Category: Blades in the Dark: Discussion

Hiya folks, haven’t checked out blades since v2 a while back. Read through a fair bit of v7 (not all though). Quite liking the changes I’m seeing. I’ve noticed certain things have been emphasized more or clarified to help get the intent behind the rules and make running the game a lot smoother.

However, I do have a question about the probability spread of the core rules mechanic. I’m not sure if it should go into the game question or discussion subheading, but here goes.

6 or 6+ results are “full successes.”

4/5 are success with complication.

Ignoring the fact that 4/5 are also successes, and just looking at the potential for free and clear “full successes,” the maximum dice a character could have are 4. If they push themselves, they can get up to 5 (I seem to recall you can now push or devil’s bargain. Not both. Could be wrong though.).

Looking at the math of that, at 4 die – free and clear success happens 51% of the time, or ~60% at 5 die. (http://anydice.com/program/91c0)

Ok, good so far. I’ve been thinking about what this probability spread implies for the fiction of the game, and here is where my question lies. Characters with actions rated at 4 have a little over 50% chance for free and clear success. In any other game, I would have said, “how odd, they’re the upper limit of what a human can be in this game.. and they can only get through things without mucking them up 50% of the time?” Well part of this could be explained by the fact that these are action ratings not skill ratings. Since actions are a somewhat nebulous rating that covers not only competence but a level of je ne sais quas, I’m guessing that there is some other factor at work beyond just your skill at Prowling or Skirmishing.

The conclusion I’ve come up with is, perhaps the basic premise is that the world is just this jacked up. In previous editions there was a section talking about how rolling should be done more sparsely than in a traditional RPG like dnd (didnt find that section in v7, assuming it still applies though or I’m just blind). So the characters are only rolling for situations where at best they have a 50/50 shot of making it through unscathed.

If this is the case, this idea would ripple out to affect how different phases of the game are handled. At character creation, if a character has 2 ranks in an action, they’re dealing with situations where a character of that competence has only a 50/50 shot of making it through unscathed. As they progress to be that character with 4 ranks in an action, they just no longer roll for a situation that a 2 rank character might. Does this analysis seem correct?

To be clear, I’m not expressing any dissatisfaction, just trying to use the mechanics to guide how the fiction is to be approached. Get a sense of how the stakes increase as play continues.

http://anydice.com/program/91c0