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Iceclaw posted:This a pro click I'm saving for the day i have players for this game. I just realized someone should be doing this for Spire. Unfortunately, it will probably fall on me and never happen.
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Jan 24, 2019 09:06
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BinaryDoubts posted:Does anyone have any advice for spicing up social encounters? My two-player group of Hawkers (Spider, Leech) have zero sneakiness or fightiness so a lot of their scores (obtaining turf, hiring distributors, etc.) have been social. FYI, one of the stretch goals that came out recently is a new crew playbook called Grifters which is all about being conmen and comes with some advice on how to run a con in Blades. Probably worth checking out if you have access to the backer downloads. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jan 24, 2019 |
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Jan 24, 2019 10:19
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BinaryDoubts posted:Does anyone have any advice for spicing up social encounters? My two-player group of Hawkers (Spider, Leech) have zero sneakiness or fightiness so a lot of their scores (obtaining turf, hiring distributors, etc.) have been social. We've been building to a big score - a soiree at an art gallery thrown by Lord Strangford's bastard son - where they're going to try and lobby him for control of the docks drug trade. I don't want it to boil down to "we find him, we talk to him, we convince him" but aside from having reps from other gangs there trying to muscle in on the job, I'm a bit lost as to how to make it more complicated/layered/etc. Lots of ideas for cool characters and setpieces within the venue, but I'm not sure how to go from that to interesting social obstacles. My players had to steal a jawbone back from my Doctor Sokolov stand-in and I had them attend an auction at his curio shop. One of their initial goals was getting upstairs (smaller building, not a mansion) to get access to it, which they accomplished by winning a bidding war with a rich shithead noble. Said noble had been pestering them all night by looking down his nose at them and generally being lovely. He didn't recognize the whisper who was posing as a noble (the rest of the crew but one were the faux-noble's entourage) and was digging and prying and threatening to blow their cover. That acted as an obstacle. For reference sake, the whisper's character (and player) as a bit of an anxious mess and not a single one of that crew of weirdos felt at place among rich people so that was good, really put them in a fish out of water type situation. They later had to try to talk their way past a suspicious cleaner which ended up with the whisper taking off their boot at throwing it as his head, fighting a clockwork soldier hulk, and blowing off the top half of the building, but the social bit was pretty smooth. I guess what I'm saying is play up the feeling of being in over their head (if they are fictionwise), put an obstacle or two in between them and the person they need to talk to, and then have some obstacles towards convincing him somehow. A soiree might have feats of marksmenship and they're asked to prove how good they are with a pistol shooting something off of something, or maybe a duel is in order. Or, maybe someone wants to duel them and since they are not the combat type they really super duper don't want to and need to find a way out of it. When in doubt, add some Ghost Bullshit. Some is possessed it turns out and they can't get info out of him! Or a great way to get info out of him is to let a ghost possess him and then the ghost like, makes him talk or something. Ghost Bullshit is always good.
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Jan 24, 2019 15:22
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PST posted:Have you seen the BitD twitter accounts @DoskvolNews and @doskvolscores Oh hey thanks for the link! mllaneza posted:I just realized someone should be doing this for Spire. Unfortunately, it will probably fall on me and never happen. I hand-rolled my Tweeting code but I could have just used https://cheapbotsdonequick.com and gotten the exact same effect. Their home page is a little bit light on details but this is a good writeup.
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Jan 25, 2019 16:22
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Just posting here as I realized that I'm asking questions in the TG Chat far more relevant for this own thread! I was told that the spin off for BiTD, Scum & Villainy can be essentially standalone to the original BiTD book. Would it be wise however to attempt to run a game of S&V without having touched BiTD itself? Part of me feels like just skipping the original book is potentially risking skipping a lot of context and understanding, but perhaps I am wrong!
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Jan 27, 2019 13:58
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SkySteak posted:Just posting here as I realized that I'm asking questions in the TG Chat far more relevant for this own thread! I was told that the spin off for BiTD, Scum & Villainy can be essentially standalone to the original BiTD book. Would it be wise however to attempt to run a game of S&V without having touched BiTD itself? Part of me feels like just skipping the original book is potentially risking skipping a lot of context and understanding, but perhaps I am wrong! It's its own game and line using the same core mechanics. You're no more missing out on BITD than you would be missing out on Apocalypse World by playing The Sprawl or something.
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Jan 27, 2019 14:13
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Wrr posted:My players had to steal a jawbone back from my Doctor Sokolov stand-in and I had them attend an auction at his curio shop. One of their initial goals was getting upstairs (smaller building, not a mansion) to get access to it, which they accomplished by winning a bidding war with a rich shithead noble. Said noble had been pestering them all night by looking down his nose at them and generally being lovely. He didn't recognize the whisper who was posing as a noble (the rest of the crew but one were the faux-noble's entourage) and was digging and prying and threatening to blow their cover. That acted as an obstacle. For reference sake, the whisper's character (and player) as a bit of an anxious mess and not a single one of that crew of weirdos felt at place among rich people so that was good, really put them in a fish out of water type situation. Thanks for the advice! Right now I'm thinking of having a "main floor" they can get into without much trouble and then sort of a VIP area where the real business is conducted. Marksmanship contests sounds like a good idea, I was considering something like that or maybe some kind of ghost gambling thing that they can rig, plus the reps from other gangs circulating (most of whom hate the PC crew).
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Jan 28, 2019 01:23
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SkySteak posted:Just posting here as I realized that I'm asking questions in the TG Chat far more relevant for this own thread! I was told that the spin off for BiTD, Scum & Villainy can be essentially standalone to the original BiTD book. Would it be wise however to attempt to run a game of S&V without having touched BiTD itself? Part of me feels like just skipping the original book is potentially risking skipping a lot of context and understanding, but perhaps I am wrong! spectralent posted:It's its own game and line using the same core mechanics. You're no more missing out on BITD than you would be missing out on Apocalypse World by playing The Sprawl or something. Ehhhhh. The thing with a lot of post-AW games is that their creators have often internalized a lot of things AW is more explicit about; for example, how to adjudicate moves or pace GMing and present threats. So much so that their follow-on hacks include the complete mechanical rules but don't really include that information to the level of detail a newbie would need to run them full AW-style. I can report that Scum and Villany is fine standalone, there's plenty of advice for how to GM, largely because there's a whole bunch of new skills and scenarios to GM for.
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Jan 28, 2019 06:11
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BinaryDoubts posted:Thanks for the advice! Right now I'm thinking of having a "main floor" they can get into without much trouble and then sort of a VIP area where the real business is conducted. Marksmanship contests sounds like a good idea, I was considering something like that or maybe some kind of ghost gambling thing that they can rig, plus the reps from other gangs circulating (most of whom hate the PC crew). Those are all pretty good. I'd spend a bunch of time describing all the things going on on the main floor and then make it clear that the current big Obstacle is getting into the VIP area one way or another. Then they're free to choose which Interesting Thing to engage with to work their way up. Maybe put a clock on it for "Catching a noteworthy eye" or some such so that they have to do a few of the Interesting Things? Depends on how long you want to spend on that mainfloor. Other obvious things: Carousing with drunk nobles, ball room dancing, dealing with servants, slipping something in someones drink, a rep from an enemy gang confronts the players but neither side wants to instantly start fighting and blow whatever score both people are on so they subtly threaten each other with veiled language and hidden attacks kinda like in John Woo's The Killer where the two guys are pointing guns are each others faces and hiding their threats in soccer metaphors cause the blind lady can't see the guns and they don't want to alarm here, a Mechanical Man being shown off, a mechanical Man being shown off except the players know theres just a dude in there and that allows them to gently caress with it in some way, good ol bavarian fire drill
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Jan 28, 2019 15:11
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Glazius posted:Ehhhhh. I think the Sprawl does a good job of explaining itself and it's intended mode of play, though, which is one of the reasons I went for that.
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Jan 28, 2019 20:11
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Okay, so, stumbled on the turf/claim rules. I didn't appreciate that turf and claims are (maybe?) totally seperate things, but on a closer re-read, they seem to be; the segment on Claims notes "some claims count as turf", suggesting they're not the same. But, I'm also not sure how to acquire turf, since it's noted to be "a way you can expand", but the process for taking claims is it's own thing for claims specifically that turf doesn't seem to reference? Basically, is the intent that turf is a subset of claims, or is turf it's own seperate thing?
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Feb 3, 2019 17:08
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Yeah, turf is a kind of claim. The benefit of it is that each one reduced the cost of advancing to new levels by one. Also really easy to work into stories about defending them from other gangs.
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Feb 4, 2019 01:00
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I've been trying to introduce the gang growth side of things to my players recently. They're a cult operating under a tattoo parlor and are tattooing cult symbol onto people so I suggested that their turf could be represented in fiction by amount of / groups of people that are tattoo'd with their symbol. Also I sent them out into the Deathlands this last episode and it went full on STALKER. They had an encounter with percussigant, a deadly creature from Cultist Simulator which literally never stops dancing, and it went bad for them. Diplomacy through dance broke down. It was waltzing affably, jived in appreciation for their compliments, launched into a samba as it grew irritable, and finally attacked with a mambo. When one of the crew smashed it in the back with a makeshift flail it collapsed to the ground, where it did an agonizing worm before being put out of the its misery.
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Feb 4, 2019 19:17
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Wrr posted:Other obvious things: Carousing with drunk nobles, ball room dancing, dealing with servants, slipping something in someones drink, a rep from an enemy gang confronts the players but neither side wants to instantly start fighting and blow whatever score both people are on so they subtly threaten each other with veiled language and hidden attacks kinda like in John Woo's The Killer where the two guys are pointing guns are each others faces and hiding their threats in soccer metaphors cause the blind lady can't see the guns and they don't want to alarm here, a Mechanical Man being shown off, a mechanical Man being shown off except the players know theres just a dude in there and that allows them to gently caress with it in some way, good ol bavarian fire drill Amazing suggestions. Looks like I'm running the next session on a Wednesday, I'll try and write up a little report to hopefully help anyone else looking for how to run a fancy gala as a score. (Also tattoo parlors seem irresistible to players - my players haven't listened to Bloodletters but seized on the idea of running a drug den out of the basement of one as soon as I described Ink Street as a potential hunting ground).
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Feb 4, 2019 23:32
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Wrr posted:I've been trying to introduce the gang growth side of things to my players recently. They're a cult operating under a tattoo parlor and are tattooing cult symbol onto people so I suggested that their turf could be represented in fiction by amount of / groups of people that are tattoo'd with their symbol. Please tell me the player said "Stop! Hammer Time!". Otherwise it's just hilarious. And sad. But mostly hilarious.
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Feb 5, 2019 02:23
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Hello there! I am looking to do a game of Scum & Villainy, however I ran into a bit of a problem! Essentially I wanted to go with one of the opening starting jobs (the Stardancer one particularly); hoping to tie it into a faction they had annoyed in crew creation. I found myself worrying however as the faction is not only tier III but the starting scenario starts it on their homeworld. I know tier number isn't ironclad but for a starting situation and potential additional jobs, would it be advisable to find a far less powerful action, or does it really not matter all that much? I admit I am quite new to this so several concepts are taking some getting used to, of course.
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Mar 2, 2019 07:31
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Don’t sweat it much. Like you said, tier is a guideline for how wealthy, well-connected, and powerful an organization is. At tier III they’re pretty big-time but that doesn’t mean your players can’t get the drop on them and make a good name for themselves in the opening session. Take a couple of elements of the rival faction where they would be strongest (tech, magical power, hyper-intelligence, or well-trained fighters) and if your players come up against them there, suddenly it’s limited or even zero effect levels. They’ll either try something else or use the game’s methods of raising effect to compensate (trading position, fine gear, certain playbook abilities). Make sure you work with them and remind them about armor, resistance rolls, and flashbacks if things are going poorly. Afterwards, give them a nice payout and maybe start a clock for that faction taking revenge. Presto, you have a campaign going!
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Mar 3, 2019 19:53
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Screwing off someone far more powerful than you and scrambling to keep them at bay is a great hook for any criminal story.
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Mar 3, 2019 20:22
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Plus being that the crew is such a low tier its possible the tier 3 doesn't even see them coming or devote much resources to "nobodies", and if they do pull it off then it becomes "wait, who?", maybe putting their own low level boss on it since surely in their own turf it cant be that troublesome...
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Mar 5, 2019 05:49
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Thats how I would fluff it. They have more important things to worry about than a couple of assholes. Unless the players are charging their headquarters directly they wouldn't necessarily be dealing with the actual tier 3 poo poo. You can even have the looming threat of the full attention of the tier 3 group be represented as a clock ticking down.
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Mar 5, 2019 16:40
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That, or one day the players get dunked on, shoved into coaches, and find themselves facing a decently powerful lieutenant of the gang they hosed over. "Hi. You may wonder watcha doing here? Or maybe you is smart and you already guessed why. Bang up job you lot did. Real smooth. Would almost put it in the books for our new blood to learn from. Now thing is, we are in trouble with [enemy faction], so we can't exactly ignore wads of mollah turning up missing. Higher ups told me to make it right, hard'n'quick. I coulda have you all shived in your sleep. But such a bleeding heart i am, I can't find it in me to send such talented go-getters to feed the crows. So now, you work for me. I tell you where to hit, what to take. Anything I ask, I get. Anything else you nick along the way? You keep. You try and skip town? I kill you. You want to do some score on your own? I kill you. You work for anyone else? I loving kill you. Now scram. I'll send for you when I need you."
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Mar 5, 2019 21:14
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Anybody got an online platform they recommend for this? I'll be running it over discord for some friends, first time doing it not in person.
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Mar 5, 2019 22:41
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The roll20 implementation for Blades is super good.
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Mar 8, 2019 20:00
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Gorefiend posted:The roll20 implementation for Blades is super good. Can confirm. My group uses it when we play and it works like a dream.
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Mar 8, 2019 20:01
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Benagain posted:Anybody got an online platform they recommend for this? I'll be running it over discord for some friends, first time doing it not in person. Roll20, Slack for general chatter and interlude stuff (I wrote them all personalized Important Dreams), Google Hangout for Comms.
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Mar 12, 2019 17:11
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I felt I had to mention it in the Shadowrun thread: Karma in the Dark went final last October. It is legitimately amazing.
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Apr 12, 2019 16:42
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Does anyone have any holidays made up for their versions of Duskvol? I kinda wanted to do some sort of score around a holiday but without just directly copying an actual holiday. Like, spring is here in real life so it would be fun to do something with an equivalent spring holiday in-game. Not really sure what spring would look like without a sun starting to warm the place up but the Isles are a weird place and the book explicitly says not to let reality get too much in the way of a good time. I was thinking maybe the moon could get weirder for a while and that is how they started marking the Spring Equinox. Also I learned today that the Spring Equinox was in late March, and not actually about to happen like I thought it was.
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Apr 15, 2019 20:00
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Wrr posted:I was thinking maybe the moon could get weirder for a while and that is how they started marking the Spring Equinox.. "The" moon? Someone's forgotten about her dimmer sisters. Anyway, Frostbreak Moonwatch and Tidefrost Moonwatch are the two times when they line up perfectly with the moon proper and everyone crowds the rooftops to watch the spectacle. Or maybe it's because of the rumors that the alignment pulls at something in the dead, and in the handful of minutes that everything lines up perfectly, every dead thing surges from its unquiet rest into a fugue of blind revenge. (Or maybe it's just that the tide sweeps in freakishly strong and flushes all the corpses from the less-ably chosen hiding places.)
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Apr 16, 2019 00:21
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I like the Fugue Feast from Dishonored: a few days inbetween the years, in which theorically most taboos fall. When the Fugue Feast ends, whatever happen is not to be ever spoken about.
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Apr 16, 2019 02:34
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Glazius posted:"The" moon? Someone's forgotten about her dimmer sisters. Oh ya I did forget about those little ones. Thanks for the tips, they def play into whats going on in the campaign. I've been meaning to bring back the ghost of Bazo Baz into actual play after my players blew him (and his gang and a bridge) up. Iceclaw posted:I like the Fugue Feast from Dishonored: a few days inbetween the years, in which theorically most taboos fall. When the Fugue Feast ends, whatever happen is not to be ever spoken about. I've been meaning to just copy more Dishonored stuff wholesale. The benefit of the players not being big gamers. Also considering pulling from Idle Thumbs with "Dishonored Halloween" or "Dishonored New Years"; holidays that happen roughly a few weeks after their real world counterparts.
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Apr 16, 2019 16:08
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Looking over Hack The Planet, it's a real good cyberpunk take on BitD. The only change I would make is the full auto gunfire rules from Karma in the Dark, otherwise it looks really good with a well fleshed out setting and a good take on increasing stress and adding augmentations fairly. The book and art is real good too.
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May 2, 2019 20:00
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That's sweet. I found The Veil to be... quite bad, so I skipped the HtP KS when it came up. Blades is definitely a better canvas for the kind of design he was trying to do anyways.
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May 2, 2019 20:14
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i remember reading hack the planet and finding that it's just cyberpunk blades. like literally just that. as in most of the moves are copied over wholesale and literally the example text on mechanics sections is just swapped around enough to be cyberpunk. if it is good, its because it barely changes anything rather than taking any risks. its also pretty devoid of creativity in its fiction
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May 2, 2019 20:25
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Any word yet on The Doomed hack yet? I been wanting to run super villain themed game for awhile.
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Jun 5, 2019 15:01
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i would like to play more of this game or its variants.
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Jul 17, 2019 05:49
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Same, the game is very good. Really enjoying DMing it far more than something like DND.
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Jul 17, 2019 19:24
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Working on a superhero hack of Blades (hero, not villain), trying to separate comic tropes into the "heist", "downtime", and "gather information" buckets is... not easy.
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Jul 19, 2019 19:07
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Traditional superheroic tropes are more reactivate than proactive, and I think blades shines in the later rather than the former, so I can see that being a lot of hacking to do.
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Jul 20, 2019 01:29
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CitizenKeen posted:Working on a superhero hack of Blades (hero, not villain), trying to separate comic tropes into the "heist", "downtime", and "gather information" buckets is... not easy. yeah it seems like you'd have to flip stuff around. like the main 'reactive' thing i can think of in blades is when an enemy faction you've pissed off moves against you. maybe the supervillains have clocks which tick up the less you mess with them, leading to them doing crimes? gather information i guess would be finding rumours about upcoming crimes, or tracking down the location of supervillain lairs/evil monsters awakening/doomsday devices, in order to plan a superhero raid on them.
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Jul 20, 2019 02:50
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CitizenKeen posted:Working on a superhero hack of Blades (hero, not villain), trying to separate comic tropes into the "heist", "downtime", and "gather information" buckets is... not easy. Downtime would just be Human drama stuff right? Have a clark Kent phase.
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Jul 20, 2019 04:40
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