Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

Session 4 of #theHulls

In contrast with the drawn out, stressful info gathering last session, the score was neat and quick.

Rat (the Lurk) was the bait the unquiet dead Mr Posselthwaite into crossing Brightstone bridge. Then Talon (the Hound) was in position on top of building and, when the ghost finally appeared for a final taunt, dispatched the spirit with a single electro plasmic-charged bullet.

The efficiency of this was definitely in part to the particular skills of the Hound, the canny rolling of the Hound’s player, and a unfamiliarity on my part with how to handle ghosts fictionally and mechanically. Nevertheless, this efficiency was helpful to balance out some of the misgivings from last session, that it was all swings and roundabouts and that the game wasn’t death spiralling away from the big picture—a fear raised because of the feeling the crew was beginning to deal with entanglements within entanglements.

The rule I had missed applying was Stress & the Supernatural (p7):

A close encounter with a spirit or demon is a harrowing experience. By default, the standard effect is to either paralyze a person with fear or panic them into fleeing from its presence. A PC can choose to roll to resist the effect. Characters with lots of exposure to spirits, such as Whispers, Rail Jacks, and occult weirdos become less susceptible and only face fear or panic from exceptionally powerful entities.

This slip had two immediate effects. One, the Hound wasn’t really sure why they had bothered hiring a Whisper; he was the one with the electroplasmic bullets afterall. Two, Rat conversed with the ghost and Talon aimed and shot the ghost, and neither suffered any stress or risk of freezing/fleeing. We’ll definitely be applying that rule in future though.

But we’ve come up with a fictionally satisfying explanation for the rules mishap. How it went down last session is how the Hulls retell it, not how it really went down. The experience was actually nightmarish, so much so the crew only remember fragments, their minds painting over the harrowing details to make themselves look better, and feel better too. Of course, Vixen the NPC Whisper knows the truth of the matter, but it’s unlikely the crew want to hear it.

After some info gathering went badly in Session 3 of #theHulls, my table had a discussion about the game and their expectations.

One player hadn’t expected the info gathering and the action rolls to be so arduous. Further, they felt that the crew sheet promised all kinds of high stakes, strategic factional play, but the game was drawing them into brawling in the dirt on the street.

There’s a few things to unpack here. I think it’s clear that as soon as an action roll is called for, the story can take nose dive into complications. If it’s just a fortune roll for info, then its pretty clean, but if you action roll with a trait then in some ways inevitable you’ll land with 7 stress before the real score begins. That’s all cool.

Part of my players’ expectations were set I think by the crew creation and how I paced introducing scores. You know the step where players pick the factions they are friends or enemies with, I think my players got a sense that the game would focus on strategic, goal-orientated play, setting faction against faction, and expanding the crew. That’s obviously an interest of my players, the Hulls are Ambitious. They also started playing the high-stakes strategy game from the outset, by cleverly avoiding Baszo’s question, and then manoeuvring control of a Tier 3 factions turf without attracting too ire. This may be why this info gather session felt like such a slowdown for them. They felt they were struggling in the weeds, fighting to survive on such small fry and the big game where they thought they were playing was so far behind. After all the actions by NPC factions, I think they felt like the big game was go to leave them behind just because they couldn’t open a door to find out how to nail a ghost who’s taunting them.

Part of this might be because of how I paced the initial score options. I probably didn’t emphasis how insignificant it is being Tier 0 compared to say Tier 2 of the Lampblacks or Tier 3 of the Seaside Dockers. It makes me wonder if focusing the first score or two on some basic burglary or robbery might have given them a better sense of their place in the criminal world. Maybe slowly building introducing the effect of their activity on other factions, more slowly revealing what other NPC factions are doing during their downtime. In part I think the players have felt overwhelmed by their options for scores and lack a sense of what activity is above their station. The turf grab was interesting but perhaps gave them a sense of momentum before they had established their roots. Again, by allowing them to wiggle out of Baszo’s question, I may have done them some disservice here.

I don’t know these are issue with the rules so much as about how I might have paced and set expectations better. Any tips on that would be welcome.

There was also questions about when Downtime can be triggered. The game gives the impression that the phases are a clear procedure, but in many ways there’s lots of wriggle room and space for captain’s calls. As the text describes, an info gather might be too big to do in one go. I also think that, like our session 3, info gathering might leave the crew in such a sorry state they need to recover before tackling the score or they’ll get squashed. Or, if its a time critical score, they much just have to walk away.

I’m also not really using the effect system, just calling standard effect almost all the time. Part of the problem is I don’t really understand, when I’m faced with a roll, why I would call something other than standard, especially when I’ve already decided what position they’re in. It kind of feels like I’m double punishing them if I set effect low as well position difficult or desperate.

Session 3 of #theHulls  

Info gathering:  what could’ve been a single attune roll, or even a two roll distract and pick pocket, turned into a eight-roll brawling, murderous, stressful, heat-attracting mess.

Here the players had a few options for their next score. There was a rather ripe burglary in their hunting ground, as a well appointed household seemed to be leaving the premises unoccupied. They had further ideas for progressing their plan to steal Baszo Bas’s whisky supply and sell it back to him. But the immediate problem that drew their attention most was Rat (the Lurk) being haunted by the ghost of a Duskwall Councillor, killed when Rat overindulged his Vice for stupor and almost destroyed the Red Lamp, and taunting Rat with revenge. Plus they acquired a Whisper for the next score so ghost hunting made the most sense.

They decide on an assault plan, but haven’t any idea on the detail: a point of attack. Mainly because the ghost hasn’t materialised or been spotted. So they decide to go to the Red Lamp to gather info on the ghost, it’s death and other peculiarities like how Rat did not die in the inferno. He was so stupid at the time, he cannot recall.

The Red Lamp is an opulently appointed four-storey circular building with a golden red roof. After the leviathan blood inferno, it is only operating on the top two floors, accessed by external stairs guarded top and bottom. The lower floors are gutted, burnt by the caustic fumes and effervescence of the leviathan blood that infamously flooded its lower basement and crawled uncontrolled over everything up to two floors above ground.

It’s dangerous for the crew around here because the Spirit Wardens are seeking the spirits that escaped this inferno, as well as someone to pin the blame.

To gather info, Vixen, the hired ex-railjack Whisper, tries attuning to the ghost field here, but it’s dirty and hazed grey. She finds prints of the Councillor here and there, matching those on Rat, and clear signs that the Councillor is lost and looking for his way somewhere, but nothing more. A poor roll result meant incomplete info.

Players decide to try another approach, to survey the scene within the basement for more info. Unfortunately the windows are boarded up and the main doors locked. However, they spot keys on the guard at the foot of the stairs and decide to steal them.

Dust (the Slide) assists Rat’s pick pocketing by distracting the guard by requesting access to the burnt interior as railjack cleanup crew. Or something similar. Rat finesses the key, but the guard doesn’t buy Dust’s shit and calls two guards down to prod the three scoundrels aways away from the premises.

Once those guards eventually return upstairs, and only the single guard remains on street-level, Rat leads a group action to prowl into the alcove where the main doors are in shadow and off the street a little. Unfortunately, it goes poorly, and things get desperate as the lone guard is still alert for their return and comes to investigate “a noise” and Rat is fumbling to find the right key on the ring for the door. Dust quickly flips her cloak and becomes her Red Sashes disguise that she prepared earlier and leaps out to confront the guard , accusing him of deflowering her younger sister. In fact the guard doesn’t seem surprised and rather knocks Dust over with a vicious thrust to her neck. Dust resists a wound and ends that foray with 7 stress.

Instead of using the distraction to continue the unlocking, Rat ambushes and garrottes the guard, dragging him into the alcove. They get extra heat, as a baker putting out old bread locks eyes with Rat as the Bell Tower rings the guard’s death.

They now enter the ground floor of the gutted and burnt Red Lamp, hiding the dead guard, and survey the place. They find a ledger, with pages hastily torn out. With a bit of charcoal rubbing, they identify the patronage of Nigel Posselthwaite, hailing from Brightstone. Rat recalls the name and they settle on the Brightstone bridge, north of Crow’s foot, as (the plan detail) where they will jump the unquiet ghost.

Phew.

Next session, the execution of the plan is dramatically more straightforward, thanks to the appearance of the Hound, and they recover from this info gathering in a much needed downtime.

Downtime – Session 2 for #theHulls  

Payoff: 2 coin, mainly from loose cargo they found tidying up the warehouse.

Heat: +2

Entanglements

Usual Suspects: One of the Rat’s (the Lurk) friends in the nobility, Roslyn Kellis, gets picked up by the Bluecoats after she’s caught on a gondolier, loaded with contraband. Rat pays of the Bluecoats to get Roslyn off before they question her too hard.

Extra entanglement from Devil’s bargain

Unquiet dead: The ghost of Ashyln Daava, who as an occult collector and Talon’s last bounty and the one around which the Hulls formed, has been sighted amongst the ship’s graveyard the crew now calls home, searching for something.

Rat overindulges his Vice Stupor, through imbibing refined leviathan blood procured at the Red Lamp in Silkshore. Rat becomes a little unhinged, somehow getting to the distillery area underneath the Red lamp and opening up the still of leviathan blood, burning the first two floors of the Red Lamp and incinerating the body and spirit of an unknown number of patrons and workers in electroplasmic inferno.

Extra Entanglement from Rat’s overindulgence

Unquiet dead: The spirt of Nigel Posselthwaite, Duskwall Councillor and blood addict, escaped the Red Lamp inferno and has been trying to find his way home to Brightstone. In the meantime, he has been haunting Rat, taunting him that he knows the truth about Red Lamp, whispering the names of those he killed, and he will find a way to have him punished for his crimes.

Because of these hauntings, Rat Acquires an Asset: Vixen, an ex-railjack Whisper, to help them handle the ghosts themselves.

Dust Reduces Heat back to zero. Something to do with quelling the rumours about the Hulls stealing turf from the Seaside Dockers.

And finally, Dust Gathers Info through his friend Nyrx about rumours Baszo’s Whisky supply. Turns out, the Foghounds are going out to ships, particularly Skovlan merchant and refugee ships, before they reach the safety of Duskwall’s harbour, to unload contraband and bring it ashore and avoid customs. How do they protect themselves outside the fence? Anyhow, the Seaside Dockers won’t much like this when they find out.

NPC factions

Seaside Dockers have 4 segment clock: Take back North Dock turf.

The Foghounds seize turf from the Canal Dockers, friends of the Hulls, after failing to get North Dock. It’s an old Ink Manufactory on the South side of Crow’s Foot.’ And they have a 6 segment clock: Find a patron.

The war between Lampblacks and Red Sashes swings heavily toward the Red Sashes. Calling in a favour from the Seaside Dockers, the Red Sashes raid a Lampblack’s brothel, disappearing all who worked there and leaving a trail of damage. 2 ticks toward the Red Sashes destroying the Lampblacks.

Under increasing pressure, Dust hears word Baszo Baz is doubling down on favours. Soon he’ll realise her soothing words ain’t winning him the war. So another tick on the clock toward Baszo Baz demanding an answer to whether the Hulls with him or against him?

Furthermore, the Lampblacks Acquire an Asset: the well-known Whisper twins “Kain and Tory”, who are said to have been passengers on an electric train who took down a demon that had overcome the trains Railjacks.

There was an extra Action by one of these Factions from a Devil’s Bargain, but the crew haven’t discovered info about that yet.

I’m running an online game of Blades in the Dark using the Quick Start rules with three players, though often only two can attend.

Session 2 of #theHulls

The players immediately launched into long-term strategising to play factions against factions. Given they dodged Baszo’s question, they make their own work and decide to steal turf. This ends up being an disused dock of the Seaside Dockers, that’s been largely disused since a leviathan ship wrecked at the pier end.

Deception plan, they’re dropped off in a fog on the North Dock dressed as Customs Officers from the Ministry of Transport. The hope is the Seaside Dockers have the place not well guarded, on account that word has they’re busy helping the Red Sashes out.

A poor engagement result means, unfortunately, the Foghounds have the same idea and they spot four short shallow hulled dinghy hidden under the dock.

I setup three clocks

– Convincing the Dockers, Clock: 6 segments

– The Docker calls reinforcements, Clock: 4 segments

– Foghounds start shooting, Clock: 4 segments

Rat and Dust hear a loud conversation in the warehouse at the head of the dock. Rat (the Lurk) gets on the roof, but only because Dust (the Slide) creates a distraction by loudly banging the door open in full Customs Officer disguise.

Inside there is one swarthy, huge Docker (Clave) sitting at little card table playing cards and largely ignoring the four well armed Foghounds confronting him.

The Foghounds leader (Moon) sends one of Foghound to dismiss the intruder. Dust (aka Officer Strathmill) begins convincing them he’s an official representing the Strathmill’s, the noble house that owns the shipwrecked Leviathan Hunting Ship sunk at the end of North Dock. She casts an appraising eye on the opposition, and summarily shouts “Stand down men!”, glancing at the roof. There’s shuffling and answers in return thanks to Rat’s acrobatic skill, adding +effect to convincing the Docker (and by corrollary the Foghounds) that Dust has significant backup. 3 ticks toward Convincing the Dockers. The Docker stops playing cards.

The Foghounds look trigger happy, trying to decide whether to start shooting or back out. 1 tick toward the Foghounds start shooting.

Rat has a flashback about reaching out to his connections with the Inspectors and asking for a couple of Inspectors to take a short detour on their patrol past North Dock at this time. A complication from the flashback roll made most sense as another tick toward the Foghounds start shooting.

Anyhow, back in the present, two Inspectors walk past, stopping asking the Custom Officer still in the doorway if he’s having any trouble. Inspector Booker takes a particular interest in Dust’s (fake) family name and a case she is working on. Accepted Devil’s Bargain: Inspector Booker wants Customs Officer Strathmill (Dust in disguise) to drop by her office in White Chapel to discuss a case.

Anyway, with a Critical Success, Dust fills out the clock Convinces the Docker (and the Foghounds by corollary) that she’s the real deal and has legit claim on North Dock.

The Foghounds were close to shooting the place up, but the Docker stands up and gentleman-like escorts the Foghounds off the premises. The Docker agrees to relay terms to allow a small outfit “The Hulls” use of the premises as they working as agents for the Strathmills.

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