Blades in the Dark: Discussion – Page 38 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Hey all!

Hey all! I’m looking for advice and I’ve had a creative road block. The Circle of Flame faction blurb on page 286 mentions a Kotar. Welp, my crew did a job to acquire the Hand for them but then decided to keep it. They started a long-term project on Kotar’s Legacy, and are closing in on completing it but I dont know what to have happen when they do!

A question about electroplasm ammo and vials.

A question about electroplasm ammo and vials. Both can injure ghosts, who are “composed of semi-solid electroplasmic vapor.” Does anyone know the reasoning why something made of electroplasm can be injured by electroplasm?

And if the answer is “because that’s the way the world works” I’m fine with it. Thank you!

At the end of the last session my PC’s crew took over a turf from the Crow’s Faction in Crows Feet and subsequently…

At the end of the last session my PC’s crew took over a turf from the Crow’s Faction in Crows Feet and subsequently went to war with them (-3 status). Any advice on how I might adjudicate the war, a progress clock perhaps? I would appreciate any input. Thanks.

Any word on the status of Blades of the Jhereg?

Bliss is the daughter of Iruvian merchants who settled in Doskvol to build their business there.

Bliss is the daughter of Iruvian merchants who settled in Doskvol to build their business there. Things were going well until her father was betrayed by a close friend and the family lost everything. He was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit and her mother took her own life. Bliss attempted to do the same by throwing herself into the Ink Sea. She would’ve died in the ebony depths save for a soothing voice that promised her the power take vengeance. A power to be given if she let the voice guide her. She accepted and the demon Setarra lifted her from a watery grave…

Bliss learned the old ways of magic. She dined with a demon and danced with the dead. She fashioned her mask from the skinned face of her family’s betrayer, his battered and broken spirit bound to the skin to power its magic. Nobody would recognize the face from the haphazard stitching that seems to subtly shift. Few can stare without soon looking away from the patchwork man-leather mask with the rictus grin.

One of our daughters…who had never played an RPG before…made that up for the one-shot I ran. I am so proud!

Hi everyone. Latest S&V prep post:

The setup for our S&V game is coming along nicely, we had a Session 0 to discuss characters and do a little setup today before our first real session next week, and everyone’s real excited.

I think I have nearly everything ready for my character, but the one thing left to do is to decide on my Precursor Artifact from the Mystic playbook. I’m playing as a type of mildly Way-sensitive xeno we’ve added who are basically Space Tieflings™ native to Vos, and since I maaaaay have been partially inspired by the recent Devilman anime in wanting to play a space devil… man… >_>

I was thinking the artifact might be related to some ancient Vosian ability to temporarily transform from nice human-ish person with horns to full on demon monster.

However, I’m having a hard time settling on what the mechanics of that should look like. A fairly uninteresting option that came to mind would be letting it work like the Muscle’s Unstoppable ability, giving the user temporary superhuman strength and/or increased scale while it’s active. We don’t have a muscle in our group, so it wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes, but just taking a playbook ability as is feels like it’s not taking advantage of the potential creativity that could go into creating an artifact, so I don’t love that idea.

Does anyone have any ideas for what a cool devilman transformation artifact could look like? Maybe sweet laser beam powers? Rad fiery punches? Flight?

I’m thinking of running a Scum and Villainy game, but I’m a little concerned about time constraints.

I’m thinking of running a Scum and Villainy game, but I’m a little concerned about time constraints. More than other games, FitD games seem to have a mechanical arc (via crew advancement) where the group grows over time to become more important/wealthier as an organization.

I think I’m only gonna have time for about 13 sessions, and while I think running various jobs might be fun on their own, I’m not sure if I could deliver a satisfying “long game”. Any suggestions on how to a) make sure the crew development happens at a satisfying clip (I have no idea how long a FitD is expected to last, vs a PbtA game where a satisfying arc can be had in about 10-15 sessions) b) disregard the idea of crew development entirely? As for b, it occurs to me that the crews listed in SaV touchstones don’t actually get better/wealthier over time.

[DARK] ARTS + CRAFTS

What are the best rituals and creations your gaming group’s come up with?

How big are the new bats?

In all three games of BitD I’ve played (or actual 2 games of BitD and 1 of S&V) I’ve encountered the same issue – a…

In all three games of BitD I’ve played (or actual 2 games of BitD and 1 of S&V) I’ve encountered the same issue – a player who’s XP criteria seemed entirely out of whack with the character..

“Mark XP when you address a difficult decision with X or Y”, but the character skills, abilities and the entire way the character is being played don’t match with the criteria. So for example, the leech who tends to approach everything through stealth and deception, who has a high ranks in Sway and Prowl, and has taken a few veteran abilities to support their play style.

I know there’s a section on changing playbooks – and I guess people could re-image their characters using a different playbook, so the player above could re-write their Leech as a Lurk or a Slide, but this seems overkill when the only issue is this one line.

However having spotted the issue I’m beginning to question the very nature of the line itself. Everything else in the game is pretty much player defined and the players are the final arbiters in what is right. Why is this one line pre-assigned for them? Has anyone experimented with swapping it out for a line along the lines of “Mark XP when you highlight your character’s modus operandi, through words, deeds or action”?