Category: Blades in the Dark: Discussion

Countdown clocks are your friends

Countdown clocks are your friends

Countdown clocks are your friends

So, between GMing and playing this game, I had the chance to play it five times already. During the first sessions, I found something hard to figure out : how to come up with interesting dangers. Since dangers cannot prevent a PC to succeed in her action, finding a good danger to face is not always easy, in my opinion.

But something occurred to me: the danger doesn’t need to be obvious, offscreen is good too. Let me explain.

Last session, a PC was trying to circumvent a locked door in a mansion by jumping from a balcony to the one of the room he was trying to gain access to. So, a risky position, given that he had no rope and was not willing to spend stress on it. As a danger, I could not say that he’d fall, since that would entirely prevent him from passing the obstacle. I first told him that he could twist his ankle, but both my players and I found it kinda lame. So one of my players came up with that a patrol of guards, passing nearby, would notice something is afoot and would eventually barge in to investigate. We all agreed and I gave their arrival a 4-segments clock. For the next actions the PC would have to make, I told them that they could take too much time: the danger would be me ticking one of the segment. It clearly accelerated the game and put the pression on all of us.

Whatcha all think ?

Am I right in my guess that after 50K there are no goals with Duskwall contents anymore? Would be too bad, imo.

Am I right in my guess that after 50K there are no goals with Duskwall contents anymore? Would be too bad, imo.

Am I right in my guess that after 50K there are no goals with Duskwall contents anymore? Would be too bad, imo.

Watching Cecil B.

Watching Cecil B.

Watching Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments yesterday (the Charlton Heston version) while paging through the Quick Start got me thinking about how well the movie’s second act could be adapted to the game.

You’ve got a Skovlan cult of the Nameless God infiltrating Duskwall. Some members of the cult are true believers, hoping to restore the True Faith to the Skovlan dockworkers and stewards who have suffered long in bondage. Of course, some members of the cult are agents provocateur, sent to destabilize the Empire and forestall Imperial predations on the Rigid Isle. And some of the cultists see the opportunity to avenge wrongs, fleece the gullible, and smash a few windows.

Arrayed against them? Well, you’ve got the established Imperial religions: the Weeping Lady, the Church of the Ecstasy of Flesh, the Path of Echoes. The Guilds won’t tolerate a religion that preaches casting off one’s shackles; the Bluecoats won’t stand for one that preaches civil disobedience.

And the local Skovlans won’t roll over and show their bellies, either. Some are skeptical from having been promised “a deliverer” for generations; some have grown comfortable with the little power they have and won’t risk it.

Tomorrow night is the Luminal Feast, a high holy day in the Church of the Weeping Lady, when three great braziers in the belfries of the Church illuminate a night full of celebration and games. Of course, the date of the Luminal Feast was changed to its current date three hundred years ago, in order to supplant the Vigil of the Burning Brand, a day sacred to the Nameless God.

The Cult’s first score: steal or destroy the three braziers before the night of the Luminal Feast.

Speak Not Our God’s Name!

Pg 8 under Changing Roles says the person on point chooses someone new to be on point after they use a teamwork move.

Pg 8 under Changing Roles says the person on point chooses someone new to be on point after they use a teamwork move.

Pg 8 under Changing Roles says the person on point chooses someone new to be on point after they use a teamwork move.

I’m curious why not to let the non-point players just decide among themselves who next takes point. I like the idea of the players actually learning to work well as a team based on strategic point passing, but in play I see it working more openly with players just choosing for themselves who takes point.

Another question about theme I suppose is in the Whispers power, Channel.

Another question about theme I suppose is in the Whispers power, Channel.

Another question about theme I suppose is in the Whispers power, Channel. My first reading of it was straightforward-you can use electroplasm to get some basic obvious effects. Lightning generation and perhaps a few things dealing with ghosts (ending a possession, hollowing a person, that sort of thing). 

First whisper that picked it up was quick to notice that it didn’t say what kind of effects it could produce, and swiftly added all sorts of elemental items, bringing the power in light with wizardry in a traditional RPG. Apoc World games have long been teaching me to ‘roll with’ player ideas-you don’t want to say no to an idea, it just stifles creativity, but it kind of feels that allowing this thing would change the setting and tone considerably. 

WHat do you guys think? What sort of powers should be usable with channel? Should it be okay to let whoever gets this power to introduce flight, telekenisis, mind control and whatever other effect they can conjure and similarly empower NPC’s who will have access to the same special power?

John Rogers  (of Leverage fame) wrote CrimeWorld for Evil Hat Productions as part of their Fate Worlds: Worlds in…

John Rogers  (of Leverage fame) wrote CrimeWorld for Evil Hat Productions as part of their Fate Worlds: Worlds in…

John Rogers  (of Leverage fame) wrote CrimeWorld for Evil Hat Productions as part of their Fate Worlds: Worlds in Shadow book. While written for Fate Core, it has a wonderful way of generating the elements of jobs that could easily be adapted to Blades in the Dark sessions. 

You can get it in PDF form at DriveThruRPG for $7.50 (US). Well worth it.

#Score

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/119384/Fate-Worlds-Worlds-in-Shadow

Okay. So have a slide who is confused about Adaption, and I really couldn’t answer their questions well.

Okay. So have a slide who is confused about Adaption, and I really couldn’t answer their questions well.

Okay. So have a slide who is confused about Adaption, and I really couldn’t answer their questions well. 

It lets you take stress to substitute actions, which is straightforward enough mechanically. I guess my point of confusion is how does it work narratively? If they use Sway in place of Mayhem, how does that come through in the fiction? My first thought is to turn it on them and have them justify it-but frankly, if you can justify any skill then you could just use it normally, so why bother with taking a stress? 

The other option is not ask them to justify it, but that just leaves a feeling of disatisfaction as we’re not able to picture exactly whats going on here.Â