Blades in the Dark: Game Questions – Page 36 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

A couple of rules clarification if someone can:

1 – Each of the crew special abilities has some version of gain +1 to X, Y, Z action rating. What happens if the crew has this ability and a new member of the crew is created post-selection? Does the +1 get added at character generation or does it get skipped?

In our game tonight, this came up and I ruled that it should apply because I didn’t want the investment into the special ability to be timing related to punish the players, but I couldn’t find anything that confirmed that was correct.

2 – For the recover downtime action, the roll for a contact healer looks to be based on a fortune roll for the quality level of the NPC. The example in the book uses one of the Whisper contacts as a quality 2 healer. Does everyone use that as a standard for their different healers across the board or are they using 3d6 as their standard?

Thanks!

As a side-note, I’m having the most fun playing Blades with my brothers that I’ve enjoyed in an RPG since I was first introduced to role-playing.

So here is an interesting oddity me and my friends have noticed regarding resistance rolls.

On page 32 it states “The GM may also threaten several consequences at once, then the player may choose which ones to resist (and make rolls for each).”

Which made perfect sense on its own, but not after reading the example on page 199. In the example a character makes a skirmish roll and presumably rolls a 1-3. As a result they fall of the roof and suffer level 3 harm. So far so good. However, and this is the bit that confuses me: “But she can roll to resist, right? Yes. She can resist the harm that results from the fall. But she can’t “undo” being forced over the edge.”

Clearly the exact details are up for interpretation, but i am wondering what you folks (and John) have to say: When can a consequence, or part of a consequence not be resisted according to “Don’t roll twice for the same thing”? And how do you even determine what is is a “multi part consequence” (falling, then harm) and what is not?

My groups have always treated resistance rolls as undo buttons, but reading page 199 has really made me think about that.

Question for you all.

First, I LOVE this book. I’m thinking of borrowing some of the items for other games. Like the clock idea… brilliant.

The only question I have here comes from the dice rolling. The book says:

The most common result is 4/5: partial success. is means that your character will tend to succeed, but at a cost—you’ll rarely get away clean. Blades in the Dark is a game about underdog characters who are in over their heads.

Just doing my basic odds, a 4 or 5 should come through 1/3 of the time. You succeed 1/2 the time. I didn’t see anything about modifiers, looks like you add more dice to your roll which wouldn’t necessarily raise the odds. Am I missing something like a boost that would normally improve these dice rolls? I’m not that far through the book yet, so if that’s later, I apologize.

NPCs your character knows.

In the manual under “Choose one close friend and one rival” the text states: “Each playbook has a list of NPCs that your character knows.” Then it goes on to state to pick a close relationship and a rival.

I have previously assumed that this list is contacts the player potentially knows, however it could be interpretted that they are all contacts and you just pick a close contact.

So my question to the group at large and John Harper specifically is what mechanical interaction if any is there with the contacts you dont pick on the play book?

I’ve been watching John Harper’s excellent actual play and I was wondering where i can get that fancy detailed map…

I’ve been watching John Harper’s excellent actual play and I was wondering where i can get that fancy detailed map of doskvol he uses on the stream? is that a kickstarter exclusive ( i unfortunately found out too late about BitD)?

Does the temporary tier drop for an NPC crew going to war with the crew also affect the XP earnings, and rep gains,…

Does the temporary tier drop for an NPC crew going to war with the crew also affect the XP earnings, and rep gains, AND effect determination of the PC crew? Tier factors in somehow, but should I use the temporary tier or the actual tier? Seems a bit much to do the former, especially when they have the War Dogs ability – as it has costs to the table if their rivals’ tier drops and their own does not

Elite Thugs and Quality weapons.

So Guys Im curious how the elite crew upgrades and the quality upgrades interact for working out cohort effect.

Can someone help clarify it please?

For example if the crew is tier I, they have elite thugs and quality weapons, does that mean for combat purposes I should treat the cohort of thugs like tier 3 in terms of effect and tier 1 for scale? I’m not convinced how these should interact so any clarification would be great.

Another question is here :P (thank you for the kind answers last time BTW)

Another question is here 😛 (thank you for the kind answers last time BTW)

It is about faction tier and quality affecting the action’s effect.

1) if a PC goes against someone/something of a faction with higher tier, does every action get ‘limited Effect’ by default?

2) if the answer of 1) is correct, if the faction has two tier higher than PC’s crew, does actions against them has no effect(by reducing two degree of effect from standard effect) unless PCs make some way to defeat the obstacle?

3) Can faction tier difference(=inferior quality) affect PC’s position, not only effect??

Always thank you for the great community! Will be waiting for your ideas.

Hello.

Hello. Just getting into this game after backing it years ago, and I’m absolutely loving it. I quite enjoy the fact that the game is so open ended, but that always leads to questions I need answered. After perusing this community, I’ve managed to learn almost as much as the books themselves have given me. There is still one question that has eluded me:

How do you handle combat against multiple opponents? I get the feeling that the game is meant to be based on a ‘single roll’ concept, where one roll dictates an entire action/encounter. However, I can’t imagine that a player who stacks advantages and manages to roll a 6 on skirmish can somehow take out half a dozen guards, or even an entire room full of them if they somehow manage to fail hard enough to get into that kind of situation.

How do you guys handle this? The closest thing I see is the use of a clock with multiple turns, which will quickly burn through the PC’s stress. And how would it work if the room full of people have a sniper on the rafters, or brings backup?

Anyway, I appreciate any answers in advanced. Absolutely loving this game and watching as many podcasts/youtube vids as possible to get a good handle on the rules. So very different from games like D&D or Call of Cthulhu. I’m slowly getting addicted.

Hello.

I’m going to start a game since it’s great but I have several questions.

1. Load. Is there any guidance for it? I assume it lowers situation/effect for some sneaky actions like some actions under Prowl, Finesse, Sway (to persuade a Bluecoat that you’re up to no bad), Hunt, nearly all Consort (unless you’re dealing with some savages or imposing bodyguards). But are there more specific hints?

2. Free play. What’s it for? From goo.gl/f6vVfA I’ve noticed that free play is dangerous with failures meaning harm, stress, heat and whatever while downtime means success anyway with little to no negative consequences. But still free play doesn’t have thorough mechanics, so is it just stand-in to have customary TRPG “free form roleplaying” intact so people wouldn’t say “it’s not a TRPG anymore”?

3. Gathering information. Is there any use for it besides bonuses for an engagement roll. It seems it doesn’t have intrinsic costs like spending Coin for effect (bribes) or beating questions out of people (taking Heat). So what are caveats in it for freeplay and score (and can it be used at score at all)?

Thanks in advance for help.