Just as many other posts start: I am making a hack for Blades in the Dark.

Just as many other posts start: I am making a hack for Blades in the Dark.

Just as many other posts start: I am making a hack for Blades in the Dark.

The issue I am pondering is about the how the players in Blades have access to almost any upgrade/special ability/item from the very start. The options are spread horizontally, not vertically, so to speak. Besides Claims, there are no requirements like “to get ability A, you must first have ability B”. Which is great for what Blades is intended to do for the fiction and player choice.

The hack I am working is about kids learning magic in school (OBVIOUS HINT, NUDGE). Which means the characters start at age 10-11 and go up to adulthood. A vertical progression implementation sounds logical here, from a fictional standpoint. For now, I am keeping free access to special abilities, crew upgrades. But I am adding a simple magic skill system (basically a fourth action dot block) which limits what spells they are able to learn based on how many dots you have in any of the branches of magic, as I call them.

Spells themselves do not change the mechanics much, as they are just fictional tags to your main actions, increasing their potency or giving fictional options.

How do you think this might change the game dynamics or player engagement? Maybe there is a hack that already does a vertical progression system?

Today my crew is going to have two scores happening simultaneously.

Today my crew is going to have two scores happening simultaneously.

Today my crew is going to have two scores happening simultaneously. I have no problems with running two scores at a time, but I am thinking about the fallout:

Should there be two separate payoffs and/or entanglements?

Personally I would lean to having one entanglement, as they will be getting heat from two separate scores as is.

As the two scores are just them splitting up in the city and trying too sell one half of the drugs they liberated previously, I think separate payoffs make sense.

How would you handle this?

We had a question in our game. Quite a simple situation.

We had a question in our game. Quite a simple situation.

We had a question in our game. Quite a simple situation.

A leech with 3 points in tinker has a physiker abilty. The abilty states that everyone in the crew get +1d to their healing rolls. Does that mean that this leech rolls 4d when healing a crew member during downtime?

Have any of you had Scores that lasted for days of in-Doskvol time? What happened and was that planned?

Have any of you had Scores that lasted for days of in-Doskvol time? What happened and was that planned?

Have any of you had Scores that lasted for days of in-Doskvol time? What happened and was that planned?

Are entanglements enough to “hit back” against the players, who are rolling through Doskvol, betraying people left…

Are entanglements enough to “hit back” against the players, who are rolling through Doskvol, betraying people left…

Are entanglements enough to “hit back” against the players, who are rolling through Doskvol, betraying people left and right?

The GM could have someone make an attempt against their claim, or ask for a favor during an intense score. To clarify the question – in your games have you found that entanglements bring enough of a challenge, that players start thinking who is worth fucking over?