I’m working on a forged in the dark game with a view to eventual publication.
“SPQR: Death of the Republic” will be set in ancient Rome in the years before the rise of Julius Ceasar
There will be playbooks for lower, middle and upper class PCs and crew sheets to represent the various factions within the city at that time. the group will decide on what level of society they want to play and that will dictate the kind of game that you have whether it be a high political drama or gangs of murderers in the streets.
is that sounds interesting to you then reply to me here and when the playtest document is ready I will send it out to you.
Hey all! We just started a homebrewed game of Blades in the Dark set in a fictional city of Talega. I’m kinda running the campaign as half-digital for the sake of prep and cleanliness. Does anyone have any recommendations for apps that could simulate clocks? I’ve been considering something like Google Slides but I wasn’t sure if there was kind of an industry-standard out there.
A NOCTURNE v0.8/0.9 — playtest sessions #9 and #10 “PR Offensive”
A NOCTURNE v0.8/0.9 — playtest sessions #9 and #10 “PR Offensive”
We’ve got a double whammy this time around, folks. Strap in.
We started session #9 with downtime in Remonstrance after the skirmish on Heaven. Nix did some more investigating into the digital disease they’ve contracted, called Castor’s Syndrome. Turns out they’ll need to go to the Gear-Queen or the Patriarch for more answers. It’s rumoured to be what made the Vordians the way they are now (empty pressure suits, unable to inhabit organic bodies). Meanwhile, as Bug and Nix train and externalise stress, Timothy heals up and starts working on his own long-term project, the addition of keratin armour to his goopy artificial flesh shell.
Then, it’s down to business. They’ve still got a job outstanding: utterly cripple the Remonstrance IV AgriCorp known as House Minor Vex’s ability to hold power on the planetary council, wiping out their entire line if need be. The crew head to the warm agricultural world, putting down in one of the many dry canyons outside the population centres and slipping into Arctura, one of the gleaming, steel-and-glass cities that stud the planet’s winding fertile valleys, dominated by corporate arcologies.
In the shadows of one such arcology stands an Apophatic Order temple. They convene with the abott there to get up to date with goings-on on Remonstrance IV. Apparently Vex is homing in on taking an unprecedented sway over the council. Their leader, Fashra Vex (fashionable clothing, slender but obviously industrial-grade armature) has gained a lot of popularity. Things just got a lot more urgent.
Timothy spends a few weeks digging up all the dirt he can find. There’s plenty, as it turns out – rumours of sloppy assassination attempts on other house overseers, and all manner of blatantly poor employment practices even compared to the other Houses (as alien as the rest of the cluster is, Remonstrance IV operates on pure crony capitalism and a level of technology somewhere only a hair past our modern world – while describing it, I was thinking of a cross between California, Dubai, and Singapore).
From here, we launch into the score. This was where I really got to stress-test A Nocturne and my own thinking regarding how scores work when time and space are blown up to such large scales. This score really stretched the default definition, but it was perfect for how A Nocturne operates: rather than one compact chain of cause and effect in a tight time-frame, we went through a series of short vignettes taking place over a few weeks, following short chains of actions and consequences within them. It actually worked remarkably well, and naturally lead up to an action-filled climax.
In brief: the aim was to completely discredit Vex, to make them look like, at best, evil morons, and at worst, actual villains. Bug went down into the dusty agricultural belts and, after a brief altercation in a worker’s bar, managed to plant the seed of unionising in a few workers’ heads. Meanwhile, Timothy embarked on a dirty campaign of misinformation, sowing bad info and outright confusing reports through the planet’s press network. Finally, Nix came on screen for the final blow, using their Mercurial special ability to impersonate a member of the House (a woman called Sand Obal-Vex) and call an emergency press conference to combat all these vile rumours floating around. Nix intentionally dug even deeper, outright admitting to all manner of nasty things and generally sowing even more doubt and confusion.
Unfortunately, as well as this was going, time was running out. Vex had obviously caught wind of this press conference immediately, and sent a detail to the corporate arcology it was being held in to confront “Sand”, whom the PR man dragged into another room to berate about stepping outside her bounds as a representative of the AgriCorp. It’s at this point that two things happen: first, Timothy emerges from his hiding place in this side room and engulfs the PR guy, crushing him to death. Second, Vex’s private security descend, a wing of black tringular VTOLs gunning in over Arctura’s skyline.
The crew make their escape in a ground vehicle stolen by Bug, across snaking eighteen-laned highway and down into trash-filled side streets. They manage to lose the VTOLs, but not without causing an almighty amount of chaos and property damage along the way. Camera drones raced behind them for most of the chase, broadcasting it to the megalopolis.
But, they did what they came to do, and made it to the payoff. The Apophatic Order quietly ships several tonnes of raw materials, oxygen, and water into orbit for Ghost to pick up, and we add enough Chaos to Remonstrance’s track to bump its next Chaos roll to three dice (that’s a lot of Chaos, lemme tell ya).
A fortnight later we pick up again for downtime, with just Brendon and Edwin this time as Roxanne couldn’t make it. We were expecting a quiet session. Boy, were we wrong.
This session I introduced a new change coming to v0.9: Fallout, which is basically a free-form entanglements phase before downtime proper. I’m adding this to pump some of the urgency and forward momentum back into A Nocturne’s downtime, which was sagging a little without Entanglements proper.
For this round, they rolled Revenge. After a spot of downtime activity, Nix picks up a transmission: they’re being hunted. A mercenary craft, likely hired by House Minor Vex. Luckily, the craft is having trouble finding Ghost thanks to Ghost’s lack of a meaningful heat signature, but it’s only a matter of time. They’re incredibly close, close enough for Ghost’s external cameras to pick the mercs up visually. Improvising, Timothy pulls their breaking-apart old in-system jumper out of storage once again, and leads the mercs on a merry months-long chase around the system, eventually managing to lose them.
Hoping to avoid further entanglements, the crew gun it out to the outer system, to wait it out in the shadow of a wrecked cannibal craft, going down for the long one in their coldsleep capsules. They knew that Vex is on the ropes, but they want to see what a few years might do. At this point, I basically laid bare the Movement rules to the players. They decided to wait a decade, and we rolled Remonstrance’s Chaos. Remember, three dice. Edwin made the roll.
He got a crit. A crit. Two movements, competing or tangled up with one another, and +2 Chaos. Remonstrance’s Chaos level was now at 4 dice. While Edwin and Brendon sucked in their breath and I laughed perhaps a little too much, I had Edwin roll 2d8 on the Movement table to see what was happening in Remonstrance. We got Decay and Deprivation. I couldn’t be happier.
They wake to months-old news transmissions flowing across Ghost’s sensors: Remonstrance is gripped by famine and civil war as the AgriCorps fight brutally amongst themselves in open battle across the planet’s surface, as well as in low orbit. Turns out the Vex situation that the crew precipitated was the straw that broke the camels back. The AgriCorps had been gearing up for war for years, and it all exploded while the crew slept their dreamless sleep at the system’s edge.
Naturally, when we went through XP and found that the craft had earned an advance, they picked the special ability “The Ends Justify the Means”, which means they only take stress for pushing themselves for violence or mayhem if they roll a 1-3. It’s evil and I love it.
Also, and I wrote this down specifically so I could mention it here, but Brendon’s closing remarks were brilliant: “Are we the baddies?”
Next time: The crew get ready to strike the final, fatal blow against Vex, likely plunging the entire system into a forever war if they’re not careful (seriously, Remonstrance IV is one Chaos away from maxing out, and another new thing is that when a system hits maximum Chaos, it tips over and takes on a new status quo based on what’s happened to it so far – think Traumas, but for the setting itself). That session’s tonight, by the way. I’m shaking with anticipation.
Stray thoughts: In case you can’t tell, I’m very, very pleased with how this last session turned out. This was my aim with A Nocturne all along: the crew’s actions having massive, lasting, horrendous effects on the systems they passed through and messed around with. This idea of rippling consequences and situations quickly spiraling out of control as the crew break the surface tension of panhuman society. Even before this was Forged in the Dark, back when it was just a creepy glimmer in my weeping compound eye, A Nocturne had this baked in. The more I can lean into this stuff, the better.
Blades in the Dark Session 12 – The Crimson Snow Season Finale!
Blades in the Dark Session 12 – The Crimson Snow Season Finale!
This was it – the time for profit and power had arrived for the gangs of Crow’s Foot. The Crimson Snow set to embark on a daring raid to seize valuable military supplies and experimental electroplasmic equipment from under the noses of the Imperial Military. Every gang based in Crow’s Foot would need to pool their resources for the score, the biggest any of them had ever seen! After the requisite politicking and planning, the operation, named Ascending Griffon, began with exploiting the high state of alert in Duskwall to lure imperial military personnel away from Gaddoc Station – the Lampblacks succeeded in faking an attack by the sea demons, now loose in the city, in Nightmarket. Then the Snow moved in: Banks had procured an imperial officers uniform prior to the score and utilized it to great effect – diverting remaining soldiers from their watch on the train to Nightmarket.
The Crows meanwhile moved into the garrison at the station to clean up any stragglers. The Snow set about surveying the train itself. Hadius took the lead in checking out the second compartment where the most valuable supplies were to be found. However, he was disturbed to hear a voice calling from the chamber – the voice of a young boy. Moments later, the crew found themselves facing an active combat hull powered by the ghost of a child. Banks was hoping to circumvent the threat by speaking to the spirit child, but the Hull’s programming proved too strong and the crew were forced to fight. Ves, exploiting the distraction offered by Banks conversation with the spirit, drove a poleaxe through its back, causing serious damage to the hull. Unfortunately, the hull struck back, sending Ves flying into the wall of the compartment. Banks, realizing his words were having less and less impact, seized another polearm and shattered the hull’s soul canister. Ves, thinking quickly, exploited their connection with the ghost field to stabilize the dissipating spirit, calling the child into a more stable form, instructing it to stay nearby till they left.
At this point the Crows finished up their struggle with the remaining guards and met the Snow in time to start transferring goods from the train to the waiting open-top carriages provided by the Red Sashes, they were particularly keen to claim ownership of a number of the barrels of refined leviathan blood being carried in on the train… However, before they were ready to leave, three figures emerged from a nearby puddle. The sea demons, seeking to exploit the now undefended state of Gaddoc Station, thanked the rogues and their leader, one Korvaeth revealed their intention to destroy the station – an act that would likely doom many of the city’s residents to starvation and isolate Duskwall, even as the city still reeled from the destruction of the Docks.
Luckily, Ves had located a military flare and fired it off, hoping to draw the military back to the station. The crew realised a head on confrontation would likely end badly and so Hadius and Banks fled toward the Nightmarket, Banks hoping to meet up with the Imperial soldiers on their way back, Hadius simply wanting some bodies between him and the demons. Ves managed to keep one of the demons occupied to buy them some time, though suffered grave injury in the process. Meanwhile, Banks (still wearing his Imperial officer’s uniform) rallied the soldiers against another of the demons. Banks fought bravely alongside the troops until injured too severely to continue, he slunk away from the battlefield. The crew managed to make their exit, hearing later that one of the demons had been destroyed by the military (though presumably the others had escaped), and the station – though damaged, was still largely intact.
In the aftermath of the heist and the new riches they now laid claim to, the Snow pondered what lay next for them – could they now absorb the remaining Red Sashes into their own gang, what were those demons hoping to accomplish in attacking the station and chiefly – would they now finally manage to make and sell some drugs?!
GM’s notes – This was a great session – tense and exciting. It saw a number of plot threads we’d been exploring all season come together and find some kind of resolution while bringing up new threads the players are keen to explore in season 2 of our Duskwall adventures! The Hull was suitably creepy and the demons suitably terrifying. We’ll be playing another RPG for awhile, but we’re definitely keen to return to Blades for a follow up season in the future! I was particularly pleased that the big tense finale came about almost entirely because of the PC’s actions throughout our games. Anyway, hope you guys have enjoyed my little write-ups – Till next time! 😀
You hear them gloating about trailblazing new technologies.
You hear them gloating about trailblazing new technologies. They crow about their methods of discovery. It’s foolish. They batter open a metal door and pretend the bone door was never there, or that both doors do not lead into the same house. Have they forgotten that this city is five centuries older than its lightning towers?
We harvested leviathan blood, we emptied ghosts, we drank from the rivers behind the Mirror. We paid a cost for it, and we learned what was safe and what was not, and we had respect. They move too fast, take too much, and ignore all warning signs. The energy they treasure is not defenseless. There will be consequences.
From the Whisper Grizelda Slake’s personal correspondence to Nalia Finn, her apprentice
Scum & Villainy – question about the Repair downtime action.
Scum & Villainy – question about the Repair downtime action.
I’m a bit confused about the Rig roll that’s mentioned on page 188. The rules for the Repair activity say you spend one Cred to repair one damage on a ship system. The section about damage and systems says that broken modules are automatically repaired when the associated system damage is repaired Seems straightforward, but what is the Rig roll for? Is it just mentioned to contrast downtime repairs with the way damage is temporarily patched during missions or is there some effect that rolling Rig as part of a downtime repair should have?
Hi guys, are there tips, add-ons, or hacks for modifying Duskvol into a “traditional” fantasy city, that is, a…
Hi guys, are there tips, add-ons, or hacks for modifying Duskvol into a “traditional” fantasy city, that is, a medieval or renaissance city with some magic (but no ghosts, no electricity)? Think Duskvol before 551 IE. The BitD book has a chapter on modifying the core game’s mechanics, but it doesn’t address modifying the base setting and its mechanics… Hope you have some ideas. Thank you!
Scum & Villainy question here. So one of my players will be playing a xeno and on page 57, under starting ability it states:
“If you want to play a xeno (a member of an alien species) with a decidedly exceptional physique or abilities, you can replace your playbook starting ability with the following: Xeno: You may spend stress (0-2) to perform an inhuman feat only members of your species can do.”
On page 296 however, under Xenos in Play, it says to discuss what sort of things we can expect their xeno abilities (plural) to do with some guidelines for 0, 1 or 2 stress abilities.
My question is this: for a xeno character, mechanically, do they simply have the option to replace their starting playbook ability with a predefined stress-costing xeno ability or should they be fleshing out a whole host of differing-stress-cost abilities they can use on top of their playbook abilities? This really was not clear to me in the book.
Thanks in advance for any clarification y’all can provide.
