Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports – Page 96

We’ve been intrigued about lasting effects.

We’ve been intrigued about lasting effects. There are only a couple mentioned as examples in the QS, and that’s great – it allows for group discussion on what ‘conditions’ require time and effort to remove.

I like the idea that the default is 6-8 segments, citing a broken leg and being seduced. Given that time is ephemeral in the game, what with flashbacks, aggressive scene framing and ghostly powers, there is not much point comparatively mitigating your -1D dis-function with ‘time’.

Though our Hound, Lord Malcolm did just that. On a whim, I gave him both a broken leg and the horrific concept of being seduced… post falling from a roof top duel and during his subsequent capture suffering the attentions of an EXTREMELY tempting daemon. He was fortunately liberated by his colleagues, suffering both an 8 segment broken leg and 6 segment seduced recovery.

In RL, a broken leg ‘normally’ heals in around 8 weeks (segments). and post the score in Downtime, Don wanted Lord Malcolm to heal his leg via this well worn method of convalescence.

It was a controlled situation and he aced the action roll, though his effect roll still left him with some time left to heal. (he had indulged in some heavy drinking to relieve stress). He pushed for more Downtime, advancing faction clocks and costing him coin in lost machinations. The second recovery roll was not so successful, it escalated to risky and we fictionalised this through the danger of his on-going seduced state and imminent possession by his daemon paramour. His 6 segment recovery clock for daemonic seduction is now a push-pull clock. That when it reaches 12 full segments, he is possessed.

He also took the devil’s bargain of forever walking with a cane during the effect roll, clearing the clock with a 6. So we stand to start the next session narrated as roughly 8 weeks later, a lovely montage of Lord Malcolm’s troubled Manor-bound recovery; beset by daemons, both self-inflicted and stalking. His horribly fractured leg both healed and scarred but his very soul tempted by the daemon that lovingly caresses his every thought.

So a few thoughts – clocks can resolve in a few moments or months of gametime – This disparity is brilliant and acts like a narrative pacing mechanism rather than a direct time/effect scale. We are prone to accepting that recovery clocks being (roughly) one week per segment. This gives our audience stance some time to reflect on the Duskwall getting on with business, and pressures against the PCs impending. It also has heightened our montage narration skill, something the ‘in the moment’ action storytelling of a score tends to avoid.

The other cool thing is the emergent story of the action choices taken to alleviate lasting effects. _Stitch_ is the obvious healing action, but Lord Malcolm engaged his Consort action to convince his NPC friend of Dr. Frakenstein to apply his ministrations for recovery.

What other recovery clocks have folks had during play? I think it might be nice to have a boxed example in the final rules with a few ideas….

Stabbed in the eye – 12 segments

Badly Broken leg – 8 segments

Seduced by a daemon – 6 segments

Belittled by nemesis – 8 segments

We just used the new Development rules with #theWarts . I’m really happy with the results.

Also now there’s a haunted library guarded by possessed librarians that holds ancient texts from the first days after the Cataclysm.

Game#2 Recap

We left off with Hug and Vey making off with a stolen daimond.And framing the Redsashes for the job.During down time we wasted away our vice’s. Hug gambling his coin away at a mean game of Old Maid.(Its a hard core gambling that we intend to fleshout details on later.) And Vey pulle dup to the bar and order some drink. His drink is a drink called the Devils Purple. Due to the fact that its made with a little Leviathan Blood. So when get the drink its foaming purple with smoke rising off it. In which Vey over indulged and bought the a few round’s for everyone. In which it got alead on a job being offered buy the LampBlacks. So he told the bar keep to tell them they were interested in the job. We went back to our lair. Vey started work on a long term project on befriending the bar keep at the Drunken Mallard. So they can get some more good leads on upcoming jobs. Hug started a long term project on find a the lost Black Bird a black Onyx bird said to have great power and great value.People have search for their whole lives and never found even a clue on it. (working on further details of what this will happen with this but its a really long time goal. Nothing will be quick with this project.)

So the job we are doing for the LampBlacks turns out to be stealing from the Redsashes vault. Which is going to be difficult but we are up to the job. Since we really don’t like the Redsashes. So we are going to put a hurt in their coin purse. We send in our band of Shadows to case the joint. Its a Redsash Temple where they hide thier money laundering from drugs and other vice’s. Out in public so that they don’t get alot of looks at whats going on. But with help of a few contacts like Vey’s spy friend who got a the lay out of the inside of the building. And our gang finding the secret way in through the sewer system. They also found out that there are secret whisper markings on the wall bounded with Leviathen blood. So we also called in a favour from a contact down on the docks named Holtz. To use in contact with a whisper that could help with these markings on the walls. So this whisper made use a pair of googles that could read the marking on the walls. But that didn’t work all that well. They leak out small amounts of leviathen blood enough to draw the attention of a specture or something cause started to follow use we went into the sewers. But we made our wat through the tunnels reading marking and avoiding potrals along the way. Until we hit a whisper trap and Vey failed to notice that symbol. And pure raw energy coursed through is body. Almost causing him tp passout. But with his will check he resisted it. Holding on to wall screaming on pain.

As they moved foward making it passed all of the patrols and came to door with sophisticated lock system. In comes Hug with his fine lock pick set. Hug worked on the moving tumblers , pulling levers and pushing pressure point at the right time. It gave way and into the temple we had made it. We pulled out the map our spy got us. It was alittle burned now from my body being fried so it took alittle bit longer to read. In ths mist of reading the map. The air grew cold and chills set. From behind they heard a scream so horrrible riddle with pain and anguish. That it froze them where they stand.

Until next time

In our version of Duskwall…

In our version of Duskwall…

I love those creative spaces Harper creates for groups to fill, making every game unique. So I wanted to ask you about those little details that make Duskwall your own. Care to share?

In our version of Duskwall…”

* Red Sashes have an “eastern” look, the Temple of the Path of Echoes have a pagoda-like architecture and the duelists live in a “dojo” but they use more middle eastern outfits and duel techniques.

** Each “dojo” is protected by an ancestral sword that holds a sliver of each swordmaster that has wielded it ( #theMalkavs stole one).

** The Temple of the Path of Echoes is protected by armor animated by the spirits of brave iruvian warriors bound by ghost locks.

* The Leaky Bucket is a neutral ground for all factions to share. It’s also a melting pot for people around the isles to gather, iruvian lanterns hang beside sevorian witch-candles and electric lights. Currently the tavern is composed of three different buildings, one original and two annexed. Its neutrality is sponsored by the Crows.

** Only has female waitresses.

** It is owned by Lorette.

** It has an exclusive gambling table placed under a stuffed crow.

** It’s the only area where prostitutes can work independently inside Crow’s Foot, otherwise they work for the Lampblacks or else…

* All spirit masks look the same, making it hard to recognize Whispers.

* There is a secret net of canals under Crow’s Foot only Gondolier knew. A crew of smugglers working for the Lampblacks have stolen a map picturing this net. The Hive have purchased another map from the Gondoliers, and are pushing for complete hold.

** After midnight the spirits start haunting the waters, and a Whisper is needed to navigate safely the hidden canals.

** Duskwall waters are filled with the bodies. Thousands of spirits dating before the Cataclysm plague the depths but are bound to the water. Falling to the canals is a death sentence. Bodies disappear never to be seen again.

** With the help of the Gondoliers the Hive has set a series of secret caches in the crypts below Crow’s Foot, that can be accessed though the abandoned canals below the city and some sewers.

* Hive workers can be identified by their yellow girdles.

* Iruvia has (or had) a royal family. The old painting #theMalkavs stole numbers at least 20.

* There’s a haunted library at the end of Narrow st.

** it stores ancient documents from the first days after the Cataclysm. The Grimoire of Saint Vestine is among them.

** the Grimoire holds the spirit of St. Vestine. Thanks to #TheWarts It is now in possession of Vladimir Kristov, a successful historian and novelist.

** It is run by six possessed librarians occupied by five spirits. They can be recognize by their height, grey robes and beards and blue fire lamps.

** it is warded by runes that alert the whisper librarian.

* the City Watch won’t bring order to Crow’s Foot until the war between the Lampblacks and Red Sashes ends, making it a haven for criminal pursuits.

* the Wester Family, a low ranking noble house with people on the Council paint themselves as extravagant and occult.

**Lady Remira Wester stages illegal seances with smuggled electroplasm, charging a fee to any noblemen who wants to take part on their depraved parties.

**All noblemen are talking about the mysterious Madame La Mort (actually #theMalkavs disguised as medium performers) and the last seance at Remira’s house where the murderous spirit of Lord Veleris Wester manifested and threatened the guests.

***Lord Veleris is pissed.

** Lord Veleris has being enslaved by Lovelia the Whisper and now acts as her personal murder-ghost.

** Now with proof Inspector Morlan can raid Lady Remira’s house and bring her decadent clients to justice.

* Inspector Emeric Morlan is bound by bureaucratic red tape. The Wester family has some important connections among judges and councilmen. There is a trial waiting for happen.

* #theMalkavs discovered that the Morlan family has some kind of grudge against the Westers.

* There’s a ghostly information net that Whispers can consult, not too different from eavesdropping rumors. The dead can talk.

** Using this net opens up your mind to any ghostly influence up there. You are easier to find by vengeful spirits in there.

* Being attacked by ghosts deals both ethereal and physic damage.

** Lovelia has a beautiful frostbite scar on her chest to show it. Whispers can be recognized by this kind of marks.

* There is a race of Time Daemons charged with regulating the time flow in the material world. This are atemporal beings, invisible to most humans. Not inherently evil nor benign.

** Time Daemons are depicted as lions wearing iron crowns.

** One of these demons occupies an ancient mausoleum in the city graveyard.

*** The trapped time-daemon reached out to Nienna, warning her of dark times to come, implying that there is another time-daemon on the lose and alerting her to keep an eye for the house of clocks.

* There is a Deathland Scavengers warehouse on Crow’s Foot stacked with haunted items and rogue spirits.

** the Deathland Scavengers brought an idol from the Brokend Lands that holds a daemon, it is now trapped by a seal drawn by a whisper of #theWarts

* the seal was designed by Roethe, a demon in disguise, and can be only broken by him.

** there is a possessed broken-wolf on the lose. It became known as “The Wolf of Crow’s Foot.”

* Acaste, high priestess of the Forgotten Gods thinks that this wolf is a servant sent by the Lord of Beasts to empower the cult and is trying to capture it.

* The wolf is actually possessed by numerous ghosts. Warped and corrupted it haunts the streets of Crow’s Foot.

* The cult of The Forgotten Gods is a syncretistic religion that merges divinities, spirits and gods from before the Cataclysm.

** It is mainly a death cult, focusing on the those elements of the old religions. There is no single God of Death, but all gods are different aspects of death itself.

** The cult is run as a matriarchy.

I will update this post after more play.

So for some direct inspirational goodness….

The cult of whispers (named The Spook Sisters) had infiltrated the Red Sashes inner sanctum, done away with the sword wielding bravados through wile and seduction and stood with the safe cracked and open…

In a flash of opportunity (since I had been playing waaaaay too much dishonoured), I said that instead of parcels of coin, or maps of the city or barrels of demon blood, there was a heart; a huge beating leviathan heart. Replete with clockwork mechanisms and spectral vapours propelling its undeniable beat.

What does it mean? Clamoured the sisters as they grasped its ectoplasmic soaked flesh in their quavering hands… What does it do? How can we use this? Pondered – this was all in the moment mind – and I went with the obvious:

Point the Heart at an object, person, or hulking mass of architecture and it responds with a succinct datum, ranging from inner turmoil to long quashed hopes and dreams. Anyone can be the voice of the heart, so long as we don’t contradict established canon. The secrets it whispers will narratively inject life into Duskwall we might otherwise have stolen away from through rolls and mechanics without story. NPCs become more than just walking shells for you gals to inhabit or eradicate on a sociopathic (spectral) whim; they become people, with lives and hopes and dreams, walking products of this blighted city that’s become their prison.

In effect, it became a rather macabre in-game macguffin ‘talking stick’ that has encouraged the players to develop the world before we go to the dice, and ramped up their reputation and accountability in the fiction. Folks now want them deadybones.

Thanks to the Heart, the plight of the poor and the avarice of the elite are subtly highlighted, giving dark meaning to Duskwall’s unjust factional structures. The players themselves can’t escape from the Heart’s omniscience. With it we have learned of the whaler’s deaths accrued in the construction of ‘The Leviathan’s Curse’ Pub, and of the watered-down ink black blood that they serve there.

With this ‘insider knowledge’ the players can use the Heart and bestow structures or locations in Duskwall that they find significant with a history all of their own design. They have a place amidst the ghosts and the grime, not just a convenient corner to disappear into the shadows. They have an in-game artefact that lets them wrap themselves wholeheartedly (pun unintentional!) in the author stance. The conversations at the table are hectic and full of promise.

I can’t wait to see how this evolves through more play!

Second session co-GMing the Quick Start scenario with our crew The Twelve.

Second session co-GMing the Quick Start scenario with our crew The Twelve.

Last session ended with the Whisper creating a diversion to allow the Lurk and Hound to infiltrate the Red Sashes HQ and empty the treasury. The Whisper challenged the school to produce a champion to duel. He made enough of a commotion to allow his crewmates to infiltrate with little resistance.

The Whisper’s player ran this sessio as GM more or less. I think they had too much fun.

My Lurk’s vice is betting on boxing matches and other fights where men bloody each other viciously. So Bird had to resist the effect of lingering too long watching instead of get to the infiltrating already. Unfortunately, she took 4 stress resisting. An auspicious start. I guess she really enjoys watching men hurt each other. O, and making bets.

My Lurk had “previously” borrowed a partial blueprint of the HQ from a city clerk friend. The map was out-of-date, partly because of the recent renovations upgrading the vault. This flowed from my big mistake for this session: accepting a Devil’s Bargain at this point which made the treasury lock harder to overcome. Not just a regular Ice Turn Ball lock, it was a custom Grated Ice Turn Ball lock. A 4-segment became a 8-segment clock. No problems I thought.

NEVER TAKE A DEVIL’S BARGAIN MAKING THE MISSION GOAL HARDER. O. MY. GANDALF.

Anyway, finding our way through the HQ was easy enough with a Lead a Group action. Here sprung Question 1, which I ask below. The Hound and I smartly overcame the clock and quickly found our way to the vault, although some servants were silenced along the way, unfortunately. So far so good.

The antechamber to the vault was full of alchemical experiments. The Hound got into some chicanery with the Elderly Alchemist and a moonlighting bluecoat, who he had “previously” bribed to fall.

Meanwhile, my Lurk ignored all that commotion and got to work cracking open the treasury vault and, you know, getting a mission successful badge. Five segments boom! (4 + 1 for Scout).

That would have done it. End game, treasure zonk, hand shakes all round! Not quite ghosts but clean for a rookie crew. Except. EXCEPT. That Devil’s Bargain.

Trauma: I overloaded my stress and got trauma on the 1–3 the Risky Action roll trying to crack the safe, while the Hound kicked the snot out of the elderly Alchemist with his Steel Capped Boots. This mean I got no closer to unlocking the vault. At least I dodged the sticky blue chemical dye that sprayed out from the trapped vault, which would have marked me as the vault cracker to the 20-odd incoming master swords. Unfortunately the dye reacted poorly with some chemicals strewn about, starting a fire.

Burnt: I ignored the spreading fire and re-rolled, getting a 4–5 on the Desperate Action roll. So still no closer to unlocking. I probably should have taken the stress, but I really didn’t want to get two trauma on my first mission. Here sprung Question 2, asked below. O, and I will never again try to crack another Ice Turn Ball lock, custom or not. Too traumatic.

Trapped: I finally got a 6 when I re-rolled. Which I unlocked the vault, easily. Unfortunately the antechamber collapsed into an burning inferno, cutting off my escape route. At least the Red Sashes weren’t going to stab me just yet. O, and something I was wearing was on fire. Bloody Uncle Aldo, getting me stung by my own Devil’s Bargain.

After that I actually escaped, carrying a treasury of alchemical warfare, with the help of some Elite Shadows I had arranged earlier for just such a situation. And the Hound just hobbled out, masquerading as a Bluecoat, next to the moonlighting Bluecoat he’d bribed.

We’re going to do the Downtime and advancement stuff next week when all four players are at the table. I think the Red Sashes will like us less. Interestingly, they’ve got a passionate personal vendetta against the Whisper, thanks to a Devil’s Bargain. The eight-segment clock that came with that Bargain seemed plenty until we killed their servants, stole their alchemical armoury, and burnt their HQ down. Some people are just “sensitive” to shit like that.

Fun times! Cheers for the excellent game.

Question 1 Can a Backup Assist the Point in Lead a Group Action if the Backup is involved and rolling in that Group action? We said no but I couldn’t see any direct contradiction in the rules.

Question 2 Can I choose to take the effect after making the Effect roll and seeing how much stress I would have to take? Some of your examples suggest yes but it felt a little like cheating and wasn’t super clear.

I used Jason Lutes’s wonderful map and added factions and clockstamps for a new group’s run through of the…

I used Jason Lutes’s wonderful map and added factions and clockstamps for a new group’s run through of the QuickStart this Easter weekend.

I finished my second GM’ing of a Blades in the Dark game and thus my next actual play.

I finished my second GM’ing of a Blades in the Dark game and thus my next actual play. Normal version in this post, Blog version:

https://teylen.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/actual-play-blades-in-the-dark-the-chroniclers-ii/

The players & setup

Another session of Friday D&D5 wasn’t about to happen and I offered to GM another session of BitD. One player did like to continue the game we played the week before and there were two new players planning to attend.

It got a bit rocky on Friday. First one player dropped of because he couldn’t make it. Then another player said he basically didn’t like to try BitD at friday. Discussion evolved whether or not to try another system, specially as I did feel groggy. At late afternoon the player who didn’t feel like it changed his mind and I started to be a bit confused.

At 8pm I joined the Hangout with two other players chatting along as we felt like two player weren’t enough and nothing else got prepared.

About 9:30 the player who changed his mind join though couldn’t be convinced to roll up a char. I wasn’t involved as much in the convincing part as I didn’t believe something would still be happening.

At about 10:30 pm another player, our actual D&D5 GM, joined and he got a quick ran through character generation, had a whisperer by about 11pm and I did come somewhat unexpected to the realization that I was supposed to GM.

Which I did.

Opposed to last time I couldn’t use my tablet and didn’t prepare as much. I took the plot hook from our first session, some remark a player made and went with that.

Choice of meal was some plain bread, some strawberries and some cheap soda.

Characters, Crew and Creation

We took the crew as designed by our last session and had the player add one positive and one negative Tier I faction standing.

The Cabbies ended up with a positive standing, Ulf Ironborn got down to -2.

The recurring crew:

Daphnia Dalmore from the Dagger Isles, Slide with a noble background

Phill from Akoros, Cutter with a Bluecoat background

The new one:

Sy Lense from Severos, a Whisperer who joined the crew from the Underworld.

Remarks

The character creation went really fast. At least a lot faster then last time. Imho mostly due to the fact that the players knew the system better and that there weren’t as much discussions regarding certain aspects of the background.

The Score

The players started being in possession of a strange 20x20cm cube covered in strange moving runes. It was handed to them by the Lampblacks to be placed at the Church of Ectasy of the Flesh before 4am this night. Given that the crew stole from the Lampblacks last time and their standing was pretty bad no further information had been given.

Sy Lense curiosity was sparked and given his expertise and tools he attempted to analyse the cube carefully. It didn’t went exactly as planned as fingers, a scrawny long arm emerge from a small gap. Trying to grab the Whisperer and drag him in. He struggled against the creature, the feral ghost, manage to free himself using his ghost mask, close the lid, though the beast collected some ectoplasm before being caged once more.

After the shock the gang decided to get some more information before proceeding and headed into the direction of the Deathlands Scavengers.

Remarks

–

I basically took the hook that Daphnia made a devils bargain when distracting Baz the last time round to start the session after any negotiations made.

I took the idea for the box straight out of the QS and that it should be placed in the church was due to one player asked to have them a bit more involved.

The idea how contacting the scavengers was rather spontaneous. First I thought that they made the cube, then I decided otherwise to go with the flow.

The Cube got the biggest clock I made .. a time clock of 0/12.

I kept the clock visible for the player.

–

Daphnia went along to make contact while Sy was backing her up as technical expert. They were welcomed by Fey Lelander a whisperer of his own, wrapped in bandages with a mummy like appearance. His face covered with by a ghost mask.

At first he wasn’t as impressed as the talk continued but did show interest as the cube got mentioned. They learned that it contained not only one but many ghosts and got likely set to explode, wrecking ghostly havoc about those near by. Although they were careful enough to only bring a drawing of the cube the Scavengers interest was spiked.

They headed home as fast as they could,.. at least Phill did so using his friend bat as a guide to find a short, effective way back to the base. He arrived in time to see two Scavengers searching the museum.

Luckily Daphnia didn’t leave the museum unattended and setup a Bluecoat the group had some contact with to watch the normal museum grounds.

Remarks & Question

–

Not the first Flashback scene. Though we wondered.

Flashback scene do already cost stress if they are more complex.

Do Action and Effect rolls happen in Flashback scenes?

Thus is it possible to generate dangers or get additional stress there?

In this particular case I went with a 0/2 clock to convince the Bluecoat and I think there was some stress achieved.

–

Phill decided to murder the first scavenger silently and then take out the second one. He managed to get close and sink his knifes into the scavenger ending his existence. The Hound quickly took a second one threw it into the back of the second Scavenger.

Alas it didn’t kill him as much as it did alert him that things were going down. The Scavenger looked who did it and noticed the patrolling guard. Heading to get his revenge.

Phill took out his guns and with two masterful shots the knees of the Scavenger were gone. Approaching him he noticed how he was muttering words of occult, trying to summon a ghost, though a tough kick to the face ended that for good.

The rest of the crew arrived, the Scavenger was handed to the Bluecoat as someone he can claim he’d imprisoned and they went to talk.

Did they like to upset the Church of the Ectasy of the Flesh?

They are damn well powerful and they are so far friendly. Appears like the Lampblacks were out to ruin them with that score by framing. Of course, their standing was very bad and it would turn to outright hatred if they didn’t do as asked.

It went back and forth and in the end they decided to go for the score.

They did as well discuss the approach. They may try it buy scaling the rooftop. Getting a hole in and letting one down with the dreaded box. (Mission Impossible style).

As they remembered the dead scoundrel in their museum they decided to go for another plan. They would disguise Sy the Whisperer as Deathland Scavenger and get him to place the cube inside. While Daphnia would distract the crowd, the Phill the Hound would take the disguise of a warden of the Church. Noticing the foul play, “pretend hunting” the Whisperer outside, past the corpse of their dead ‘friend’ and claiming that he murdered the perpetrator. Pointing the Church members to evacuate or disarm the bomb.

Remarks

–

I tend to be a bit pushing in regards of scene framing ^^;

The planning didn’t took to long though the players did feel a bit like I was cutting into their rp.

In regards of the action I was kinda happy that the hound got something to do.

About the score,… I setup a score clock of 0/8.

Which would guarantee that it can’t be done in one roll and made 3 likely. I think it went up to 4? Anyway it felt rewarding in the end and I mostly did it to accelerate the game a bit as it was past midnight.

They all were already running kind of high on stress.

–

They entered the cathedral with a high glass dome who’d have the dim violett light of day enter during such.

Daphnia went in and set herself up by seducing one of the priests.

Sly did enter as well with his gift packed and tried to hide it, though the first not as successful attempt did needed some distraction backup by Daphnia.

He placed the cube under an alter. Remaining unseen thanks to the hound who pointed out that the priest busy with Daphnia needed help.

Phill as well as Sly started their chase but the actual temple wardens caught on! It was Hound who managed to chase Sy and push the other guards out of the way. Out of the building they ran.

Sy jumped into a garbage container, hid and the score worked!

Remarks and (Big) Question

–

It was a bit more explicit as usual though it remained mostly all in the realm of whats fit for “a not HBO” show in regards of description. The heist it self was – I think – major fun for the player.

Yet something that did got pointed out rules wise.

Does every Effect roll save from a critical one give stress?

So far every time an effect roll was made I ticked of clock segments as well as stress.

The player mentioned that this does escalate stress pretty quick and that it may only should be done if it is an Effect roll to negate danger. I went with it though I’d like to know what is right ^^

I mostly got my approach because X Segment. X Stress is both bold, so it looks like it both always applies

As a note. I do find it confusing that the Effect rolls read “partial”, “complete” in bold. If one gets a “complete” result but the clock is like 0/8 it really isn’t complete. At all. Maybe it would be better to name them “Meh, Mild. Good. Great”? Something like that, not the exact words. ^^;

I felt the time ticker went good. ^^

At least to me it was something more to grasp as if I’d say “you took quite some time”.

–

Aftermath

The Heat roll gave a 1, they were only medium subtle and they did murder someone. So its the crews first heat.

The Development roll gave 1 Coin and 1 Hold. Which was meager but not as bad as they would get a crew advancement later on.

They had an entanglement with a vengeful ghost. Basically the ghost of the murdered Scavenger returned and got shot (again) with ectoplasmatic ammunition by the hound.

They did a first round of Vice rolls but didn’t recover a lot.

The player of Daphnia spent one of her personal coins to grant an extra downtime for everyone.

They considered doing a long term project but didn’t roll for one yet as no project could be found and I really had no idea for something cool.

Crew Advancement was done and The Chroniclers are now a Level 1 Crew. Not yet Tier one as they got no 3+ friends or gang with no hold.

Remark

–

I wonder how to reduce a NPC Crews hold. ^^;

Which was about when I discovered that I totally forgot faction clocks

–

They bought the first part of the Expertise upgrade and Overwatch next to Alpha as specialty.

Crew Standing changed +1 for Lampblacks (to -1) -1 for Deathland to 0 and +1 for the Church as it was decided that they manage to save them from the bomb (mission clock did aquire quite some successes.

The Character Advancements were done and every character advanced a level, even the new one. Though iirc the player of the Hound left before applying his changes. Favorit was, iirc, to raise Effect dice.

Remarks and Question Bug?

We ended rather late at 2am. The players appeared to bit happy how the game went though one didn’t like the game as much for it felt a bit meta. I suspect maybe due to my notion of cutting hard if I felt planning went overhand.

Something that did raise major concern was the XP system.

Given that one can acquire XP for doing one thing multiple times it felt it can be very easily exploited and encourage actions that are not as much fun as they will loop up the character. Which will work specially well if the group is on one page with it.

One may argue that it wouldn’t maybe be as much fun, but the system does somewhat feel to invite such behavior.

As single playbooks can be “gamed” that way the feeling about the desperate ticks was about the same. One may provoke Desperate moves, in the end getting away with a bit of stress, but might be able to loop his char a level up just by this.

The thing about the playbooks made me wonder if its a good idea to reward the same action several times if it appears more then once.

While I personally (not as much the players) somewhat noticed that the Hound will only get the playbook murder XP if the group is willing to risk generating heat by having him murder someone.

I am as well concerned about the desperate moves being possibly exploited. As a thought,.. if someone escalates a desperate move, does it give one tick or as many ticks as he escalated it?

–

I think there might be some more questions which I forgot right now and will note if they’ll come back to my mind. ^^;

I took Blades in the Dark for a spin. Here’s what happened.

http://ramblingsofjacobanddelos.com/2015/03/30/blades-in-the-dark-first-look/

First game of our Blades in the Dark Trilogy with Jason Bowell, Robert Bohl, Jason Corley and Richard Rogers.

The Charterhall Walking Guild was once a legitimate gentle-folk who got together to discuss community issues and walk in the brisk night air, back when the Charterhall area had gentle-folk, before it all went to hell. Nowadays, the C.W.G. is a band of thieves with a fine library and connections among the sailors, deadland scavengers and carriage drivers.

They used to answer to Roric, so they were surprised when in the middle of planning a job Roric’s ghost appeared with an axe in his head, asking for vengeance against his second-in-command, Lyssa. They asked their former boss how much such vengeance would gain them and he offered a cache of silver in volume equal to a husky Duskwall child.

They had a plan. They’d get Lyssa to buy drugs from the Lampblacks. They’d get the Red Sashes to crash the deal and make off with the drugs. They’d frame Lyssa for the whole thing, convincing both sides that Lyssa had set them up.

It is a mess of a plan. I’m not sure we all got it but we went with it and got moving.

Holtz the Cutter went to meet with the leader of the Red Sashes, cut down some Lampblack kids to prove his loyalty.

Cyrene and Pool go to Lyssa and find out that she hired Ulf Ironsblood as new muscle. They convince her. Turns out Ulf is very superstitious and thinks Cyrene is a “wyrding woman.”

Then Canter, the mastermind behind the mission goes to his contact in the Lampblacks. He rolls and fails, hitting 3 of 4 necessary effects.

So, that is where we start next game. Pool is sneaking out Lyssa’s HQ, a beached whaling dreadnought. Canter is with the Lampblacks, having NOT convinced them to take part in a drug deal that is the cornerstone of his plan. Holtz is with the leader of the Red Sashes, having sex with her in her armored carriage after murdering a Lampblack kid for her.

Questions

Do you roll the Action and Effects dice at the same time?

Is it a separate Devil’s Bargain and/or Backup stress for both Action and Effect?