Blades in the Dark: A bunch of hacks

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Blades in the Dark: A bunch of hacks

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

How complex can flashbacks get? Is it always supposed to be a single roll, or can you do an entire mini-heist to establish how you prepared for the current one?

In connection, is it possible to nest flashbacks? Like, if a flashback goes wrong, can you flashback to an even earlier time to establish how that was you plan all along?

# ¿ Sep 8, 2023 14:21

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 11:26

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

FLIPADELPHIA posted:

In our experience, flashbacks usually don't need rolls because they usually don't involve things that have much risk. As an example, I was a player in my group for a couple of weeks, and I used a flashback to tell a mini story about acquiring a deadly poison. I had just served a bunch of bad guys from a sealed bottle of brandy and the flashback was to establish that the Brandy was poisoned.

The rules definitely imply that rolling for flashbacks is the usual outcome:

https://bladesinthedark.com/planning-engagement posted:

Flashbacks
The rules don�t distinguish between actions performed in the present moment and those performed in the past. When an operation is underway, you can invoke a flashback to roll for an action in the past that impacts your current situation. Maybe you convinced the district Watch sergeant to cancel the patrol tonight, so you make a Sway roll to see how that went.

The GM sets a stress cost when you activate a flashback action.

0 Stress: An ordinary action for which you had easy opportunity. Consorting with a friend to agree to arrive at the dice game ahead of time, to suddenly spring out as a surprise ally.
1 Stress: A complex action or unlikely opportunity. Finessing your pistols into a hiding spot near the card table so you could retrieve them after the pat-down at the front door.
2 (or more) Stress: An elaborate action that involved special opportunities or contingencies. Having already Studied the history of the property and learned of a ghost that is known to haunt its ancient canal dock�a ghost that can be compelled to reveal the location of the hidden vault.

After the stress cost is paid, a flashback action is handled just like any other action. Sometimes it will entail an action roll, because there�s some danger or trouble involved. Sometimes a flashback will entail a fortune roll, because we just need to find out how well (or how much, or how long, etc.). Sometimes a flashback won�t call for a roll at all because you can just pay the stress and it�s accomplished.

What I'm curious about is if people always handle flashbacks in a single action - with or without rolling - or if they sometime involve elaborate mini-adventures?

# ¿ Sep 8, 2023 14:56

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I just kind of like the idea of running a fractal heist where individual actions expand into earlier heists. I realize that's not the normal way of doing things, and the sub-heists would need to be very short, but it could be cool setup for a particularly epic score.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2023 15:49

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Ichabod Sexbeast posted:

Could you also Rashomon a flashback? Is there anything for that?

Maybe allow the players to flash back to an earlier scene and explain what really happened. The stuff that played out earlier was just the cover story they told everyone to put them off guard!

I don't think this is technically allowed by the rules, but so what?

# ¿ Sep 9, 2023 09:55

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMUfql2Smc

Not directly TTRPG related, but Mary Robinette Kowal made a great video on structuring Heist stories. I particular like her advice on how to treat the team as a character with its own arc.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2023 11:05

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

A Burglar's Guide to the City

Just learned about this book, which seems like it would be extremely useful for BitD. Apparently, it was an inspiration for the developers of Dishonored.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2023 08:43

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Vagabong posted:

As someone also looking to gm for the first time (aside from a failed attempt back in 2021) I was wondering how much of the system/setting I should try and get the players to learn before running a session. Asking them to read the fairly robust rulebook seems like a lot, but at the same time the rules and the world have enough to them that it'd be hard to jump straight into the action and teach on the fly.

https://bladesinthedark.com/basics

The SRD page has a pretty decent overview of the system.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2024 17:32

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 11:26

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melsonia/swyvers

Get the gang together; someone's trying to muscle in on our turf.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2024 12:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Blades in the Dark: A bunch of hacks