Tag: Nathan Roberts

Yes! an oldie but a goodie:

“How to tell if you are a scoundrel in a Blades game…”

http://the-toast.net/2014/04/22/are-you-in-a-dickens-novel

So I saw a thing by Jeremy over on the Double Fine forums from a few years ago about a computer game he was designing called the Knockover…

http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/7878/

This got me thinking about Blades as the premise was the same, just a different setting. But the ‘props’ could be the same!

So I just spent the last few hours making a thing! It’ll get its grand test at Ettin Con, what with Andrew Shields’s Heist cards, Volsung 2d6plusCool’s PC / NPC cards and my own score type cards.

The idea is a visual ‘planning board’ to pin characters, locations and obstacles (with clocks) on.

I procured some bling as a birthday pressie for me 😊

After re-listening to John Harper’s chats with various folks on his One Seven Design podcasts, it struck me that a rather simple conversational tool I was not explicitly calling out when playing / teaching the game was the concept of establishing initiative (either for the players or the GM). It’s subtly mentioned in the text a few times, particularly on p.5 under the ‘back and forth of the conversation’. The concept is outlined in determining player action, and in particular mention to the GM making moves or establishing consequences to be dealt with. It determines many things; whether you are reactive (losing the initiative) or pro-active, dealing with consequence or establishing fiction through action.

On reflection though, its more than that: its rather a powerful mechanical parameter that deserves being identified as the reason a certain mechanical path is being taken. SO much so, that when the Motes lost their initiative last night on a 1-3 engagement roll on their infiltration score into the underworld depths of the Leviathan temple, Drav’s player asked if he could gather information on how best to seize back the Initiative ‘resource’ from the daemonspawn…

I think I may even have a token, a measure of power perhaps, something we can slide across the table to those in control of the sitch – you now have the initiative – use it wisely. A loaded nerf crossbow may just be the ticket!

The GM screen gets a wrap, a map on canvas appears, and the weapons just get gnarly.

So…. Cons & three hour slots.

I’ve usually run the Quickstart as written: Characters, then crew (Thieves): Usually takes up 30-45 mins. Openly read the starting situation and dive straight into the score: This can take up to an hour or more. I’ve also run it sans crew as John Harper suggests as an alternative, and once used Andrew Shields Gang rules to good effect.

This time I wanna showcase some of the other rules in my little timeframe. So I was thinking to make characters, ask some questions then jump straight into the Bazo Baz charged sitch. Make a plan (egg timer out) – engagement roll – score. Then choose a crew playbook.

Retroactively fill in blanks via flashbacks and vignettes and play through heat, entanglements and rep / coin as normal and award as if they were tier 0. Downtime actions and then award XP.

If time allows, play through another score / downtime as needed.

Thoughts?