Blades in the Dark: Rules & Sheets (Official) – Page 20

I’m realizing now that I’m not sure how upgrading a gang is intended to work.

I’m realizing now that I’m not sure how upgrading a gang is intended to work. When I first read it I thought upgrading a gang could add a new gang type, or get an advantage or get rid of a disadvantage, or could raise the gang’s quality, but would only do once of those. Now I’m reading it as, a new type, one of the advantage and disadvantage, and upping the quality. What is it supposed to be? It might help to make this more clear (I wouldn’t be surprised if the more complete draft already has it explained better in another part). What have other people thought? I wouldn’t be surprised if both interpretations are somewhat common.

Since I’ve been behind on versions, I went ahead and combed through the most recent one and built a three page…

Since I’ve been behind on versions, I went ahead and combed through the most recent one and built a three page reference document to help players (and me) quickly find what we need in play. I welcome your thoughts if I’ve totally confused something or have some errors.

I didn’t change much. Just some “missing detail” questions for plans and adding default guidance for healing lasting conditions under “Suffer Harm.” Any other incongruities are unintentional.

Edit: I also adjusted the “Coin” values a bit to add real estate and bribes.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-5YMhxwwPVSY45kTl_HjC7b0y71wXp8pxRsjbRGA4oM/edit?usp=sharing

Session XIII. The crew bungled a job to steal a dress (I know) and hit wanted 4.

I am thinking of playing it out this way — The Little Sisters are no more. They have to abandon their position and scatter or be crushed in the face of all the adversity they’ve stirred up. Their gangs, turf, resources are all gone. They need to lay low and wait and it will not be good time to have ever been a friend of a Little Sister.

Then, after the storm passes, each player can select one of their PCs that made it through. Everyone else is imprisoned in Ironhook, dead (tell us how), or worse (player’s call). The players have to start again from scratch, somewhere else in Duskwall from tier 0… perhaps this time being a little more careful not to kill so many of their foes…

Does this sound fair? Too generous? Too cruel? What say you?

On PC advancement it says in the playbook section,”When you address a

tough challenge with X, Y, or Z.”

What would be a tough challenge? Something that has a clock with a lot of sections, a conceptually hard challenge, acting against the odds? Is it something that is rolled against or can it be a purely RP situation? Or is it purposely vague so as to be open to interpretation?

John Harper – Regarding Gangs, damage and healing.

In one of our sessions a situation came up where we wanted to damage (i.e., apply a Harm to) our gang. There’s a Harm section for the gang, but we weren’t sure if those were intended to be an escalating ladder a la the harm section of the PC playbook sheets, or not. (In our play we just assigned them Impaired, as that adjective seemed to most clostly match with what we expected given our fiction at that moment.) Do you have any guidance on applying Harm to gangs?

Later we wanted to then fix that Harm, but we weren’t sure what the correct way to do that was. Is that a long term project? Is that an application of the Recover downtime action? (Which could also be a long term project, for sufficient Harm.) Any guidance there?

What we did worked for us, we’re just curious what the ‘correct’ way to handle these situation is.

So, Gather Information.

So, Gather Information. I was allowing characters to ask one question before a heist, giving them a chance to either collect easy information or make a roll to get more difficult to access information, or to set something up before we get to flashbacks. Just one item per player.

However, the official game setup calls for the plan and the detail, then engagement and on you go. So I am inserting a step that is no longer there. We were talking about that here, and John Harper pointed out “gather information” has become a down time action. So the question became, is a down time action the only time gathering information can happen? John said:

“It’s hugely valuable to know things, so players will naturally gather info without the need for a formal phase. The only mechanical trick is that gathering info during downtime enjoys the special bonuses from friends and coin.”

https://plus.google.com/+AndreaParducci/posts/aoVAyHEw7nJ

So I thought we were in a spot where getting one question/action right before the heist was an artifact of a previous iteration that was no longer in practice, since it is no longer mentioned in the quick start.

But then I hear this:

“Gather Info is allowed at any time, not just downtime. I thought we established that a few days ago.”

https://plus.google.com/106707833102836285495/posts/HKCerpSShER

So now what I’m thinking is that the official stance on that is that I can allow players to send their characters on brief fact-finding missions of a day or two whenever it makes sense in the fiction, like before a heist if it is not thrust on them with huge immediacy. That’s not something that falls into the formal beginning structure of the heist, but it CAN be done without burning a whole down time action, and it is something that can be done at my discretion any time it seems appropriate.

The official down time action would be more for filling clocks for bigger investigative processes, or gathering more comprehensive information on a target, or rooting out who is planning to move against the crew; bigger stuff.

Does that seem like a reasonable way to interpret what I’m hearing?

As I was doing yet another read through of 3f, I noticed a concept I could borrow from Torchbearer for Engagement…

As I was doing yet another read through of 3f, I noticed a concept I could borrow from Torchbearer for Engagement rolls:

Before the players decide which of the 6 plans they are using, assign a base vulnerability to each plan. Torchbearer does something similar with monster design with regard to conflicts. The “hit points” of the monster are dependent on which conflict you enter, but the GM has pre-determined the distribution to keep it fair with regards to player autonomy.

So you might set Assault at 4d for a market vendor’s stall, whereas the armory might have a vulnerability of 0d for Assault. Approach the armory with an Occult plan and you might have 3d for Engagement.

Go one further: each possible job you lay out gets this treatment. As the crew does other jobs around town, the vulnerabilities get adjusted due to reputation/heat. The armory used to be ill-prepared against an Occult assault until the last couple of jobs where the Whisper was less than subtle… Now the armory has asked the Dimmer Sisters for help. Occult is now 1d. Oh you’ve worked with the Dimmer Sisters before? Now it’s 0d because they know how you work.

Ola people. I finally tried (as GM) a couple of BitD sessions.

I’d like to give my impressions, because I’d like to contribute for a better final game. Also, I ask for clarifications, and express my doubts, hoping for a better understanding of the system.

Of course, I already wrote my impressions before (it was the first quickstart PDF, I think), however now I actually played it, so I created an open, modifiable Google Doc, where I can note my “struggles”, requests etc.

If you want to take a look at, check the link. Also, feel free to reply and/or add other interesting points, so John Harper can have them in a single place (I don’t know if there are similar docs around).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d9svUJ7N557gFsd_jDcNL3CGW2tzjyXNOxEXW3ARJ28/edit?usp=sharing

I just ran our group though our second session of Blades last night.

I just ran our group though our second session of Blades last night. I think I speak for all of us when I say the game rocks! I had a quick rules question though. How are people running combat? We had our first scene involving violence last night so I assigned a four section clock to the adversary. Our hunter rolled a 6 with extra effect due to quality and potency and so completed the clock with one roll and defeated the enemy. Am I running this correctly? What if he wouldn’t have completed it first roll? Keep rolling and match the dice to the fiction until a final outcome?

I have some thoughts on special abilities.

I have some thoughts on special abilities. Previously I’ve stayed away from commenting on these, and quietly substituted my own. But we’re really getting close to finished, and I do have some thoughts to share.

I’m just going to do the Cutter as an example. These are my thoughts, and I am more interested in triggering your thoughts than arguing about any of this; it does me little good to establish whether you agree with me or not. =)

It seems to me that the flavor text is often hindering or misleading relative to the mechanical effect. If the mechanical effect is sufficiently useful or interesting, it doesn’t really need to be packaged in much flavor text.

“Brutal” would be just fine stating “You gain +1 potency against physical targets.” From that, you KNOW the attack is “more powerful.” And maybe it is not because you emulate a heavier weapon; maybe you’re good at hitting weak points, or you have a mean streak. The flavor pulls the ability down there. (Also, since “factors” include potency, quality, and scale, gaining potency is not like “do you have potency yes/no” but more like one factor to consider, and each one on a scale, so yeah; add “plus one” in there.)

Resolute: what is a “level” of healing? Don’t answer me, put it in the description. =) And how does an emotional state communicate a regenerative ability as a special ability title? Might Resilient or Quick Healer fit better? Maybe instead this special ability allows you to address a lasting condition once as a free action per down time cycle.

Savage: This writeup requires you to use a specific action to gain an additional die, ONLY after you’ve made an example of someone. That’s difficult and abstract. I would suggest you gain +1d when using wild violent or brutal methods (not precise use of force). OR, it could be fun to suggest that violent dangerous situations are 1 level more controlled for this character. (Or make that a special ability called “Chaotic.”)

Ghost Fighter: I would just say you can focus your life energy to affect incorporeal targets normally with your body or held weapons, and to add 1d when battling corporeal supernatural elements.

Not to be Trifled With: The title seems a mismatch to me. There are LOTS of reasons ANY character is not to be trifled with, that don’t have to do with mass combat. Let’s aim closer to the mark. Combat Mobility, or Crowd Fighting, or One Against Many. Also, ignoring Scale gets weird in a hurry if they are seriously outmatched. Ignore it altogether? For everyone on the team? Because of one special ability? Better to suggest that this special ability allows the character +1 scale, so the character fights as a gang.

Leader: I’d change that to “Lead From the Front.” Also, it’s great that they don’t break; but nothing compels them to break but fiction. So that’s protecting against an un-mechanized consequence. Adding armor from morale? Hm. Instead, I’d think about the gang getting 1 potency upgrade from the character’s presence, and allowing the character to use individual gang members as points of armor!