into the wall of the compartment. Banks, realizing his words were having less and less impact, seized another polearm and shattered the hull’s soul canister. Ves, thinking quickly, exploited their connection with the ghost field to stabilize the dissipating spirit, calling the child into a more stable form, instructing it to stay nearby till they left.

At this point the Crows finished up their struggle with the remaining guards and met the Snow in time to start transferring goods from the train to the waiting open-top carriages provided by the Red Sashes, they were particularly keen to claim ownership of a number of the barrels of refined leviathan blood being carried in on the train… However, before they were ready to leave, three figures emerged from a nearby puddle. The sea demons, seeking to exploit the now undefended state of Gaddoc Station, thanked the rogues and their leader, one Korvaeth revealed their intention to destroy the station – an act that would likely doom many of the city’s residents to starvation and isolate Duskwall, even as the city still reeled from the destruction of the Docks.

Luckily, Ves had located a military flare and fired it off, hoping to draw the military back to the station. The crew realised a head on confrontation would likely end badly and so Hadius and Banks fled toward the Nightmarket, Banks hoping to meet up with the Imperial soldiers on their way back, Hadius simply wanting some bodies between him and the demons. Ves managed to keep one of the demons occupied to buy them some time, though suffered grave injury in the process. Meanwhile, Banks (still wearing his Imperial officer’s uniform) rallied the soldiers against another of the demons. Banks fought bravely alongside the troops until injured too severely to continue, he slunk away from the battlefield. The crew managed to make their exit, hearing later that one of the demons had been destroyed by the military (though presumably the others had escaped), and the station – though damaged, was still largely intact.

In the aftermath of the heist and the new riches they now laid claim to, the Snow pondered what lay next for them – could they now absorb the remaining Red Sashes into their own gang, what were those demons hoping to accomplish in attacking the station and chiefly – would they now finally manage to make and sell some drugs?!

GM’s notes – This was a great session – tense and exciting. It saw a number of plot threads we’d been exploring all season come together and find some kind of resolution while bringing up new threads the players are keen to explore in season 2 of our Duskwall adventures! The Hull was suitably creepy and the demons suitably terrifying. We’ll be playing another RPG for awhile, but we’re definitely keen to return to Blades for a follow up season in the future! I was particularly pleased that the big tense finale came about almost entirely because of the PC’s actions throughout our games. Anyway, hope you guys have enjoyed my little write-ups – Till next time! 😀

After a long hiatus (due to vacations and Gencon), our Age of Blades campaign resumed last night.

When we last left our daring band of Shadows, they had just kicked in the door to a basement room below the Red Sashes’ Fencing School headquarters, in which their kidnapped Slide Saiya was being interrogated.

We opened with the combat. Jailya, the group’s only real fighter, rushed into the room and over to Saiya’s side, much to the confusion of Mylera Klevan and the four Red Sash sword students standing guard. Noggs Keel, the group’s Lurk, did the same, and the group of six Lampblack Bully Boys that Hishan had talked Bazso Baz into loaning them then burst into the room, fanning out to engage two of the Red Sashes and Mylera. Mylera jumped back out of her chair with surprising speed (despite looking very pale and ill –the ongoing effects of the curse tablet that the crew had placed under her bed during their first score), and drew her ornate dueling sabre, taking up a defensive stance.

Hishan, less shocked since he knew of the plan to infiltrate the building by way of the underground canal, pulled out a pistol and threatened the two other Red Sashes, causing them to hesitate in drawing their own sabres (very good Intimidation roll with stunt points that let him target more than one person).

Moon Eye, having drained most of his occult power getting them into the HQ, brought his carbine up and covered the only other exit to the room, to ensure that no one escaped to raise the alarm and rouse the rest of the Sashes.

One of the Lampblacks lunged at a Red Sash and wrestled him to the ground, while his companion gleefully whacked the swordsman on the head with a club.

Another two Lampblacks circled their opponent, trying to get past his guard, but to no avail.

Mylera’s quick response caused the two lampblacks facing her to re-think their commitment to the cause, and while they internally debated whether it was worth attacking the renowned swordswoman, Jailya jumped up onto a table and leapt right in front of Mylera. With a deft swing of her own finely balanced mace, she smacked Mylera’s wrist, sending her sword flying across the room, and forcing her to reel back in surprise and shock. Hishan leveled his pistol at the Red Sash leader and called out in Iruvian, “Have your people stand down and no one has to get hurt!”. Taking in the situation with a quick scan of the room, Mylera gave the Iruvian ex-noble a hard look, then barked out a command to her own people (also in Iruvian) to back off.

The lampblacks continued to scuffle for a moment before realizing that the fight was already over, but soon all was relatively quiet in the room. Noggs’ voice betrayed a little tension as she said “Time to go.” Saiya picked up the small brass coffee cup she had been drinking out of, drained the last of the strong brew, set the cup down, and calmly walked over to pick up Mylera’s fine dueling sabre from where it had landed. “Thanks for your hospitality” she said to the red Sash leader with a smirk, “This will be a nice souvenir of my time here”, and the crew withdrew, keeping weapons leveled at the fuming Red Sashes. The Lampblacks, coming down from the adrenaline rush of the fight, left with jeers and some rude gestures, slapping each other on the back over their easy victory, as the whole group made their way back to the Silk Hats’ boat, and home.

(Everyone, including me, was expecting the fight to go a lot longer, and be a lot more dangerous for the crew, but a really good attack roll, excellent use of stunt points, and a lucky disarm roll on the part of Jailya ended things quickly, and very much in the crew’s favor.)

Settling back in at their hidden lair beneath the Black Raven, and marveling at their good fortune, the crew began to discuss their situation. Hishan reeled off the ever growing list of their enemies, and the much smaller list of their allies, and they all agreed it was time to even up those two lists. They decided that after what they had done to the Fog Hounds (stole a lot of valuable spirit essence and blew up the engine room of their steam boat), the Hounds would never leave them alone, and the only solution was to destroy the rival gang completely. Not being very combat focused themselves, they considered asking Bazso Baz and the Lampblacks for help, but Hishan reminded them that the Lampblacks were on decent terms with the Fog Hounds, and probably wouldn’t want to risk their guys in any case while they were actively engaged in a war with the Red Sashes.

Hishan asked Jailya if they could approach the Grinders, who she had convinced to go along on their last raid against the Hounds, but Jailya reminded everyone that the valuable loot that they had promised that the Grinders would find in the Hounds’ warehouse was fictional, and that they were probably a little unhappy with the crew at the moment. Hishan pondered for a moment, then came up with a plan. They would approach the Grinders, and explain that it had taken them a little while to fence the loot, but that they were there to hand over the Grinders’ cut of the haul, and ask for their help in wiping out the Fog Hounds once and for all.

While they made preparations, Moon Eye spent his time telling the prostitutes at the Raven the story of how the Silk Hats had embarrassed the Red Sashes, and suggested that they share the tale with their clients. He also spent time researching the other occult objects he had stolen from Lord Penderyn’s collection during the necklace heist, a clay tablet covered in spidery runes, and a set of alabaster jars with lids in the shape of animal heads. The jars turned out to be an ancient form of Spirit Bottle, designed for use in a ritual in which a powerful sorcerer would split his soul into four parts and store them in the jars, making him unkillable while the jars were safe. The tablet turned out to be a summoning ritual to call a powerful demon.

Hishan was prepared to spend 2/3 of the crew’s accumulated wealth to appease the Grinders, but Moon Eye suggested offering them half cash and the summoning tablet for the rest. Saiya quickly agreed that spending less of their stash was a good idea.

Hishan, Moon Eye, and Saiya accompanied Jailya back to the working class Skov bar that the Grinders hang out in. The place went deathly silent, and all eyes turned toward them as they entered, but thankfully Cercy, the crippled Grinder lieutenant that Jailiya had dealt with before, was on hand, and called them over to a table in the back. As the low conversations resumed in the bar, Cercy ordered tankards of the dark, oily, vaguely fishy tasting strong Skovland ale for all of them, and, speaking in Sovlander to Jailya, said “There wasn’t anything in that warehouse worth our time. You lied”. Jailiya, switching to Akorosi so her crew members could follow, said “We’re here to make that right.” Hishan quickly jumped into the conversation and said “There was some miscommunication! The loot was on the boat, but it’s taken a few days to sell it off. We’re here to give you your cut.”, dropping the sack of 500 silver coins onto the table. Moon Eye, leaning in conspiratorially and giving Cercy a crazed look, unwrapped the summoning tablet and explained what it was. Cercy visibly pulled back, thought about it for a moment, and said “Wait here.”

He hobbled over to the bar, spoke briefly with a huge young man who nodded and left the bar. Cercy came back to the table and kept up the small talk, asking how they liked the ale. Moon Eye, unable to hide his grimace, stared him in the face, choked down a second mug and said, “Its good”.

A few minutes later, a 40’s ish man dressed in docker work overalls and with an intelligent look in his eye came in and introduced himself as Hutton. He listened to their explanation about the loot, and agreed to accept the offerings and let bygones be bygones. Hishan spoke up, and explained that this was a prime opportunity to for the two gangs to join up again and wipe out the Fog Hounds for good, while they were still reeling from the last raid. Hutton thought the suggestion over, and liked the idea in principle. He demanded that if the Grinders helped the Silk Hats out, that his crew would get both of the Hounds boats, to which Hishan readily agreed (the crew did not know that the Grinders long term, but ultimately probably futile, goals were to accumulate a war chest, steal a warship, and either take revenge on the Imperials or liberate their home of Lockport, so the cash payment and chance to get more watercraft strongly appealed to Hutton).

Everyone agreed to a time for the attack, shook on the deal, and the Silk Hats went back to their lair to plan the details.

That’s where we left off, so we’ll launch into the attack next time. The crew is hoping to gain another ally in the Grinders, and wipe out an enemy with the Fog Hounds. We’ll see how that plays out…

Hey Bladers!

Hey Bladers! I picked up a copy of the rules based on my sister’s recommendation and I just finished running my third session last night. I came up with mechanics for a social score that my players really enjoyed. I’m sharing what I wrote to get some feedback on how to improve it and also to offer it to any other GM’s that might want to play around with it. (This is long, TIA for reading. Considering making a one-sheet in a Google Doc for folks who want to run this, LMK if that’s a good idea!)

The idea of a ‘social’ score was one of the first things that appealed to me when thinking about Blades sessions. Conceptually I borrowed from movies like the first Mission: Impossible (the scene where Ethan Hunt et al steal the NOC list), Black Panther (the casino scene), Firefly (the ‘Shindig’ episode) and even Mask of Zorro (where Alejandro dances w/Elena at Montero’s hacienda) where a specific objective had to be completed out in the open, in polite society, without making a scene.

As we are just starting out I decided to use the “War In Crow’s Foot” starting condition. My crew decided to ally with the Red Sashes, so I decided the brass ring of this session would be to prevent the assassination of Remira, an important Red Sash lieutenant. Remira would be representing the Red Sashes, and indeed the Iruvian delegation, at a party hosted by city council member Lord Carro, who keeps a manor in Silkshore.

The engagement roll for this score covers how the crew scores invitations/entry into the party in the first place. My crew decided that, as the Spider was a former Skov noble, they would finagle legit invitations through his contacts. Forgeries, breaking in, or even a separate score where the crew steals invites from someone else are all other possibilities.

I dictated to the crew that the loadout would be ‘light’, and that no character could choose anything bigger than one load- in other words, no heavy weapons/armor/explosives. Specific to this score, I also told the Leeches that any potion in their bandolier would count as one load as the potions would need to be concealed as to not draw suspicion. I also made them mark off “subterfuge supplies” to start to reflect their masked ball-esque costumes, so really the loadout as 2 for them. Fun RP opportunity for everyone to describe their character’s costume/mask and such.

Here’s the meat and potatoes of the score- instead of the typical overcoming of obstacles and running clocks on mixes/fails, I modeled the score mechanics after D&D 4E skill challenges. The players needed to make 12 “Investigate” successes in order to identify the would-be assassin without making a fuss. In addition to the “Investigate” track, I had two other tracks called “Charm” and “Obstruct” that would begin to fill as a consequence of mixes/fails on “Investigate” rolls. These tracks represent the crew making a scene/calling undue attention to themselves during the party which would complicate the investigation.

If either Charm or Obstruct got to 6 before Investigate got to 12, the crew gets kicked out of the party and is unable to prevent the assassination. (In our case the crew rolled crit on their engagement roll so I lowered their required Investigate score to 10- I figure a success would be 12 as normal, a mix would require a fight or somesuch to acquire their invites, and a fail might increase the required Investigate score and/or give the crew a worse starting position.)

As an example, the Spider picks Consort for an Investigate roll to get a feel for the attendees. They roll 4- mixed success! They make a decent accounting of themselves in conversation but ruffle a few feathers. Add 1 to Investigate successes but also add 1 to the Charm track. A fail might add to both Charm and Obstruct and/or lose position. Subsequent players might spend their actions on Charm and Obstruct rolls to smooth things out and decrease those pools.

In general, I envisioned “Investigate” rolls for Insight checks, “Charm” for Resolve, and “Obstruct” for Prowess, but as in all things a player could make a case for any given check- Prowl for Investigate, Sway for Obstruct, etc. The idea was to give non-social characters an opportunity to feel useful and contribute on a score like this.

I know Blades does not have initiative per se, but I thought it’d be interesting to use a modified Fortune Roll to determine turn order, as the actions of one crew member might inform the actions of other players. This represents the in-game windows of opportunity a given scoundrel gets to act. With a crew of 5, I rolled a D6 to determine who got to act, with a roll of 6 giving me the option to choose. After a player acts I’d roll again whittling down to D4, D3, D2 until the last player acts. On a given turn, the player can Investigate, Charm, Obstruct, or spend their action Assisting another player.

I started with fixed positions for each roll- Risky for Investigate, Controlled for Charm, and Desperate for Obstruct (not a good idea to get physical at a fancy party!). Criticals would improve position and fails could lose position. I then would assign effect as normal. If a player used the same skill twice in a row I would give them -1 position for going to the same well (too harsh?).

After all players acted in a round, I would increase a round counter then have the last player to act roll a D6 for a fortune roll to determine how circumstances at the party change-

1- Dance! Group action to participate in a dance- fails add to Charm pool

2- Drink! Level 2 Harm “Very Drunk” resisted by Prowess (mix = 1 harm, success = no harm, crit = no harm + remove 1 Obstruct)

3- Chat! Level 2 Harm “Exhausted” resisted by Resolve (results as above, swap Charm for Obstruct)

4- Games! Level 2 Harm “Puzzled” resisted by Insight (results as above, choose Charm or Obstruct for crits)

5- Move! Carro moves the party to another part of the house- -1 to Investigate pool

6- no effect this round

If a player failed a check such that the Charm/Obstruct meters would fill, I gave the crew the option to Disavow that character and let them twist on their own. In game terms, it let them ignore the consequences of their roll and it meant they could not Assist nor accept an Assist, and all their rolls were by default from a Desperate position to reflect the rest of the crew cutting them off (and the scoundrel being branded as obnoxious). Should a Disavowed character fail a check that fills Charm/Obstruct after that the investigation would fail.

My players got to 9 out of their 10 Investigate checks in 5 rounds before a Disavowed character failed a check that pushed Charm over the brink. As the idea for this score came late to me I hadn’t thought through what exactly the consequences were for failure, so I decided they would get a chance to fight the assassin(s) out in the open, at the expense of faction standing with Lord Carro/the government as well as additional heat. The party went to hell and the crew had to kill/knock out the assassins before they could kill Remira (switched back to clocks for combat at this point).

Would love to hear ideas about any/all the above- too hard? Too easy? Ways to improve/adapt rules? What do you think about alternatives for failure? How should the end part go? Also I’d love to hear from other GM’s who try a score this way. Would it be helpful to turn this into a scenario doc to have handy at the table?

Appreciate this group and everyone’s excellent contributions. Looking forward to more!

Hey folks, we just had our session 0 last night, and I wanted to share.

As a bit of note, we aren’t in Duskvol. Using Friends at the Table, and Geekspective as guides, I brought Blades into the city from our DND campaign.

It took a lot of work, both between campaigns, and during the DND game to set the necessary framework. Thanks to that, ghosts, firearms, and weird technology has a place in our game. It wouldn’t be Blades without it.

We have a gang of 5, three from the DND campaign, one person new to role playing and one new to our table.

As we started they chose a halfling Lurk with ties to nobility, a self hating lizard man Leech, a dishonorably discharged elf Hound, a professorial tiefling with an unsavory past Spider, and the fifth player to join us chose a Whisper, but little else character wise.

This was easy, if a little time consuming.

The real fun jump was the crew. They slipped right past the more typically violent crews, and vacillated between Shadows and Hawkers. I was really nervous about Hawkers because I had no idea how to run that.

Of course they went Hawker, but when it came to product they went off the wall.

They sell the distilled essence of ghosts, using that as an opioid style drug to relive certain memories of the dead.

They do this in a den behind an art gallery front, that uses the hanging pictures as a menu of the experiences on offer.

This, I am beyond excited to run with.

We didn’t end up having time to run out first job, but I am so dang excited to get this thing moving in the next few weeks.

I’ve been plumbing this community for a while, so thanks for your help folks!

Quite a few unexpected developments in this session!

Quite a few unexpected developments in this session! The players struggle with a mystery (as players are wont to do) but then that all gets swept away when some much more ~~stabbing~~ pressing issues rear their ugly ~~blades~~ heads.

Originally shared by Eli Kurtz

Score #04: Poltergeists

The crew of the Electrick EEK has kept things quiet for the past three scores. They’ve felt pretty accomplished, stoking solidarity among the Dockers while also living fast and making strong moves in their own favor. This time, their luck ran out and they banged around just a little too much. Now they know what it feels like when things go belly up in Doskvol. What will they do about the fallout? We’ll have to find out next time…

https://youtu.be/ZWHPBqJSOE0

Just ended my 6 month campaign of Scum and Villainy in the Star Wars universe.

Just ended my 6 month campaign of Scum and Villainy in the Star Wars universe. It was a ton of fun and the players all got to have a moment of awesomeness when taking on their final job against the Czerka Corporation. Once the main action was over, we had a fun little series of scenes with a pair of detectives meeting with each member of the crew and engaging in some verbal sparring over their involvement with the final heist, and then each crew member got an epilogue, complete with a mid- and post-credits scenes.

I really love Blades, and Scum and Villainy especially, as I’ve always wanted a system that does what it does. Flashy heists and daring cons and planet-hopping space adventures are a lot of fun and the system does them quite well. My only criticism is that with the right combo of ability choices, a character built for combat can easily throw around 5 dice with a push/gambit, which can trivialize those sort of events for them. But this was also my first run with a Blades system, and I think I learned a lot about how to present situations that aren’t so clear-cut and on my next go-around I reckon I’ll be better at it.

There will definitely be a next time, too as I really want to run a campaign set in the base setting of S&V because its delightfully weird and cool. Right now I’m running Stars Without Number with mostly the same group, and after that I might take a break from sci-fi but there is definitely another S&V game coming in my future.

A NOCTURNE v0.8 — playtest session #8 “A War in Heaven, Part 2”

A NOCTURNE v0.8 — playtest session #8 “A War in Heaven, Part 2”

We ended last session with the crew entering Heaven, intent on restoring its virtual society to some semblance of its former self with the mysterious, stolen personality matrix. All of this at the behest of Ghost, who has some obsession with Heaven station and its murky history.

Coming off a Risky engagement result, we cut right to it: the crew are at one of the sealed entrances to Heaven’s corrupted core, trying to find some way in. Timothy explores the door with his numerous extruded appendages, eventually realising that the door is slightly buckled, wedged shut but not entirely sealed, as if whoever passed through here centuries ago (i.e. Newton and the Pale Crew) weren’t able to fully close it. Bug unfurls and hefts a massive directed-energy weapon (ticking their boxes for A Large Weapon) and blasts the door. They get through, but I throw a clock down on the table and tick it: Ion tunes into their frequency and warns them as the last minute that the Pale Crew are on their way. The clanking of docking clamps echoes through the station. Now, it’s a race against time.

The crew steal through the wrecked door, finding themselves in a large capsule-shaped space, its centre bisected by a pillar of super-computer terminals, Heaven’s central processing apparatus. Floating in the microgravity are a number of ancient, corroded security drones, their chassis riddled with bullet holes. While attempting to use the residual power left in one of the dead drones to get a back door into the core, all hell breaks loose.

The Pale Crew have arrived. The crew can see their flashlights arcing across the far walls of the tunnel they just came down. Roxanne has Bug pay some stress for a flashback – they managed planted a command one of the Pale Crew’s heads, instructing them to attack their own when aboard the station. Gunfire lights up the tunnel, and the Limpets (a temporary cohot acquired by the crew last session) spring their ambush.

I make some fortune rolls for the start of this scrap. The Limpets have the upper hand, but they’re taking losses as the Pale Crew push forward. Hoping to turn the tide, the crew spring into action. Nix rushes in, but gets into a mid-air microgravity fight with one of the Pale Crew, and almost takes a knife to the gut – they avoid it, but the blade pierces their pressure suit (remember how there’s no air on Heaven?). Air starts hissing. Helping them out, Timothy wraps his bulk around Nix to block the leak and drags them back into the core, but takes a shot in the back from an improvised rifle for his trouble. The gouged hole in this gooey flesh-like bulk smokes and bubbles.

Timothy finally manages to get basic access to the core via one of the drones, switching on the core’s emergency blast doors. The Limpets and Pale Crew disappear behind a thick sheet of high-tensile strength steel. Emboldened, he attempts to start the process of feeding the personality matrix into the core, but finds the proper operations blocked. He takes some harm (which I cheekily dubbed “system shock”) as the security systems fight back.

As a result, the crew have to improvise, powering up and hacking manual terminal (with the help of one of Bug’s bypass chips) and carefully inserting the personality matrix platter by hand. Timothy reads the diagnostic data being spat out by the system’s monitors of the virtual world, finds them changing as soon as the personality matrix is processed. Whatever’s happening, Heaven won’t be the same again. He saves the diagnostic data to his own memory, but internalises his stress during all of this, taking the trauma “Cold”.

Bug and Nix come out swinging, opening the emergency blast door and gunning down + stabbing the remaining Pale Crew foot soldiers. Bug almost internalises here, but chooses to have their parasitic AI Billy eat the stress, giving Billy another decision to make for them later (that’s two banked so far – this is gonna be fun down the road).

The crew escape Heaven! We add 2 Chaos to Remonstrance’s track, and they decide the salvage the drones for a bit of Profit so they can pay their Maintenance.

Stray thoughts: Nothing specific came up at the end of this session, it was very much Blades’ core system doing its job with the rolling chain of actions and consequences. One thing I’d like to nail down even more is the dangers inherent in hacking unfamiliar, ancient, and/or corrupted systems. We saw a bit of that, but I could stand to play it (and write it) a lot harder.

Unless anything drastic comes up next session, I’m really, really close to starting work properly on the next play-test version, which would be v0.9 – a lot of great feedback has come in, and I’m looking forward to doing some more brutal editing, as odd as that may sound.

Next time: Downtime in Remonstrance, preparing to shake up the tangled political situation on Remonstrance IV on the orders of the Apophatic Order.

Hi all!

Hi all! So a while ago I experimented with fun wax-sealed envelopes, even though I used regular candle wax In order to forward the story. Soon I will be a DM and I had a super cool idea you are all welcome to use if it suits your fancy. At the beginning of a session after a full score has been completed, rather than telling your PCs what new options are available to them through different gangs, why not have a job offer or a lead from gangs each in their own envelope? At the beginning of the session you set the envelopes out on the table and they get to decide which one they pick for that session. It is up to you whether or not you reveal which gang sent which envelope. I thought it would be fun and now I have real sealing wax so I am super pumped! Enjoy!