Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

On the summary page “Action, Effect, & Resistance Rolls” under “Desperate” under “4/5:” it states:

Things go badly. The danger manifests. You must abandon this approach OR try again by taking a bigger risk and rolling a DESPERATE move.”

So, the bigger risk is in the fiction only, right? There is no level more desperate than “Desperate.” This is not only abstract, it’s damn punishing. 

My group would prefer pulling from the “Controlled” consequences, and letting the character do it, but the danger manifests, and they are -1 success level on Effect rolls. That makes more intuitive sense, doesn’t it?

My players had a real problem with the “Controlled” dice results. They felt it was punishing to have reduced effect on 4-5, considering that does not happen on Risky or Desperate rolls! Why be punished when you have the best circumstances you can have?

This is how we think it should be:

Crit: Success, increased effect +1, and an additional effect +1 OR additional opportunity.

6: You do it! Effect +1.

4-5: You do it!

1-3: You reveal a flaw, you can either back out or escalate to Risky.

This game is not focused around the individual encounter, but the flow of a session. Within that session there’s one or more heists. It’s just fine, under controlled circumstances, to let the players succeed and move on to the next challenge.

Considering no matter how good the circumstances are, you can’t get a complete success without rolling a 6, and the dice pools are pitifully small, my players reported that they did not feel their characters were competent. This adjustment could help, because when the circumstances favor the rogues they are much more likely to have a competent success and not be undercut if they don’t roll a 6.

Before playing, it looked like the “detached” special ability for Hounds was overpowering; no one else can voluntarily get rid of stress during a mission. Then during the mission every roll was low dice pool and important, so it never got used. So, I guess it is not overpowered.

Suggestion: it would be helpful to add “Military” as a possible background.