Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

I posted a couple days ago about thinking about reskinning BitD to run Werewolf: The Forsaken 2E. Enough people +1 or commented that I figured it was worth posting more notes.

Soon I need to write up all my notes in a more organized manner, plus I need to make character playbooks and pack playbooks, but in the meantime here is a very rough overview of what I’m thinking. I’m very open to any feedback, negative or positive. Also, the below uses a lot of terms from WtF without explaining them — I’m basically assuming you’re familiar with both BitD and WtF.

—————

The playbooks are by the characters role in the pack, rather than tribe or auspice or any of the basic WtF splats. Instead each playbook has a choice of two auspices, which grants a move (similar to races in Dungeon World). Then you can pick any tribe with any playbook Below is a very preliminary list of five playbooks.

* Killer (rahu:warrior or irraka:assassin)

* Stalker (irraka:shadow or ithauer:spirit-hunter)

* Howler (cahalith:war-howler or rahu:champion)

* Face (elodoth:mediator or cahalith:charismatic)

* Spirit-talker (ithauer:witch or elodoth:emissary)

The action and effect lists will be tweaked, but will work the same way. 

Backgrounds become place and role in the human world and work the same way. So occupation, social status, etc.

Tribes determine allies and may impact gear. They don’t have a lot of direct mechanical impact and are mostly about tying your character to the larger werewolf society. 

Gifts are bought at the tree level. There are no individual gifts. So you might have Shadow, Nature, and New Moon, for example. They do a couple things:

Narratively, you can describe little color effects for free. You can also spend Stress to do supernatural effects (like intimidating all the lights to burn out). It’s similar to the Rituals special ability, I suppose. 

You get a Gift from your auspice, one from your Tribe, and one or more from a list on your playbook. Gift lists are more tied to playbook than to auspice or tribe. 

Rites are basically just an action and then made up free-form in play. 

For shape-shifting, all the forms except hishu grant +1D to some actions (like a Background) but also count as a condition for some actions and have narrative limitations. The wolf forms (gauru and the two wolf forms) have weapons that count as fine gear. Gauru also have armor. I have no ideas on handling death rage yet. 

Regeneration is simple. Spending Stress to avoid physical harm can be described as luck, skill, or burning power to heal quickly. Also, physical harm heals one segment after each scene and heals completely between hunts. Unless it’s aggravated, in which case it recovers like every other type of condition. 

The Pack sheet includes the totem, other pack mates, the territory, pack status, and relations with other packs, spirits, and other supernaturals. “Coin” is renamed, but basically covers essence and other spendable resources. 

What else? The game basically runs exactly like BitD. The pack does hunts. There are leaders and followers and they switch as usual. Heat is trouble with spirits, other packs, humans, etc. I’m thinking of somehow working the Hunter Aspects into the group hunt moves. Maybe it will be mechanical, or maybe it’s just narrative (whoever is currently leading, their Aspect is in effect).

I’m basically scrapping Harmony as a separate concept, but I picture Vices playing a similar thematic role in some ways. 

There will be minor reskinning of gang tiers to be more about territory than status, but it’s basically the same. Also, other “gangs” aren’t just other werewolves. Spirits, hosts, and even other types of supernatural beings are all rivals and allies. Improving your territory is going to require allies and make enemies within and near your territory. 

Obviously that’s not everything, but it’s my high-level thinking at the moment. 

So… thoughts? Criticisms? Suggestions? 

Obviously, I’m emphasizing the parts of WtF that I like most and/or that I think for BitD best and I’m cutting or changing other things. It’s very likely that in at least some areas, my priorities and preferences will differ from yours. That’s fine.