Category: Blades in the Dark: Discussion

Some potentially unintended rules interactions I’d be interested in opinions on. (Bug or Feature?)

Some potentially unintended rules interactions I’d be interested in opinions on. (Bug or Feature?)

Some potentially unintended rules interactions I’d be interested in opinions on. (Bug or Feature?)

Simply put, can you take multiple of the same move by using Veteran?

The first time I noticed that every playbook has Daring and Experienced I thought it was cool that you could technically have up to 4 Backgrounds if you so desire by taking the move 3 times, once from your own playbook, and twice with Veteran.

Likewise, could you take Daring 3 times to get a +3 when escalating? This one I’m less convinced is an intended rules interaction, but I definitely think it sounds fun.

This also got me thinking about how Daring works if you escalate twice in the same action. I think I remember reading that you reroll all your dice, from all sources when escalating, so on the second escalation would you get your die from the first use of Daring, and then add another? I doubt it, but figured I’d ask anyway.

Does a city like Duskwall, neck-deep in crime and corruption, need a Batman (or close theme-appropriate analogue)?

Does a city like Duskwall, neck-deep in crime and corruption, need a Batman (or close theme-appropriate analogue)?

Does a city like Duskwall, neck-deep in crime and corruption, need a Batman (or close theme-appropriate analogue)?

Just a thought after last night’s session. 🙂

Hey – I went to go buy a Blades in the Dark microbadge over on RPGGeek…and there *wasn’t one*!

Hey – I went to go buy a Blades in the Dark microbadge over on RPGGeek…and there *wasn’t one*!

Hey – I went to go buy a Blades in the Dark microbadge over on RPGGeek…and there *wasn’t one*! Can a BitD fan with teeny-tiny artistic chops remedy that for us?

I wanted to kick around something I’m considering trying to do occasionally with my players here, before I went out…

I wanted to kick around something I’m considering trying to do occasionally with my players here, before I went out…

I wanted to kick around something I’m considering trying to do occasionally with my players here, before I went out and had it crash and burn. Caveat: I have yet to take the game for a spin myself, but I’ve been in a couple play-by-post oneshots.

My general grasp of the game is that it’s running in two phases – Score and Downtime – and there’s not much happening in between. For a lot of things, this is 100% great! What I wanted to do was have some action taking place which doesn’t seem to fit cleanly into one or the other of those.

In other games, we’ve enjoyed the occasional between-run short focus on one or two characters (or even the whole group) in a way that’s not really what the game would consider a proper score, or really downtime action. Something like when the action clock (or front, taking from Dungeon World) hits a certain point and an assassin is sent after one character, or something like that. As long as it’s not overwhelmingly long and as long as everyone gets their chance at it, the other players usually enjoy getting to play audience for one character getting a cool spotlight moment.

I’m thinking of using all the rolls as normal, flashbacks if they work (flashbacking to setting up traps for the unwary!), the whole nine yards, but being more generous with stress recovery afterwards, so that the character who got some cool focused attention isn’t hosed for the next Score in comparison to everyone else.

Any advice? Thoughts? Am I going to be Doing It Wrong?

Multiple Characters:

Multiple Characters:

Multiple Characters:

It’s implied in a few places that playing multiple characters is supported in BitD (the “lost” overindulgence) or having a communal character or pool of characters that can be played by anyone.

How does that apply to advancement?  My first instinct was to say that characters advance for the sessions that they are played in.  But one of my players asked me some difficult questions:

1. What about if you play two characters at different parts of the session?

2. What about the “personal training time” advancement option?  The name implies that characters should get it even if they aren’t being played.

It makes great intuitive sense to me that when you have Trauma 0 you would have Vice 4, and as you add Trauma you…

It makes great intuitive sense to me that when you have Trauma 0 you would have Vice 4, and as you add Trauma you…

It makes great intuitive sense to me that when you have Trauma 0 you would have Vice 4, and as you add Trauma you reduce Vice.

The more you’ve seen and the harder your life has been, the more difficult it is to relax with your favorite simple pleasures. Your needs grow more rapacious and more complex.

Beginners recover from stress easily. Veterans incur less stress, but also recover more slowly, until finally they must retire.

Starting characters find it pretty easy to clear off stress between missions. It is harder for those who are more hard bitten to shrug off their stress; a group would prefer to put stress on the new guys and not the veterans, because the new guys can recover faster.

What is the counter-case? How does it make sense that Vice is more effective on the more Trauma laden characters?