Aaron Berger – Page 2 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Two sessions in and I have a lot less worries about opportunities. Here’s a recap.

Situation

PCs are a Cult crew who are trying to secure their home turf in Silkshore. The Fog Hounds and The Vultures are at war. The Lampblacks are trying to make a profit off it, and The Gondoliers are trying to avoid ruin.

Questions

Who will control the waterways?

Will Bazso Baz figure out a way to turn a profit?

Will The Gondoliers cooperate with the criminal/occult underworld?

I started the session off by letting them know of some opportunities:

1.) Their forgotten god Axia was angry with them. The sacrifices had been pitiful lately and Axia required high quality sacrifices. [Privately I know of 3 candidates… Bazso Baz, The leader of the Vultures, or a Gondolier]

2.) Bazso wanted to run a sting operation on The Vultures.

3.) The Gondoliers were asking around for some help with a spirit well in Charhollow

Play

The PCs decided to hear Bazso out and drove a hard bargain to get better pay. As they were doing legwork setting up for their score, the Whisper sent out the cult’s adepts to see if they can find a worthy sacrifice. The PCs work on setting up their score and head back to the HQ to finalize their plan. I roll a fortune roll to see how the adepts have done… [tier 0 cult with elite adepts = 1d] Oh look… a 6!?

The Twist

I think over who these adepts could of possibly nabbed and it hits me. They’ve kidnapped a Gondolier. No one would think of raising a hand against them so of course that’s why its worked this one time. The cult then discusses whether or not to go through with the sacrifice. Most are for it and the hold outs just want to make sure to pin the responsibility on someone else. The cults decided to pin the murder on The Fog Hounds…

The Score

The Cutter and the Whisper go hunting for a patsy. They fail the roll and stumble in through the skylight of a Fog Hound having dinner with his family. There’s a scuffle but he’s secure. The Leech takes the gondolier boat which was sitting outside of HQ and tries to make a convincing scene to convince the gondoliers the Fog Hounds did it. Then the Slide heads to the Gondoliers and tells a hell of a lie. Rolls sway and gets a 6… Well that’s taken care of so that just leaves the Sacrifice.

The Sacrifice

“Ritual combat against the anointed one” The Cutter and the Gondolier do hand to hand combat. Of course the Gondolier cheats and tries to use magic and summon a ghost. The Whisper is there to shut that down. There’s some screaming, a bottle of lightning is opened, and someone’s throat was ripped out (gondolier’s) It was a hell of a session.

Debrief

I feel pretty good that the players will take things into their own hands. I think having a situation map showing the scenario helped. It was a first very culty score. I guess my only question would be… Can anyone figure where I should of used an engagement roll? It probably would of been the negotiation with the Gondoliers but that didn’t feel like a score as much as a single action roll. Could of set up a clock but didn’t have the wherewithal to present a NPC poking at PC lies and I wanted to get to the sacrificial fight.

Was there ever a crew sheet made for academics?

Was there ever a crew sheet made for academics? I seem to recall one but I’m having trouble locating it. I know Sean Nittner has several AP reports of a scholarly crew. Are they using one of the default crew types?

Started up a new BitD campaign last night.

Started up a new BitD campaign last night. Very excited to work with the full release. Went through the starting situation stuff pretty well. I def like the way the questions are set up more than the quickstart. The players choose the crew type cultist and I stumbled a bit trying to fit it to the starting situation. Thinking about it has brought of some questions of the game flow for me.

The game has an amazing perpetual motion engine. Once things get rolling there always seems to be hooks ready to roll you into another score. There are so many angles that sometimes I feel like crew types might get a little bit lost? I default to gang war type scores pretty often.

You have scores to gain Claims or work on long projects.

You have scores from your crew opportunity sheet

You have scores from the starting situation which tend to be work for hire stuff.

Its a nice sandbox to play in but I’ve been having trouble getting the players to be proactive so that its not just me selecting their scores? Is the idea that the crew does work for hire stuff before striking out on their own? Which is why the starting situation is always some sort of faction war in the background? If I was a player I would think the best scenario is to get as many claims as possible to start speeding up the slow advancement of crew tier. But that’s a hard place to get to fictionally when the crew is doing work for hire stuff? The work for hire should be connected to their crew type usually right? I wonder what a score that involves and augury would look like.

I want the players to feel in control of the destiny but they usually take a reactive posture. This can be a problem with any sandbox game, and I was just curious how other people have dealt with it.

Anyone seen “Spiderman: Homecoming”?

Anyone seen “Spiderman: Homecoming”? Vulture’s gang is a pitch perfect BitD crew. Forced to resort criminal activity by the threat of poverty, an out of work construction crew starts robbing convoys of salvaged alien tech. 8 years pass as they build their enterprise before spiderman shows up. Those 8 years would be a great BitD campaign. Can’t get the idea out of my head and trying to figure out how to swing it.

If I remember right special editions of BitD started shipping about a week ago.

If I remember right special editions of BitD started shipping about a week ago. When should I start to be alarmed that I haven’t received mine?

If i should redirect this to the kickstarter website let me know…

So is there a popular sport in Duskwall?

So is there a popular sport in Duskwall? Is it boxing? Soccer? Or are we too edgey underneath our immortal emperor to have spectator sports? I saw a video about the byzantine empire adn they talked about the importance of the chariot races. Wanted to fold it into duskwall somehow.

The Mountain Ghosts

Hawkers of Ghostly Possession

I did some fronts up for my BitD game, which may interest you. I take a whack at what I think the Bluecoats, Spirit Wardens, Reconciled, and The Church of the Esctasy of The Flesh are about.

Here’s some Background info. The PCs just finished their war with the Lampblacks. They crashed a strange party Baszo was throwing with elite clientele who seemed way out of his league. The PCs wanted to curse the headquarters of the Lampblacks, so they went to the demon Setarra. The whisper has established himself as a student of the demon, and was able to extract a unique scroll for a ritual. The scroll itself being some arcane instructions burned into a parchment made from the skin of the damned. The PCs begin their score and it turns out Baszo’s party was a cover for all the members of his Cult of the Echoes to meet up and conduct a ritual. Some bewildering dice rolls later, both rituals are simultaneously completed resulting in an arcane torrent of supernatural energy.

Long story short, the Lampblacks’ headquarters is the site of a massive haunting. The city has declared it the site of a magical disaster. Oh yeah, and the PCs have come out with the Bluecoats as an ally instead of the Red Sashes.

Alright here are the fronts. Love to hear any thoughts.

I crazily remember a time when you could use playbook advances to increase action ratings.

I crazily remember a time when you could use playbook advances to increase action ratings. Am I making this up? was it phased out?

I had a second question that has escaped me. Psyched for my BitD session, I’m sure the question will return mid session.

I like the tier list and how it firmly establishes the pecking order.

I like the tier list and how it firmly establishes the pecking order. I love the faction statuses and how it causes every action to ripple throughout Duskwall. I wish there was an asset list. I think an inspired asset list could cleanly link to new exciting scores. Andrew’s Heist deck makes up for this a bit, and to be fair, PC’s don’t have a list for their long term projects, either.

The faction actions leave me a little bit wanting. Maybe it’s because I’m coming from Kevin Crawford’s games. My biggest hang up is the increasing and reducing hold. Reducing hold is firmly established as taking two actions. One to identify a vulnerability, and another to then reduce the targets hold. Increasing hold isn’t given any parameters. Making it seem as though you could increase hold every downtime. I know that’s not true, but it’s unclear what is the best course.

If the PC’s hadn’t gotten involved in the Lampblack and Red Sashes war, I’m not sure how I would of brought that to a conclusion. I guess opposing fortune rolls, with the winner ticking their long term project of destroying the other? What happens if one increases their hold while at war? Do we change a clock? I could wing it and eventually figure it out. But the point is, I’m not getting much support from the system. Luckily, my pc’s got involved, so it was easy to determine the winner.

It hasn’t effected play at the table much. Between entanglements and faction statuses, BitD has created a brilliant perpetual motion machine. But it does mean I’m having a hard time thinking off screen. I can try to build from the fiction, but its been a struggle for me. I like to (and maybe a little dependant upon) use faction turns as GM tools/mechanics which help generate interesting fiction.

How have other people dealt with other factions downtime? Any interesting stories of a gang that spiraled out of control, due to the PC’s neglect? At this point I’ve begun to make DW fronts and linking dangers to other factions. That’ll likely to do the job, but I’m interested to hear other people’s solutions.

Question time!

Love the game, just need some help working through some things.

1.) What’s a sentinel? A Hound PC has them marked down as a friend and I’m trying to figure out who they are. Are they associated with The Inspectors?

2.) War?! Okay if the Lampblacks start the game at Tier 2 (weak) and they get in a war with the players. They drop down to Tier 1(weak)? If the players are going to hit the hold of an enemy gang, they first have to do an investigation to figure out how they’re vulnerable right? Is grinding a gang down really how its suppose to go? I think my Bazso Baz is running around with a gang of 5 now…

3.) Any thoughts on gangs merging? What kind of rep boost would that be? or is it just Turf?

4.) Do all scores payout? The PC are hawkers, and some of their scores have been mostly territory control and fending off warring factions. Do they still get pay out for those, even though no product is being moved or anything was stolen? What about when they are just fending off an attack? Is that even a score do they get downtime actions after that?

Devil’s bargains can make a lot of different fronts to fend off, pretty quickly! I’m having fun with the game and appreciate any help.