While working on some setting things for Folded Steel, I hit on the idea of the group changing over time and…

While working on some setting things for Folded Steel, I hit on the idea of the group changing over time and…

While working on some setting things for Folded Steel, I hit on the idea of the group changing over time and becoming something else. The thought is that certain crew types are tied to certain tier ranges. There is only so high a team of Racers can climb in the setting before they hit their cap, and need to change. I don’t want it to be a full stop change over though. Two different groups that started as different types in the lower tier should have a mechanical difference if they become the same type at a higher tier.There needs to be some sort of legacy crew ability. Something the Racers in my example get to retain when they step up and become involved on the bigger stage, that the other group wouldn’t have because they were Scrappers, or a Street Gang, or whatever.

Thoughts? Am I making it more complicated than it needs to be? Should I just shut up and go back to working on the setting info until I see more mechanics from the core game?

Sort of a long shot, I know, but is there anyone in the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania up for a game?

Sort of a long shot, I know, but is there anyone in the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania up for a game?

Sort of a long shot, I know, but is there anyone in the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania up for a game? I’d be more than willing to run one, and there’s a store north of Pittsburgh (Gamemasters on Babcock Blvd) where I can host the game.

Another great inspiration involving ghosts and things worse:

Another great inspiration involving ghosts and things worse:

Another great inspiration involving ghosts and things worse:

http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Silence-Forests-Hell-Cosmere-ebook/dp/B00U9T2QVI/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1427943635&sr=1-5&keywords=brandon+sanderson

http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Silence-Forests-Hell-Cosmere-ebook/dp/B00U9T2QVI/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1427943635&sr=1-5&keywords=brandon+sanderson

Alright, so trying to do chargen, and a friend has a character concept I’m trying to model.

Alright, so trying to do chargen, and a friend has a character concept I’m trying to model.

Alright, so trying to do chargen, and a friend has a character concept I’m trying to model. Part of their conceit is they want to be a bare-handed fighter-utterly brutal without the need of a weapon. 

Normally it’d be easy to handwave that, but saying they’d be merely ‘risky’ when going against a master swordsman unarmed feels off. Would we want to make a custom ‘special ability’ with that or assume that when their Cutter picks up the deadly special ability that it just counts them as always armed? 

Or would a better way is just to say they need to use the Rage Elixers to go against especially dangerous foes?

Got some questions! :)

Got some questions! 🙂

Got some questions! 🙂

1) There are itemsin the white area of the sheet and some in the grey. Is there a difference, or are they all available at any time?

2) I hope I can articulate this well…lol So, let’s say the PCs are using Prowl in a Risky move to sneak past some guards. They need to fill a 6-segment clock to complete the task. The danger would most likely be getting caught, correct? So, if the lead rolls a 6 and overreaches, they face the danger. Now, at this point do they get to roll for Effect? If so, and they get a crit (say, with a 6 plus the overreach bonus), it lists that they avoid the danger. However, since they overrreached they face it…

My confusion is if they faced the danger would they not roll for Effect? Or would a good enough Effect roll cancel said danger? In the “death vapors” example the assisting PC faces the danger, but how might that work here?

I’m sure my players are going to do a lot of sneaking, so I’d like to be prepared for this, since I’m sure it’ll come up more than once! 🙂

Let’s talk about Scum and Villainy

Let’s talk about Scum and Villainy

Let’s talk about Scum and Villainy

Over a year ago I was playtesting an early version of Blades in the Dark with some friends, when one of them suggested we should use the system to play Scoundrels in a very different type of setting: Space Opera (Star Wars specifically). We jokingly dubbed the hack Blasters in the Dark.

At the time it was just a funny joke, but it’s an idea that’s stayed with me for a while. 

Blades as a core engine has many parts that fit very well with this concept. The different playbooks give you a good set of abilities to work with genre. Team playbooks can change purpose and genre pretty readily (rebels or smugglers?). Switching the skills over is pretty trivial.  So what stops you from just recoloring things?

The answer is the core mechanics.

You might note that the hacks you’re seeing tend towards the darker edge of things. Part of this is no doubt genre (heat forces you to fight the law) which leads to outcasts and ne’er do wells. However there are some conceits at the core of the system that are hard to shake. The way actions/effects/stress are stacked generates a very specific vector of fiction.

By dividing up things into desperate => risky => controlled you make a very specific statements. Things that are controlled you’re far more likely to get away with. Hedge your bets. You only have so much stress. Desperate rolls are really dangerous.  That sounds like space opera? Not so much.

So one of the most important things to do in order to make this feasible and fun is to tweak the breakdown into something that encourages more daring behavior. Shift the core actions to keep the ratio of success, but give additional incentive to jump into danger face-first (dangerous => daring => safe bet) by triggering different sorts of moves. An example might be the Close Call rule where if you crit on a desparate action you gain a stress back.

Once that’s in place it becomes straightforward to setting drift to other source materials that follow a similar pattern. Smugglers in the Black dodging the Alliance. Bounty Hunters with a jazz soundtrack hunting for the next big prize. I’m also really excited to add an optional xeno book that can help you make aliens of all various sizes, colors and shapes.

Oh yeah. And spaceships. Can’t forget the spaceships.

Very excited to be working on this. Pyew Pyew!

New Effect System Idea

New Effect System Idea

New Effect System Idea

Here’s a new thought for handling Effect and Resistance. (See the linked Cutter sheet for reference).

When you make an Action roll, your highest die is your action result. Your second highest die is your Effect result. That’s how many segments you mark on a progress clock.

This number is modified by your character’s Effect ratings, as shown on the Cutter’s sheet. If the Cutter was attacking someone with Force, then their effect result would have a 0 modifier. But if they were scrutinizing something with Insight, they would take a -1 segment modifier to effect.

A fine item adds +1 segment. Teamwork will affect this as well (TBD).

For Resistance you make a roll just as you do now to determine the stress cost, using the number of diamonds in your effect rating as your dice pool. There are no other modifiers to this pool! So no more devil’s bargains or anything to modify resistance and slow down the process. You just pick up that many dice and roll, easy peasy.

What do you think?

A few notes:

– Critical results might change slightly. I’m still thinking about that.

– You could have the option to choose which die counted for action and for effect (keeping the highest for effect and second highest for action, say). That might be good, but I’m sticking with no-exceptions to the rule for now.

– If you don’t have a second die result, it counts as a 1.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lbgak3hzf30eaeh/blades_new_effect_cutter_sample.pdf?dl=0