Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

(Not sure where best to categorize this — it’s somewhere on the border of Actual Play Reports and Discussion.

(Not sure where best to categorize this — it’s somewhere on the border of Actual Play Reports and Discussion.

(Not sure where best to categorize this — it’s somewhere on the border of Actual Play Reports and Discussion… Hopefully this works!)

My group is going into their third session this week, and loving the final system and setting as I expected they would. We play once a week on Roll20, and I’ve been putting up a post on our Facebook group a few days before each session to help everyone get in the mood. We’re only a couple sessions in, but I figured this community might enjoy seeing what I’ve put together for them — I’ve been including a brief mention of the previous session’s events, and at least a few rumors to bring the world to life a bit more (and give them leads for scores). Feel free to steal whatever you want, and drop suggestions for further developments or interesting rumors you’ve used in your groups!

Between Sessions 1 and 2:

BLADES IN THE DARK: Sunday 3/5 @ 6:00 pm PST!

We join our crew of shadows as they find their place in the underworld of Duskwall. Having successfully burglarized Lyssa’s apartment at the behest of their friends in the Hive, our thieves will meet again in the boiler room to choose their next score.

The Clermont Gallery in Nightmarket is preparing to open an exotic new show, featuring supernatural art from across the isles — including a one-of-a-kind oil painting supposedly created by a man possessed by a long-dead artist.

A leviathan hunter ship — the ominously named ‘Her Damned Whispers’ out of Lockport — has docked in Duskwall several weeks ahead of schedule. A gang of urchins that watches the comings and goings at the docks claims that the ship found something even stranger than the leviathan blood they’re unloading, and that the captain is in a hurry to get it back to Lockport.

The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh collects tithes from each district seasonally, focusing on just a couple districts at a time. This is the last week of collections in Nightmarket, and the church has hired on the usual band of mercenaries to beef up security at the local chapel. At the end of the week, the collected offerings will be moved to a vault in the Sanctorium in Brightstone.

And there are many other whispers on the streets, if you know where to go to hear them…

Between Sessions 2 and 3:

BLADES IN THE DARK: Sunday 3/12 @ 6:00 PST

We join our crew of shadows — now known as the Lilies — as they prepare for their most daring score yet. The average criminal in Duskwall wouldn’t dare steal from the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh, but nothing about our daring scoundrels is average. With the help of their new cohort of thugs — the Tadpoles — the crew will assault the tithing wagon as it makes its way through the district, and will assume the identities of their victims to gain access to the vault of the nearby chapel. Daring!

Last week, the Lilies were successful in stealing a strange new oil painting from the Clermont Gallery prior to its public reveal. The painting, advertised as the “Sevoy Square”, was supposedly done by a man possessed by the spirit of a long dead artist — Stavrul Sevoy. The art is a simple black square on white canvas… But both the lurk and the whisper of the crew saw unnerving images within that black square.

In Nightmarket, a crew of spies and thieves known as the Wraiths are claiming credit for the theft of the Sevoy Square. A taxidermy frog was found pinned to the painting’s now empty frame, and the rumors out of the Wraiths suggest that this is the calling card of a new member… Will the Lilies allow their reputation to falter in order to avoid a conflict? Or will they stand up to the Wraiths and claim credit where it’s due?

Meanwhile, rumors swirl on the streets of Duskwall…

The leviathan hunting ship “Her Damned Whispers”, having come to port ahead of schedule last week, has suffered sudden tragedy. Gossip-mongers share grisly rumors that most of the ship’s crew turned up dead overnight — it sounds as if only those who weren’t on the ship were spared. The ship’s captain and surviving officers are hurriedly hiring any able hands, and have stated their intentions to leave for Lockport by the end of the week — forfeiting the haul of leviathan blood that is still being refined. In the meantime, the ship lies dark and dormant, looming ominously on the water.

In a drunken rant, a worker from Gaddoc Rail Station lets slip that the Empire is moving a shipment of weapons to Duskwall. The shipment is set to leave Wintercliff later this week, and should arrive at Gaddoc Station after a few days of travel. The worker was arrested within a day or so of this disclosure, but the whispers among Duskwalls more nefarious elements continue unabated.

Excitement is building for the annual Barrister’s Ball in Charterhall. Hosted yearly by the lords and ladies of the city council, the event celebrates the tireless efforts of the city’s lawyers, judges, and other civil servants. The ball is always preceded by a parade down Clerk Street, ending at the famous Templeton Hall where the ball takes place.

Hey all, so I just ran my first BitD session on Monday, it went well and everyone had fun, but I still wanted to…

Hey all, so I just ran my first BitD session on Monday, it went well and everyone had fun, but I still wanted to…

Hey all, so I just ran my first BitD session on Monday, it went well and everyone had fun, but I still wanted to solicit some advice. It’s a larger group (5-6).

Heavily Abridged Session: We did a fun intro sequence, they got a job from Bazso to confirm that the Foghounds are double dipping with the Red Sashes and transporting their Lotus. Underground Maps and Passkeys means they took a stealthy approach and snuck up on the hounds when they were docked at their underground canal spot. A 5 on the engagement, so they encounter a ghost in the tunnels, take care of it and move on to cause general mayhem while skulking about and the not to be trifled with Cutter hauls off the entire crate of Lotus. The Leeches signature skills left telltale signs that meant that the Red Sashes came to question and wreck up his wife’s (friend, apothecary) shop, and otherwise downtime went fine.

This group is very hesitant about making rolls that aren’t optimal, which is fine, their crew wants to be known as professional Shadows, so it makes sense. They are very deliberately spreading out their stats, trying to have as little overlap as possible, all different playbooks as well. Again, this is fine, but it feels like this will mean that some PC’s are inevitably gonna feel less useful in certain scores. Is there anything I can do to help this situation? Were all communicating and being transparent, but I want to see if anyone has any advice for making scores try to involve everyone, or is it unavoidable that this will happen sometimes, especially with a larger group?

Particularly, the fighty scoundrels (Hound, Cutter) are often hesitant to “cause trouble” during the score, though I know theyll shine eventually if the crew gets into a tough spot or grabs turf or goes to war.

Any tips or advice for handling Larger groups in the system in general would also be appreciated.

(Crew: Shadows; Hound, Cutter, Leech, Whisper, Lurk, Slide)

Blood on Silk: Episode 2 – The Assault

Blood on Silk: Episode 2 – The Assault

Blood on Silk: Episode 2 – The Assault

The game kicked into high-gear with an assault on the Red Runner’s drug den, aiming to make a spectacle for the Hive to see and be impressed with. The group decided to attack from above, using a bomb to blow open the roof the building before charging down and fighting the Lieutenant here, Ezra the Claw.

The roof exploded and the darkness of Duskvol was made brilliantly bright for a moment by the red, almost firework like explosion of the bomb that Thaddeus the Spider had found for them. Torvald the Hound and Ashton the Cutter both scared the bejeezus out of the guards up top and rushed downwards to get help. Lagatha the Lurk tossed a quick blade at one of the retreating men, taking a Devil’s Bargain that he was someone “important”.

The group descended into the drug den and began kicking ass all the way down. Reaching a barred door, Torvald tries to smash it down but rolls terribly. His glaive crashes into it, leaving a hole before an answering blunderbuss rebukes him. They can hear the old, rough voice of the Tycherosi woman known as “Ezra The Claw” shout “Which one of you bastards hurt my boy!?”

The bomb had knocked out the power in this area and the group was very excited to see if the ghost downstairs would finally attack (I kept rolling fortune dice for it but alas, it never worked). Lagatha snuck through the blunderbuss hole, disappearing from the enemy’s electroplasmic lanterns before they could attack. A large skirmish happened between the groups, one that eventually entered darkness when Atiya the Whisper was able to pull on the lantern’s energy and turn everything into darkness.

The end result was the Lurk who successfully ambushed Ezra being the first person to suffer Trauma and get thrown out the window by her. He decided to suffer being Reckless now, though he is considering playing a Leech instead of his current character.

The group succeeded on killing Ezra, kicking out the Red Runners, and increasing their territory. The rival gang hasn’t gone to war yet but they have one more segment left before things will hit the fan. The job was decidedly loud & chaotic but not wild, giving them a base of +4 heat. There was an additional 3 heat added on, one for the murder and the other for a complication from earlier.

The group had their entanglement rolled and the option that was rolled on both dice (since they’re Tier 0) is an arrest. This intrigues me because the group has a -2 with the Inspectors already, so I’m going to make their rival Inspector who will be a thorn in their side coming for an arrest. XP was handed out since some had to get home and we’ll be picking up with downtime right when people get back.

Overall, not a bad session. I feel I could’ve put more work into the drug den and made it come to life better but my group was very hard to rein in and have them decide on a single plan. They also have some bad habits of trying to control other players’ actions but I put my heel down on that pretty quickly.

Downtime was super quick and easy to get through and help people do. That took much less time for others to think about and I liked how natural it felt to move from one event towards the others. The score will still take awhile to get things figured out (they’re now in sandbox mode, so I hope they’re ready and willing to get their feet wet) but downtime should be relatively quick.

When we started Blades back in October, we just had an ambition to try out the game and see if we got the rules and…

When we started Blades back in October, we just had an ambition to try out the game and see if we got the rules and…

When we started Blades back in October, we just had an ambition to try out the game and see if we got the rules and if they were functional. Now almost 5 months later we can say that the xperiment worked and all my traditional players love the game.

One thing I’ve learned is: dont be kind on the engagement roll.

The players were after Ulf Ironborn and after weakening him by attacking his protection racket they were going after the man himself. It all started when Ulf had stolen the groups gambling den in an Entanglement roll (that gambling den has been stolen from them at least twice). That couldn’t be tolerated so Ulf had to die. So after attacking the racket they decided to take out Ulf’s home base by gluing shut the windows and doors of the second story of the building and setting fire to it.

The leech had mixed together a fast acting glue and they attacked from the roof (after a successful Gather Info) with a stealth plan. This was 7.1 where the engagment rules weren’t as clear as now. So I gave them 3 dice (which was at least one too many as they were a tier below Ulf) and rolled three sixes.

Then I said to may players “Ok the doors and windows are glued and you have the torch ready, what do you do?”

After setting the building on fire, I rolled a fortune roll for Ulf and the poor bugger were sleeping dead drunk and his henchmen were afraid to tell him.

After a flashback the Billhooks appeared and mopped up the rest of Ulf’s crew (which made them easy to frame a while later, bringing the Eel’s wanted level down from 3 to 2).

So again, don’t be kind on the engagement rolls.

https://gyazo.com/fcee42ef62ffee2c9574d547226ac5dd

https://gyazo.com/fcee42ef62ffee2c9574d547226ac5dd

https://gyazo.com/fcee42ef62ffee2c9574d547226ac5dd

So he was supposed to be taking the day off. But entanglements decided he was picked up for interrogation by the Bluecoats. Lacking the coin to pay them off he took a beating while already maxed out on level 2 harm. Had to resist the +3 heat or else we would go to Wanted Level 4. Resisting took him over the trauma line. Even when im playing another character this guy still manages to get himself hurt.

https://gyazo.com/fcee42ef62ffee2c9574d547226ac5dd

Harland Younghusband, Associate Professor

Harland Younghusband, Associate Professor

Harland Younghusband, Associate Professor

Exciting downtime. Elke’s grant proposal that will incriminate the Society, but what funds it will authorize! Harland parlays a failed paper into a junior professorship and takes his disciples to a spirit well in the Lost District! Arquo and Elke’s romantic entanglements continue to confuse! All this and more…

http://www.seannittner.com/actual-play-associate-professor-younghusband-2282017/

Players: Adrienne Mueller, Karen Twelves, and Eric Fattig

http://www.seannittner.com/actual-play-associate-professor-younghusband-2282017/

Knives, Guts, & Coin – A Bravos’ Tale

Knives, Guts, & Coin – A Bravos’ Tale

Knives, Guts, & Coin – A Bravos’ Tale

So, I was insane and decided “Well, I’m already running the brand new session so why don’t we run another one for other folks!”. So I started a game on Thursday and it went much smoother now that I’m used to it and much quicker since I did some “Executive GM Decision-Making” (it is a trademark).

Originally, when we got to who gets pissed and who gets irritated from upgrades to the lair and what have you, I let the players decide. My players, how I still love them though, are terrible about reading up on the setting and things break down quickly and then they want to hear every option. This time, I just told them who was mad, who wasn’t, and let them decide how they wanted to handle it. It went far smoother doing that.

So in this game, we have three players who weren’t involved with the 1st character generation and two players who’re very new to tabletop gaming in general. What we ended up with was…

A Tycherosi Slide who was a former carnie/con-man who venerates an old Forgotten God. Taking the “Cloak & Dagger” setup, he is an expert in makeup and surprise attacks.

A Tycherosi Whisper, a former student at Charterhall who has been dallying into strange and mysterious forces. Taking “Strange Methods”, he has learned how to create a wand capable of creating electroplasmic-lightning capable of destroying ghosts, spirits, and harming even demons. He is looking into the history of his people, trying to learn why the Tycherosi bear the marks that they do. His friend, Setarra the Demon (who I decided hungers for knowledge), gave him this formula as the “first step” of learning his heritage. This makes the Whisper both excited and uneasy.

We have an Akoros Hound who was once as simple laborer working in the eeleries who just wanted more. He learned the trade of a bounty hunter but was blacklisted when his bounty was assasinated before he could hand them into the Bluecoats.

There is another Akoros, this one playing the Spider. She changed her playbook from Slide to Spider near the end of the session so I haven’t had as much time to flush out her character’s ideas. She was an info broker that got burned pretty bad, sold out a drug dealer who came back and hit her hard enough that she has to start over.

Lastly, we have our Leech. He was going to be a Tycherosi but decided not to when he heard there were other Tycherosi in the party. His character’s goal is to find a way to achieve true immortality, not the hollow existence that Hulls and Vampires survive in. He believes it can be found from the blood of the Leviathans, even in the leftover slag.

That makes up our crew of scoundrels. We moved onward to crew generation and that is when things got great. People were looking through the crew sheets and they decided to ask me which ones I liked. The only one not available was Hawkers (since I’m already running Hawkers at the moment) so I told them that my personal favorite was Bravos. I enjoyed the very “Gangs of New York” feel and it was one of the crews I felt resonated strongly with the game’s themes. To my surprise, they all agreed as well and decided to be a group of Bravos. I think only one of them actually had Skirmish so the group wisely decided upon “Dangerous” as their special ability.

They decided that they were going to specialize in Crow’s Foot, staying in a series of stacked railcars that were once tenement buildings after the initial Leviathan attack and had been left there ever since. They decided the heart of Crow’s Foot would be their stomping grounds and they specialized in Extortion, being a group of ruthless gangsters looking for coin any way possible. I voted that the group would’ve pissed off the Bluecoats that use that area for their own extortion racket. To my surprise, the group paid the coin to maintain a neutral relationship with them and carried on.

We did their upgrades, Bravo’s Rigging and Workshop, and I decided that the group received help from the Lampblacks (the Slide used to work marks with Bazso back in the day) to get their rigging all sorted. They attacked a small, independent smuggler who was bringing a slew of supplies and things for themselves. What they didn’t know was that was meant to go to the Dimmer Sisters, who know hold a very serious grudge (the group spent their coin to ensure that the Lampblacks were good friends with them).

As for their contact, they decided on Lutes the tavern owner. I decided to get a little frisky with the situation and had them become better friends with the Crows (who they pay up to) since the guy was a former Crow before he went straight sailing. However, they took a hit with the Leviathan Hunters, since Lutes was part of some “ordeal” that occurred offshore. I gave the group the option of +2/-2 and they eagerly took it. That meant the Crows thought big of them when a group of well-armed thugs showed up at Lutes’s business and the crew kicked them out. What they didn’t know was that group of thugs was a vice-captain and a handful of sailors, so their relation to the Hunters has dropped hard.

I’m going to be running them through the starting situation in the book with the War in Crow’s Foot. I think I’ll have them take the drug den raid first and do some initial fortune rolls to see how things are currently going in the war.

I just finished my a session with my players.

I just finished my a session with my players.

I just finished my a session with my players. They jist of the score was that they had to steal something from a manor in brightstone. Obviously the manor was heavily guarded and what not. The reason I am posting this is too ask about my use of clocks. This is only the second session of Blades I have run and i’m curious if I used clocks correctly. There was a clock regarding the guards awareness of the players that filled up after a blunder attempt at lock picking following a horrible engagement roll. Next I used clocks to track the “health” of the guards as they were killed by a crew member that had packed a heavy weapon (the equivalent of a blunderbuss in this case) and kept the men at bay. Meanwhile the spider used their blueprints to realize the vault was directly below them. Using his sabotage gear he attempted to wreck and bust a hole in the ceiling of the vault for this I used a clock to track the vaults integrity. Also our whisper user her special ability to make fog which made it so the guard could not find the players, for this I used a two segment clock which meant the guards could not discern the players location, until eventually the explosion from cracking into the vault filled the clock and the guards honed back in on the players location. Furthermore our blunderbuss friend was also a leech and used some of his alchemical bombs and wreck to strike fear into the guards hope to make them wary of coming near the players as they were breaking into the vault, for this I had a clock ticking up after the players actions to scare off the guards. Anyways i’m curious of anyone’s experiences using clocks and what you used them for and if how I used them was justified? Thanks!