Blades in the Dark: Discussion – Page 181 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

A couple of quick observations regarding the rules.

1. It seems like the term Quality is being used for two different things. Items of Fine Quality bump up your Effect level after a roll. But also your Cohorts have a Quality stat that acts as their one Trait (as in, the number of dice they roll). Maybe it should be given a different name, like Competence, or something similar?

2. How does the Thief Rigging upgrade work? There doesn’t seem to be any description of it in the quick start.

3. The Whisper’s Ritual ability: does this allow the character to define new rituals on the fly, or should it be a long term project to research new rituals?

We ran our first game this weekend, as a sort of “test run” with our standard D&D group.

We ran our first game this weekend, as a sort of “test run” with our standard D&D group. We’re coming up on the end of our current D&D 5e campaign, and we’re excited to dive into this. One of our members is our friend’s 14-year-old son, who we figured would be a great litmus test for the system.

I have to admit, when we first read the QuickStart, I was concerned that it sounded really complicated and as though it had a lot of moving parts. Upon playing, I was pleased to see how elegant it feels. It’s not to say it doesn’t have a lot of moving parts, but once you really dive into the system, it all makes sense, and keeping track of stuff seems pretty intuitive. We all (including the kiddo) walked away really liking the setting and the system. Huzzah! So, you know, “Blades in the Dark: So Smooth a 14-Year-Old Gets It.” Anyway…

The only “issue” we had was that we, as a group (players and DM included) decided we need to come up with canonical motivators behind actions. That is, a somewhat concrete determination of when you would use one skill over another.

Example: Consort vs. Sway. We ran into a situation where two characters were trying to sneak into a wealthy neighborhood, and were approached by a Bluecoat who, correctly, pointed out they (the PCs) did not belong on this street. PC 1 attempted to sway, in a Risky position, and failed. PC 2, having a Military background, wanted to Consort with the Bluecoat, attempting to distract him by appealing to their common background (“Hey buddy, how about that military work, eh? EH?”). As a group, we were torn on whether or not that was “OK.” Half of us felt that “Consort” should be used in a more friendly or casual context/situation. Had he been attempted to buddy-buddy with the guy, in effort to perhaps getting information from him, or distract him from something he had not yet seen, that would be Consort. But since the Bluecoat had already approached the PCs, and had not fallen for PC 1’s Sway attempt, we felt that PC 2 was also attempting to deceive, and ergo had to roll Sway. Ultimately, PC 2 had two action dots in Consort, and only 1 in Sway, hence his request to Consort, to begin with.

I know that a core feature of the game is that the players decide what skills they use, and so long as you are able to successfully explain/demonstrate why you are able to use that action over a different action, it should be “OK.” Our only concern (and I saw a post about this same concern, earlier, with some dude trying to use “Tinker” on everything under the sun) is that without having a somewhat concrete understanding of the intent behind each action, it could lead to players trying to break the system, or at the very least, cheese an encounter.

It’s not to say you cannot debate between Consort or Sway, but certain situations (such as lying through your teeth to not get carted off to jail) call for a specific skill, and, likewise, some skills are off limits in that situation.

I’m sure there’s already digital sheets out there and they might even be better than mine, but I felt like putting…

I’m sure there’s already digital sheets out there and they might even be better than mine, but I felt like putting together something for an online game me and my friends are getting started. We like to keep everything in google docs so it’s accessible.

The sheet uses a lot of data validation for ticks, so you just double-click to change an empty cell to the appropriate symbol.

Anyway, figured I’d share in case someone is looking for something like this!

I played and live streamed Blades for the first time today (as opposed to GMing) as an Iruvian jester in love with a…

I played and live streamed Blades for the first time today (as opposed to GMing) as an Iruvian jester in love with a possessor ghost.

Gotta say, playing’s just as fun as GMing (luckily I get to do both in an average week). The infinite possibility for the flashbacks is really tasty, and I love that our group is trying to tear up Duskwall from top to bottom from the very first session. (Ambitious was a great reputation choice).

Quick question while I know about John Harper’s YouTube videos I was wondering if anyone knows any actual play…

Quick question while I know about John Harper’s YouTube videos I was wondering if anyone knows any actual play podcasts for the game. It helps past the time at work.

After over a dozen sessions of play, half of those not using the Engagement Roll (simply because we started by using…

After over a dozen sessions of play, half of those not using the Engagement Roll (simply because we started by using the basic rules and then forgot about the rest of them for a while) I’ve come to a sort of impasse with the notion of the Engagement Roll.

The Engagement Roll is supposed to be an integral part of the game’s inclination toward leaping into the middle of the action and working out what happened later, eliminating the prep that took up so many sessions of Shadowrun with the Street Samurai getting increasingly more angsty.

But, what the Engagement Roll actually makes my players do, is plan in advance. You see, if, on the turn of the dice, you can have the tables turned completely on you and essentially be put in a Desperate position from the get-go (that’s how I read Bad Outcome, anyway) then you will want to weight the roll heavily in your favour. How do you do that? Well, it’s based on the “preparation” of your target. So, the players are encouraged to ensure that the group is as little prepared as possible through various planning and wily means.

Note: I’m fine with this. I don’t have a problem with prep. The other game I run is Shadowrun (albeit with a different system) where the vast majority of the game has been going around and talking to people. I do not mind a game with prep. In fact, when I first played Blades back in v1, I felt like I was in a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” scenario because my instinct is to prepare.

But! I run Blades in a pub where everyone’s drinking and sometimes we play for less than three hours. Trying to get everyone at the table to understand each others’ elaborate plan is hard at the best of times. I have grown attached to Blades’ approach to the Shadowrun archetype. I’m feeling like, since we’ve gotten to grips with the Engagement Roll, things have been drawing out rather than becoming more succinct.

Am I playing the Engagement Roll wrong?

P.S. Reading through v5 and loving it.

I’m about to run my first one shot of Blades this evening, and there’s one little detail that I can’t find in the…

I’m about to run my first one shot of Blades this evening, and there’s one little detail that I can’t find in the early access book: How does potency work?

The heist and the anti-heist!

The heist and the anti-heist! It is reasonable to have factions fill up clocks, and when those clocks are full, to hit crews with the consequences.

In a less technical direction, I have found another way to determine when the crew is the target of action rather than acting.

When they are driving forward and pursuing a goal with gusto, I tend to go along with that and follow the action, only interjecting when it is the most fun. (And that’s where full clocks become a worry, that they can interrupt things and heighten the suspense and tension.)

When they lose direction and purpose and don’t have any clear idea for heists, or next steps, THAT is when I tend to hit them with NPC factions acting out.

They weren’t sure what their next steps would be, but after the assassins their enemy hired fail to kill them, you better believe they’ve got a pretty clear idea of what to do next. =)

Also, the moment when they’re on the edge of getting what they’ve been working for is also the prime moment for them to be targeted for a heist.

Just when I thought I had the rules down pat, I realized today that I somehow, unintentionally snuck a house-rule…

Just when I thought I had the rules down pat, I realized today that I somehow, unintentionally snuck a house-rule into our game that fundamentally affects the way coin awards work in Blades

For each score, I had been mistakenly giving each player 1 extra coin in addition to the amount of coin that was awarded to the crew based on the ‘size’ of the score. (So, if they completed a ‘small job’, I was awarding 1 coin to each individual player, plus 4 coin to crew as a whole.) Looking back, I think early on I had misread the rule regarding individual PC coin awards during crew advancement, and then that to ‘the payoff’ for scores.

So now, looking at the way score coin awards actually work, I’m struck with a stark (and welcome) realization: if players make a score that awards a number of coin smaller than the number of players, they are forced to negotiate how the coin is divvied up amongst themselves. It’s so obvious that I’m not sure how I missed it. Of course, they had already been negotiating how to split the ‘crew’s coin’ already, but now that we don’t have the mistaken distinction that there are separate crew/PC score coin awards, it’ll make for that much more interesting play.

However, I have one question related to the above: If players are paying tithe to a ward boss, is it possible to complete a score that nets a zero coin award? For example if they are Tier 2 and complete a minor job (2 coin), do they gain no coin since it all goes to tithe? (i.e. “what are you doing wasting time on small time stuff if you reached that level?”)

Question:

Last session (first) ended on the premise that players decided to go and take a handler of stolen goods away from Dimmer Sisters and to add him/her to their area. The result for the plan was “2”.

Should I start the next game in how bad situation? They are not in war yet, but the Dimmer Sisters have sent hollow watchers to watch their HQ and perhaps aided the Ghosts to be stronger in there too.