Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Here is the Introvideo for my game session “Midnight Empire” a hack of BitD, resolving around Vampires, Mutations,…

Here is the Introvideo for my game session “Midnight Empire” a hack of BitD, resolving around Vampires, Mutations, fallen Angels and a hell lot of Pulp in a city resembling the one from the film “Dark City”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQzif_nVt0A

I played a one shot using the new quickstart last night.

I played a one shot using the new quickstart last night. It was good fun, with our crew fanning the flames of the war between the Lampblacks and Red Sashes in the hope that both gangs would end up wrecked. They finished up by stealing some Lampblacks turf in a brutal takedown.

I was pleased by how well the plan mechanics flowed, and despite a few hiccups as we tried to work out other details, the rest hung together as well.

I’m looking forward to running a longer game, although probably won’t have a chance soon (currently at 1943 in a Night Witches game, and next chunk of our One Ring campaign will be up next).

Just some ongoing reflections about actions.

So now we have three actions for combat, and one for movement. Stealth, swimming, climbing, running–all of it is Prowl. If you are good at stealth, you are good at sports. If you are good at climbing, you are good at swimming. Movement is movement.

An individual can no longer cultivate skill in managing contacts and buying things. Jean Reno’s character Vincent from Ronin is no longer something you can mechanically represent in the game. You don’t have a fixer, and if you want to buy things or fence them or whatever you must fall back on your gang’s tier as the only method to do so.

To clarify, that means the only way you can get better at fencing things and purchasing esoteric materials is by getting in a bigger criminal enterprise. You can’t do it freelance. Even if you were once really good at it, you change affiliations and you suck again.

I believe Secure has been broken down into Discern and Finesse. Lock picking and sleight of hand are conflated into a single action, as is safe cracking, escaping bonds, and disarming traps. I’m not delighted by this, but I can live with it I guess.

What if tinker, a VERY specific concept, was broadened to mechanics? What if it was then used for locks, traps, and devices?

I do not think this needs a mechanical change, but I hope in the full version of the game there is a treatment of how to do art. If doing a painting, you may mix discern and finesse to fill a clock, and to get a masterpiece there must be at least one critical success. Playing music could be finesse, or sway. Sight reading music may be cipher.

I do think there is room to make a whole set of special abilities for applying actions to art to gain certain effects; forgery, shifting the mood of the audience, distraction, applications for dance for seduction or movement, composing or virtuoso playing for fame and fortune, and that sort of thing.

I would not make a playbook of it, but I would make it available so any playbook could take the special abilities to make art and performance part of their characters in a way that could be useful to downtime or heists.

I have some reflections on the game after my session last night.

One is, this idea is super-fun and I’m glad I got it to the table at last.

https://plus.google.com/115462175177465088519/posts/GaBxckA8M3S

Let’s talk rules for a minute.

Any doubts I had are gone, on how great it is merging the action and effect roll. It’s smooth, intuitive, and good stuff altogether.

I’m not sure if this is right, but I ruled that when one person takes a point of stress to grant another person +1d, then the helping character doesn’t need to make a roll to be a part of a group action.

For example, if a whisper is using Attune to get through a spooky environment while damping the signature of life force that attracts ghosts, someone could spend 1 stress and contribute +1d to the ghost and not have to roll to see if the whisper takes stress for leading the action or not.

Is that right? I welcome other thoughts. It was a really nice way for non-skilled people to help out and not make the leader more vulnerable to failure; automatic stress, yes, but helping the whole group.

Previously I had been sort of willfully ignorant in using fine quality items, letting them grant +1 on the action roll rather than +1 effect. The main reason for this was because there is only an effect if there is a clock to fill, otherwise the action roll does it all. So your fine equipment does not help at all for a simple roll, and that’s awful.

I think it might be cool to let the player choose whether they grant +1d on the roll or +1 effect. With multiple items that could apply, perhaps one of each. (Like a whisper with a spirit mask, and a signet ring of the ghost in question.)

I miss rolling for heat. I miss rolling for the development.

I was skeptical of entanglement at the beginning of the mission, but it was fun for the mission where they snuck in; the nobleman got home two days early, and they had to scramble. =)

I like getting two actions for downtime instead of free actions and an optional action.

For my games, I am inverting the vice/trauma. You clear stress with 4 dice with 0 trauma, -1d per point of trauma. It really helped us get stress cleared so we could do two heists in one session, and it creates a penalty for gaining trauma instead of a bonus.

I hope this feedback is helpful.

Ran a session of Blades in the Dark last night at my game table in real space.

Ran a session of Blades in the Dark last night at my game table in real space. We had a great time! Here is a play report.

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/blades-in-the-dark-the-professors/

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/blades-in-the-dark-the-professors

I just ran a heist one shot for my group and we had a blast. However one rule tripped us up.

They chose to pull an infiltration job, so there was a lot of prowling. Likely they had a lurk to take point on these stealthy moves. But when she took that lead the group action, we got confused. The rules say when they take that action, each character rolls for the action and the group takes the highest result. The first problem we saw was that some of the characters had no traits in prowl, so they had zero dice to roll. I figure that means that the lurk would have to just take a stress for each of them to cover for their foybles, but that was not clear in the rules. The second problem we saw was that there was no reason the lurk needed to lead the prowl action. In fact a character with no prowl traits would be just as good at leading it since the lurk would also get to roll and just wouldn’t have to take stess. This seems counter intuitive to me. Logically I imagine that the most skilled character would lead group actions in a check and that would be re-enforced by a bonus to the group. The second time the lurk lead a team prowl I just had each character use the lurks prowl trait. I know that is probably a bit much, but it felt better to the players than the first roll.

So, how is this intended to work? Did we miss something? How can it work better? I would appreciate any insights you guys have. Thank you.

Its a nice list with names. May be usefull for some.

Its a nice list with names. May be usefull for some.

Originally shared by Steampunk Tendencies

What is your Steampunk Name?

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I had recently finished playing Thief: the Dark Project and am now starting the Metal Age when I see the first…

I had recently finished playing Thief: the Dark Project and am now starting the Metal Age when I see the first briefing telling me to help a friend of mine, a certain Basso guy.

Please tell me this was on purpose.

I am still troubled by the way trauma and vice fit together.

I am still troubled by the way trauma and vice fit together. I’m seriously considering swapping it for my games, and here is a discussion exploring that idea.

https://plus.google.com/113881370051836623777/posts/AvDyjgPgvaH

For my games online with gangs, it doesn’t matter. We won’t do down time for those anyway.

I have a hard time getting comfortable with spending experience on elements outside the character, unless there is a…

I have a hard time getting comfortable with spending experience on elements outside the character, unless there is a way to recycle that experience if something happens to the external element.

What happens if a Hound invests special abilities in a pet, and it dies? Is the upgrade about learning how to invest this power in a pet, so the Hound can start with a new one and add the ability? Can the Hound sell it, and then invest the power in a new animal for free as a down time project to make some extra coin?

Or does the character just lose the experience and special ability until it is purchased with Coin by getting a similarly gifted animal? Is it impossible for a Hound to buy an animal with special qualities because it requires experience and a playbook special ability?

If a Lurk wants to buy a pet with a special ghost ability, does the Lurk need to get the Veteran special ability and take this off the Hound’s playbook to do it? Is that in addition to coin?

Because experience is involved, there is this abstract cost that is added to the potential concrete cost of having to pay coin (which you don’t have to do in picking up other special abilities.) Or you just get lucky and find one, or conduct a heist to steal one.

Just something I’m reflecting on as I review the playbooks.

My recommendation: give the Hound the ability to BOND with animals who have special abilities. That’s entirely within the character, who can choose to get an animal it will work with.