r/bladesinthedark

EDIT: forget to tag this [FITD]. Can delete and repost if necessary.

I feel like my intuition on clocks is very foggy. I can't get a feel for whether they're this balancing mechanic I need to strictly adhere to, an essentially optional module, or something in between.

I ran my first couple of missions with about half a dozen clocks and it honestly felt more overcrowded than anything, but I wasn't sure how else to have a "fair" way to decide whether all the challenges I prepped came into play or not.

So just wondering in a survey sense how many clocks folks usually draw up? If "there's no right answer" that's fine but I'd still like to know what you typically end up doing. It may be that I'm trying to grasp my own style here, but hearing why other people use as many clocks as they do could help me with that.

I'm going to run Blades again, thinking about using Foundry VTT.

But, I find a built in Encumbrance mechanics inconvenient. Or you need to add items via special window, or on some sheets all items in weird order... Or Crew sheets don't work!

Do you have any experience with that problem? Or maybe there are any more "cool" ways to play Blades?

First time playing Blades with my group and they are loving it (5 sessions in).

One of the players is a tycherosi leech, that before becoming a scoundrel was a battlefield medic, and he wants is abilities to better represent that.

So, i was thinking to maybe give him that (since the part already was another leech, who is focused on alchemy and building). My doubt is, should we change his abilities, or should i make him do downtime activities to add those abilities as options?

Also, if you guys can help review some of them, to see what is too op, and what is usable:

Field Medic - you can push yourself to make an ally temporary ignore the negative effects of an injury.
Resilience - you have +1d on resistances to exaustion and medical drug effects
Emergency Time - when an ally is gonna receive a level 4 injury, you can push yourself to make a tinker or study action, to try to help him. If you succed, you reduce the injury to level 3.
Adrenaline Injection - you can make a character receive an extra dice in any prowess action. The character receives 2 stress and a level 1 injury Chemical Exaustion. You can stack this with the push yourself effect of the character.
Superficial Diagnosis - you receive +1d to hunt, study or survey a person

I know the final answer to this whole thing is, in the end, "talk about it at the table" and I'm happy to do so, but every last one of us is new to the game, so having some folks that have more experience discuss how they'd handle it at their table would be helpful.

I have a crew of Shadows that has (possibly) taken a job to try to Heist a body from the Bellweather Crematorium before it's dissolved. Our Lurk has Infiltrator-

>You are not affected by quality or Tier when you bypass security measures.

>This ability lets you contend with higher-Tier enemies on equal footing. When you’re cracking a safe, picking a lock, or sneaking past elite guards, your effect level is never reduced due to superior Tier or quality level of your opposition.

This will be doing a lot of heavy lifting for getting into the Crematorium, I know certain things make sense.. picking a lock would obvious benefit everyone. But what about leading the party through the grounds while hiding from the Security Hulls that stalk the premises? Would the Lurk leading the Group Action (Prowl) now cover everyone else as well with infiltrator?

I am leaning towards yes (which I just talked myself into while typing this out), partly because the information on Group Tests says the stress taken is from covering for your allies (of course, I'll require descriptions on that covering for the narrative and maximum tension drama :P)

Even though I've mostly talked myself into it, I'd still love to hear your thoughts!

Edit: Thanks everyone for your answers, I see a lot of No's and will consider if it comes up, though for most of those responses I don't necessarily agree with the reasons given---I get most people think that it shouldn't work out with it (in most cases).

That being said, I'm not sure my group is gonna take this job after all, I got them a "what you know before you pull any rolls, gather information or freeplay" Doc, because even though I said this would be a ROUGH job for them, they still wanted to get in it. But now that they have an idea on what they are looking at they are thinking perhaps they are biting off more than they can chew. lmao.

Howdy!

I'm going to be running a Blades in the Dark one shot in a week, and I was wondering if y'all have any tips or things you wished you knew before running a game, either mechanically or for pacing/feel/what makes the game feel good.

Thanks!

Edit: thanks to everyone for your insights! It seems like while my hangups with the playbook aren’t entirely without merit, in actual play the Pilot gets much more use than I was expecting. When I start to GM the game I’ll be sure to keep in mind that (1) speed is not limited to “drive real fast,” and (2) there are plenty of vehicles around for a pilot to mess with even on the ground.

Original post:

For context, I have run BitD before but not Scum and Villainy, and I’m just reading through the book now.

The pilot seems like a bad playbook to pick. It seems like if a player wants to be a pilot, they’re better off taking “Scoundrel” or “Mechanic” and investing a few points in helm. Off the top of my head, there are a few reasons it seems a bit lackluster:

1. the playbook seems way too specific in its intended use (you pilot a ship or drive a car)
2. its abilities are all okay at best (and the good ones, such as Commander and Hedonist, don’t really fit the “pilot” archetype as much as a “captain” archetype)
3. its XP trigger is too specific to reliably come up as often as other playbooks
4. any time your crew is on the ground you’re not doing what your playbook is about (unless you’re being the chauffeur); and anytime your crew is in the ship you’re rolling the same actions over and over.

For anyone who has either played a pilot or run S&V for a pilot, how would you make the game interesting for someone who took this playbook? I get that I could throw the pilot a bone by shoe-horning in a car chase, but it feels like I would need to make the game fun for a pilot in a way that I wouldn’t for other playbooks.

Somewhere beyond the blackened sea, a New Sun shines on the lost continent of Pandyssia, offering warm welcome to a tide of Imperial colonists come to seek their fortunes. It is the first and only kindness they will receive from this country. All else must be hard earned. Those who survive the crossing find themselves in a wild and abundant land teeming with life, untamed and unbroken save for a few tenacious settlements. Great beasts and ancient spirits have dwelt in these steaming jungles and eldritch mountains since long before the Cataclysm, guarding secrets and treasures of all kinds, forgotten and forbidden.

Lord Volta is eager for glory, and has exhausted much of his family’s wealth in his attempts to penetrate the Pandyssian interior, of which this will be the third. To this end, he has assembled a motley group of hired hands, academics, explorers, soldiers and scoundrels to help realise this ambition. 

You are a member of the Volta expedition, newly arrived from Duskwall. You have never set foot in Pandyssia before. You have never felt the touch of sunlight on your skin. A New World awaits…

(Dishonored inspiration worn proudly on sleeve)

The rulebook seems to heavily imply that each player should fill out just one out of three fields on the score card. Then the whole group finalizes some of the cards, and one becomes the next score. (If you haven't read Blades '68, see the explanation below.) But in practice someone would always fill out their entire card on their own, and that often becomes the next score.

Which is ok. Obviously, we're free to play how we like etc. etc.. But BitD is no stranger to counterintuitive playstyle guidelines that are ultimately for the best, e.g. we actively prevent ourselves from planning when starting the score and such.

So I've been thinking, should we actively try to collaborate on each score card even when players are inspired to fill out entire cards? Has Tim Denee elaborated on this at some point? How does your group do score cards?

---

How "planning meetings" work in Blades '68

To help the crew and the GM come up with ideas for scores, Blades '68 has the following procedure.

Every player, including the GM, makes a "score card," which is a physical card with three fields: client, target, and operation type. (Operation type could be anything from "museum heist" to "stuff explodes on a zeppelin.") Each player, including the GM, fills in one field on their card. Then all cards are shared, discussed, and filled out collaboratively, and eventually the crew has several scores to choose from.

Here are the examples from the book:

>Keri is interested in getting friendly with the SCORPION Syndicate, so he puts down an opportunity where they’re the client faction.

>The GM has noticed the players haven’t engaged with the claim map yet, so they put down “Specialist Fence claim,” mostly just to remind the players that they can go for claims.

>The others have already chosen some strategic opportunities, so Olivia decides to pick something fun. She writes down “something at the fireworks factory.”

The wording throughout the chapter implies that everyone should fill out just one field on their card:

>At this stage, we’re just presenting the rough outline of an opportunity, which is why we only choose one of the above.

Although,

>It’s fine to write in more details if they already exist in the fiction (sometimes you’ll present an opportunity you heard about during personal business).

Finally,

>The players and the GM can work together to define missing details (the client, target, or operation type, as applicable—the GM has final say).

1. Anybody have experience making a big, badass NPC who can solo fight the entire crew? If so, how did you do that?
2. As a GM, have you played out a scene of NPCs where the players were not in the scene? Think of bad guy scenes where they are plotting something but the PCs aren't there to hear it or see it

Hey all,

I’m running a score set underneath Ironhook right now and I decided to lean hard into mimetic/antimemetic effects caused by a demonic entity that eats memories (specifically of itself and of the characters sense of their own context) I've placed down there.

My big inspiration here is the novel There Is No Antimemetics Division, and I’m trying to get that same unsettling feeling where the characters are actively losing context as things go on.

The issue I’ve run into is flashbacks and the advice I would like to ask for is basically, what would you do to make the flashbacks more interesting/fun with or even in spite of the memetic effects going on in the score.

The first part of the score is on our episode that drops tomorrow, but this feels like it's about to be a several session score and I'm actively trying to nail that "Something is eating your memory" feeling. Has anyone dipped into this style of horror before at your table? What are your thoughts?

Hi all!

I’m close to finishing my S&V campaign, and I’m going to present my players with a few options for our next campaign. The thing is, we used to play mostly PbtA games, but now we’ve gotten really into FitD and — as far as I know — neither I nor my players want to go back. PbtA is cool, but FitD just does the job better for us.

That said, I’m going to propose a few different ideas, and I’d be glad to hear your opinions about the FitD games I selected for each setting. I’m asking because many Forged in the Dark projects are pretty small and often not very well playtested, so if you’ve run or read any of them and noticed issues, I’d rather avoid wasting time on them (and maybe check out suggested alternatives instead).

• Fallout setting: Glow in the Dark;
• Superhero organization (something like Invincible): Capes in the Dark;
• Something close to Pirates of the Caribbean: Sea of Dead Men.
• Revolutionary campaign: ?

Thank you for your time!

Hi everyone,

I’m running a Blades in the Dark game and I’m running into a pattern that’s starting to frustrate me a bit.

My players really enjoy roleplaying and world-building. They have a complex long-term plan and like to advance it by mixing Long-Term Project clocks (started in downtime) with lots of free play scenes. That part is fine and often works well.

The problem is they almost never want to start an actual Score. They prefer to stay in free play indefinitely, slowly working on their goals through conversation, small actions, and roleplay. When I suggest “this feels like it could be a score now,” they get confused and don’t really understand why we should switch modes or what the benefit is. They seem happy to just free play forever unless I actively push them.

I’ve tried explaining that scores are how you get proper payoffs (coin, rep, flashbacks, better downtime, etc.), but it hasn’t really clicked yet.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you help players understand the value of Scores and gently move them from endless free play into the score → downtime cycle without it feeling forced?

Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated!

So I'm the GM of a long running BitD game. My players are a max rep Tier 4 assassin group. Most of my players have 2-3 dots in Prowl and Skirmish. One of my players have a Vet abiliy to make them take a max of 1 stress for both group Prowl and group Skirmish checks. And they also have a veteran crew ability so if they roll multiple 6's in a group check, it stacks.

My problem is I'm trying my best to challenge the players but I'm struggling. I can add dozens of extra guards, or clockwork automaton guards. I've added enemies with powerful magic artifacts. But at the end of the day, most of their heists come down to making group prowl checks to get past as much security as they can. Making group skirmish checks to demolish their target and any guards. If needed they can also call on their cohorts to also add an extra 4 dice on top of their own.

And because they're rolling like a minimum of 10 dice for any group check, there's very few times they don't roll a 6.

Unlike other systems like DnD or Pathfinder, I can't just raise the DC because they're up against more powerful enemies. I can increase risk or lower effectiveness, but because they have fine weaponry and fine tools they usually get a min of Standard effect. And they can trade position for effect if needed be as well.

My players still do individual action rolls at times, but most of their major challenges can be solved with group action rolls.

Have you guys GM'ed for a higher tier groups like this? Is this normal for high tier play? How would you challenge a crew like this?

I feel like every single campaign I read about online involves the player Crew initially taking the Lampblacks' side. It probably doesn't help that none of the Red Sashes' allied Factions have their own write-ups in the core rulebook (though the Faction Deck and Deep Cuts alleviate this), and the Vigilantes expansion even adds the Bloodletters from John Harper's AP as an additional anti-Red Sashes Faction!

Has anyone here ever run or played a game where the party took the Iruvian side here?

Hey y'all! I'm potentially about to spin up an online-only group in BitD, using FoundryVTT as a digital character sheet, dice roller, scene setter, and occasional loose map when I feel like making one. Are there any good modules y'all would recommend to help improve the experience for my new players?

Thanks!

Base Game - Push Yourself

>Push Yourself (Core Book): You can use stress to push yourself for greater performance. For each bonus you choose below, take 2 stress (each can be chosen once for a given action):
- Add +1d to your roll
- Add +1 level to your effect.

Deep Cuts' Push Yourself

>Push Yourself (Deep Cuts): When you suffer a consequence, you can choose to push yourself to avoid or reduce it.

>When you push yourself, make a roll using the attribute that corresponds to the type of consequence you’re suffering, just like a resistance roll in standard Blades:

>- 66: No Stress
- 6: 1 Stress
- 4-5: 2 Stress
- 1-3: 3 Stress

Also, something to note for Deep Cuts' Push Yourself:

>The push yourself mechanic in Deep Cuts and the resistance roll in Core Book are combined in this module. When you push yourself, you make an attribute roll and suffer 0-3 Stress, depending on the result.

My question:

Instead of the Core Book Resistance Roll to reduce consequences, I use the Push Yourself mechanic from Deep Cuts as a Resistance Roll. I like that, at most, you're losing 3 Stress from a Resistance Roll. I'm confident that this is perfectly fine to implement into Blades.

What I'm questioning though is that in Core Book Push Yourself, you take 2 Stress if you want a bonus die/increased effect. That's just a flat 2 Stress you take. No rolling for anything. 2 stress = bonus die/increase effect.

If I'm using the Deep Cuts Push Yourself module, when the players want an bonus die/increased effect, should I be having the players roll to see how much stress they take, as per the Deep Cuts Push Yourself rules?

Or should it still just be a flat 2 Stress to gain a bonus die/increase effect, since the Deep Cuts Push Yourself mechanic is only a replacement for the Resistance Roll?