Am I right in my guess that after 50K there are no goals with Duskwall contents anymore? Would be too bad, imo.

Am I right in my guess that after 50K there are no goals with Duskwall contents anymore? Would be too bad, imo.

Am I right in my guess that after 50K there are no goals with Duskwall contents anymore? Would be too bad, imo.

Watching Cecil B.

Watching Cecil B.

Watching Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments yesterday (the Charlton Heston version) while paging through the Quick Start got me thinking about how well the movie’s second act could be adapted to the game.

You’ve got a Skovlan cult of the Nameless God infiltrating Duskwall. Some members of the cult are true believers, hoping to restore the True Faith to the Skovlan dockworkers and stewards who have suffered long in bondage. Of course, some members of the cult are agents provocateur, sent to destabilize the Empire and forestall Imperial predations on the Rigid Isle. And some of the cultists see the opportunity to avenge wrongs, fleece the gullible, and smash a few windows.

Arrayed against them? Well, you’ve got the established Imperial religions: the Weeping Lady, the Church of the Ecstasy of Flesh, the Path of Echoes. The Guilds won’t tolerate a religion that preaches casting off one’s shackles; the Bluecoats won’t stand for one that preaches civil disobedience.

And the local Skovlans won’t roll over and show their bellies, either. Some are skeptical from having been promised “a deliverer” for generations; some have grown comfortable with the little power they have and won’t risk it.

Tomorrow night is the Luminal Feast, a high holy day in the Church of the Weeping Lady, when three great braziers in the belfries of the Church illuminate a night full of celebration and games. Of course, the date of the Luminal Feast was changed to its current date three hundred years ago, in order to supplant the Vigil of the Burning Brand, a day sacred to the Nameless God.

The Cult’s first score: steal or destroy the three braziers before the night of the Luminal Feast.

Speak Not Our God’s Name!

Just read through the quick start and I’m loving the system.

Just read through the quick start and I’m loving the system.

Just read through the quick start and I’m loving the system.  I’m curious though if you intend to have a variant rule about group ticks in the final book?  If not, here’s the hack/variant rule that my group intends to use (it’s based on nWoD 2nd Ed’s “Group Beats”):

At the end of each session each player adds their Desperate Action Ticks into a group pool, which is then divided out evenly to each member of the crew.  If this does not divide evenly, then the left over ticks remain in the group pool to be added at the end of next session.

They then do the same with Playbook Advancement Ticks.

(Alternatively, the left over ticks could go towards Crew Advancement)

I understand that items in italics don’t count for equipment slots. But what do items in bold represent?

I understand that items in italics don’t count for equipment slots. But what do items in bold represent?

I understand that items in italics don’t count for equipment slots. But what do items in bold represent?

Pg 8 under Changing Roles says the person on point chooses someone new to be on point after they use a teamwork move.

Pg 8 under Changing Roles says the person on point chooses someone new to be on point after they use a teamwork move.

Pg 8 under Changing Roles says the person on point chooses someone new to be on point after they use a teamwork move.

I’m curious why not to let the non-point players just decide among themselves who next takes point. I like the idea of the players actually learning to work well as a team based on strategic point passing, but in play I see it working more openly with players just choosing for themselves who takes point.

Compendium Playbooks?

Compendium Playbooks?

Compendium Playbooks?

Would there be room within the BitD design space for something like Dungeon World’s compendium classes? After meeting certain in-fiction qualifications, players could choose to take advanced/alternate special abilities, items, and maybe new friends from specialized playbooks.

For instance, there could be a compendium playbook for each of the backgrounds (noble, bluecoat, merchant, etc) , heritages (especially Tycheros), being a ghost or golem, being part of various other factions such as a leviathan hunter, rail jack, gondolier, or deathlands scavenger. There could be compendium playbooks for a character who is demon-touched (after making a Faustian deal), a vampire, a ward boss, specialized scoundrel types (a wheelman, a second-story man, demolitionist, torturer), a military veteran or officer, imperial agent, journalist, agitator, etc.

What ideas would you like to see further explored?

This occurred to me while considering how to add dragonmark effects to an Eberron hack, along with Kai Tave’s great thread seeking more robust special ability options for playbooks, and finally [someone else’s] conversation about giving a character ghost abilities to use while disembodied. (I’m sorry, I forget who was mentioning this last one).

So I tried running Blades again this past week.

So I tried running Blades again this past week.

So I tried running Blades again this past week. I got to try it with the couple of changes to the quick start rules. Nothing big changed, just a little stream lining. This time round we ended up with myself playing a character as long as GMing, and two other players. We end up trying to assassinate Bazso Baz, the leader of the Lampblack gang. Hilarity ensued.

This time round I had a much better grasp of the devil’s bargain, so I was able to offer bonus dice for complications. Best one we had for the night was when we left evidence that we had been there by forcing Bazso to sign a contract giving us all of his legitimate property…then leaving a carbon copy with our names and addresses. We had a more light hearted game than usual to say the least.

Consequences went better as well. Now that we remembered that you can choose to take the consequence or take stress, things tended to stick more. It was interesting to see how the group argued about going about things, since each play book gains XP for different things. Our ninja needed to get in and out undetected, while our killer needed mayhem. It lead to some interesting dynamics within the group.

The changes to mechanics was welcome. Made things faster since the number of stats you pick from went from 6 to 4. Much cleaner. I’ll be trying this out again hopefully in the near future for sure.

http://ramblingsofjacobanddelos.com/2015/04/06/blades-in-the-dark-round-two/

Anybody else making inspiration connections between Duskwall and the 1919 Birmingham gangster drama Peaky Blinders?

Anybody else making inspiration connections between Duskwall and the 1919 Birmingham gangster drama Peaky Blinders?

Anybody else making inspiration connections between Duskwall and the 1919 Birmingham gangster drama Peaky Blinders?

I’ve only seen the first episode myself, but it offers an intriguing view of the interplay and turf tensions between the various gangs (Peaky Blinders (bookies/racketeers), communists, the IRA, the Italian and Chinese communities, etc), the somewhat corrupt coppers, and uncompromising inspectors. It also offers a telling peak into the huge societal and psychological impact of WWI.