Category: Blades in the Dark: Discussion

Hello

Hello

Hello,

I’m starting today a new game to introduce my friends to this amazing system. (I’ll also be running it for first time).

So far I don’t know the playbooks, crew type has been decided to be Smugglers.

I’ve been thinking of it past few days, there are plenty of ideas for jobs in my head, but I lack good and interesting ideas for obstacles for such jobs. I have many ideas for obstacles for Shadows, Assassins, Bravos, but what could happen to Smugglers once they loaded the cargo ??

Should it be a little difficult for smugglers to get to the cargo they are about to smuggle or should the score start with you load the cargo what then ?? (I mean should the score include sneaking into a place, dealing with package guards which seems like Shadows or Bravos jobs)

I plan to use starting situation from rulebook, War in Crow’s Foot. Here are few ideas I have for scores.

– Red Shashes have a weapon shipment incoming, present yourself as the transport crew and get the weapons to Lumpblacks instead. (obstacles like fooling the guards, escape from real transport crew, getting through Bluecoats blockade)

– Some of Red Shashes are being hunted by Bluecoats after fail robbery, get to them and smuggle them out of manhunt area. (obstacles like getting through Bluecoats into manhunt area, helping gang to get away from bluecoats, smuggling gang through the blockade)

Please suggest me some of your ideas about obstacles for Smugglers scores ??

The last I saw of Blades Against Darkness was a pretty playable-looking alpha a long while ago.

The last I saw of Blades Against Darkness was a pretty playable-looking alpha a long while ago.

The last I saw of Blades Against Darkness was a pretty playable-looking alpha a long while ago. Has there been any news since?

WHAT?!?! The 354 page text complete draft if Scum and Villainy is out!

WHAT?!?! The 354 page text complete draft if Scum and Villainy is out!

WHAT?!?! The 354 page text complete draft if Scum and Villainy is out!

Yep, Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf-Little have a text and layout complete version of Scum and Villainy out now. This is happening!

Also! Since art is still in development, we can help make the game better by reporting any errors we find over yonder: https://goo.gl/v7W7t2 (I’m going through it right now!)

How to get a hold of this beauty?

* If you were a Blades Kickstarter backer, you should have just receive a backer update with a link to it.

* If not, you can get the Digital Edition Early Access over on DriveThru here: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198681/Scum-and-Villainy-Digital-Edition-Early-Access

Ohoi fellow villains!

Ohoi fellow villains!

Ohoi fellow villains!

I´ve just started playing this with my family, and as my wife and daughters just love Downton Abbey, I made the setting a little more of London and a ruffian 1888-1910ish. Hence the start of the ‘White Rose Estate’ – a family business.

We just love the mechanics, and these clocks really made my day and suit my GM-style. But as they are not much into hack and slash, trickery, swaying and chases are more a thing for them.

So I could use some tips and ideas on how to utilize a clock for a chase on a train rooftop? Any ideas how to set that up?

And happy New Year and thanks for a great community!

Hi all

Hi all

Hi all,

Hope you all had a merry scoundrel’s Christmas !

When re-reading the examples for “Skirmish” on page 176 I noticed a possible mistake : in the “Desperate” example, the PC makes a 4/5 but is only punished by “level 2 Harm”, which seems not to be in conformity with the page 23’s table, where it should be “sever harm (level 3)”. Am I missing something ?

Then the example led me to thinking.

– In such a situation, if the opponent is approx. the same force as the PC, I (the PC) make an Action Roll. Desperate position, so if any other result than a 6, then : boom, “severe harm” to me. But if the opponent is much better than me, I don’t even roll the dice at the beginning of the fight (see p. 167). So the GM can choose to inflict any harm to me, from level 1 (if the NPC wants to play cat and mouse) to level 4, death by sword through the heart, and any result in between (level : sword through the thigh, because he wants to get me as a prisoner and make me talk etc). The result of this is that : lighter wounds are possible only if the opponent is much better. If he is not that good and I choose to fight, then it’s level 3 harm… (in such a Desperate ” situation, me being unarmed).

That’s a kind of fictional contradiction that gave me some thought.

– The next set was : is “level 4 Harm” = Death only possible through the fiction and by GM fiat ? (except if you already are wounded to level 3 Harm and get another level 3 which is then bumped to fatal). Or is there some place in the game that I have missed, which makes it possible to get a Fatal Harm because of the dice mechanic ?

Title

Title

Hello, fellow gamers. I have a thought about BitD rules which I would like to share with you.

After running eight sessions of Blades, I’m really liking the system. It’s pretty complex and it requires more system mastery than I thought at the beginning (or at least pbta experience), but every rule makes a lot of sense and supports the game style really well.

My only issue is with dice mechanics. Although they do look beautiful and elegant to behold, I have found two problems.

1) it’s difficult for players to understand the probabilities of outcomes at each level, which leads to players not getting when they should push themselves, which I think is important for players to be able to, in order to manage their stress and other resources meaningfully. It might get better with experience, but it requires a lot of it.

2) by comparing the dice probabilities with the standard PbtA dice mechanics (level 0 being equal to -2 with the standard PbtA 2d6), I found that the chance of success is about 10% higher across the spectrum, at the expense of failure. Success is usually the most boring outcome, so I find the die roll outcome not as interesting as with PbtA dice, especially combined with issue #1. At higher levels, the chance to fail is too low, and the chance of critical success remains low even at higher levels.

A potential “fix” would be to roll 2d6, and take the level (number of dice) as a bonus to the roll, with a result of 8- being a fail, a 9-11 being a mixed result, a 12-13 being a success and a 14+ being a crit. (That is to account for a -2 difference between PbtA stats and BitD dice.)

Yes, adding and removing dice looks much prettier than just adding bonuses, but I feel the 2d6 curve of PbtA gives a better flow to the game.

My question is: has anyone else felt the same issues? Do you think that this house rule fix is worth it, at the expense of the elegance of system?

Quick question that probably doesn’t have a hard answer: Does anyone know why some of the cities on the Shattered…

Quick question that probably doesn’t have a hard answer: Does anyone know why some of the cities on the Shattered…

Quick question that probably doesn’t have a hard answer: Does anyone know why some of the cities on the Shattered Isles map are marked with black dots and others aren’t?