Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

A couple questions from a recently started game of BitD.

1. You do it but the danger manifests: In a situation where a character was using a Prowl action to get on top of an inn to spy on a NPC, I thought the danger was of falling and taking a lasting effect. If he had rolled a 4/5 on a risky situation there, he does it but the danger manifests, so…. what happens there? He falls yet doesn’t fall? Should the danger have been of him being noticed, because then it still wouldn’t have happened? In another situation, a character tried to seduce a member of the Red Sashes, and rolled a 5. So the obvious danger seemed like that he caught on to her, but she was also supposed to have accomplished her goal a little bit? I must be thinking about “danger” all wrong, because the way I’m going about it results in contradiction.

2. Tried to go through the planning motion, but it quickly fell apart. Bear with me:

“Okay, so you’re going after the Red Sashes treasury. What’s your plan to do so?”

“Well, we have to figure out where it is.”

“Okay, so how do you do that?”

“I want to find the leader of the Red Sashes and interrogate her.”

“Alright, well trying to do that will be a Desperate action, as she is almost always on guard and has numerous bodyguards with her, but you could do things to make that easier. Maybe you find a lackey who knows her schedule and routes?”

“Okay, then we want to find a grunt who can tell us when she’s vulnerable.”

“Okay, then you’re going to Stalk some grunts leaving the Red Sashes HQ. Here’s a Devil’s Bargain, you can steal the Blacklamp’s sketches of the outside of the HQ to find a good place to Stalk from, but they’ll know you did.”

“Well, why don’t we just ask Baz for them rather than take them?”

Long story short, we ended up doing a reconnaissance mission to find out Mylera’s schedule, to ambush Mylera, to find out the treasury location and get a possible key to it. Then maybe we can worry about getting to it and opening it. We had plans to establish plans to establish plans. I felt like we were supposed to just have one big plan. If I’m right, how would I make that happen? Where did I make the crucial mistake?

One player was also worried about what was in the treasury and if they’d be able to transport it (if they needed the crew’s help). Obviously there has to be enough of value in it for the operation to be worth it to Baz, but also little enough for the PC’s to be able to transport it. How do I determine/mitigate that? 

Thanks for any advice.