Blades in the Dark: Game Questions – Page 13 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Hey guys – long-time lurker here. About to start a game as a Hull, and I have some questions:

1) In the character creation rules, it says “Your playbook begins with three action dots already placed.” but Hulls only start with 2 dots. Do I get 2 or 3? I assume 2.

2) Hulls don’t have vices. Instead:”Recharge your capacitors by connecting to an industrial-grade generator (downtime action). When you do this, clear 5 drain.” Can hulls overindulge? I doubt it.

3) Do hulls start with any items? Should I pick an item set from another playbook? I assume yes, as the normal way to become a hull is through play, and you’d still have what you have.

Thanks folks!

I ran my first games of Blades last night, the Tier 0 Crew immediately went on the rob in Charterhall which is one…

I ran my first games of Blades last night, the Tier 0 Crew immediately went on the rob in Charterhall which is one of the richest districts with a lot of security, right?

Should they have been able to attempt a Score in Chaterhall? It isn’t in their Hunting Grounds, but it made the most sense for what they wanted to do. (Find some fancy medicines.)

Should I have made the place teaming with security guards and filled with locks they had no chance of disabling? Should Desperate / Limited have been the baseline? I’ve seen other posts on this board where the players stick in their small hunting grounds and only pick Tier appropriate targets. This approach makes sense but it seems a shame to have a detailed city to play in but not to really use it.

Finally (sorry for the long post!) Which factions have the Crew annoyed by robbing Charterhall? For some districts (Like The Crows Foot) it seems obvious which group is in charge.

Thanks a lot for any help!

Cheers,

Matt

Has anyone conducted an in-game investigation?

My players recently filled a clock which resulted in a secret society kidnapping one of the PC’s siblings. They know the name of the group and which entity it serves, but very little else. Our next couple play sessions will be a mini-arc centered around rescuing the PC’s sibling, but I don’t know how to handle that as a score or as a series of scores.

I was thinking, broadly, in our upcoming session we’ll figure out where the HQ is, then do a session acquiring the goods needed to break in, and then do a session of the actual rescue mission. I suppose I could condense that all into one score and handle the “gather intel” and “gather supplies” as flashbacks etc., but my players seemed excited about having an arc.

Any suggestions?

* For reference, we’re playing in a custom/homebrewed setting, and not Duskvol

** Sorry if this posts in the wrong place, I’m a rank newbie when it comes to Google+!

Fellow GMs, do you differentiate between a ‘4’ and a ‘5’ result?

I understand both are “you do it, with a consequence”, but do you treat the 4 as a worse consequence than the 5? My interpretation is no, that a 4 or 5 is just as good as each other, but thought I’d see how others ran it, and their experience.

On the same note, do you treat 1s as worse than 3s etc?

I just bought the Scum & Villainy PDF.

I just bought the Scum & Villainy PDF. I haven’t started playing yet, but I’m curious about a couple of things related to ships:

1a) In the full text, the Stardancer and Cerebus both start with a Training upgrade. In the player and GM sheets, though, they don’t. Which is right?

1b) If they do start with a Training upgrade, why doesn’t the Firedrake?

2) The Stardancer and Cerebus have a total maximum 13 system ratings in the full text (4, 4, 3, 2). The Cerebus has 12 max on the player sheet (3 engines instead of 4). The Firedrake has max 12 system ratings in both sources. Why the discrepancy?

3) Why does the Firedrake have a max Hull of 2 when it’s bigger than either of the other two options? Maybe I’m misunderstanding what Hull means in the fiction. (If you can’t tell, I’m pretty sure my group will be playing rebels of some kind, and I’m trying to anticipate their questions/complaints.)

4) The Personal Training upgrade on the player sheets is supposed to be Playbook, right?

One of my players is interested in playing a secondary character.

One of my players is interested in playing a secondary character. They don’t plan on playing both of them concurrently for scores, but I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to handle the character who has sit out the score. I don’t wan’t the player to dominate the playtime, but it doesn’t seem quite right for a character to be completely absent from downtime either. Give the character who sits out only one Downtime, perhaps?

How do y’all handle when a PC steals gear from a faction that is a higher tier than them?

Part of the reason that the PCs have reduced effect against such factions is because they have superior gear. Do the PCs just gain permanent access to higher quality gear? Does the quality benefit decrease as the PCs’ tier catches up to the tier of the group they robbed?

I’m new to the Blades in the Dark and I actually have a few likes and dislikes, but it could be that I’m not used to…

I’m new to the Blades in the Dark and I actually have a few likes and dislikes, but it could be that I’m not used to this type of gaming, but i love what I’ve stumbled across….

My first questions is….Is it important to use Clocks?

Second is….can I avoid the clocks altogether?

Can you resist a reduced effect consequence?

Hi guys.

Hi guys. In the game example(p.40) Adam pushes his character Canter to achieve extreme effect. He does it after the roll and also despite the fact he already chose to take a devils bargain.

I dig it, I do.

But it seems to stand against the rules.

1.Rolling the dice and interpreting it is the last step. Trading position for effect, pushing and bagaining happens before that. After that you can only resist consequences.

2. He already took the bargain and rules say that can do only one – bargain or push yourself.

Was it just a jolly improvisation or did I miss something in the rules? If I did, where can I find it?

tldr; Can you push yourself for effect boost? Can you push yourself after the roll?

Thanks in advance!