Antimatter – Page 2 – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Someone over on Reddit asked about a Werewolf Playbook.

Someone over on Reddit asked about a Werewolf Playbook. I came up with an initial ability for this playbook (basing it off of the “free” ability that Vampire/Hull/Ghosts get to describe their natural features). Let me know what you think!

Curse of the Dimmer Sisters:

You are a wild and brutal beast, cursed to be torn and warped somewhere between wolf and man. You are extremely strong in the moonlight, and become more and more brutal the more full moons that there are, but become your weaker human form, vulnerable and exhausted, when the moonlight stops.

Normal weaponry is ineffective against you in the moonlight, but arcane and silver weapons are potent against you.

Replace Stress with Focus. Your Focus track is 3 pips longer, however, for each full moon after the first, fill in four boxes of Focus temporarily. When you fill all your Focus boxes, gain a Bestial Trait and the GM and you narrate how you lose control and go on a Rampage that you will deeply regret later when the moons go away. When you gain 4 Bestial Traits, retire your character to their dark fate, as the wolf consumes their mind perminently.

To determine how many moons there are out, your GM will roll a die at the start of a session for every session that there has not been a moon, starting at 0d (max 4d). On a 1-3 there are no moons out; you are human and gain access to your old playbook for this session. On a 4 there is a single moon, you are a Werewolf but not very brutal yet, you still feel human on the inside. On a 5 there are 2 moons, meaning you can take on a small gang on equal footing and are much more brutal. On a 6 all 3 moons are out, you can take on a medium gang on equal footing, And you are wild and terrifying for the living to behold. After being a Werewolf, when the moon’s go in (the GM rolls a 1-3), return to your human form taking Level 3 Harm: Exhaustion.

When you are a Werewolf and want to make a rational decision, the GM may call for a Resolve Resistance roll. Take -1d to this roll for each extra moon after the first that there is.

Whilst you are a Werewolf, your Vice becomes Hunting Humans.

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This is based on how the book describes the moon. There is the regular moon that leaves “Dimmer Sisters” as it moves across the sky, making it appear as though there are multiple moons.

The more moons there are the stronger you are, but the less focus you have to spend. For example, a 3 moon werewolf can take on a medium gang and strike fear into the living, but he only has 4 Focus boxes to spend before he rampages.

Blades on a grander scale.

What would people think to a system like Runner Hub?

This is a reddit forum for Shadowrun, where you make a character and accept jobs from potential GMs. Run rewards and progression are tracked and carry over to the next mission your character signs up for.

A similar thing for Blades could happen, a forum with some balancing rules (where needed), where a player makes a character and enters it into the world of the BladesHub to garner experience.

The issue here is Crew Sheets. There wouldn’t be one. Or if there was, itd be a massive crew that levels up too quickly. Perhaps a new breed of fan-made crew sheet replacements could be made for “Experts” or something, so that instead of a gang, you play as a single Expert in a certain field. For example, you might be a Leech Playbook but an Assassin Expert. Or you could be a Slide Physiker. Or a Whisper Witch. Etc.

It’s just an idea I had to build a huge runnerhub-like version of the Blades of the Dark world.

My Crew Failed for the First Time.

So I’ve had a group of people play blades for a while now and they have a very notorious tier 2 crew. However, some times not everyone can make a session so we started a new campaign as a bunch of Skovland Refugees which we could play when someone wasn’t available.

This happened during the second session for the crew, they are all tier 0 Vigillantes and have played before (obviously). We have a Leech, a Slide and a Lurk playing and I wanted to do something a little different for them.

I started a sort of “murder mystery”; some serial killer was going around murdering Skovs for some reason, and the Grinders asked the crew to find out who and try to put a stop to it. This part of the session went down super well! They started an investigation clock and went to town on the gathering of information to solve the case, eventually finding out that the Red Sashes were murdering Skovs with a strange drug which destroys their ghosts, and most had the body taken. A little more digging and some awesome RP with Lord Skurlock later and they found out that the Sashes needed the bodies for their dead members, killed by the original group, to get revenge on them. Skovs in our game are naturally muscular and are therefore the perfect hosts to make some strong vampires to have their revenge.

So alls good so far, they investigated well, found their lead, solved the case, and found out people were coming for their original crew because of complications. Now all that was left was exacting justice by shutting them down. They found an entry point of an open plan roof for the dojo and decided on a stealth plan where they would gather the evidence needed to get the Bluecoats/Inspectors on their trail. But thats where things went tits up.

4 engagement dice were rolled and we landed on a 3, desperate position to start off. So as the crew were getting ready to absail into the dojo at night, the light turns on and a medium gang of Red Sashes enter the room, starting to perform a ritual on a corpse. The Lurk, unbeknownst to anyone, didn’t like his character very much, and wanted to kill himself off to make something new. So he cut himself loose and dove in, alerting everyone to the crew’s presence and surrounding himself with 8 master swordsmen. The crew try to help him, not realising he wanted to die for some reason and roll very badly to say the least. After several roles, some explosive napalm, and the lurk suicide bombing 2 sashes, the other 2 escape with their lives and use the crew ability to pin it on someone else.

Everyone was pretty bummed about the situation and that they actually failed to do what they set out to. The Leech player saying “I knew we weren’t ready for that score yet! We should have waited and tried a different approach.” But in my eyes what lead to the failure was not a lack of preparation (they preped more than they ever have before), but a series of bad rolls and a suicidal Lurk.

Was their anything I could have done differently?

Got a score coming up with my Bravos (yes I GM a lot of Blades groups haha).

Got a score coming up with my Bravos (yes I GM a lot of Blades groups haha). We just restarted after a rather long break, so I had a small time skip where the crew was doing their own thing the Billhooks had started encroaching on the crew’s turf. So like the bloodthirsty tyrants they are, they killed 3 and the rest made a run for it (they have Crows Veil so no bells). They do however leave the bodies in the street, so they do have hell coming later (thanks to the many suggestions from this place and Reddit) because this isnt the first time they’ve just killed their problems.

They decide to set up a meeting with the Billhooks to sort them out and negotiate why the heck they’re on their turf. Meeting goes south when the Billhooks point guns at them and tell them its their turf now. Spider flashes back to hiring his own large gang to be waiting in the wings to shoot them up. More dead bodies, woo! They leave one survivor and send him back to say “you have 2 weeks”.

And like the Ruthless leader the Spider is, he suggests hitting their base and murdering them whilst they have the element of surprise right now. After a few good gather info rolls, they find out the Billhooks are based in a Butchers Shop at the back end of the docks.

Engagement roll comes up a 6. They grenade the rear entrance and get their allies The Lampblacks to attack the front of the shop as a distraction. The Whisper attunes and finds out that their main base is hidden beneath the shop. They nade down the trap door to make sure no one is beneith them, and roll a 5. The spider falls through the crumbling floor, ladder destroyed. The rest of his crew are in the shop above him, and the Billhooks beneath know hes there as they opened a door to check what the ruckuss was about. End sesion (hound had to go home).

So Spider is in deep shit. I’ve planned for next session having Erin be revealed as the new leader of the Billhooks. They’re down there with a large gang of goons (10 clock) and 2 ghosts (6 clock each). Erin herself is gonna be an 8 clock to take down. Theres also an 8 clock for the bluecoats arriving (billhooks and lampblacks outside caused the bells to go off).

So they’re against the clock. I made some rolls to see how the fight goes outside. Its a stalemate, but when the bluecoats arrive, Lampblacks get arrested (theyre on the Billhook payroll).

Am I being too hard on my tier 2, wanted level 2 crew of Bravos who like to kill anyone they meet? Or is this a good wake up call that they cant just shoot away all their problems?

Need some ideas / advice for a score (be warned, long post incoming):

So in the last Blades game I ran for this crew, they were attempting to infiltrate Lord Strangford’s favourite Leviathan Hunting ship to gather last bit of dirt they need on him for their allies, The Grey Cloaks, to clear their name and get him arrested.

In our game Strangford was a demon consorter, making deals with a sea demon so that he could become a famous hunter and get rich. Now that he is rich, he is abusing this power and not giving the demon anything in return. Due to the contract, the demon cannot just kill Strangford, so he conspires against him by tempting one of the crew with a deal in order to get Strangford killed. So one of the crew doesnt just want Strangford locked up, he’s pushing to get a death sentence (rest of the crew are against murder, so he’s doing this secretly).

We ended it on a cliffhanger. The Lurk managed to enter the ship but the others have been spotted and are pinned down by Strangfords Leviathan hunters. I then cut away to a man on the ship, smiling evilly, a scar across his eye, and a demon circle on the ship’s bridge. (This is Lord Skurlock, he wants to take Fire Imp out to sea to restore it to a full demon for his own nefarious purposes, and has commandeered the ship from Strangford).

This is the “Season Finale” score, so I wanted a challenge for my group of Shadows. What kind of dangers, clocks, linked clocks, consequences etc can I include to spice things up in the finale? (They’re unaware Skurlock is on the ship, they think its just Strangfords men)

Any cool story ideas I can include? Any cool ways people can think of to get to the dirt they need? Any other ideas or suggestions? What might Skurlock want with a Fire Demon?

Quick question on effect level.

So I’m good with limited and stamdard effects, but what really gets me stuck is great effect. Let’s take an example (feel free to provide your own when you help me out):

Whip, the Lurk, is sneaking up on a guard and is trying to take him out quietly with a sleeper hold.

If the GM ruled Limited effect (for some strange reason) I get that the choke hold might not K/O the guard right away and you may need a second roll to finish him.

If the GM ruled Standard effect, the guards out no problem on a success.

But if the GM ruled Great Effect, which is what I would rule in this situation (scales a non factor, as is tier, potency is the main decider and the guard is unaware that Whip is there, so he has an advantage; tell me if I’m wrong on this), then what “better” out come is there than “you K/O the guard”?

Hey all! Its been a while since I’ve posted.

I have a few queries that I’d like to ask about. For reference, I have GM’d two Blades games (over the same period at different times, so the 2 crew’s were part of the same universe). Both crews were Shadows, so I know my way around a good sabotage, theft, etc.

I’m about to start a new game, and the players seem to want to be Bravos. How can I make the game interesting for them? I dont want every score to be “Break down the front door and beat them up”, I want something interesting which is why I ask.

Whilst I’m here, tips for any of the other non-shadow crews, such as Smuggler or Hawkers scores would also be appreciated!

After seeing the concepts for illusionist in a post bellow, I thought I’d start a discussion.

After seeing the concepts for illusionist in a post bellow, I thought I’d start a discussion. What cool or interesting Playbooks can we come up with?

Just watching episode 11 of Rollplay Blades.

Just watching episode 11 of Rollplay Blades. Miss Cataby used her Sharpshooter ability to lay down a barrage of supressive fire, but failed the roll. So I have 2 questions:

1. Why did the barrage still work?

2. Why were there no consequences for the 2 that was rolled?

John Harper

Thinking of making a Fate/Stay Night Blades hack, replacing the playbooks with servant classes (Archer, Saber,…

Thinking of making a Fate/Stay Night Blades hack, replacing the playbooks with servant classes (Archer, Saber, Caster etc). The setting would be a Holy Grail War where 3 mages have joined forces to get their hands on the Grail and have summoned you, Heroic Spirits, to fight for their cause and to have your own wishes granted.

Players would base their character on a Myth/Legend/Historic Event/Future Hero, tell us about their Noble Phantasm, and tell us about their wish to give the Grail when they win.

Does anyone have any thoughts about how Blades might be adapted further for this?