Tag: Blaze Azelski

Occult scores: Tell me about yours! How did you plan a score around “engaging a supernatural power?”

When an Unseen is discovered, whoever learns their identity forgets that in a few moments.

What can PCs do about this, especially if they don’t know about that arcane ritual effect? Is it something they can resist?

I ask because my scoundrels have taken a job that requires them to bust some Unseen trying to infiltrate the Spirit Wardens. How can they do that if they, and everyone they tell, forgets in a few moments?

Since we have more hacks in the works than anyone could ever play, here’s more fuel for the everburning forge.

This War of Mine, if you’re familiar with the video game, seems like it has tremendous potential for translation.

Almost every location that has something you need has dangers/moral choices associated with it. Sure you can get enough food for the next few days, but you have to steal it from an old defenseless couple. Sure you can get a weapon to defend yourself, but you’d have to ambush a young man defending his parents and their belongings. You’re sick and you need meds? The hospital’s got ’em, but it’s locked up tighter than the blockade itself, and you’re taking them from patients who are even worse off than you.

Crew types as follows: Bandits, Scavengers, Good Samaritans, and Local Law.

Character playbooks as follows: Bruiser, Thief, Face, Organizer, and Lookout.

Claims could instead be necessary staples of survival, like heaters, stoves, toys (for children), music, a gun storage locker, vests and helmets for protection, reliable and helpful neighbors, a radio to keep up on current events, etc.

Entanglements could be good or bad, and your chances of something good or bad happening could depend on how you’ve been interacting with you’re community. Did you trade the soldiers the bandages they asked for? You’ve now got an increased chance of rolling the “Safe & Sound” entanglement, where someone protects your home for you. Did you kill a man and take all the potable water he was hoarding for the coming days? You’ve got an increased chance of rolling the “Wasn’t Yours” entanglement, where a wronged party demands back more than what you took.

This is just a recent brainworm that I wanted to share.

A couple issues have snagged onto the most recent campaign of BitD I’ve been running, and I could use some help with exterminating them.

1. Gathering Boredom: My group absolutely HATES the way we’ve been doing Gathering Information, so let me describe it to you. Downtime finishes, a score is decided on. A couple players decide to gather info about how to best to approach it. They usually use contacts on their sheet, and I tell them what they learn from that contact that’s of use. The players ultimately feel uninvolved and disinterested but like gathering info is a necessary evil, whether the scene is played out or glossed over.

Their proposed solution to this problem is being able to decide what they learn instead of me telling them, and then having me complicate/constrain afterwards as necessary. Is this viable? What issues could arise from this method? Has anyone tried this before? How does your group handle gather information actions pre-score, and have they gotten your group excited?

2. Constriction of Freedom: My group has offered the criticism that they feel constricted by some of the fiction/consequences I’ve put on them. Specifically, they feel that they’ve been forced into scores they weren’t really interested in.

One took an arcane “totem” from the Fog Hounds promising to use it to sabotage the Hounds’ rivals. When his player mentioned that he was probably just going to take the totem for his private use, I mentioned that would result in a loss of faction status with the Hounds when they realized the agreed task wasn’t being done. They then felt pressured to do the score.

In another instance, a player took a Devil’s Bargain that her (evil, wealthy, terrible man) father knew she was alive and active. I started a clock for him to kidnap their (nice girl) Informants claim. That clock filled and it happened, and now the crew feels obligated to take her back as a score before the evil father does something else, instead of doing some other cool score they have in mind.

Of course, then there’s also the fact that they were at war with the Dimmer Sisters for a session and felt obligated (mechanically) to take on a score to end that war.

I’m a bit worried that the consequences of their actions and Devil’s Bargains are actually making them have less freedom/fun. It’s also possible I’m thinking about this too narrowly. What can I do as GM to stop/alleviate the feelings of obligation that arise?

Thanks for any input!

War with the Dimmer Sisters?

What could that look like? My group of Shadows just pissed the Dimmer Sisters off by sending Roslyn flying into their own lightning barrier. The Shadows have a hidden lair, and I’m not quite sure what the Sisters can do to track them down/mess with them. It’s obvious enough that it’d probably be occult in nature, but I’m curious what ideas others have about what proactive actions the Sisters might take to take down a hidden group of Shadows.

A DIMMER AGENT

“When the Sisters have accepted you into their fold, they are yours and you are theirs. Whenever a supernatural threat arises during a score, flashbacks to handle that threat involving the Dimmer Sisters cost 0 stress. Whatever stress it would normally cost instead becomes ticks on an 8-segment clock. When the clock fills, the next time you see the Sisters, no one else will ever see you again afterwards.”

A player in my group is very obviously interested in the Dimmer Sisters, and while it isn’t likely to take this route, it inspired me to write a little “special permission” involving them. Rune’s fascination from the Last Word may have also contributed.

EDIT: See Andrew Shields’ suggestion below for getting the most out of this.