Category: Blades in the Dark: Discussion

Another item  from the Q&A – that rose some question marks- is that its been mentioned that some rules are implemented to motivate conflicts between Blades of the same crew.

The example given been that one bladebook (Slide) gains XP from corrupting wares and stuff of the enemy while another bladebook (hound) gains XP from destroying wares and goods of the enemy.

It has been mentioned that its intentionally designed to stir up discussions at the table. Though I am not sure if they are good discussion to be had. In the end one player (character) will get the XP and one player (character) won’t get the XP. With the one who doesn’t get XP not receiving anything to lower the blow of basically loosing and falling (a bit) behind.

Is there an obvious way to avoid this predictable frustration?

I am as well conflicted that the player who got the Hound may not only oppose the player of the Slide in regards of character advancement but maybe even the group as whole as his condition to kill someone will result in one more heat dice and may raise the noise level.

(as a worst case scenario) The Hound might either try to get some character advancement, and basically hurt the crew more or less, or he might do the most awesome stories with crew in mind but won’t get XP / character progress. 

XP related question,..

The last time I GM’ed we did the downtime stuff after the game and in the end the players addressed that they feel that the XP system is very open for rather easy exploitation. That they do know groups who would dive into it, not by malicious intend but more so as an understand of the system.

Two approaches were mentioned:

Escalating to desperate rolls and keep re-rolling those up to four (or more) times on low results. The situation would get worse yet in the end there would be just one stress-effect roll.

The second approach would be to check the bladebooks options which grant XP and basically repeat the easiest one until one has enough ticks. Like the ‘disguise yourself’ condition on the Slide bladebook or even start summoning ghosts for the XP of it as a whisperer. The players may even find a fitting narrative.

As I listened to that Q&A recently I noticed that one answer provided was basically ‘be mature about it’ (if I got it right), though I wonder why the option is there in the first place.

It could be like Dungeon World where you can check your conditions only once. Yet obviously it isn’t.