I remember reading somewhere that you can spend coin to increase your result when indulging your vice or acquiring…
I remember reading somewhere that you can spend coin to increase your result when indulging your vice or acquiring assets etc. But I can’t seem to find that rule anymore, is it still a thing?
Just had my first session and it went down pretty well!
Just had my first session and it went down pretty well! Most of it was character gen (I have a very distractable group), but we managed to get through the first scene before one player had to leave.
One question which came up was about Rituals. One of my players is a Whisper, and for her first special ability she has chosen Ritual. We went around the group spit balling ideas for what she could do for her first ritual. It ended up going as follows:
What effect and how is it weird?:
Once complete the ritual can be used to have X people walk through a single wall. It’s weird because it leaves behind a burned image of the person(s) that walks through (my group decided this could be how they leave their calling card when they pull of a heist).
What is needed?:
X human sacrifices where X is the number of people wanting to walk through a wall once the ritual is released. A pentagram drawn in the sacrifices blood, and the bodies to be burned in the centre via electroplasm. (The player wanted to play a murderous and creepy yet “cute” psychopath, this was the result of spit balling amongst the party)
What is the price?:
She feels the pain that would be felt of the people other than herself going through the walls (I.e. feels like bricks are being dragged through her) [level 1 harm: pain (per party member)]
New drive:
Murder.
The question asked was, do they need to make a roll to perform the ritual? Or just gather the materials and say she does it? Is there any further issues such as a stress cost?
Would someone mind clarifying to me when you talk about the engagement roll? When is it set and discussed?
Would someone mind clarifying to me when you talk about the engagement roll? When is it set and discussed?
What kind of planning do you personally do as the GM?
What kind of planning do you personally do as the GM? Do you plan out encounters and NPCs characters will meet, or do you do it on the fly seeing as the approach to a mission and the PCs can be unpredictable?
I need an example:
I need an example:
Say you’re picking a lock at the start of a mission.
You roll finesse and get a 6/4-5/1-3.
On a 6 I assume you just tick 2 boxes off the lock clock for a standard effect.
On a 4 or 5 I assume the same as above but a minor complication happens. What minor complication could occur when picking a lock in a controlled situation?
On a 1-3 you fail at picking the lock and a bigger complication happens. Again, what bigger complication happens when lock picking?
Another question: if they make a roll and don’t fill the clock, how should I build tension, excitement, or fill in? I don’t like saying “OK roll…you tick 2 boxes off the lock clock…roll again…” until they unlock it.
Final question: say the lock is the first thing encountered, is this solved by the engagement roll? If so how does this work? If not, what would the enganagemt roll be doing?
First things first, this group is terrific!
First things first, this group is terrific! A real model for how these sort of gamer communities should work. Ironic in a game about backstabbing villains that.
Second, as our group is about to sit down and try this, would someone here kindly help walk me through the action roll sequence? Or point me to a sterling example of same?
I think I’ve got my head around everything else, but am unsure on how to know what Effect a player is aiming for and which they get.. Every answer I’ve come up with seems fairly hand-wavey compared to how clear every other part is… Does the GM just announce that “it looks like you’re going for great/minor/etc. Effect?”
I have a couple of questions about undead characters.
I have a couple of questions about undead characters. Say a player dies and becomes a ghost; do they keep all their special abilities from life? If so, do these abilities go in the “Veteran” section on the undead playbook?
Vampires have Strictures and one of them is “Bestial”:
“When you suffer physical harm or overindulge your vice, your body twists into a horrific bestial form until you next feed without overindulging”
1. How does this manifest in the narrative?
2. How monstrous does the character actually appear?
3. Are they feral? Do they lose their sense of person and become a literal beast/monster?
4. Does this happen after any harm, or just serious harm?
5. Can a vampire only feed as a downtime vice action? Or can they feed mid-mission?
The Vampire XP section also says:
“You displayed your dominance or .”
Or what? Is this a typo?
If a Vampire suffers fatal harm, they get “Level 3 Harm: Incapacitated” until they feed “long enough to recover”.
1. How long is long enough?
2. What does being “incapacitated” entail? Can you still move? Do you just feel weak?
3. What happens if you take more fatal harm or level 3 harm after taking incapacitated level 3 harm?
4. What happens if you take level 3 harm incapacitated whilst you have Bestial as a Stricture? Do you still “become the beast” so to speak because you took harm?
How does the engagement roll work when you have linked plans (either a setup manoeuvre or a diversion that’s it’s…
How does the engagement roll work when you have linked plans (either a setup manoeuvre or a diversion that’s it’s own plan)?
Should a Bad Outcome be applied to:
a) the setup manoeuvre/diversion plan only
b) both the setup/diversion and the characters waiting to enact the main plan, or
c) divvied out to either or both depending on circumstances and dramatic judgement?
Or should there be two engagement rolls, one for each plan?
The Foundation are a faction listed in the book who have just a short description saying that they are basically…
The Foundation are a faction listed in the book who have just a short description saying that they are basically master builders and that “many of their enemies have been disappeared behind the brick and mortar of Doskvol”.
Conceptually I guess they’re based on the idea of the mob disposing bodies in the foundations of buildings inside luring cement or bricking the corpses up in the walls. But in the BitD world, with Deathseeker crows leading Spirit Wardens to the bodies, not to mention the victims’ (probably pretty unhappy and possibly vengeful) ghosts coming back, wouldn’t this be more of an inconvenience?
I suppose an alternate reading of what the text means is that bodies are made to disappear inside the rooms of the buildings they make, which could include electroplasmic disposal. Or they could have the Spirit Wardens as allies. Or maybe they don’t let their enemies die and they’re just kept as prisoners in secret rooms.
What have other people done (if they’ve used this faction at all)?
Question time!
Question time!
Love the game, just need some help working through some things.
1.) What’s a sentinel? A Hound PC has them marked down as a friend and I’m trying to figure out who they are. Are they associated with The Inspectors?
2.) War?! Okay if the Lampblacks start the game at Tier 2 (weak) and they get in a war with the players. They drop down to Tier 1(weak)? If the players are going to hit the hold of an enemy gang, they first have to do an investigation to figure out how they’re vulnerable right? Is grinding a gang down really how its suppose to go? I think my Bazso Baz is running around with a gang of 5 now…
3.) Any thoughts on gangs merging? What kind of rep boost would that be? or is it just Turf?
4.) Do all scores payout? The PC are hawkers, and some of their scores have been mostly territory control and fending off warring factions. Do they still get pay out for those, even though no product is being moved or anything was stolen? What about when they are just fending off an attack? Is that even a score do they get downtime actions after that?
Devil’s bargains can make a lot of different fronts to fend off, pretty quickly! I’m having fun with the game and appreciate any help.