Category: Blades in the Dark: Discussion

I’m curious why coin and hold gained from a successful score  are rolled as a single move/action

My other two recent questions about PC crew hold and NPC faction downtime actions circles back to the long thread by Duamn Figueroa (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DuamnFigueroa/posts/9NSHAivGdH1) about rewarding PCs for what they earn in terms of more chance for coin for particularly profitable scores.

These issues cause me to wonder if the coin + hold gained from development rolls are linked set values for design or balance reasons. Or, what if players could choose either to specifically pursue coin or hold at the expense of the other.

For instance, if we pull a score that was mainly intended to fill our coffers, why can’t we have a full success give us 4 coin and 0 hold (or 3 coin and 1 hold) rather than 2 coin and 2 hold? Meanwhile, at other times your crew may choose scores that are almost completely meant to solidify your hold (such as whenever you raise your tier and reset to 1 hold): why couldn’t the development roll grant extra hold in place of the coin you might also have earned?

While pg 5 of the QS (under “Gaining Hold”) says that 1 hold is generally worth 1 coin, it looks like the development roll assumes hold may be more valuable than coin, or else perhaps gaining more than 2 hold from a single successful score would let the PCs’ faction grow stable too quickly. While I expect asymmetry since PCs are cooler than NPCs, PCs could much more quickly grow their hold than NPC factions (elaborated in my NPC downtime action question on a separate thread).

Question part B) So then I wonder: Why are coin and hold linked in a single development roll (other than for simplicity, elegance)? I can see plenty of legitimate reasons why hold could be gained dependent on crew effects other than Resources. Sure Resources elegantly explains how much of our coin we retain after all our expenses etc, but why can’t we leverage our gangs or our morale help strengthen our hold? Even transport could work if you spend time establishing vigilant and well-supplied patrols of your turf or invest in smuggling fleets, or investing in a better lair could believably enhance hold.

Since getting 1 entanglement always happens no matter what, why not separate coin and hold gained into 2 similar but separate development moves,  perhaps called Profit (coin) and Development (hold)?

Question about NPC Faction Downtime Actions (pacing and targeting the PC crew)

Pg 20 of the QS says that for each downtime phase, NPC factions both advance their agenda clocks, and can do their own downtime action. What is the difference between planning an operation and executing it? By which I mean, do factions have to spend a downtime action to plan an operation first before they execute it? If so, then in order for Faction A to reduce Faction B’s hold by -1, they would need to invest 4 downtime actions: plan to make B vulnerable; execute operation; plan to reduce hold of that now-vulnerable B; execute operation. Am I reading that correctly?

Question Part b) Is there any reason NPC factions can’t execute operations similarly against the PC crew to reduce their hold or make them vulnerable? Does executing operations against the PC’s work differently? I would guess the PCs can and would resist and play out such operations, rather than just returning to their turf to see trouble has befallen them and thus their hold is reduced. With regard to the PC crew, the concept of “vulnerable” as used in the Faction Downtime action list is maybe too vague. If another faction has succeeded on an operation to make the PC crew vulnerable, what would it take in play to end that vulnerable condition? Does the answer to that question always depend solely on narrative context?

The following thread of questions by Chris Boyd raised the issue of the value of a downtime phase in terms of coin, but if NPC factions can pull off operations that easily reduce the PC crew’s hold, then each phase of downtime becomes much more valuable, and therefore spending hold for another downtime phase may be sufficient (but spending coin is still rather cheap): https://plus.google.com/u/0/114451952512667903737/posts/idLkBSdb2EA

I had 3 semi-connected questions about PCs’ hold, NPC faction downtime actions (pacing and targeting the PCs’ crew), and why development rolls combine profit and hold together, but I’ll divide them into separate threads for more clarity of discussion.

PC Crew Losing Hold

Other than occasionally on entanglements, and optionally to gain additional downtime phases, how else does the PC crew lose hold? Could losing hold result from a nasty Devil’s Bargain (the QS suggests stress or heat, but not hold)? Could the PC crew lose hold as a result of NPC faction downtime actions?