In my (limited) experience, Blades is ideally suited to a two-session arc at minimum.
In my (limited) experience, Blades is ideally suited to a two-session arc at minimum. This Friday, I’ll be running it as a one shot for some people online. Anybody know where I can find tips for running just a single session of Blades?
Should I provide pregens scoundrels/crew? Looking for any advice anyone’s got.
My excitement has grown to a fever pitch over the past couple weeks.
My excitement has grown to a fever pitch over the past couple weeks. The game begins tonight and it promises to be a helluva start!
Originally shared by Eli Kurtz
Tonight’s the night! A new crew of soundrels takes to the night-black streets canals of Doskvol for an AP campaign on Twitch.
Blades in the Dark
RING DOWN BELOW
This our looming metropolis, known to sailors as North Hook, is kept safe from the Deathlands thanks only to the heroic sacrifices of the Leviathan Hunters, who prowl the seas for demon blood to keep the gears of Doskvol turning and our lightning wall burning through this endless night…
We go now to the Docks, where upon the horrific shores of a great void ocean the Dockers make preparations for a dangerous race…
Tune it at Twitch.tv/ZapDynamic TONIGHT at 7pm central to join in the fun!
If you’re the type who enjoys some thematic music before a game, I’ve spent the past couple months building a Spotify playlist for Blades in the Dark.
https://open.spotify.com/user/1265155170/playlist/7Ez2v3m1faZ36HKltJRG9j?si=nvdUlxloQ_e_kQS_dql8og
I’m getting just ridiculously excited to start this AP stream on Tuesday!
I’m getting just ridiculously excited to start this AP stream on Tuesday!
Originally shared by Eli Kurtz
Blades in the Dark
RING DOWN BELOW
Work songs are the beating heart of labor where the ink-dark sea meets the industrial shores of Doskvol. There are slow songs for the morning, building in tempo and tune as the laborers rouse from slumber. There are light songs for fair weather and loud songs for the storm. There are quick and cheery songs for the end of the day.
Only one song remains when the Leviathan Hunters at last reach their harvesting grounds far out in the void sea. It steels them against the enormity of their task: to grapple the maddening titans of this fallen world, to cut deep into their flesh, to dive for safety as their demon blood lances onto the deck, and to break free before all is lost.
Leviathan Hunters ride the hill-waves amid the tempest. They conquer the fear of the Leviathan’s glow-ring below the waves. Their legs are sturdy as the sea bucks and churns beneath them.
Leviathan Hunters must be the best, lest more of their numbers be lost in their grim and vital work to keep our great city burning through this endless night.
RING DOWN BELOW!
Oh ring down! Ring down everybody!
RING DOWN BELOW!
Oh ring down, yes, I meet up with THE DEVIL!
Follow at twitch.tv/ZapDynamic to catch the premier of a new Blades in the Dark AP, premiering on May 15 at 7pm central!
While chatting with a friend and fellow Blades player tonight, we realized the game is maybe unsuitable for one of…
While chatting with a friend and fellow Blades player tonight, we realized the game is maybe unsuitable for one of the classic tropes of the heist and crime genres: the action-packed cold open. We’re talking specifically about starting a campaign with a cold open, not just a mid-campaign session.
My friend says the only way to model a cold open is by jumping immediately into the Engagement roll. I think Free Play could simulate a cold open (you can still suffer Stress and Harm in Free Play) but I admit it seems to violate the spirit of that phase of the game.
Thoughts? Has anyone started one of their campaigns with a cold open before? How did it go?
Coming soon to a Twitch near you!
Coming soon to a Twitch near you!
Originally shared by Eli Kurtz
On Tuesday, May 15, you can join a new crew of scoundrels of the night-black streets of Doskvol. We’re starting a new Blades in the Dark AP on Twitch! Follow or subscribe at twitch.tv/ZapDynamic to make sure you don’t miss out.
Another newbie question: the book says you’re taken out of “this conflict” when you fill your Stress track and…
Another newbie question: the book says you’re taken out of “this conflict” when you fill your Stress track and suffer Trauma. Assuming this happens during a Score, I assume that means you’re out of commission until the Score ends and Downtime begins.
What do you do with the player whose character is no longer playable? I don’t like asking the player to sit out, and asking them to make another character on the fly is a little weak.
Michael Esperum mentioned in another thread that he and his players use Downtime to explore the lives of their…
Michael Esperum mentioned in another thread that he and his players use Downtime to explore the lives of their scoundrels outside of the meat of the story. It made me realize that my players do a little bit of that when they indulge their vice but the roleplay is usually no more complex than “I go gambling in Brightstone and work off… 3 Stress.”
I have two questions:
1. Compared to other phases of play, how much roleplay/narration do you folks encounter in your Downtime phases?
2. On average, how long is a Free Play-Score-Downtime cycle at your table?
I ask the second question because at my table it tends to be 2-2.5 hours. While I would like to get more roleplay into the Downtime phase, I’d also like to trim down the overall time it takes to play a session to a reliably 2-hour timeframe.
Any tips or wisdom from the community?
A few sessions ago, I noticed “Nyryx” is the name of a prostitute contact on the Slide playbook.
A few sessions ago, I noticed “Nyryx” is the name of a prostitute contact on the Slide playbook… and the name of a possessor ghost on the Whisper playbook. What an interesting coincidence! There’s no guarantee they’re the same person of course, but giving tables that option is really cool.
It made me wonder what other potential match ups I could find in the playbook contacts so I did some quick analysis this morning:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HFXIldOF6OYl-PQzLCT0X1dnN1BSFzWLJwXMJM9y1L0/edit?usp=sharing
I had hoped to find more match ups than I did, to be honest. Tying playbooks together by their contacts (especially when their descriptions are so tantalizingly different) is something I plan to explore in my own design work. Anyway, thought folks here might like to see this too!
I’m running a game tonight with my crew of Hawkers.
I’m running a game tonight with my crew of Hawkers. They’ve been at war with the Rail Jacks for a couple sessions now but nothing’s happened yet (they’re laying low and trying to put together a peace plan). I’d like to lure them out into a trap.
Any ideas how the Rail Jacks might trap someone within the city? Strategies, tactics, locations, etc? Planning to randomly generate a few scores for inspiration but I won’t be able to do that until my lunch break and well, I can’t stop thinking about this right now.
Inspired by the likes of Stefan Struck and thanks to the 11th-hour providence of Tim Denee, I’ve put together my…
Inspired by the likes of Stefan Struck and thanks to the 11th-hour providence of Tim Denee, I’ve put together my first Roll20 gameboard. Now I just need my players to put a date on the calendar!