Blades in the Dark: Discussion – Page 34 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Here is a question — Are playbooks necessary?

Here is a question — Are playbooks necessary? The special abilities can be taken (veteran adds) from other areas. So, you could create a slide that starts with one ability from slide and then takes the rest from spider…correct?

Instead of using playbooks, could you create a list of starting archetypes with a suggested first special ability & a menu of special items & xp triggers? OR, would this create too much of a hassle / headache for character creation?

Thoughts?

Shadows specialising in Espionage:

So I am running for a group of Shadows who picked the Espionage focus. In general I am really happy with this however it has left me with a couple of questions and thoughts about the direction of the game.

1. How does the espionage focus play with Turf? The ideals of spies and covert ops are very much at odds with overtly holding ground, and restricting activities to certain areas of the city really crimps the options for scores. I described their initial turf as somewhere where potential clients could get in touch innocuously but I am stumped for good ideas to represent expansion… maybe offices/fronts in other/better parts of town?

2. Espionage as a focus seems to rely more on client-derived scores for profit – someone needs to want the information that the espionage will provide. Therefore it feels as though it places more on the GM to come up with interesting job offers… which is fine, but it conflicts a little with the idea that the best scores are player-derived. How have other groups running spies dealt with this, particularly with regards to Coin reward.

Thanks!

The Deathlands.

The Deathlands. My (new, tier 0) smuggler crew is planning on getting contacts with some Deathlands scavengers in order to gain access to various weird stuff they could sell — and yesterday they asked “well, could we become those scavengers?”

I said that it’s risky but probably quite doable, providing that they do quite a bit of prepwork first (find out more, talk with scavengers, figure out a way of semi-safe travel between Doskvol and the surroundings, figure out protection, etc etc). I said that just going out with no prep would be extremely dangerous — I’m not going to flat-out say “no”, but just warning them. So it sounds like a long-term project & goal, and the players are fine with that.

The Hound has the Survivor special ability and the Whisper has Iron Will, so they already have some relevant skills.

So, I need to start prepping all sorts of stuff related to the Deathlands. Creatures, routes, scavenger crews, loot etc. Sounds like fun. :).

What have you done with the Deathlands? Do any of you have crews who are doing something like this? What could be out there? How do crews protect against the dangers? Ideas, anecdotes, whatever… all welcome.

What are your thoughts on running a game of BitD for a larger group?

Some of the rules can be a bit crunchy. We are planning on this for our next campaign, but I am starting to get a bit concerned as I dig in and refresh myself on the rules.

It is only 6 players, but some narrative/story heavy games can cause trouble with more than 4 players, even when they have simple rules.

A sky less travelled

A sky less travelled

The lightning barriers only go so high. The lands and seas are full of terrors. So taking to the skies should be attractive. But assume people, ghosts, hulls and hollows don’t. Why?

Now it could be because they’re flightless. But I’d like to explore a different angle: what if they could fly but choose not to, or what if they could fly but something grounds them. Ideas?

Hey, I’m wondering if there’s a difference between a smuggler’s vehicle and another crew’s boat / carriage house…

Hey, I’m wondering if there’s a difference between a smuggler’s vehicle and another crew’s boat / carriage house upgrade – aside from having it right from the start and being able to get another boat as an upgrade. And, well, the boat house as storage space. Are they basically the same? Is a one-dot-boat as a vehicle equivalent to one as a boathouse boat?

So, I’ve been keeping a body count for my player’s assassins crew.

So, I’ve been keeping a body count for my player’s assassins crew. They’re current;y at 76 total deaths. They will probably transition to being a cult later in the campaign, and may end up successfully bringing their forgotten god into full manifestation in the world, which will obliterate Doskvol at minimum. This will take a long time to get to, and they may end up failing, but could anyone give a reasonable guess-timate about what the total population of a city like Doskvol might be? I’d like to give a total body count to my players at the end.

The player’s characters are in a hard place.

The player’s characters are in a hard place. They are physically and mentally beat up. They really need to take Downtime, but have not done a score since the last Downtime. They’ve been busy dealing with the fallout of that action. Ok to let them take a Downtime without doing a score? Or, should they have to do a score?

This looks relevant.

https://www.grimlondon.com

What have people done with The Church of the Weeping Lady?

My player’s crew have taken them as one of their starting -2 factions, I suspect because they wanted an easy ride. The crew are smugglers with and interest in Occult stuff.