Hey, everyone.

Hey, everyone.

Hey, everyone. I wanted to announce that I’m currently tightening up design on a new project I’m excited about: a resurrection of a custom Blades campaign setting I posted about here a year or so ago.

I’ve been busy refocusing the game on dramatic player drama and larger than life science fiction trappings for a game I’m calling Moth-Light.

Moth-Light is set in a post fall world inspired by Horizon: Zero Dawn, Avatar (yes the James Cameron one), Nausica of the Valley of the Wind, Farscape, the Numenara RPG and more.

It’s got some major revisions to the standard Blades formula I’m excited about, including a focus on the power of promises and pacts, as well as the re-injection of some PbtA elements into the flavor of the game.

Over the next few months I’ll be working on fleshing out the rules book and lore and I should have more current rules previews soon.

This community, and that of the discord, have been valuable to me in developing the game and I’ve learned a lot from each of you.

💖Justin

https://moth-lands.itch.io/moth-light

At Death’s Door: Three and Twelve

At Death’s Door: Three and Twelve

At Death’s Door: Three and Twelve

In imagining a hack of Blades, one of the biggest questions is: do I change the basic actions:attributes. For many the answer is “no.” Especially if your hack involves heists and crime, things the Blades system does well, the defaults are a great fit. Perhaps with some tweaking of ATTUNE to fit your magic system or TINKER to move away from the electropunk feel.

For At Death’s Door I wanted to provide a game that focused more classical adventure tropes, including mystery adventure, complicated social drama, and exploration. I considered doing minor modifications, but the more I looked at them I realized the three attributes needed to change and, with them, the twelve actions.

Attributes and Actions are to FitD what Modifiers and Basic Moves are to many Apocalypse world games. Changing them really alters the feel of the world and informs us as to what our game is ABOUT.

Bellow are the ones I’ve developed for ADD. What do they tell you about my game?

THE THREE ATTRIBUTES

A characters competency is described by 3 attributes reflecting the ideals of Mandate society.

DISCIPLINE: The ability to remain calm under pressure, usually through training. Used to resist consequences from mental or physical strain.

GRACE: Elegance of movement and voice due to innate beauty or refined. Used to resist consequences from social or physical injury.

EXCELLENCE: Skill refined through learning and knowledge. Used to resist consequences from deceit or misunderstanding.

THE TWELVE ACTIONS

Each attribute is divided into 4 narrative actions a character may employ to accomplish their goals.

Under Discipline …

Command: Demanding attention and obedience through rank or force of will. Possibly the leverage of social status, but Maneuver might prove less obvious.

Skirmish: Scuffling or engaging in close combat, whether with a pistol or fists. Possibly an attempt at intimidation but Command might be less violent.

Track: Following a clue or a quarry. Hunting down a target or coursing a trail.

Possibly searching for detailed information but Study could be quicker.

Volley: Firing a shot accurately with a musket or bow. Possibly hurling insults but Converse might draw less ire.

Under Grace …

Converse: Engaging someone in communication, whether through speech or some other shared language. Possibly with lies or misdirection, though Mislead might be less transparent.

Finesse: Performing fine movement whether to play an instrument, guide a mount, or dance. Possibly fencing in a duel though Skirmish may prove deadlier.

Maneuver: Positioning oneself with speed and power. Running, vaulting or applying social acumen. Possibly taking the wheel of a ship, though Operate may be less harrowing.

Mislead: Causing someone to ignore your deeds or believe an untruth, whether with lies or omissions. Possibly crafting a distraction, though Devise might accomplish the task more thoroughly.

Under Excellence:

Dabble: Experimentation in occult practices or tinkering in complex machinery. Possibly picking a lock, though Finesse may prove the superior route.

Devise: Cunning in craft or shrewd planning. Putting together clues based on current information. Possibly deducing a spiritual connection, though Dabble may prove more intuitive.

Operate: Use and execution of complex tools or mechanisms for their intended purpose. Possibly firing a gun, though Volley might be more accurate.

Study: Close observation. Comprehension of information read or absorbed. Possibly determining speed and direction, though Track would be better suited.

Playtest Playbook 3 of 8 for my Occult Adventure hack, At Death’s Door: The Innovator!

Playtest Playbook 3 of 8 for my Occult Adventure hack, At Death’s Door: The Innovator!

Playtest Playbook 3 of 8 for my Occult Adventure hack, At Death’s Door: The Innovator!

One of the principles of ADD is that each playbook the players choose refocuses the fictional elements of the game.

Players choosing The Innovator are adding elements of industrial espionage and weird science and the fiction will represent that.

Compare this playbook and The Doctor and you can see how a variety of playbooks centered around knowledge and technical skill can work side by side.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11R8A9ACj7-jV2PrrMM4dZUoXDCGuYTLL/view?usp=drivesdk

Another example playbook from my world romping occult adventure hack, At Death’s Door.

Another example playbook from my world romping occult adventure hack, At Death’s Door.

Another example playbook from my world romping occult adventure hack, At Death’s Door. This time it’s The Doctor. It draws inspirational elements from detective adventures like Sherlock Holmes, mentalism, and classic physician-of-action tropes!

Still not diving straight into some of the novel mechanics just yet but I feel this one does a good job of conveying the flare I’m trying to inject into each one.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lmJgCcxp9fVLhPJhEFtScT8iaeuExkgb/view?usp=drivesdk

A preview for one of eight playbooks I’ve produced for my “occult adventure” hack tentatively titled At Death’s Door.

A preview for one of eight playbooks I’ve produced for my “occult adventure” hack tentatively titled At Death’s Door.

A preview for one of eight playbooks I’ve produced for my “occult adventure” hack tentatively titled At Death’s Door.

In a fantastical age of sail our adventurer’s embark on a quest to seek out the mythical Black Gates and rediscover the realm of god.

The Intrepid is my Indiana Jones / Lara Croft archetype. Others follow in the tradition of characters straight out of Treasure Island, League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Sherlock Holmes, and more.

Everything here was done in google docs. Careful eyes will certainly see some additions that hint at new and expanded mechanics.

*reposted to fix a broken link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vmpM14uG_EKsl_DAKbDfRiJ4D-5nQN1S/view?usp=drivesdk

Engagement Rolls for Regional Position

Engagement Rolls for Regional Position

Engagement Rolls for Regional Position

So I’m working on a hack that, among other things, allows for regional travel.

The players in this hack are a hired company seeking out various things and I had the thought that it would be interesting and appropriate for them to have their tier not be static but rather go up and down based on their standing in the current region and their preparation for journeys from region to region. (This is an age of sail setting).

Players would roll an engagement roll for traveling to the new region and could get a result of 1:Desperate to 4:Controlled. After that they could go on expeditions (scores) to upgrade their position in the region.

What sort of special questions would you ask for such an engagement roll, imagining a large company or crew were getting ready to make a long journey to a new regional base of operations, etc

So for a hack I’m doing I’m experimenting with advanced moves that allow you to upgrade a roll’s success tier by…

So for a hack I’m doing I’m experimenting with advanced moves that allow you to upgrade a roll’s success tier by…

So for a hack I’m doing I’m experimenting with advanced moves that allow you to upgrade a roll’s success tier by spending a resource or accepting a certain consequence.

An example might be:

Out of the Pan, Into the Fire

“When you attempt to evade capture or detection with Skulk you may choose to be placed in a more desperate circumstance to upgrade the success tier (from a miss to a partial success, for example) after the roll.”

Has anyone else experimented with such a move? Is it too powerful.

For a hacking exercise I’m experimenting with alternative play structures.

For a hacking exercise I’m experimenting with alternative play structures.

For a hacking exercise I’m experimenting with alternative play structures.

A big part of what I’m trying to do has me looking to essentially turn most of the game into a Score/Freeplay hybrid and radically transform downtime into something different all together.

For reasons.

An idea I have on how to handle refreshing stress during a score without downtime is to turn Vices into something called Strings. Essentially, to refresh stress, a player voluntarily gives the GM a String they choose at character creation and this gives them the authority to inject major complications into the story directed at the player in question (but potentially throwing a wrench into the plans of the crew. A PC can’t remote detonate the bomb at the agreed upon time if he’s lost himself in a game of high stakes dice due to his Gambling string being pulled).

Functionally I feel this ends up being pretty similar to trauma, though with a more lighthearted twist, and I’ve got a whole OTHER thing planned for that mechanic.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Are there other hacks I should be looking at that have tackled something similar?

BitD: Ghost Echoes update.

BitD: Ghost Echoes update.

BitD: Ghost Echoes update.

It’s been a fun arc, but I decided Friday night’s game would be our penultimate.

The crew had managed to get on the good side of The Veil’s patron, a Tycherosi lovingly referred to by one crew member as “New Boots” (they have a serpentine disposition) after a brief spat with The Bill Hooks that sent our Whisper, Seb, to prison for half a year (they agreed to take the fall for a crime committed by the Red Sashes as part of a deal).

Our Leach, Helena, finished her Ghost Echo transportation device but wound up shunting herself far to the north, only to be rescued by a Tycherosi sheep farmer on a forgotten winter isle. Her journey home would be a long one.

And our Slide, Will, found themselves without a day job, having inadvertently meddled in the business of their own Brothell.

But things turned around quickly.

In one heist, they accepted a job from their ghostly patron, Amoncio, to steal documents from a nobles manor.

In another, they pulled off a daring plan to hijack an entire carriage full of raw Leviathan blood using zeppelin power.

And just before the score of the day, they’d accepted a request to sabotage a Halloween themed Sparkright expo, thus thwarting the unveiling of a ghost powered electroplasmic siphon.

So standards were pretty high.

Little did we know, by the end of this score, we’d be betrayed by our patron.

Little did we know, we’d find ourselves working with the Lamp Blacks against our better interest.

Little did we know we’d be commissioned to STEAL AN ENTIRE TRAIN CAR and succeed (with the power of WEIRD SCIENCE!).

And little did we know that we’d be looking forward to a final episode centered around the marriage of our now-material matron and one of the crews most painful spurs.

It’s been a lot of fun.

BitD: Ghost Echoes

BitD: Ghost Echoes

BitD: Ghost Echoes

Games 4 & 5: The Devil’s Shadow

Those who prey on the rich walk a tight rope.

The harsh gazes, the backbiting, the gossip, the pride. Everything detestable about the upper crust one must also swallow, reflecting back a facade recognizable to those used to comfort and leisure.

But it is also intoxicating.

It is said that to imitate is to understand. Though shallow, the shadow of nobility is fraught with shattered pride. Obligation. Duty. These traits, each, one may find digestible. Do we loathe our betters or do we envy them. The former is comfortable, but sour. The latter is hopeful, but bitter. The two together … that is sweet, but also poison. A pill for the prideful sneak.

Setara would have us brew that poison and walk in the Devil’s Shadow.

A fitting name for our crew, no?

A covetous ghost and an ambitious demon outcast, which will be our patron? With each successful burglary the alliance of The Devil’s Shadow grows closer to a crisis of loyalty. Will they come together as a family of thieves or as tools in the spider’s arsenal?

A barkeep, a half feral ghost, and a gaggle of Ink Rake criers have fallen under their wing, but so have a host of enemies. A Comber whelp, a vampire’s servant, and a shadowy organization known of the Circle of Flame.

The Weird and the Worldly echo our Shadow’s actions.

Which will be louder?