Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports – Page 80

“How An Entanglement Roll Defined the Very Nature of The World”

So, weeks and weeks ago, the Dark Roots, a Tier 0 Crew, decided to pick a fight with the Leviathan Hunters (I believe I recounted the tale on here) for various reasons. Needless to say, it did not go terribly well, but the important part is, Wulf, the Cutter, actually fought on even footing with a Leviathan Hunter (sort of two although the second one was just kind of standing around) for a while before retreating. We rolled Entanglements as usual and got Demonic Notice.

Turns out, a water daemon called Orca observed this happening, appeared before Wulf and offered him a bargain: he kills Arrik Hague, the only retired Leviathan Hunter in the city, and he will provide his service to Wulf. Wulf accepted and got branded by Orca. At the time, I did this minutes after we finished the Score and had no idea what was going on here: why the daemon wanted him dead, why he was the ONLY retired Leviathan Hunter, etc. etc.

Cut to weeks later and they finally decide to deal with this Arrik Hague. Queue lots of Gather Info Downtime Actions. They learn that Arrik Hague goes to the Devil’s Tooth, a pub in Coalridge, every night of the week, drinks, goes home. Every Thursday, a strange woman in a robe visits him. They learn this woman is, in fact, Lady Councillor Adele Delera, who they had crossed paths with before (they burned her house down) and for some reason, she is giving him cash. From observing him in the Ghost Field, the Whisper notices he has this strange mantle of black fire…

By the way, still, I have no idea what’s going on. The only thing I came up with in advance was that Delera visits him every week.

Then, my players start rapidly speculating. Are Leviathan Hunters human? Is there something that Delera wants him to keep quiet about? And, of course, why is he only retired Leviathan Hunter? These were just a few among others, none directed at me, all giving me a lot of immediate food for thought.

Going into the final plan, which ended up just being “rush him” in essence, I put 75% of the credit to my players for me having such a clear picture of WTF was going on.

You see, the Leviathan Hunters have a dark secret. Taking one page from the Grey Wardens and another from the Jem’hadar, they are addicted to Leviathan Blood. It’s what gives them their almost supernatural prowess (my Whisper decided that each individual one was “the main character of Skyrim”) and it’s what keeps them in line.

The most interesting part however, is that after a certain period of Leviathan Blood consumption, when a Hunter dies, they turn into a demon. I haven’t decided whether all demons were Leviathan Hunters (or people who consumed Leviathan Blood) but Orca definitely was. I’ve also not decided how Leviathans relate to this…maybe they were once human…

But, even down to becoming a demon, every Leviathan Hunter is cursed with silence. They cannot divulge a word of the true horror of their fate. But! Arrik Hague learned how to break that curse. And that is why he had a Councillor buying his silence. As for why Orca wanted him dead? Well, that should be obvious. Arrik Hague has consumed Leviathan Blood far longer than any Leviathan Hunter who has ever lived. But in order for one to find out what that might mean, well, he has to die.

Questions!

1) How do people create compelling and challenging foes? With Arrik Hague, I set him up with a 8-segment “Defences” and another 8-segment “Flesh” but the players pretty much tore through him right up until the end (when one player got stabbed through the chest and another got turned into a pile of ash). When they roll 6s, it doesn’t seem to matter whether he’s an actual Leviathan or a street urchin.

2) Are healing clocks always 8-segments? With the pile of ash, myself and the player agreed that he would just die on a Desperate “snake-eyes”. With the stab through the chest, I asked the player to resist Fatal Harm. He reduced it to Severe Harm. But that’s an eight segment clock. At most he could fill 4 of that clock (he filled 3). Does that mean he still has Severe Harm and is essentially out of action next session?

Rules I don’t use

Rules I don’t use

I thought it might be useful to mention a couple of things that haven’t made it to the table.

Hunting grounds: the crew have some, but they’ve never come up in play. Between sessions, I generally create a couple of Score and a couple of Claims the crew could go for. But none of them is based in their hunting grounds. It’s not clear from the rules how they should be used.

Downtime faction clocks: between session, I just run over the list of factions that the players are concerned with and think what they would do, and what would happen, to make the game interesting. I’m not sure how faction downtime progress clocks would be helpful.

(I’ve used clocks during scores a few times, which has generally gone well. The main problem is when the events in the fiction change the situation so the clock is no longer relevant. Very often, I just wave hands and say when an ongoing attempt has either succeeded or failed.)

Is anyone playing a Hawkers crew? What are your Products?

My players began a Hawking enterprise and decided to start trafficking Dream Smoke. They want to be a high-class ring and thought Dream Smoke sounds suitably fancy. They determined that Dream Smoke is a bath-salts-esque substance that, when dissolved, produces a vapor that induces a fugue state accompanied by vivid dreams. Designer Dream Smoke can even induce specific dreams.

Their main competition is the Red Sashes, who also deal in high-end drugs, unlike the Lampblacks, who sell street drugs (Crow’s Foot is the drug den of Duskwall, home to three organizations). For their first score, they wanted to establish a Surplus Caches claim, so they set up a large fake buy with the Red Sashes and ripped off their package. I decided that their haul included a bonus drug they could add to their Products, and they selected Quicksilver because it also sounds fancy. Its properties are yet undetermined.

Any ideas for scaling on Magnitude of magical effects?

Any ideas for scaling on Magnitude of magical effects?

Last night, our Whisper (in an act of desperation) summoned a huge rainstorm in the middle of a Leviathan-hunter-captain’s ballroom to destroy some paintings displayed there.

I kind of plucked ‘4’ out of the air and narrated this torrential horizontal rainstorm in the room, with some people cut by the glass blown out of the large windows. Several paintings were destroyed.

Does that sound reasonable?

The Whisper took harm in the process: some as a Devil’s Bargain, feedback from the wards that they knew to be there; some as secondary drowning as he couldn’t quite get the summoning of water quite right.

(This gave the Slide an opportunity to get the rest, but the pair of them were captured. The other two PCs on that part of the job had already buggered off for their own reasons. But they did the job, so the crew now have a powerful demon serving them for a week and a day, which might be useful when it comes to rescuing the two captured ones.)

So we played a session today at lunch with a small crew.

So we played a session today at lunch with a small crew. Just three PCs, Caveman (Leech), Cobalt (Lurk) and Gun (Cutter), and using a random score generator came up with an occult dealer looking to have a vampire be put down, but this vampire is holed up in a workshop doing experiments on corpses and is somehow related to the Forgotten Gods. Unfortunately I let the session get away from me, and the whole thing ended up being a lot of talk about plans! I didn’t even realize it was happening really, until I realized it was time to get back to work and we had barely accomplished anything. Truly I am ashamed.

There was talk about what kind of plan they wanted, and then they decided they wanted to rig up a corpse to explode. This turned into discussion of planning how they were going to get him to take the corpse, which turned into planning how to pressure a spirit warden to take the rigged corpse and store it in one of the depos awaiting destruction. And they never actually did any of it. It just goes to show that it requires CONSTANT VIGILANCE to keep PCs from going into planning mode, and spending a whole 40 minutes on it.

A few questions I had as well.

– How do you guys handle gathering info about a job? Do you require that be a downtime action? Do you just let them roll free actions before a score? Some other thing?

– When questioned about it, one player said he feels like if he plans beforehand then its free, but if he decided to flashback to rigging a body to explode mid-mission that it would probably cost him some stress. What would you tell this player? That’s just how the game works, you can’t pre-plan, planning for missions is stressful and you need to accept that?

– Do you guys have any interesting strategies to stop PCs from entering planning mode?

We just finished our sixth session and the first all together since ruleset 3.

We just finished our sixth session and the first all together since ruleset 3. In summary, most of the rules worked great and I felt like I finally got a strong grip on presenting and resolving clocks. Warning, long report ahead.

After dealing the Lampblacks a devastating blow for the Red Sashes in their first session, and eventually destroying them entirely, the Red Sashes were at war with the Crows for supremacy in the district. After a number of setbacks, Lyssa of the Crows was backed into a corner politically and agreed to duel Mylera after obtaining some sort of secret weapon. The night was to be the climactic showdown of many sessions’ play. Expecting foul tricks, the group had previously combined the efforts of their elite shadows, and their own investigations to determine that Lyssa had:

1. Stationed sharpshooters to kill Mylera in the event that the duel went poorly.

2. Set explosives in shipping containers to destroy the Red Sashes either way.

3. Obtained a weapon, a bloody soaked giant cleaver, that manifested a malevolent and powerful spiritual presence.

4. Abducted a bunch of drugged out hobos and had them imprisoned somewhere nearby.

I started an eight segment clock called Lyssa’s preparations to serve as a “scoreboard” for the players and to show how much progress they were making and two eight segment clocks for Lysaa and Mylera’s duel which were advanced when time appropriate and as a complication for low rolls. Additionally I made an Alarm clock as they went in stealthily which would have made all their efforts harder if filled.

Preparations 1, 2, and 4 above got their own 4 segment clocks which the crew tackled together at first and then split to cover more ground according to their skillset. Because the group was responsible for the state of the drugged out prisoners (long story) and seemed really interested in the malevolent spirit I gave it more power, and allowed the crew to assist Mylera by distracting its attention and depriving it of its soul sacrifices (the drugged prisoners). The crew worked their way through the clocks just in the nick of time as tension escalated and banished the malevolent spirit. Mylera chopped of Lyssa’s head and the Crows were routed.

Using the clocks as generic descriptors of obstacles to be tackled, (Snipers, Explosives, the Imprisoned) gave the players enough direction to see what opportunities were there for taking, and let them have the fun of deciding how best to tackle them. It was long and involved, but then this was the showdown they’ve been working towards for months. The duel and alarm clocks really ratcheted the tension, and I saw the players constantly discussing what level of risk to take and how fast they had to move as we reached the conclusion. The whisper took it upon herself to distract the spirit and nearly died, but it was a high point for her player to contend with such a dangerous spirit and hold it down long enough for the rest of the crew to come out on top. There was waaaay more action than we were used to, but I think it was fictionally appropriate and the players enjoyed it. The only negatives out of the session were that after the emotional roller coaster no one wanted to deal with the entanglements, and with half the group suffering level 2 or higher harm and plenty of stress the recovery rules seem to lead to trying at least 2 scores with harm on the tracker. I’m going to use this as an opportunity to begin introducing new factions who want a slice of that sweet Crow’s foot pie, but I might let them take a few easy scores while I give them signs of an approaching threat. It was a great session!

Hi and sorry to my bad english, I completed my first sesion and my players said this quote: the fucking best game…

Hi and sorry to my bad english, I completed my first sesion and my players said this quote: the fucking best game I’ve played in years

Had a well received first session, the crew was a lurk and a hound who got wind from Mylera that a potential fence…

Had a well received first session, the crew was a lurk and a hound who got wind from Mylera that a potential fence contact was being held captive in Skurloc manor. The job went well and they made good use of flashbacks to fill in their plan as they went. These rules are really great. I’m hopeful that automatons will make it into the full rules as they had a big showdown with one during the score.

So, what is the craziest thing any of you have seen a crew do in your games.

So, what is the craziest thing any of you have seen a crew do in your games. For me it was when in the game I was running the crew was thinking of what to do to go up to tier 1. In the end they decided on a daring raid into the heart of the lair of their deadly enemies the Red Sashes… To steal Mylera Klev’s underwear.

In what is now known as the most epic panty raid of all time they had their whisper summon the poltergeist of a 12 year old boy to help them (because really what other ghost is going to answer this kind of call?) in the end there was a fight with the second in command (our cutters old instructor) the ghost setting fire to the room with all the Sashes gunpowder, and a hurried escape on their boat as Mylera returned from a meeting with another gang swearing vengeance and becoming our cutter’s newest crush. Oh and they also took her art collection, but it was mostly an afterthought.

I’m kind of scared what’s going to happen when I reboot my campaign in a week or two.

Session 5 of the Luddites playtest game. The AP report is below.

Playtest comments

* The new Assist action works well. We like that.

* The score generation tables are excellent, the claim ones slightly less so. Scores are easy to come up with, especially when combined with the Concept Cards I use for locations and characters. That’s all really bringing Duskwall to life.

* The rumours/background events rolls are also fun.

* I was told (rightly) that my selection of Actions to roll is uneven. The only place they’re described is in the chargen summary page. There’s a lot of white space on Player handout 1. Could you fit the half-column of Action descriptions on the player handout?

* High-stress characters in downtime are in a quandary. Indulging their vice may only clear a few stress points, leaving them prone to stressing out early in the next score. What they’d like to do is get the “out of action from trauma” out of the way in downtime, perhaps losing downtime actions as a cost. The few players with trauma zero characters really felt this, as playing to trauma is a good way to gain XP.

* What’s the timing between the crew rolling for benefits from claims and changes in Heat (both gaining Heat from scores and taking downtime actions to reduce Heat)? The benefits for some claims (e.g. the crew’s new gambling den) is affected by current Heat.

* I’m not a fan of the current Show of Force entanglement. As written, it seems to have a much higher cost to the Crew than the other entanglements, especially the drop in tier and loss of downtime actions for going to war.

AP summary report

After last session, the gang had their eyes on taking over the dog-baiting Claim from the Red Sashes. This would be enough to give the gang Tier 2, and also drop the Red Sashes down to Tier 1, ending the gang war for the while. Echo’s investigations last session had revealed that Ruby, the Skovlan patriarch running the dog-baiting ring, was keen to get out from Red Sashes control as well. She also found out she was a follower of the Forgotten Gods. The Lord and The Man (Cutter/leader and Slide respectively) met Ruby to discuss terms. Ruby said he’d happily pay for the Luddites “protection,” but would need something to stop the Red Sashes exacting revenge. The Luddites could either repel the Red Sashes directly, or get a holy statue for Ruby to give him the spiritual protection to hold them off himself. The Luddites went for the holy statue, which was seized booty in the vaults of a local Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh.

Meanwhile, Lomond, a soldier who served with Flint (the Hound) in Iruvia, was dealing with some fallout from an assassination he’d done. He needed transport from the temporary safe house he was in to a particular cargo train leaving Gaddoc rail station.

Two simultaneous jobs! One claim seizure, one score. I did the two jobs in parallel, cutting from one to the other typically after each decision point; this gave the players time to think about what they were doing next. Interestingly, the people without Prowl had to sneak into the church during a service, while the people without Sway had to talk their way into Goddoc station freight terminal.

Both jobs went off quite smoothly. A couple of highlights:

The Lord, left to watch the escape route in the church, giving in to temptation and joining the service. When The Man and Echo emerged from the crypt with the aurora-shaped stone sculpture, they saw The Lord, half-naked, tied in front of the altar, being whipped into ecstasy [Over-indulging Vice outside of downtime. It was fun, so I allowed it]. When the Luddites’ cohort of killers went to capture him, their savage nature meant the Church are now out for revenge for the deaths [Gang trouble entanglement].

At Goddoc station, Shadowrunner (the Whisper) got rid of the interfering Eel members by just shoving money at them, while Duck was taken in for questioning by the Bluecoats. Duck (the Leech) broke under interrogation [Interrogation entanglement, resisted, took stress to flip over to trauma]. He knows he told the Bluecoats something, but has no idea what.

The extra entanglement from Lord’s overindulgence was an offer from a powerful demon: an artist, patronised by a leviathan hunter captain, was painting pictures of power. The demon wants the artist killed and the pictures destroyed, but can’t do it directly because of the captain’s effective wards. If they do it, the demon will serve them for a week and a day. The “killing” part of the deal led to debate in the crew, what with Shadowrunner’s aversion to killing (“Soft” trauma). The players are looking forward to how that internal conflict makes life interesting.

Next session, they’re off to infiltrate a high-class masked ball with lots of the great and the good in attendance. Should be fun!