Blades in the Dark: Hacks and Add Ons – Page 8 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

A NOCTURNE — a much-needed progress update

A NOCTURNE — a much-needed progress update

Work on v0.9 is continuing apace, so I decided I might as well update y’all on the current progress, and what’s to come in the new version! If you follow me on Twitter you’ve maybe seen some of this before…

1) I’ve fully decoupled the characters’ physical bodies and everything associated with that (primarily Harm and Recovery) from the playbooks. Now, you have a separate Shell Card where you track this stuff. Yes, this means you can potentially have a stacked deck of bodies to move between as you see fit. This is to drive home the transhuman weirdness of the setting and make physical bodies cheaper (I’ve also done a few other tweaks to craft modules and special abilities to reflect this). You can see a sheet of Shell Cards below!

2) Some overhauled and boosted special abilities. This is mostly me taking a long hard look at how I was writing abilities and making some much-needed adjustments. Some of the abilities have gotten a bit more juice to make them more attractive options.

3) The default setting of A Nocturne, the Ram’s Horn, is being beefed up in a major way! This is the current time-sink on writing v0.9, but trust me, it’s gonna be good. I’ve added around 17 new factions to the setting, and written some more descriptive system write-ups. Also, each system now has a little d6 table of plot-hooks for the lazy GM (read: me)!

4) I’ve added the Fallout system, which is basically a miniaturised, free-form version of Blades’ immediate Entanglements, to spice Downtime up a little. I’ve also altered and clarified the way long-term Movements work, and what happens when a system reaches max Chaos (hint: it’s not good). The reason I added Fallout was that I was noticing us reset a lot in the play-test game when we reach Downtime. There wasn’t nearly enough forward momentum. I’ve rigorously tested Fallout in-play and it’s been an absolute blast.

5) Speaking of which, the play-test game has reached its Season 1 finale! You should see a nice big write-up and collection of general post-Season-end thoughts in an actual play post soon. In the meantime, we’re taking a break from that game to give me a bit of head-space to finish v0.9, and I’m doing everything in my power to hold off on just starting Season 2 right now, ‘cos we ended on an incredible high.

In summary: v0.9 is soon! Watch this space, etc. etc.

Hi all – Here is Version 1.7 of Live Fast – a Blades in the Dark hack for modern & near future settings.

Hi all – Here is Version 1.7 of Live Fast – a Blades in the Dark hack for modern & near future settings. If you have a chance to play test, send me feedback at ebrunsell@gmail.com.

Danny Ocean? Ethan Hunt? Dominic Toretto? They have nothing on you. Style, stealth and speed – you and your crew have it in spades.

Live Fast is a game about a group of thrill-seeking characters in a close-knit crew who swindle, steal, and shoot their way to infamy and fortune – or die trying. The game takes place in a fictional setting that looks just like our modern world.

It includes:

New art.

New vehicle (and drone) rules.

8 playbooks (Chessmaster, Driver, Egghead, Grifter, Hitter, Spook, Thief, & Trickster).

3 crewbooks (Disposable Heroes, Scoundrels, Throttle Hoppers)

World building prompts and worksheet

A “Maltese Falcon” character arc option.

New approach to claims maps (goals, obstacles, and rewards)

Inspirational websites and a bunch of generator tables.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JRCM5478Ng2CRN3YDmeq4-j7QngaytKS

I’m currently working on backgrounds and stuff for my own #aFistfulOfDarkness game. Here are some (low-res) examples.

If you’re doing a aFoD game/playtest on roll20 I’m happy to provide graphics/pictures for your game. Please contact me here or via E-Mail (in[at]monkeyecho.de)

If anyone here is attending the Shut up and Sit Down Expo in Vancouver this weekend I’ll be running short sessions…

If anyone here is attending the Shut up and Sit Down Expo in Vancouver this weekend I’ll be running short sessions of Neon Black, my cyberpunk dystopia hack of BitD.

You can find me in the RPG Roost each afternoon of the expo. I’ll be running short 1-2 hours sessions of the starting job for anyone interested.

Is there anywhere that collects links to resources for Scum & Villainy?

I recently ran my group’s first session of Scum and Villainy in our custom setting, to great success.

I recently ran my group’s first session of Scum and Villainy in our custom setting, to great success. We were continuing our Fate campaign’s storyline, so having stolen a highly valuable data crystal from the Carthic governor of the Mycenae Reach, the crew of the not-so-good ship Cydonia stopped for fuel at a distant, broken-down space station. Their contact asked them to the bar for a drink, and when they arrived, he was dead. Cue the rest of the Stardancer’s starting situation.

This went very well, as did the downtime afterwards – each of my players started a Long-Term Project as they hadn’t taken much stress during the start (I may need to dial up the consequences from partial success, but they rolled a couple of key 6es and crits), and that generally worked well. However, I do have a question: for their Entanglement, I rolled Ship Trouble. Does that still apply if the crew has paid Upkeep? I didn’t apply it during Downtime, since they were at a port, but I could certainly apply it during the next job.

Also, can PCs make multiple Setup actions for a roll? I had a situation where two players wanted to Set Up a group Skulk to get back to the ship – our Arcanist (a custom playbook) cast a veil to turn the group invisible and our Muscle shot a pipe to create a distraction. Since both of these succeeded (and the Muscle’s setup was a crit) I put the Skulk to Controlled. Should I allow multiple PCs to Set Up a roll like this, or is that too much? Should PCs be limited to one Setup for a later roll, or should I simply apply logical consequences from repeated Setups or time pressure as needed?

Overall, the group seems to really be enjoying the system, and I’m excited to see where they go with their projects.

#BladesAgainstDarkness Turbo is here!

#BladesAgainstDarkness Turbo is here! This is a quick play version of the game intended for one-shots and short campaigns, but it should be perfect for Halloween night gaming!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p5dFGIZ3y4elqWS4Oi4e3HS_J1BowXjy/view?usp=sharing

Version 0.28 of #BeamSaber is now live! You can find it at tinyurl.com/BeamSaber and the changelog is attached here.

Version 0.28 of #BeamSaber is now live! You can find it at tinyurl.com/BeamSaber and the changelog is attached here.

Highlights include new pilot sheets that are playbook specific (made by the wonderful Christine), rules for temporary vehicles, and rules for app development!

A new map of Mudwater means I started a new playtest for A Fistful of Darkness ( #aFistfulOfDarkness ).

A new map of Mudwater means I started a new playtest for A Fistful of Darkness ( #aFistfulOfDarkness ). We have a posse of Hellstone Scavengers with The Gamble, The Thunderheart, The Speaker & The Outlaw. Great fun in session 0 while worldbuilding and establishing relations with Mudwater’s factions. Excited players standing around the table and lots of “this is so cool!” shouting is always a good sign 🙂

Interesting twists on Thunderheart and Speaker because both have a southern/atzec/inca twist in their background. I’m really excited because I see lots of playerbooks in action I did not see before. Really looking forward to the next session.

Question regarding downtime in Scum and Villainy: How is travel intended to work during downtime?

Question regarding downtime in Scum and Villainy: How is travel intended to work during downtime? Can the crew fly around limitlessly and get the best downtime bonuses for different activities from different planets (and systems), or are they “locked” to a specific planet or system determined during, say, payoff?