Category: Blades in the Dark: Hacks and Add Ons

What do I think a Spider could do? Let me brainstorm some special abilities (not refined, just thinking aloud.)

* Blackmail network. There is a good chance the Spider knows people who have the goods on others, either blackmailing them directly or compelling them to force their underlings to do/allow odd or illegal things.

* Forethought. All flashback stress costs are reduced by 1 for the crew if the spider helped plan.

* Tracking goods. The Spider knows how illegal material moves in the city, and adds effect to efforts to procure equipment or trace fenced goods.

* Mentor. The Spider can borrow up to 2 stress from a crew member once per heist per character. The Spider helps by preparing through role-playing encounters ahead of time, thinking through contingencies, pacing out the ground, or other preparatory methods. 

* The Useful Detail. Once per heist, the Spider can recall a seemingly irrelevant detail and snap it into contextual focus, knowing something that was otherwise highly unlikely the crew would know. This useful detail is fictional, but can be translated to provide a way to continue a course of action, an escape route, +1 effect level, or an increase in position.

* Debt Collector. The Spider trades in favors, buying and selling them with other like-minded individuals. The Spider can spend 2 Stress to encounter an indebted individual as part of a heist or down time action.

* Counterintelligence. Each time the Spider advances a down time project by two, the Spider may reduce another faction’s down time project clock by 1, or reduce Heat by 1.

You may want to take a look at the 2011 Secret Santicore. 

http://gibletblizzard.blogspot.com/2011/12/secret-santicore-2011.html

Check out pages 54-55. Mike Evans did a piece called “Bandits, Rapscallions, & Riff Raff.” Of the three columns, two are useful; the first column has a gang name and composition, the last column has a gang leader and description. (The middle has encounters and plot hooks, which don’t line up as well with Duskwall.)

Print this one up two sided and keep it handy for when you need a crew in a hurry.

Meanwhile, you might want to look around in Secret Santicore. It isn’t groceries, it’s a spice rack; you don’t devour it or use it whole, but something in there will add flavor to any game you run!

EDIT: OOOH! Also 80-81, “Fifty Bizarre & Eclectic Urban Locations” by Chris Weller.

One thing that might help focus character and crew generation is a motive, a unifying purpose. If the group can agree on one, that can shade the rest of the process. Here are some possibilities.

Resisting Theft. All members are connected to an event or tradition in their neighborhood where the powerful take from the weak. This may be removing children from parents, unfairly jailing a target population, severely under-paying for work, and so on. The characters have formed a crew so they will gain enough power so they can protect themselves and those they care about, resisting the casual theft enforced by those who currently have power.

Going Legit. It is impossible for someone who is not connected to succeed in business and have a life of wealth and comfort. So, the objective is to use illegal means to amass power, then convert that power into legitimate enterprise, so you and those you care about CAN be connected enough to succeed in business and have a life of wealth and comfort.

Only the Best. Your crew is formed out of a vision of collecting those who have certain talents, and learn to work together to be professionals of the highest caliber. Everyone has a role to play, and the future vision is to take on ever-grander schemes and ever-tougher targets, proving skill and wits. Your crew will be famous for their audacity and reliability.

Devotion. The crew is an extension of a religious group, or is formed by zealots. The crew plans to carry out the objectives of the power they worship, relying on divination and oracles to aim their service. Perhaps they were formed by a portent, gathered by divine coincidence, or assembled for just one job (and worked together well.)

Revenge. A person or faction has wronged everyone in the crew. The crew will gain power and wealth so they can destroy their target. It costs coin to collect secret weaknesses, turn trusted agents, assume various personas, and manage the other methods for wreaking vengeance. This is beyond a killing spree or assassination; the target must be punished, then destroyed.

Once the objective is in place, then players can build related material into their character’s back story and resources. From the start, the group has an agreed-upon objective that guides decisions and activity. Can it change over time? Of course! Setting up a motive at the beginning, before making characters and crew, can help point everyone in the same direction and cut down on working at cross purposes.

YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/164250/The-Price-of-Evil

If you want to pre-make a heist site and then evaluate it for what could tempt your characters inside, consider taking a look at the “Price of Evil” by Zzarchov Kowolski.

The format is a “buystarter” so it’s available in rough form for cheap, and if there’s enough interest then the funds it makes will go to copyediting, art, layout, and so on. Why might you be interested in this project?

You use poker cards and hands to determine the house’s main features and the inhabiting ghosts. There is guidance for heaping “oppression” on the characters so as they creak under the weight of their fear and choke on ghostly presence, the rooms get spookier and the ghosts get more powerful.

The system is not neutral, but it’s close enough to easily adapt to use with Blades in the Dark. The theme and feel is about 80% aligned with Blades in the Dark, so most of what you generate you can use as-is.

Making up a few haunted houses could be a pleasant afternoon’s diversion. Afterwards, you can use the names of those haunted places as references, tie in their family histories into your game, and what not until your players are hired to rob one, or cleanse it (especially if they have one or more whisper) or maybe they even target it on their own initiative. Maybe they even use it as a base.

Twenty six pages. Requires some time and investment to use, but building haunted houses may be its own reward. If you want some help coming up with haunted houses, this is a treat for you.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/164250/The-Price-of-Evil

Here is one of the ideas I’m toying with for a custom version of Blades in the Dark. Experience!

Get 1 for each desperate roll (as it is now.) Then, get 1 for each stress incurred. It costs 5 to gain a rating in an action, and (current rating x10) to raise a rating. Each special ability costs 20.

I like this because it rewards intense experiences and player-driven character effort.