I think there may be room for a third kind of activity.

I think there may be room for a third kind of activity.

I think there may be room for a third kind of activity. We have heists and downtime currently. I think it might be useful to codify “react” as an action that can be triggered by the GM or by an entanglement.

Heist is a proactive mission. Down time is what happens between those missions. I see “react” as coping with an attack on hold, coin, or crew members. Any decent crew is going to be making enemies. The inspectors especially, and other crews that have their ear to the ground and pick up on the crew’s activity may take an interest. They may attack, or shut down lucrative opportunities, or punish allies, or even raid the lair.

There is an example of this in the quick start, with someone maybe wanting to stab a character in her sleep, and what do you do? But that doesn’t fit in as a heist, and it’s a bit odd as down time; it would feel punitive, out of nowhere, I think.

I have represented “heat” to my players as being trouble not just with the law, but other factions. So a mechanic might tie into heat; the hotter things get, the more likely either a downtime reaction is triggered as an attack on the crew, its assets, and its allies; or as a full-blown reaction mission, where kidnapping or assassination or theft escalate to actually damage character and crew.

This plays into the grit of a game where you are pushing on people who are likely to push back. You don’t get to choose the point of engagement all the time; you devastate them by hitting their weak points, and surely they’ll respond in kind.

Just a thought.

Some other on-the-fly worldbuilding I did in this session:

Some other on-the-fly worldbuilding I did in this session:

Some other on-the-fly worldbuilding I did in this session:

If you want to drink yourself into oblivion, there is a pricey alcohol that is tainted with leviathan blood. It takes your dreams deep in the crushing black.

The lead harpoonist on a whaler had her arm taken by a leviathan. She got another one carved out of bone, covered in glyphs, and she activated it by thrusting it into the eye of a still-living leviathan. Now it works like a normal arm. Also, she rarely shows her teeth, but when she does smile, you can see she’s got scrimshaw on her teeth. It is best not to ask why. Her aura and shadow is writhing and deep with the massive lives she’s taken.

When the leviathan hunting ships are in port, whispers wearing bone masks with only one eye hole roam the killing floor and the rest of the ship with their long wands, spooling up death energies and the raging spirits of slain demon whales. This cleansing has to happen each port of call. If you skip it, the death energy builds and horrible, horrible things happen aboard the ship.

The killing floor on the top deck of the ship has a gummy layer of leviathan blood on it. Bits of bone and higher bits of metal are not covered, so walking across the weirdly soundless gummy mat is like treading on a starfield.

Corpses lost in the canals have their energy woven through the waters. These traces of energy and awareness and despairing rage clutch at anything that falls under the surface. If enough death builds in a canal, something slimy carries it out.

Snow flares and dies as it blows through the electroplasm fences around the city. You can see a light show in the shape of the wind, and even the snow, which is the death of clouds, is swept into nothingness by their energy.

There is a forbidden magical practice called Second Death Hogs. Before electroplasm was harnessed, and spirit energies destroyed, whispers would banish spirits into hogs. Then they would kill the possessed hog, and the second death would take. These Second Death hogs are now illegal to make, but their almost-human and haunted flesh can provide powerful magical materials.

Isn’t that fun?

I have no idea what the “Path of Echoes” will be when the book is done.

I have no idea what the “Path of Echoes” will be when the book is done.

I have no idea what the “Path of Echoes” will be when the book is done. Still, my group took a -1 faction with them, and asked me who they were.

I said it was an old religion that used to be ancestor worship. They take exception to the electroplasmic destruction, since they believe the destruction of ancestor spirits makes the future a barren dreamscape. Therefore, they resort to sabotage and murder in an attempt to eventually put an end to the practice of ghost dissipation.

So I ran a second session, also doing character and crew creation and two heists.

So I ran a second session, also doing character and crew creation and two heists.

So I ran a second session, also doing character and crew creation and two heists. This time it was three hours total, online no less. What was different?

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/another-blades-in-the-dark-adventure-summary/

ESCALATION. Both characters took the “Daring” special ability, and they used it constantly. They also constantly overreached for better results. Even when the dice were poor, they would increase the danger and try again.

WAS IT EASIER FOR THE SECOND GROUP? It’s hard for me to tell from my position, subjectively. Did I go easier on them than I did on the previous group? Well, they had a lot less clocks, but in general they tried plans that were more compact. Maybe? There were less clocks, anyway. I had never played with them before, or they with me, so that changes the dynamic too. I dunno. Also, this was my second time, and I spent half the weekend on G+ analyzing the last session.

Upon reflection, it WAS easier. I focused more on effect clocks and used little or no resistance clocks. I think I was gunshy about the terrible response last time.

I NEED HELP WITH EXPERIENCE. Trying to figure out experience is still difficult for me. I forget how they raise the crew upgrades; I figure it’s in the quickstart somewhere, but there’s overlapping reporting on various elements of downtime and session wrap-up and I don’t know where. I need a reference for how each thing raises, to consult during play, after each heist, and at the end of a session.

NEW BACKGROUND. I added “Whaler” as a background; use that to avoid being nauseated by anything, to know the culture of the sea, to be stone-faced in the midst of slaughter, and so on.

I still don’t feel like I’ve got a really good grasp on everything, but this adventure went a lot smoother than the last one, and these players want to try again.

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/another-blades-in-the-dark-adventure-summary

I ran a second session of Blades in the Dark.

I ran a second session of Blades in the Dark.

I ran a second session of Blades in the Dark. This one was my very first online session of gaming ever. It went really well! The players want to play again, so that’s a good sign. Here’s the play report.

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/another-blades-in-the-dark-adventure-summary/

https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/another-blades-in-the-dark-adventure-summary

Hey all.

Hey all.

Hey all.  I know we’ve got several Blades in the Dark Pinterest boards floating about, so I’d just like to toss mine in with the lot:

https://www.pinterest.com/shadowfell/blades-in-the-dark/

Mostly character-inspired until today when I threw in a bunch of art from Thief and Dishonored.  Enjoy!

https://www.pinterest.com/shadowfell/blades-in-the-dark

I explained to my players that vices were “things that help scoundrels relax, and pull their attention away from…

I explained to my players that vices were “things that help scoundrels relax, and pull their attention away from…

I explained to my players that vices were “things that help scoundrels relax, and pull their attention away from scoundrelling.”

In that vein, I suggest a couple more that could be intriguing. Family Doting and Academics. Both are time intensive, require loyalty, and have endless expenses. =)

Actual Play Report

Actual Play Report

Actual Play Report

Synopsis: Three scoundrels (comprising a gang of thieves calling themselves The Redeemers) were invited by the new boss of the Crow’s Foot to… handle a delicate matter.

The Lampblacks had managed to steal a rather valuable sword from the Red Sashes, and were planning to use it to ignite a gang war on their own terms.  Lyssa wants the sword stolen back, and returned, in such a way as to allow all parties to save face and maintain the teneous peace.

The Redeemers consist of:

* Brick, a Cutter and former Bluecoat who was stabbed in the back by his own brothers when trying to report on some of their own illegal activities.

* Maggie (or The Magpie, according to some of the fishwrappers), a noble Slide that started thieving as a means of rebellion, and whom prefers to target old blood nobility for their slights against her nouveux riche family.  Also in an on-again-off-again relationship with Basco.

* Deacon, a Whisper who devoutly believes that confession is good for the soul; an information broker and blackmail artist trying to save people from this broken world.

The play in brief:

The trio of Redeembers charmed their way (with the aid of a barrel of ale) into the Lampblacks front, where a celebration was underway, cheering the victory of the capture of the sword and the plan to use it to force the Red Sashes’ hands when and where they want.  Maggie stole Basco (who was holding on to the sword) away with dancing and some alone time; therein she used some trance powder to knock out the boss and slipped out a window, sword in hand.

Meanwhile, Brick and Deacon did some snooping; they found a Bluecoat was responcible for the actual acquisition of the sword in question; the ‘coat in question (Volette) is soon painted as someone playing both sides against the middle- trying to bait the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes into an ambush by her true blue family.

Once outside with the sword, the trio donned disguises as a Bluecoat (Brick) with two ‘associates of dubious quality’ headed over to the Red Sashes headquarters, with the sword disguised in an unusually long and large scroll-case.

Nominally, they are there to collect their regular bribe from the Red Sashes- using this as cover to sneak the sword back into the Sashes vault, while also lifting some extra coin (and pinning it on the Bluecoats).

End result: The Lampblacks blame Volette for double dealing them when the sword goes missing.  The Sashes blame the Bluecoats when the money goes missing.  And the Redeemers walk away with their commision from Lyssa, a bit of increased goodwill from the Crow’s Foot, and neither of the other parties any the wiser.

——

Thoughts on play:

* Play was generally pretty smooth.  The clocks worked pretty intuitively- the only time they reall stumped the players was early on, trying to get the sword away from Basco; due to some really poor rolls, they only managed to fill three sections out of four on the clock, and had to brainstorm for a bit on yet another approach to close the job.

* The other point of friction was probably in part learning how to pace in Blades; the players often wanted more fine grained task resolution, and were frustrated at stuff like Fine Items not applying.  About halfway through, I suggested a tweak where if a resolution roll wasn’t applicible, then having a Fine Item gives you +1d on your Action roll.

* Acquire Asset being a Downtime action fights against the ‘minimal planning’ approach- Acquire Asset seems like the right thing to use when they wanted the extra large scroll case, so I fiated that it was used.

(Alternatively, it could have been brought in via flashback, in retrospect)

* The player of Deacon wanted to use Faith as his Vice; I was frankly unclear as to how that should work within the fiction.  In particular, how to tempt him (such as via Devil’s Bargin) with that Vice, as opposed to something like Drink or Luxuries.

* I would recommend skipping the attitude-setting section of gang creation for the Quickstart; we got kind of bogged down about who the various factions are (or are supposed to be), given that we only have a thin slice of them, and even a smaller slice are meaningful in the QS.

* Brick’s player initially wanted to be an ex-soldier turned criminal mercenary, which suggests a Military background as being appropriate.  (Granted, it could work as Labor, but that brings a very different idea to mind)

* Amongst the questions to ask players during character creation, an important one to focus on is ‘How does your character break the law to personally profit, and why are they in a gang rather than working alone?’  The player of Deacon initially envisaged a much more altruistic character that didn’t really fit as a scoundrel in a gang of thieves.

I can bullshit my way through this, but I’d like to hear if the community has a more concrete notion on how to…

I can bullshit my way through this, but I’d like to hear if the community has a more concrete notion on how to…

I can bullshit my way through this, but I’d like to hear if the community has a more concrete notion on how to handle this:

When an Enemy Faction is attempting to gather information on the PCs, the QS says the PCs may resist this by making a roll.  What roll would that be? As worded, I feel like that means they make some kind of Effect roll to resist the enemy’s gather info.  But could there be an action roll involved as well?

Here’s what I’m thinking of doing: The PCs are met with a “news-reporter” who’s asking them about the crimes they were picked up by the police for. This guy is going to try and get an interview in their base and all that jazz so he can talk to them and “get their side of the story as he’s investigating police corruption.”  Any thoughts on how I should let the PCs resist this attempt at gathering info on them?