Category: Blades in the Dark: Hacks and Add Ons

New Effect System Idea

Here’s a new thought for handling Effect and Resistance. (See the linked Cutter sheet for reference).

When you make an Action roll, your highest die is your action result. Your second highest die is your Effect result. That’s how many segments you mark on a progress clock.

This number is modified by your character’s Effect ratings, as shown on the Cutter’s sheet. If the Cutter was attacking someone with Force, then their effect result would have a 0 modifier. But if they were scrutinizing something with Insight, they would take a -1 segment modifier to effect.

A fine item adds +1 segment. Teamwork will affect this as well (TBD).

For Resistance you make a roll just as you do now to determine the stress cost, using the number of diamonds in your effect rating as your dice pool. There are no other modifiers to this pool! So no more devil’s bargains or anything to modify resistance and slow down the process. You just pick up that many dice and roll, easy peasy.

What do you think?

A few notes:

– Critical results might change slightly. I’m still thinking about that.

– You could have the option to choose which die counted for action and for effect (keeping the highest for effect and second highest for action, say). That might be good, but I’m sticking with no-exceptions to the rule for now.

– If you don’t have a second die result, it counts as a 1.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lbgak3hzf30eaeh/blades_new_effect_cutter_sample.pdf?dl=0

Diceless Effect and Resistance

So, this is a modification I’ve been considering for a while now. Recent conversations have convinced me that it might be a good change for the game.

Rather than rolling for Effect and Resistance, you simply use the Effect rating to determine how much progress you make or how much stress it costs to resist a danger. Here’s how it works:

Effect

To determine the scope of your action, choose an appropriate effect rating (Force, Finesse, Influence, Insight, Maneuver, Will). By default, you inflict 1-segment per diamond, and +1 segment if you’re using a fine item.

If your action roll resulted in “increased effect” you do +1 segment of effect. If your action roll resulted in “reduced effect” you do -1 segment of effect.

Resistance

To resist the consequences from a danger that manifests, select an appropriate effect rating. You may choose to take stress equal to [6 minus the effect rating] to resist the consequences from the danger at hand, or instead suffer the threatened harm.

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This approach is starting to appeal to me. It minimizes rolling, and simplifies the action + effect and resistance concepts in the mind-space of the game, I think.

The way this interacts with teamwork (setup) is another issue, but it’s easily solved.

What do you think?