Blades in the Dark: Game Questions – Page 62 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Ideas for Gang Trouble based on the flaw “principled”.

I was wondering what kind of trouble folks have given when the Entanglement comes up “Gang Trouble” when gangs have the flaw principled.

I ask because the principled flaw means there is something they won’t do because it violates their principles. The Gang Trouble entanglement says that a gang gets in trouble because of one of their flaws. I’m having some trouble thinking of ways in which those two interact, specifically how does not being willing to do something cause your crew to get in a situation where you have to lose face, make an example of one of the, or sort the situation out themselves.

Right now my crew has two cohorts, a group of thugs and a lawyer’s ghost, both have the flaw principled and their restrictions are specifically that they protect students and will not misrepresent or lie for a client, respectfully. Any thoughts on how those might cause trouble?

Hi!

Hi! I was watching in YouTube the Blades in the Dark actual roleplay by John Harper and in episode 4 a question was posted on the comments section

I want to bring it here, because I think it’s a good question and I’m really interested in read the answer.

“Hey John, I’ve been watching this series in order to get a feel for how Blades functions since I’m interested in starting my own campaign with friends and I have a question relating to GMing and players.

Specifically, Stras has always been really vocal about what Oskarr [the whisper] does and describing all sorts of magic and weirdness relating to him and you’ve always played along with it. I think it’s great to encourage players to take creativity into their own hands but is there a limit? For example, the scene where Oskarr is on the roof and pulls some magic ritual off or in fight freezes ice and stabs someone with it, how do you judge what is a good level of improvisation and what starts to push the boundaries of what could break the game? Or, more importantly, how can you deal with it?”

Hi all

Hi all,

I just read some 2015 threads and now I’m doubting about some rules :

– some threads talked about “rolling for effect”. What I understand is : you roll for action, then you inflinct a consquence. You choose the effect depending on the scale, the quality and the potency of the action. You don’t roll for effect. These are all threads, but now i’m doubting : do you choose the effect, or do you roll for effect after the action roll? (which means two rolls for 1 action)?

– When a PC choose to resist to effect: can he resist for the effect of any consequence, or only to wounds?

Quality, Scale, and Potency are used to determine the effect level.

Quality, Scale, and Potency are used to determine the effect level. Quality is measured by Tier and gear quality, meaning it can have a numeric value. Scale is the size, magnitude or number of people. Again a value can be given for this. Potency takes into account weaknesses, risk taking, and pushing yourself, all of which are difficult to measure.

So question 1 is how do you measure potency?

My second question is how do you compare these 3 factors?

It seems heavily weighted towards scale, where 40 people (aka 40 in scale) could overcome a tier 5 faction (a 5 in quality) relatively easily. It also means that exploiting a weakness (a 1 to potency) has a very limited effect on anything.

Other than for backstory purposes, what effect does heritage and background have on game play??

Some rule questions:

1. If a PC opts to roll a resistance roll, but doesn’t have enough Stress in the end, what happens?

2. What is the difference between Heavy armor, and normal armor?

3. In judging position, is it considered from the PoV of a baseline human, not the character himself, unless he has certain special abilities (for instance, the Cutter’s Not to be Trifled With)

Hey guys!

I runned my first session of BitD the other day and one of my players created a Hound. He asked me what can his pet do and how it affect in the mechanics. (He wanted more like a feline pet and his character was a Skovlan, so I gave him a Lynx)

¿How do you guys deal with trained pets like this?

¿Do you give them ‘stats’ like some points on prowl, hunt, skirmish…?

some examples:

1) He wanted to intimidate someone, and loose the chain of his Lynx a little bit in order to create a more intimidating effect.

2) What if he sends his Lynx to help a teammate attacking someone?

3) What if the Lynx fights on its own vs a thug? ¿what do I roll?

Rules Questions:

1st: Does taking the Cult Crew special action Conviction (Spend a downtime action in worship at one of your sacred sites to clear half of your stress and carry a bonus die forward toward an action for which you have supplicated your god) satisfy players vice requirement to not take stress from their trauma?

2nd: How does it interact with the Spider’s ability Functioning Vice (When you indulge your vice, you may adjust the outcome by +/-1. An ally who joins in your vice may do the same)

How do PCs gain new items (or even better, fine items) for their list?

So, for example, the leech has “Bandolier of alchemicals (3)”

What if the Cutter wanted a bandoiler of alchemicals? How would they go about arranging that?

– If it’s a once-off, it could just be a downtime action to temporarily get that item. But what if they want to always have it? (say, a pyromaniac who carries vials of Greek Fire)

– It could be a flashback (“Flash back to me grabbing a bandoiler of Greek Fire”) – but then either they always have it with them, or there’s some skill roll and we need to explain why they forgot it this time.

– Would it be a long-term project, where the end result is they add it to their items list, and can then check it off as part of their load?

– Am I missing the obvious? At the end of the items list are two boxes, with no name next to that. Would they just fill in one of those boxes and say “I’ve got a bandoiler of greek fire (3) with me!”, same as they’d do for any other item on their list. And everyone would nod and say “Of course you do, you pyromaniac” because we know the PC carries that. (And they’d fill in two boxes of load if we were talking about a larger item)

On a related note, how would we handle characters “improving” items they already have. So we’ve got ways to create rituals and alchemicals and drugs and stuff. But what if, say, a leech wanted to take a drug and invent a “cleaner” version that didn’t have a side effect. Or a Lurk wanted to improve their Subterfuge Supplies into Fine Subterfuge Supplies?

I’m assuming that would just be a long term project, with the end result being we update the sheet, and those items now get potency for being “fine” or have fictional positioning from the improved effects? So upgrading a grenade and smoke grenade into a combined explosion-and-smoke grenade would be a long term project, and once it’s done you can just describe the explosion also creating smoke, which the players use for fictional positioning.

So the RP changes from “Throw a smoke grenade at those guards, and then the Lurk will make a break for it” into “Throw a grenade at those guards, and then the Lurk will make a break for it” – essentially the same, but the players can now injure the guards as part of throwing the grenade.

Do the characters have access to all the NPCs on their friends list, with one being their best friend and the other…

Do the characters have access to all the NPCs on their friends list, with one being their best friend and the other their rival? Or do they just get the one friend and the one rival and that’s it?