Category: Blades in the Dark: Discussion

How do you handle drop in/drop out for crews? In my experience, groups I’m not running just hand-wave it; these people showed up to play, so their characters are in the crew.

I feel like there needs to be some barrier, though. Other crews wouldn’t let our membership stroll in and sit down at the table so easily. (“Hey guys, I’ve got a free weekend, so I’m a Red Sash. Where’s your safe house?”)

There are secrets, and we’re putting our lives in each others’ hands, and this is a cut-throat city of competition and rivalry and schemes and plots. It seems kind of suicidal to let people just wander in and out of your crew.

To me, there should be two elements to bring someone new in. One, who vouches for them and what happened in the past that earned the character a shot in the crew. Second, some kind of oath or fealty ceremony or hazing or SOME way to mark the rite of passage that joining the crew entails. A tattoo, a dire oath marked with a curse if it’s broken, at the very least a dowry.

It could be fun to randomize a character already in the crew, and randomize a list of potential reasons that character would vouch for the new person.

Also, when people just go (and characters too) is the crew roster cool with just, you know, thanks for joining up and come back whenever you feel like it?

“So yeah, we’ve been at war with the Piecemeats, and the Spirit Wardens have been asking hard about where our secret base is, but now that Pinky has just strolled in without a mark on him and muttered something about having spent a little time hanging out with family in Charterhall, let’s get him up to date on our secrets!”

It makes the Spider in me cringe. Like, that crew deserves what it’s about to get when it turns out Pinky, predictably enough, has been in a Spirit Warden bottle for two weeks getting his noggin unpacked and repacked with a few new souvenirs.

Maybe that’s a chart too; were you compromised while you were off wandering around ignoring your mates, and if so, how, and if not, why not?

I assume everyone else handles this with handwaving. I’m too itchy for that, and I’ll own it, maybe it’s just me.

But what if we had 4 tiers of membership? Leaders, Inner Circle, full member, and probationary. Getting from one tier up to the next is a long term project, you decide how hard and what other costs are involved. And if you go on walkabout with an unexcused absence, you drop a tier.

That’s a shorthand for who gets paid most, how sensitive information is, and your regard within the crew (and ability to speak for it.)

Having a number of tests and dowries that are customized per crew could be fun.

Anyway, just thinking aloud. I’m playing a Spider in a crew that is looking to start up a second arc, and it just jangles my spider-sense that the borders are so porous in the gang; I find it harder to want to invest in the crew and trust it, if just anybody could show up and be a member, and if trusted members may just vanish without a reason perhaps never to return.

How does your table handle it?

I enjoy popping in on this community and sharing my thoughts on Doskvol and the lives of these wretched scoundrels. Now I”m writing a book set in Doskvol.

https://www.patreon.com/andrewshields

John Harper has graciously agreed to let me write a novel in the setting. The Patreon is to help me out while I’m writing it, and if it goes well, to fund things like copyediting, cover art, layout, copyright, buying a few copies, and that sort of thing.

I’m quite pleased to be working on this project and I’m really looking forward to showing you my vision of Doskvol. I hope you come along!

Special thanks to Brad Elliott for the runes, James Dudli for the Blades in the Dark banner, and John Harper for the picture of the rogues.

Thank you for the kind words and support I have received in this community. I hope you enjoy this novel as well.

https://www.patreon.com/andrewshields