Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

There’s been a great conversation at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DuamnFigueroa/posts/9NSHAivGdH1. Giving me heaps of ideas.

I want to riff off the idea of turning the work of fencing stolen goods into a score itself, to see how the current rules can let a crew of thieves make more coin from a big steal.

You know how with a crew of hawkers, their story doesn’t end after they’ve grabbed some turf to sell their wares. It’s really just the beginning. They need to defend that turf, defend their supply lines, defend their customers, bribe bluecoasts, etc. Lots of juicy play.

Same goes with a crew of thieves. Their story doesn’t end after they’ve stolen loot; that’s where things start to get really dangerous, really juicy.

Here’s one way to breakdown the work of thieves:

1) Steal stuff

2) Keep what you’ve stolen

3) Turn stolen stuff into coin

These steps can be rolled up into a single score or broken into separate scores.

Scores that bring a small haul are more manageable precisely because you can skip steps. Steal coin and you skip 2 and 3. Steal small expensive goods—like jewellery—and maybe skip 2. Just carry the stuff around fence-to-fence, client-to-client. The risk is if things get nasty, you might face a threat or a devil’s bargain where you’ll lose some of the goods on you. This might lose you dice on your Development roll.

If you score big, you can skip 2 and 3. That means you basically don’t want the hassle of (2) stashing and (3) fencing. You haggle a few coin and let someone else take the heat. You make less coin, but you get clean fast and can move on to other things.

But if you want to make more coin, you gotta put in the effort and take the risks. Put in the work (1) getting, (2) keeping and (3) moving stuff, and you’ll reap the rewards.

This means making each step its own score. This will broaden the games’ focus, not just on doing heists but on making a living as a criminal. As a score, each step gets it’s own downtime and development rolls, bringing in more coin and skill as the crew makes big on the haul. Do step 2 right and you can spend the time to find the right buyer for each piece, making more money. Maybe use a long-term project clock if you’ve got some really unique goods where finding the right buyer is no easy task. Either way, getting the goods to that perfect buyer can be a whole score in itself.

But making each step it’s own score, or fencing each loot seperately, brings risks. More chance for heat, getting more factions off side, more thieves trying to find and take the stuff you’ve stolen, not to mention the stress and the trauma. For big hauls this makes sense; more expensive the things stolen, the madder people tend to get, and the more they try to or or hurt the thieves.

You could try to skip 2 and just stash the loot in your hidden lair, but your lair might not stay hidden long, what with other thief crews hearing about your haul and stalking you, thugs ruffing you up, bluecoats asking questions, and informants wanting a quick coin. No, if you want to make big off a big steal, you gotta get dirty and do the work.

At least, that’s what I think it means to be a crew of thieves.