Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

Started a 4-session series of Blades last night. It went well once we got moving. It was a challenge to connect some of the dots as far as actions, effect, and clocks go, but it began to flow really nicely once we got used to a couple of things.

My group really liked the teamwork mechanics, as it was a great way to show individual strengths while at the same time keeping everyone active.

The Crew

Hound: Salish Deruvi aka Shadow. Severosi sniper scout. Obligation to hunting ghosts is his vice. Rolly the bloodhound is his hunting pet.

Slide: Burke Welly aka Tick Tock. Native Akorosi street hustler. Vice: gambling. Specialty- making others do the heavy lifting.

Lurk: Paduka Katut aka Seasnake. Boatman from the Dagger Isles. Unpredictable, sneaky. Vice: Drugs. Special weapon: Huge fishhook.

It quickly becomes clear that the crew is subtle, professional, and methodical. They choose Swarm, as they want to work well as a unit (though we forgot to use this special ability during the run. Duh). They take quality gear and a principled gang of thugs. Headquarters is a small wharf/warehouse across the canal from the Bluecoat station.

No crew names stick yet, so we hold off on that till they do something name-worthy. They meet with Bazso and throw their lot in with him, accepting the task of raiding the Sashes’ treasury.

Gather Info

Seasnake goes to the Sashes’ compound, playing the wandering penitent, and enters the public part of it the temple. He determines that there is no passage from there to the proper gang part of the building. Tick Tock spends an evening at the Leaky Cauldron, playing cards and massaging associates about ways to get in to the Sashes’ sanctum without being a member. He learns that there is one way in, the gate next to the northeast tower, where deliveries are exchanged.

Shadow takes to the rooftops across the street with his spyglass, determining that the fence surrounding the compound, as well as the tower, are scalable, and that the Red Sashes seem to frequent this corner of the compound more than the others.

They decide on an infiltration plan with the point of entry detail being the fence nearest the tower but out of main view.

Engagement

For some reason I had the Engagement, Resistance & Action Rolls reference sheet from the last QS in my folder, and I liked determining Engagement dice based on the strength of the detail/info over assessing the target’s vulnerability as in QS3. They had “strong, useful details” so they got 3d, minus one for facing a higher-tier target. They got a 5 and I chose Unexpected Threat.

*QUESTION. Does anyone have cool ways to translate the gathering info rolls into Engagement dice besides just with the fiction?

Shadow leads the first group action, using Prowl and his climbing gear to get everyone over the fence. As they all land the Unexpected Threat appears. I decide to not make it too hard on them- it’s just some merchants coming up the alley to do business with the Sashes. Their cover is not blown, but they’re definitely seen. Once the merchants pass, Seasnake takes point, using Prowl again to climb the side of the tower. He gets everyone almost to the window, spraining his wrist. Tick Tock is the only one without Prowl but he’s rolling well. Everyone is using a healthy amount of Stress to help each other. With one tick left on the Jump Fence/Climb Tower clock, point goes to Shadow again to finish it off with another Prowl. He fails the roll, and one of his ropes snaps. He resists with Vigor, saving his pals from a long fall and takes 2 stress.

NOTE: It would seem that using the same action three times in a row would be annoying and tedious, but different complications and difficulties arose from each one. In this situation, it just seemed to make sense.

Finally in the tower, point goes to Tick Tock, who leads a group action to Discern. There is a ladder coming up through an opening in the middle of the floor. Light comes from below, and they hear soft voices. He consults his notes, and has Seasnake poke his head into the opening. There are three Sashes, lounging and smoking Black Lotus. They decide to have Shadow lead a Skirmish action to quickly subdue, and hopefully not kill, the three below. They take out two of the three but don’t cover enough ticks, so one starts running toward steps leading down, spawning an Alert clock.

The group immediately flips the No Bullshit switch. Shadow takes a solo Murder action to stop the running Sash, throwing his knife, but only hits his arm. Seasnake pursues him down the steps, rolling a 5 on Murder, burying his big fishhook into his throat, tumbling down the stairs and landing trapped on the ground floor. He destroys a Vigor roll and slips Stresslessly out from under the dead Sash, greeted by four more Sashes and the merchants that they saw before. 

Tick Tock now leads a group Prowl to move quickly and efficiently toward another set of steps on the ground floor. It’s effective, and he and Seasnake dart own the basement steps while Shadow brings up the rear.

NOTE: Here, it seemed like all we ever use is Prowl. We concur with others on G+ that it seems to encompass pretty much all physical movement, not just stealthy/climby stuff. At this point of the run the crew was doing more tactical movement than athletics/prowling. It seems that maybe Skirmish covers some of this type of action.

Shadow now takes a solo Mayhem roll to take as many Sashes out as possible to let the boys get to the vault. There’s a couple ticks left, and it dawns on us that we can use flashbacks. It probably didn’t make sense, mechanically or fictionally, but I suggest that the merchants are actually a couple of the crew’s thugs. Even though the merchants’ appearance was part of an engagement complication, I thought it was cool, so we all said fuck it. The extra thugs on Shadow’s side tipped the Scale in his favor so the Sashes were taken out and the wide doors to the tower were bolted from the inside, halting the Alert clock started earlier.

Tick Tock takes a Devil’s Bargain and throws a switch that turns on some electric lights in the basement corridors, but also turns them on everywhere else in the compound (starting a new Alert clock). Shadow joins them and they find the vault. It is very ornate, locked with a very elaborately tied knot of some kind of metal rope. Seasnake goes to work on it and gets it open, but not without badly cutting his fingers on the rope’s finely-hidden razor filaments. They raid the vault, taking many pieces of fine art, coin, several crates of Black Lotus, scrolls, and an old heirloom sword. They load up the wagon the thugs brought, Tick Tock leads them out to the street while Shadow and Seasnake climb the fence and melt away. They return to Bazso, who is extremely pleased with their performance. 

After-session stuff went pretty normally, with the following highlights: As an entanglement, the Cabbies decide to move in on the crew, so it’s war next session. In response, Tick Tock takes a downtime action to reduce heat, spreading rumors that it was the Cabbies that raided the Red Sashes.

Finally, they decide to call themselves the Sly Boys.