After reading the quickstart a few times, I came up with this (fairly extensive) list of things that I’d appreciate…
After reading the quickstart a few times, I came up with this (fairly extensive) list of things that I’d appreciate some more detail on, or that I found a bit confusing. Most (if not all) of it could fairly easily be decided or handwaved during play, but it would be great to hear what the intended functionality is.
Blades in the Dark questions:
Scale: Examples of Scale modifiers? When is this used?
Large Weapons: What does having a large weapon do? Clearly it has a cost associated with it, is this an example of scale?
Lasting effects: Should all lasting effects have a recovery clock? Or should some be permanent instead? For example, at one point you describe a situation where a PC can either take 4 stress or a knife to the eye, how would you play that scenario if the player doesn’t spend the stress? Losing an eye seems like it could be non-lethal, but a permanent disability.
Downtime Recovery Roll: it says 1d for each action dot, which action, and who’s dots? This question also goes for the other downtime rolls, “reduce heat” and “work on a long-term project”, although those are a bit clearer, that you would describe how you go about accomplishing those tasks and use an applicable skill. In the recovery roll however it seems reasonable to expect that the success may depend on the skill of an NPC, (a hired healer for instance) and I was under the impression NPCs do not have Action dots.
Entanglements: When you roll Development, there are no entanglements listed for 0 heat. Do you get no entanglement instead?
Retirement Stash: What represents this in-universe? Presumably that’s up for the players to decide and narrate, but should it come up in game? Can your stash get stolen? If so, in what way is it different from other forms of coin in the game?
Effect rolls: As a counterpart to action rolls, it says very clearly that the action that is rolled is always decided by the player, is that also true for effects? I didn’t see that mentioned, how is it decided when there is overlap? For example, if an assassin sneaks into a bedchamber and slips a noble’s throat, is it a finesse or force roll? or something else? What if he wakes and struggles at the last second?
NPC Faction Project Clocks: In the quick start story, but also for using this mechanic in other stories, when should the faction clocks advance without PC intervention? One segment each session? If the PCs didn’t exist, or decided to sit around doing nothing, or went to do completely unrelated jobs in another part of the city, what should happen to these clocks? Do the crows reestablish control of the district before either of the other factions are destroyed since they have a 6 segment clock? But then does the turf war just end between the lampblacks and red sashes since it is back under crow control and no longer up for grabs?
Trauma: It says, ” You may choose to be “left for dead” or otherwise dropped out of the current conflict” is there a reason to do this mechanically? or can you just stand up and continue with 0 stress? it says May, but I’m not sure what sort of hard choice a player would be making here.
Devil’s Bargain: The answer to my question here seems fairly obvious to me, but because of the way it’s written it seems reasonable to ask. It says anyone can offer a devil’s bargain, but I imagine it is the GM’s prerogative to confirm or deny that a bargain is reasonable, or to choose which of several suggested bargains to offer. (This wouldn’t happen in most reasonable groups, but I could imagine someone offering a trivial bargain)
Snowballing moves: A bit of clarification on how this works would be good. For the controlled crit, how does it differ from just saying you’re going to take another action?
For the failure clauses where you try again with greater risk, on the desperate 1-5 or risky 1-3, I’m guessing that face the effect of the danger whether you decide to roll again or not? the roll doesn’t replace this? And when you roll again from a desperate roll, how does the risk increase? by having a more serious effect to resist?
Desperate move advancement: this is hinted at but I didn’t see it actually said in the quick start. Do you take a tick of “wild experience” every time you roll a desperate move? what about when the desperate move was rolled because you failed a risky move? or if you roll multiple desperate moves for the same reason?
