I’ve finally put my Blades clocks online, you can download them here (there should be a download-all link in the top…

I’ve finally put my Blades clocks online, you can download them here (there should be a download-all link in the top…

I’ve finally put my Blades clocks online, you can download them here (there should be a download-all link in the top right)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nPxXvS-Yfzik5b2JH0W4gicOll0aF8xR?usp=sharing

There’s a blue-light and yellow-light version of 4, 6, 8, and 12 segment clocks. You’ll want to set these up as rollable tables in Roll20 (https://wiki.roll20.net/Collections#Creating_a_Rollable_Table_Token) which will let you use them as multi-sided tokens on the table.

I’ve also put my “scrap of paper” graphic in the folder so you can set the clocks up on the table like the screenshot.

Usually, to get my GM juices flowing I need to faff around on Photoshop a bit.

Usually, to get my GM juices flowing I need to faff around on Photoshop a bit.

Usually, to get my GM juices flowing I need to faff around on Photoshop a bit. This time, I decided to try and create some BitD themed roll20 clocks!

Admittedly, they’re a bit busy looking, but all in all I’m fairly pleased with the result.

Also, since they’re here, if anyone fancies using them, pngs are all available here, along with a couple other PbtA clocks: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bmwz5gi4TXOKryOnAhN8mhi9LUyehWwi?usp=sharing

For some weird reason they’re super fun to make, so any feedback or ‘skin’ idea are more than welcome!

Hello all! New maps available here – https://www.patreon.com/ryandunleavy.

Hello all! New maps available here – https://www.patreon.com/ryandunleavy.

Hello all! New maps available here – https://www.patreon.com/ryandunleavy.

It’s been over a year and I’ve created 24 maps and counting for Blades in the Dark. The newest one is pretty neat – the Canal Market. Pole up to vendors that set up shop in recesses along the canal.

The support for these has been amazing and you are a really great community. Thanks!

With apologies/props to Ryan Dunleavy, I couldn’t resist turning the poster for the forthcoming L’Empereur de Paris…

With apologies/props to Ryan Dunleavy, I couldn’t resist turning the poster for the forthcoming L’Empereur de Paris…

With apologies/props to Ryan Dunleavy, I couldn’t resist turning the poster for the forthcoming L’Empereur de Paris (https://twitter.com/gray/status/977944647430524928) into a Blades in the Dark poster.

Also, Vidocq’s wikipedia article is well worth a read if you’re not familiar – prime Blades character material (30 times over): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%e8ne_Fran%e7ois_Vidocq#Biography

I love Ryan Dunleavy’s detailed Doskvol map, but cannot wait for the full version to be done for my own campaign.

I love Ryan Dunleavy’s detailed Doskvol map, but cannot wait for the full version to be done for my own campaign.

I love Ryan Dunleavy’s detailed Doskvol map, but cannot wait for the full version to be done for my own campaign… So I was inspired to go ahead and make an overlay to complete it. Here is a sample detail of Nightmarket, for which I took inspiration from the crowded streets of some Parisian neighborhoods.

Fellow Roll20 players, what icon sets do you use?

Fellow Roll20 players, what icon sets do you use?

Fellow Roll20 players, what icon sets do you use? I like having little tokens so players can track where they are on the map, but all the sets I can find are either high fantasy or far too ‘classic’ steampunk for Blades – all brass and cogs and pitch helmets. Have you found any that suit or should I just make do?

With SaV, every playbook has an iconic character associated with it, so that when we visualize the art for the book,…

With SaV, every playbook has an iconic character associated with it, so that when we visualize the art for the book,…

With SaV, every playbook has an iconic character associated with it, so that when we visualize the art for the book, we can draw from a pool of immediately recognizable people. It’s a pretty standard approach, but communicating the characters clearly and effectively took a bit of work.

I think the best tool we used was to explain the characters separately from the scenes we showed them in.

Mevakor Shrike. Male Memish – Memish are humanoids from the water planet of Mem, and have smooth blue-to-purple hued bodies and hair similar to the arms of a Cuttlefish. Mavakor is generally light blue and wears small golden rings on the ends of his hair. Ritually scarred with the holy words of the Prophet Ruum that glow when he infuses himself with Way-energies. (A Mystic is like a Jedi from Star Wars.) Mevakor generally wears loose-fitting natural clothing that leaves a lot of his arms and chest exposed. He has a wooden sword on his back he can infuse with energy to cut through almost anything. He’s quite a drinker, and is often found with a bottle of whiskey or gourd of alcohol.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bcTTDLuBdLhkz6oTtZ3Rul8y7LWJx1_g

This gives a good feeling of Mevakor as a character – giving options for Brett to pursue or elements that can be introduced whenever it makes sense in the picture. And it’s not limited to characters! We outlined a lot of things, including planets, various factions, how technology looks, how ships look, essentially building up a manual of style for the SaV universe.

That said, making portraits that a) demonstrate the character clearly, b) doing a thing that that character should be associated with, and c) has a sense of action to it is rather hard actually! But using this ‘describe, then pose’ technique, is a really good way to make tight scene descriptions that communicate a lot.

Aria is working out in the ship’s weight room. The room is spartan but serviceable. She’s doing barbell squats, but the shot is waist-up, showing the barbell resting on her shoulders. She’s in a cami, which shows off her tattoos, and her face shows the weight she’s holding.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15YaM7rFy3DGkwmtiW18c-FXREz1nkZkt

In a lot of ways, this turned writing the art spec into an activity more like writing a screenplay, and we borrowed a lot of screenplay terms like scene headers that described the ‘shot’, a very short gist of the scene, and the lighting:

Playbook: Pilot (page 86)

Full Page

Exterior/Interior/Space, Ship Console from outside the Ship, Interior Lighting

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1W2B2RwfqYzoF-ijylEE9RlFt6Jq-hY5f

In all, the art spec alone was about six thousand words; despite being the by-product of the art process, it has become a resource all unto itself. I’ve never written one of these before SaV and now I can’t imagine doing without one.