Category: Blades in the Dark: Hacks and Add Ons

As requested, I’m going to put my reply from the previous Band of Blades thread into a new thread.

So I’ve finished reading both documents. As someone who reads a lot of these sorts of things I’m very excited to run this in a way I haven’t been since Orig Blades (so many years ago), or maybe 10 Candles. It reminds me of the new XCOM video games, which are probably my favorite modern games.

That said I took some notes while reading it and I have a lot of questions/comments, numbered and broken down by section (sorry for the incoming wall of text). They don’t all necessarily needs answers, because I’m comfortable ruling for myself if need be, but a few are more important than others (specifically 2, 12, 16, 19, 20, 26, 27). I’m going to apologize one more time before I paste these questions in here, feel free to ignore any/all of them.

Missions

1. Special Mission under Duresh Forest mentions that two gods were also in the war. What happened to them? It mentions them choosing, but also being phsyically present. Is that something just these gods do, or do other gods also interact with the world physically?

2. What does Vital mean as a mission requirement?

Heavy

3. Why is Anchor called Anchor, confusing word choice to me. Anchors are heavy, but aren’t known for fighting as small group.

4. Do Vanguard and War Machine stack(ie. you get both effects, and +1d or +effect for 2 stress)?

Scout

5. Sixth Sense – If I follow correctly, this lets the Scout replace likely their best action rating (seems like scout would be used for this roll) for their resolve resistance rating when gathering info? It’s an interesting mechanic, but unless they go out of their way to put a dot in each resolve action it’s probably not an upgrade. Might just be better to give them +1 effect or something?

6. The scout has the unique equipment “Seals and Reliquaries”, are these different from a regular reliquary in any way? Also why is the scout more religious than other specialists?

Sniper

7. Must Aim be used before a roll, or can it be used after? The name implies before, but it seems unfair to potentially make them waste such a limited resource on a miss.

8. When firing crimson shot does a fine weapon put you to threat 5, or is that already taken into account (ie. normal weapons can’t even fire them)?

Officer

9. How do group actions work with squads of rookies? If a squad of rookies fail a roll would you take 5 stress? That seems pretty harsh, but otherwise Tactician seems kind of weak in a game with only 2 or 3 other players.

Rookie + Soldier

10. Not A Rookie Anymore – Is there a reason why you don’t specify that the specialist action is Grit? Are there circumstances where it could be something else? I was very confused at first because I forgot Grit was also a specialist action (which is also confusing since soldiers are not specialists).

11. Is the text in Not A Rookie Anymore saying that you must choose it instead of any other second rookie advance (I know this is true already from the rules), or is it saying that once you become a soldier you have to specialize as your next advance? The latter doesn’t really make sense to me, but the former seems confusing because of the use of the word “Specialize” which doesn’t seem to fit turning from rookie to soldier.

12. Do you only make sheets for rookies played by the players? How do you track XP for NPC rookies, can they gain XP? How do you track harm and healing checks for NPC rookies? Do NPC rookies have a special ability/heritage/Load? Same questions for Soldiers?

Equipment

13. Heavy armor ignores lesser harm, is that limited use or permanent once you bring the armor? What about after you expend the armor?

14. Heavy Armor vs Fitted Heavy Plate. The only difference I see is heavy armor specifies vs physical attacks and heavy fitted plate does not. Does that mean heavy fitted plate works against magical attacks as well? Or are they functionally the same?

15. Shield vs Tower Shield. Tower shield specifies stopping missiles, shield does not, but does say physical (which missiles tend to be). Can a regular shield stop an arrow or bullet?

Marshal

16. Is it possible to have more than 30 soldiers? Do the specialists take up spots on squads, or are they in addition to the 30?

17. What are supposed to do with those tiny boxes next to specialists labeled abilities and actions?

Commander

18. Which squads distrust or don’t fear leadership? That question seems like it should arise from play, and perhaps be tracked by the marshal, but this question to the GM implies that perhaps this may spontaneously happen at GM whim?

19. There appear to be a minimum of 16 hexes that you must travel. Assuming you do at least one mission in each hex (which the GM sheet implies), that’s a minimum of 32 time, which means you’ll lose the game. Odds are you won’t roll the minimum, and sometimes the players will want to do multiple missions. In terms of mission rewards and penalties Time seems to be a wash, appearing 3 times in each column. Am I missing something? Must players just be sure to focus most on missions that have time rewards/penalties to ensure success?

20. Is every hex on the map assigned to one of the locations, or are some of them just space?

Quartermaster

21. Is the only way for non specialists to clear stress a boosted Liberty action?

22. Do the # of boxes imply a hard limit to # of personel or amount of supplies?

23. Do laborers put ticks on clocks even if the QM doesn’t take Long Term Project action?

Spymaster/Lore Keeper

24. Does having more players make the game significantly easier because of the added roles (not to mention the extra stress pools of more PCs)?

25. Does Lay Trap extend any other benefits to the assault mission, or just let it exist?

Chosen

26. It would be nice to just hear some general advice on playing your chosen. How often should they be helping on missions? What else are they up to if they aren’t on missions. How often should they perform tangible actions on their own like when Alanna eliminates an infamous between missions? Basically how do you make them seem more than just window dressing without making them a crutch/GMPC?

Broken

27. Do Elites only show up after their corresponding ability is gained, or do they just become more frequent?

28. I assume the Undead Advance clock is the same thing as the time clock? I never see it referred to as such.