Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

We will be live Tuesday at 6:30pm PST for the start of a Blades in the Dark campaign on twitch.tv/friendlyfiretv.

We will be live Tuesday at 6:30pm PST for the start of a Blades in the Dark campaign on twitch.tv/friendlyfiretv.

We will be live Tuesday at 6:30pm PST for the start of a Blades in the Dark campaign on twitch.tv/friendlyfiretv. Myself and one of my players will be doing a rules/system discussion to kick things off, then first sessions will be next Tuesday same time, same place. We would love to have you tune in. 🙂

HEEST COMPLETE!

HEEST COMPLETE!

HEEST COMPLETE!

The Not Another Sewer Level Caper:

With the Spirit Wardens closing in on the tattoo parlor the Dead Setters were currently in, the Cutter and Hound set the building on fire for them, covering their tracks, and the gang escaped into Duskwall’s catacombs.

After some navigational mishaps, they found their way to a sewer crossroads/hideout of sorts where their score was. The only problem was that they spent too long mucking about in the tunnels and the Eels got to Father Yorren’s stash first – barely. The Dead Setters took the Eels by surprise (a 6 on an engagement roll) and Rook, the Cutter, laid into a half-dozen toughs while the Hound and Leech chased down the two Eels escaping with the strongbox.

The fighting went in the PCs’ favor, though everyone had to burn armor (that’s what it’s there for!). The Leech burned the corpses and they dumped them in the deeps – I didn’t ding them the Heat for killing because they covered their tracks and it happened far away from witnesses.

Then the best entanglement happened. With 7 Heat and 1 Wanted level on the table, I rolled “Show of Force”. The Eels make a play against the Dead Setters. They could either give up their single claim (a spirit well/turf area) or go to war. Considering that they took the spirit well off the Eels in the first place, and the guys already were thinking of ways to get the Eels off their back, it was an easy choice.

During downtime, everyone spent the Coin they earned to reduce Heat and recover Stress, so they’re down to 2 Heat/1 Wanted. They’ll be glad of that reduction because in the grimdarkness of Duskwall, there is only war.

#heestcomplete

Another session with the Orphans of the Bloodmoon – whereby they deceive another cult to abandon an offertory.

Another session with the Orphans of the Bloodmoon – whereby they deceive another cult to abandon an offertory.

Another session with the Orphans of the Bloodmoon – whereby they deceive another cult to abandon an offertory.

Must say, I really enjoyed GMing this session; despite wondering how the hell they could pull off such a score, there was a lot of really neat ideas thrown up and it worked very well in the end

All right, I’m gonna try to post an “actual play” post.

All right, I’m gonna try to post an “actual play” post.

All right, I’m gonna try to post an “actual play” post. 

The Crew: The Coffin Street Killers (Breakers)

HQ: Abandoned mortuary and coffin shop in The Drop.

Members In Good Standing: 

Timothy “Tiny” Happ, an enormous Skovlander, addicted to the dice and hurting people, not necessarily in that order. A Cutter.

Punchinello, a grim and silent Akorosi, with a weakness for the bottle. A Lurk.

Menti, Iruvian Swordsman, formerly of the Red Sashes. Hates cats. A Cutter.

Jenner, Skovlander safecracker. Obsessively collects masks, wearing a different one each score. A Leech. 

All right, so first off, Breakers can be really hard to GM for, because all their scores tend to go downhill really fast. These are not stable people. Two Cutters is a lot of violence. Also, I just have to thank the wonderful person in this community who who suggested that a cohort could be a pack of fighting dogs. Thanks a bunch. They decided to take them in addition to the thugs they got for free, so manpower was not an issue. I should have known something was wrong when the first discussion they had was “Who do we go to war with first?”. 

They decided that the Fog Hounds looked a little too big for their britches, so they decided to try and make their bones by seizing one of their gambling operations, a dice game run by Rufus Spogg. They raided the place, but do to bad placement and communication, they attacked at the worst time, namely, when an entire squad of Bluecoats raided the game, intent on gaining the profits of the illicit operations. The two sides clashed amidst the startled gamblers, and culminated in the murder of a Bluecoat Watch officer named Tom Shandy by Tiny Tim, who chopped off one of his arms. There was a hilarious tug of war over the cash box, and money spilled everywhere, adding to the chaos. The crew made a break for it, with the dogs scattering to the back alleys, having been weakened by last ditch gunfire from the Fog Hound guards. They regrouped at the coffin shop, licking their wounds (love the recovery rules, by the way).

Downtime

Everyone tried to recover, taking advantage of their physicker friend, Mr. Scissors (don’t ask). Tiny Tim gathered information using Wreck (“Tell me or the vase gets it!) trying to find info on Fog hound activities in the surrounding area. Punchinello tried to reduce heat by talking with his Bluecoat contact, arranging to pay the widow of the officer blood money, somewhat easing pressure from the law. Menti indulged his vice, visiting his favorite cigar shop. Jenner started a long term project to create poison bombs for the next stage of their war. 

Good session, a lot of fun, these guys are not sneaky or subtle at all, compared to the other group I have played with. 

Best Line of the Night: “Hey, Don’t be afraid to be the first to resort to violence”.

As seen on a torn billboard in Brightstone:

As seen on a torn billboard in Brightstone:

As seen on a torn billboard in Brightstone:

“Have your grandfather’s old dusty clock begun attracting attention from his deceased maidservants? Have those arcane baubles begun to fade in their attraction? Are those Iruvian paintings just far too gaudy for this season?

Fear not, Grimm’s Auctionhouse of Antiquities, is ready to hand all those baubles and trinkets to new interested owners, who’d appreciate the excitement of owning such little trinkets of spiritual significance. The highly educated personal would be happy to facilitate a journey to a new owner through our vast network of contacts both in Doskvol and abroad.

For further inquires, contact the Grimm Estate.”

And, once more, my group dives into the Dusk.

This time, we’re playing Hawkers, a group known as “The House of Grimm”, a dynasty of arcane pro-curers (legal as well as illegal) that have spread their wings to most of the Empire.

However, the Doskvol branch have fallen on hard times, against competition and several rivalries with cults and churches that disdain their irreverent attitude to the spirits.

Now, with the former criminal defense barrister from Iruvia, Kain de Jayan-Grimm (The Spider) having moved his practice to Doskvol, two cousins from the northernmost branch spot a chance to return the old Auctionhouse to it’s former glory.

To Aidrian “Thorn” Greywhale (nee Grimm) (The Lurk), a widower from Whitecrown and his 1st cousin, Timoth “Giant” Seeker (nee Grimm) (The Leech), a former military scientist from the Skovlan, their newly arrived southern kinsman is just the face they need to get back into the whispering trade.

However, Doskvol seems to be happy that the Grimms are but a memory, and very few seems to respect the old lineage, so they got their work cut out for them.

HEEST CLIFFHANGER!

HEEST CLIFFHANGER!

HEEST CLIFFHANGER!

The Dead Setters helped out their Leech’s vice contact, Father Yorren, who had his supplier disappear on him. He was pretty sure she’d have to be dead to miss a shipment? Either way, he needed the crew to find her corpse and get the location of her stash from her ghost before the Wardens zeroed in. If she wasn’t dead, then they were to get the stash from her and then make her dead. Yorren’s clients expect a certain timeliness to their transactions with the priest.

A group action for Gather Info resulted in a 1970s split-screen cop montage (“Can I use Skirmish to gather info?”*) and they learned the supplier, Lucia, was dropped off at the Hound’s physicker contact. She had been tortured and mortally wounded and she died at Melvir’s “clinic”. The Eels who likely did it likely dropped her off so maaaybe she wouldn’t die and haunt them? Or they already got the info they wanted? Were the Eels on their way to get Yorren’s stash?

The snag here was that someone stole Lucia’s body out from under Melvir’s nose a few hours before the PCs showed up. The Leech’s nemesis, Eckerd the corpse-thief, strikes again! The Hound tracked Eckerd to a tattoo parlor/tenement between Coalridge and Nightmarket where somebody had gotten the bright idea of mixing in leviathan blood with tattoo ink. No idea where that idea came from (thanks Bloodletters game!), but with a location and general idea of what the score was, the PCs picked an Assault plan, with the Cutter and cohort kicking in the door, the Hound on overwatch, and the Leech using spider oil to come in from the roof.

The only danger came from a few Grinders guarding the basement and one huge guy getting an arm tat. The Cutter grabbed the huge guy, carved off his tattoo, and punched him in the meat until he passed out. The Spider talked the other guys down after that.

Meanwhile, Eckerd burst out the back door with Lucia’s body slung over his shoulders – and was immediately gutshot by the Hound. He fell back inside, blood pouring from the hole in his armor. Then the Leech landed on him. A Desperate cripple-fight ensued but Deemo the Leech smashed a bottle of binding oil over Eckerd, holding him fast to the floor.

With the players’ Whisper out this week unabashedly watching his new Force Awakens blu-rey instead of gaming, interrogating the dead woman’s spirit fell to the Spider and the Leech. She used Life Essence and got a mixed success – Lucia returned to life, but her grevious wounds were too much for her to bear. Plus, the gang’s lookouts spotted the Spirit Wardens coming in.

With the Wardens on their way, Deemo had to make a Desperate Tinker roll to keep Lucia’s body together enough for her to talk (using bellows to work her lungs, that sort of thing) while the Spider made a Desperate Sway attempt to convince her to give up the location of her stash. The Eels had grabbed her, but she had lied to them. She wanted vengeance and it was all the Spider could do to coax out a partial clue (“it’s buried near my-“) before the Life Essence wore off and she died again.

For youse guys in the audience – have you used Spirit Wardens much? Anything you did with them that was cool or well-received by your players? I’ve been playing the Division so I’m mostly imagining them as steampunky Cleaners from that game, but I imagine they’re a little more ritualized than that maybe. More Warhammer?

#heestcomplete

*The answer was “Skirmish is fun but you’re not really going to get answers if you do that.”

Finally: My first posting under “Actual Play Reports”.

Finally: My first posting under “Actual Play Reports”.

Finally: My first posting under “Actual Play Reports”. We did our first session last week and it was great fun even though it was a bit (expected) confusing.

It took very long to create the PCs because I wanted to describe the background a bit. This “bit” took ~ 1h because I explained the setting a lot (… industrial fantasy, but with ghost/demons/vampires, but with elektroplasma, but with X and Y). Then I tried to explain the “special” rules to my old-school players (… flashbacks and Group Actions, Fiction-First, no Combat Initiative and did I mentioned flashbacks! Wow!)

Then finally we did the characters and the crew and then I had a group of suprised players when I told them that they’re already in Bazo’s office. They had a hard time coping with that. We did not manage to finish the score and go to downtime because we had a break after 3 hours of playtime. We’ll see how this will work out.

BUT: It was great. All my three (stressed) players said it was great and they’re all curious how say will manage to climb to the top in Doskvol (no doubt about the if)

Question to anyone who played the Lampblacks vs. Red Sashes start: Did anyone of your players took the “yep, we’re here to murder Bazo using a flash back” option? My players were REALLY relieved when I said that this is only an option and they don’t have to. Short planning will be a challenge to them 🙂

As a GM I had some hard times thumbing through the papers (situation front, rules in the middle, score somewhere in the back) and I decided to create my own cheat sheet for the next session.

So, our protracted love affair with Blades in the Dark is coming to a close after almost twenty weeks after many…

So, our protracted love affair with Blades in the Dark is coming to a close after almost twenty weeks after many…

So, our protracted love affair with Blades in the Dark is coming to a close after almost twenty weeks after many dark, dirty, rough…adventures, a dizzying number of playsets and a delicious amount of misery. It was a doomed love, in the end, as you might imagine. In case this was unclear, I had a terrific time playtesting this game from the start and I thoroughly intend to make the finish just as terrific.

Getting to said finish! Our last few sessions (that I’m sorry I did not tell you all about)  have indicated that there is revolution brewing in Duskwall. At the forefront are two figures, Ulf Ironborn and the Trotsky to his Stalin, Brynna Skyrkallan. Both have very similar and familiar objectives, at least, as far as they claim: lead a worker’s rebellion and seize the means of production from the bourgeois imperialists yadda yadda yadda. But to the outside observer, Ulf is a vicious brute and Brynna is a sensible diplomat.

Last week, the group was hired to steal an item from the cellar of the Canal Dockers’ meeting house, where they were discussing the revolutionary idea of forming a union and also who to throw that union behind. As the group quickly discovered, they were behind Ulf Ironborn, who a player volunteered with a Devil’s Bargain to show up, discover one of Brynna’s spies, snap his neck and then turn on our Spider. So the Spider Ghost Contracted him. If he let him go, he would bring him Brynna’s head within 7 days. Ulf agreed.

Cut to this week and after some investigation which lead to discovering the Grinders were repairing a decrepit Leviathan Hunter ship, that Brynna was going on some secret voyage outside of the city. One that she said “would change the city forever”. Only after they agreed to join on the trip (the only eventuality that would lead to her volunteering to go to Ulf Ironborn and “bring her head”) did she tell them the plan.

She, together with a former Leviathan Hunter-Whisper and 100 gallons of Whisper blood (provided by Lord Scurlock who was tagging along on board as an “interested observer”) intended to go out into the sea, cause a mutiny on a Leviathan Hunter ship, recruit them to her cause, go further out into the sea, perform a ritual to bind a Leviathan, then go back to Duskwall with it, sink Whitecrown, in her own words, “exterminate the nobility” and then return the city to the hands of the workers.

The conversations that took place this week were brilliant. There was much discussion about the nature and consequence of revolution, and much avoiding the subject of Brynna being a hypocrite in trying to pretend she was somehow “better” than Ulf. 

I am really excited to find out how this all plays out! I love it when a campaign comes to a close like this and you really feel like you can do anything.

But I’m curious, for those Smugglers out there and really anyone who has done multiple Scores while on the move, any tips for handling Downtime?

HEEST COMPLETE!

HEEST COMPLETE!

HEEST COMPLETE!

The Opulence I Has It Caper was the first time where we really let planning get out of hand. The warning in the rules about overplanning really isn’t made idly. Between the engagement roll and flashbacks, you really do have the tools you need to make whatever happens feel like it was part of the plan all along.

This plan generally involved stealing Severosi sculptures off a train, and had an optional goal of getting the Lampblacks in trouble for it. The Spider and the Dead Setters’ cohort of Thugs used stolen Bluecoat uniforms to gather real Bluecoats around one of the Lampblacks’ coalworks where the ill-fated train had been rerouted earlier in the heist.

Not only did the Spider manage to get the Lampblack capo (Badger Baz, Baszo’s cousin or something) to bribe him to take his cops and go, he flashed back to bribing the actual cops with him to ambush the Lampblacks instead of simply accepting the bribe. The coalworks ended up burning to the ground while the rest of the crew was far away with the stolen goods.

The Cutter had a knife fight with his nemesis (Stras, the “clever blade” off the contacts list) where Stras learned the hard way that you should always secure loose clothing around moving trains.

Heat was gained. The crew also has a spy in their midst! The Whisper pulled in a spirit to animate the hull that was carrying their score after the previous occupant was devoured in a summoning mishap. Unbeknownst to the characters, this new spirit was already following the crew under the command of a Red Sash Whisper. The poor Whisper plugged a spy right into their prize and walked it into their hidden thieves’ lair. That was by far the best “a complication occurs” so far in the game, I think.

They hit all 4 XP triggers for their crew, though, got 3 Rep, and a ton of Coin (which they mostly spent on extra downtime actions). Everything’s working like I assume it’s supposed to. I’ve got a bunch of PCs who are just about to hit Trauma in a gang about to tip over into Wanted level 2, but at the same time we’re seeing our first playbook advances and 3-dot action ratings and stuff.

Somewhat unrelated, I can’t get the idea of a Mutant playbook out of my head and I kind of want to try my hand at a Blades hack for Mad Gamma Max Fallout World. “Glow in the Dark”, maybe.

#heestcomplete