Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Question about proxies – (making somebody)^n do something

I want to know if my game experience is off (thus I should fix it) or my expectations are off (and I should learn the damn rules). The most obvious thing in my group is an increased level of proxies used on the part of the PCs. I would like to know whether it is a red flag or not. And if not, how to handle it in the spirit of Blades / FitD.

The Actual Play:

We are playing a FitD game (Copperhead Country) with two friends (I am GMing). The group of characters started out with a focus on scheming to begin with, and now we are on a track I am rather wary of. The first 3 jobs were nice, mildly challenging negotiations. First it was difficult for me to draw a line between Free Play and Score phase and call for an Engagement Roll as the fiction remained mostly the same before and after (schmoozing, negotiating), and I guess, I was already discontent on some level, if the following sessions are any evidence–the other players may have felt my itching for more dynamic action scenes.

The last two sessions were more dynamic, but the PCs less present in the fiction. In the first one of these, they paid someone to do some bad thing to another person. The PCs were involved in the deal but not the actual crime. Yesterday (last session) it got bigger: they sent a crew Cohort to pay someone to make someone do a bad thing to someone–that is, the PCs are 4 degrees of separation from the target. (Also, doing the whole act in the name of someone else again.) If not for some mistake (which was not guaranteed), they could have solved the Score with PCs present only in the preparations (Flashback scenes) this time again.

The Question(s):

– Should more than two degree of separation (make your Cohort do something) happen from any important player initiated action happen in this game? (Is it okay if PCs only show up in Flashbacks?)

– If that’s all right, how do we handle them? As many Fortune rolls as detailed we want to show the NPCs on-screen?

After spending this weekend playing the Anthem demo with the girlfriend I find myself turning over ideas on how to…

After spending this weekend playing the Anthem demo with the girlfriend I find myself turning over ideas on how to make it work in a Forged in the Dark framework. Characters would be a little simpler, but would have swappable loadouts to represent the game’s focus on gear and switching between Javelin types between missions. The crew would be replaced by your Enclave type (three I am thinking are Freelancer, Arcanist, and Guardian), which would work more like the ships in Scum than Crews in Blades….. still working on the ideas, but that’s the basic shape at the moment.

From “Deadly Ideas and their Echoes” by Dr. Nuss Tyvaria

Violent rebellion needs thinkers to give shape to the dissatisfaction of the people. One of the great inflammatory ideologies was ‘excessive dependency,’ provided by Dr. Hope Brahdell. In this view of history, humans were optimized to be independent with chosen dependencies. Civilization built on trading independence for safety and comfort forced humans to overspecialize and be plunged into dependence on their rulers and experts for survival.

During the Smorton Uprising of 618, saboteurs intent on forcing citizens to revert to prime dependency blew up the lightning wall generators around Nightmarket. A tide of ghosts rushed in, drawn by the hot blood of the living. The slaughter underscored the helplessness of the modern individual bereft of technology, specialists, or aristocratic protection. At the time, Nightmarket had become the last stop of the desperate, and the district was overcrowded with starving paupers. We will never know how many thousands died.

What we do know is that incident revealed a growing endorsement of ‘excessive dependency’ among the cruelest aristocrats, who adapted the idea to suggest that those who could not provide a level of independence through offering value should be exterminated. And so the horrific question lingers; was the Smorton Uprising triggered by rebels trying to issue a wake-up call to a slave population? Or was it a purge of the city’s neediest parasites by the aristocrats?

Adam Koebel—”…and if [Google+] ever goes away, Sage will probably be torn into a thousand small pieces…”

🙁 Someone make sure Sage LaTorra is okay!

https://youtu.be/C3juy7d8duc?t=8400

I should ask this before G+ fades and recedes into the grey mists of time.

I should ask this before G+ fades and recedes into the grey mists of time. Are there any essential resources for someone just starting out? Thanks!

Hi all-

I just wanted to let you all know that I have a new Forged in the Dark hack that is an add on / tier reward for the Dog Days comic Kickstart campaign (only 4 days left!). Dog Days is a noir crime / cult mystery in an alternate reality. Its about anthropomorphic animals embroiled in very human stories, with an epic twist (that I won’t spoil).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/169403909/dog-days-a-zootopia-crime-noir-story

~~-Dog Days the Roleplaying Game-~~

Create your own stories in the world of Dog Days. Play a pack of adventurous characters as they uncover dark secrets in an alternate reality. Pound the pavement as a bull and drop the arm on the crook that left the floater in the river. Stalk the shadows as a vigilante out to settle a score. Or play a stir-wise villain with a sinister plan to get the hook on that flossy politician. Whatever you choose to do, it is time to show the city who is top dog. Dog Days the RPG uses the Forged in the Dark system.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/169403909/dog-days-a-zootopia-crime-noir-story

I’m having some trouble figuring out how to make the character I’ve put together work with the stats.

So I put together sort of a street rat turned spy and chameleon. The way I’m picturing the character, they have little to no academic knowledge, but a high level of intuitive understanding of people. So their way of working would involve sort of reading the room, seeing who’s important, who’s not paying attention, and then watching certain people for clues or for seeing what he can overhear. In a group, this would also cover watching if certain people are getting suspicious or what they think of others, or similar skills. They’re also mostly good at dealing with people; because they rely on observation and deception they’re not so good at surveying territory.

But I feel like I’m running into problems trying to represent that on the sheet. The first half sounds like surveying, the second like studying. But I also feel like the character’s lack of academic knowledge in particular makes the study skill particularly inappropriate for them, and surveying also covers a lot of sort of spatial awareness that doesn’t really fit. I’m aware that I could choose to just not roll for those, but that restricts the character to just not trying. It also feels a bit punitive to me to have to spend essentially double the points to do what feels like part of my character’s main thing, when I then have to ignore most of what the skills represent because it doesn’t fit the character. I’d rather just spend one set of points to get the social “people reading” skills and then actually roll 0 dice on the academic and terrain survey skills. It’s been making gaining experience feel like I’m playing catch-up to the basic character rather than a reward.

So I guess I’m asking, how would you represent a character that’s good at reading the room, good at reading individual motivations, bad at academics, and only ok at spatial stuff? Preferably without investing in being good at academics and then just sort of pretending that’s not on the sheet?

I’ve put together a playlist of the Scum and Villainy game we’re currently playing.

I’ve put together a playlist of the Scum and Villainy game we’re currently playing. It’s clunky, since we’re also teaching ourselves the system, but I thought it might be of interest.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfpTPTXP0TzMnqa76XrFny28bGv0AiIDs

Howdy folks!

I am a bright eyed and greenhorned designer looking to make his first thorough blades hack. I have a solid groundwork with what I want but I am not sure where I can get the resources to make it look presentable. I often do my writing work through open office writer as I am a broke English teacher.

Does the group have any templates, fonts or layout editors for things like playbooks?

Thanks in advance!

Hi all – I’ll be releasing the first full draft (beta) of my heroic fantasy hack soon.

Hi all – I’ll be releasing the first full draft (beta) of my heroic fantasy hack soon. I’d like to be able to include interesting magical artifacts. If you are bored, suggest a few! Also let me know how you want me to credit you in the book.

I’ll assume that all weapons are “fine” quality.

To get you started:

Beads of Terror: These bone beads can be woven into an individual’s hair or beard. When activated, they emit a fearsome swirling smoke with fleeting images of sinister creatures. You have potency on actions to intimidate. Once per session you can use Bash or Command to cause an opponent to either flee or freeze in terror.

Glaive of the Reaver: The haft of this glaive is intricately carved. Once per session, the bearer can leap from ranged distance to melee distance and attack a gang of opponents on equal footing.