Blades in the Dark: Discussion – Page 140 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Hey quick question.

Hey quick question. I want to get a feel for how quickly other crews and PCs are advancing. For mine at least one person advances about every other session. The crew advances about the same speed. How is your crew looking for that?

Has anyone done a crew sheet of Van Helsing-style hunters?

Has anyone done a crew sheet of Van Helsing-style hunters? Each playbook has nifty-ass things to bring to the monster-hunting table, but it hit me how awesome a Slayers crew type would be. They could be exactly the kind of daring (unhinged?) individuals needed to hunt ghosts, vampires and demons (as well as their cults), being contracted by powers legitimate and otherwise. Whatever ookies crawl through the perpetual night, there’s too often a need to pay coin to investigate, castigate, capture and annihilate “them”. I really feel that Blades can do this extremely well.

I need to work on this.

Oh, yeah. I’m super-impressed with the hacks I’ve seen and would like to take a stab at my own (obviously), however I have no experience whatsoever with any of the computer wizardry involved. What would be a good place to start if I wanted to grab the source files tier for the KS?

I’ve been wanting to try BitD recently with my “I get to test shit out on you guys” group.

I’ve been wanting to try BitD recently with my “I get to test shit out on you guys” group. I really enjoy PbtA, so they’re generally familiar with the engine, but they’re not familiar with bitd. They’re also not trad players, so they’re not accustomed to digesting a lot of crunch.

I’ve come across the issue, though, that BitD seems a lot more crunchy than other PbtA games, to the point where I got some push-back from my group when they saw the “assigned reading” (I shared the 7.1 document with them so they could get a feel for the system). I think part of it was the quantity of crunch, and part of it was perceived “density” of reading.

Any tips on ways to communicate the rules to not-so-new players in a stream-lined way?

Also, I guess if this isn’t an isolated occurrence, maybe it’s something to keep in mind for composing the final version of the game.

Yesterday we blew the dust off the boardgame “Lords of Waterdeep”.

Yesterday we blew the dust off the boardgame “Lords of Waterdeep”. A couple of years ago while playing it, our group was lamenting how there isn’t really a good way to get the games concept – secret lords sending agents on missions to claim power in a fantasy city – into a viable rpg. Two of use tried to write up a dark victorian world, built on a harbour with steampunk elements, but it fizzled once we couldn’t really settle on how to make the rules work. In our research online we discovered Blades.

I really recommend Lords of Waterdeep as a board game, and a part of me would love to reskin the whole thing as Spiders of Doskvol (curse you expensive printing supplies). It would fit so beautifully!

So my players might be going a little too far in the “not planning” direction, I think partly because they don’t…

So my players might be going a little too far in the “not planning” direction, I think partly because they don’t have a good feel for the different kind of plans. Right now they’re doing everything Stealth, because then all they have to specify is where they go in, and then they’re hoping to wing the rest of it. “We go in the front door with all the other guests” specifies the entrance, but doesn’t feel very stealthy to me.

Is there a resource for differentiating the approaches? Examples, suggestions, etc?

So I’m wanting to write a fanfic about a whisper tinker who likes to make tiny hulls and gets wrapped in a Shadows…

So I’m wanting to write a fanfic about a whisper tinker who likes to make tiny hulls and gets wrapped in a Shadows crew as a spy/Q-type of figure. But I’m not sure what is a good situation for the spontaneous creation of a crew for spying.

What are some situations you might have encountered in your sessions, or created, or read/saw/heard about somewhere else?

While I’m also thinking about it, what are some ideas for how ghosts can rise and escape the Spirit Wardens? As I understand it, the Deathseeker Crows simply say “Someone died here”, not “Here be ghosts”. And there has to be a subtle yet easy to find approach for ghosts to evade capture. After all, the Reconciled are supposed to be an entire faction of peaceful ghosts. Do they just fade into the ghost fields, like Hollows leaving the real world in Bleach? Again, what are some ideas you, your friends, and playgroups have come up with?

I noticed that Breakers have Thugs and a Cult has Adepts listed.

I noticed that Breakers have Thugs and a Cult has Adepts listed. Are these special instances supporting the crew themes and are exclusive, or will each crew type have a cohort type?

Also, will the book have examples/suggestions as to things the Ghost Echoes crew advance for Shadows interacts with?

I’ve instituted a rule where at the end of the game the players vote on who made the most self-destructive decision…

I’ve instituted a rule where at the end of the game the players vote on who made the most self-destructive decision of the night and award that person a bonus XP. It’s not a huge mechanical reward, but my players have started competing to win the honor and it has driven our games in wonderfully more desperate directions. I highly recommend it.

Casual Friday thoughts, what are everyone’s different “fill in what this is” roles?

Like the Sentinel or Psychonaut friends in the game? In your games and with your players and characters what are those? I’m interested to hear the different interpretation and creative options people have for this because they’re sometimes ones I struggle with.

Those are the 2 examples that came to mind but any other things where there’s a term in the book and it’s left open to the players to define in the world is also open for inclusion and discussion.

I was looking at the islands of the empire, and I was curious what the inspiration were.

Akoros seems like its roughly inspired by England

Skovland seems like a combination of Scotland and Norway.

Iruvia seems like its inspired primarily by the Middle East (maybe a bit of China or Southeast Asia, too? I’m only guessing that because of Iruvian red sash fighting.)

The ones I’m most curious about are Severos and the Dagger Isles. I get the impressions of North and Central Africa respectively, but these seem to be the ones with the least to go on. (Also, on a side note, wth do you call someone from the Dagger Isles? Daggerish? Islander?)