Blades in the Dark: Game Questions – Page 6 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Scum & Villainy question here.

Scum & Villainy question here. So one of my players will be playing a xeno and on page 57, under starting ability it states:

“If you want to play a xeno (a member of an alien species) with a decidedly exceptional physique or abilities, you can replace your playbook starting ability with the following: Xeno: You may spend stress (0-2) to perform an inhuman feat only members of your species can do.”

On page 296 however, under Xenos in Play, it says to discuss what sort of things we can expect their xeno abilities (plural) to do with some guidelines for 0, 1 or 2 stress abilities.

My question is this: for a xeno character, mechanically, do they simply have the option to replace their starting playbook ability with a predefined stress-costing xeno ability or should they be fleshing out a whole host of differing-stress-cost abilities they can use on top of their playbook abilities? This really was not clear to me in the book.

Thanks in advance for any clarification y’all can provide.

I have a question about loot. The rules as written seem to indicate that you should always gain loot. Is that right?

As an example, my crew decided to go after a Turf – a Fence*. As such, the stated goal was acquiring the fence. Should I then also be awarding them some amount of coin?

It seems like part of the mechanics are tied to the players gaining a certain amount of coin each score – or what? How do you handle that sort of thing?

* This actually required a bit of lateral thinking, because they can’t really go “fight over” a fence. I decided they could win his loyalty by doing something for him, so the score was about going up against the rival faction to get back the dirt they had on him.

A couple of months ago I posted some questions here about BitD rules.

A couple of months ago I posted some questions here about BitD rules. Combat stuff mostly. Due to life I haven’t been back until now and since I’m due to run our game tomorrow I hoped to come back here and re-read that thread.

But I can’t find it. I’m not hip to google tricks to relocate,, etc, so if anyone can help track that down I’d sure appreciate it.

In the meantime I’ll ask some new questions, or at least try to get clarity on the stuff I’m struggling with.

My main issue seems to be clocks. I’ve gone over it and over it and I’m beginning to feel like I’m back in 9th grade having algebra explained to me for the 20th time and still not getting it. It’s very frustrating. It’s frustrating to the point where I’m having a difficult time even coming up with examples, but I’ll give it a go.

Say my Tier 1 group gets into a fight with a group of red sashes. Let’s say it’s 5 bad guys vs my four PC’s. One of the Sashes is a leader, say, Tier 2.

How do I clock this? Would I use one clock for the minions and another for the leader? And how does a single clock reflect damage done to a group of bad guys? For the 4 minions, how complex a clock am I looking at? What if the clock fills before all the minions are dead, or what if they all die before the clock fills? Is that even possible?

I know this has to be well trodden ground and I apologize for dragging it back out again, but it’s so frustrating to know that everybody else seems able to grasp this except me! I’m not a dumb guy! But good grief, I’m to the point where I don’t really want to run this game until I have a handle on this, so any help will be so appreciated.

I’ll leave it at that for now and hope for the best as I continue to look for that old thread.

I know that “Indulging Your Vice” is a Downtime action, but if a PC decides to take time out of a score to…

I know that “Indulging Your Vice” is a Downtime action, but if a PC decides to take time out of a score to “Indulge”, should that indulgence result in them recovering any stress?

Hey all, I’m thinking about the design of the game after watching the excellent “A History of Blades” videos on…

Hey all, I’m thinking about the design of the game after watching the excellent “A History of Blades” videos on John’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlGyUKlXVbY

One thing I didn’t hear in the video is something I’ve seen people ask quite often. What mechanical considerations are involved if you choose to trim the list of action ratings from 12 to 9 (e.g. 3 per Attribute instead of 4). My search efforts haven’t turned up previous examples of that question here in the community so I shamefully introduce it once more.

What do you think? I feel like lowering the point for character generation from 4 to 3 makes sense but I would miss the symmetry of the “1 for Heritage, 1 for Background, 2 for what you will” method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlGyUKlXVbY

Hello everyone

Hello everyone,

Would you consider BitD a good system (fast pace and all) to roll a Dark Souls campaign… Of course with some small changes in class and all.

Let me know your thoughts, I am adjusting the lore and history of the game to tabletop and still in search for the right system.

Kindest regards,

So I’m running a Blades game set in the Wild West.

So I’m running a Blades game set in the Wild West. Of course I have some of my own ideas, but how would you set up a pistol duel at 20 paces?

Hello Everyone.

I’m wondering how to create “stats” for enemies when all-out battle happens. I know it’s contingent on different factors like armor, tier, weapons, but I’m not sure how to put it together.

I have a group of Tier 0’s going up against a small squad of Tier III Silver Nails, so any advice you can share would be great! Thanks!!

Question about the Controlled 1-3 result:

When you press on by seizing a risky opportunity do you keep any bonus dice you had for the previous roll (through Pushing Yourself, Help or Devil’s Bargains) or is it a completely new roll?

I have some questions about group actions and bonus dice.

When a PC leads an action, can each contributing PC push themselves for bonus dice? Are Devil’s Bargains available during group actions, and if so would you offer the same bargain for everyone? For example, if they accept the Devil’s Bargain everyone gets a bonus die. Or are there separate bargains for each PC and they are awarded the bonus on an individual basis?