Blades in the Dark: A bunch of hacks

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

Flavivirus: Dec 14, 2011; The next stage of evolution.

Maybe it could be something like the consequences for leaving the clock unfinished? Like, if you abandon it and it's <50% full this bad thing happens, 50-75% somewhat mollifies it and past 75% you'll have achieved almost everything you wanted to but leaving it unfinished could bite you in the rear end later? Haven't played the game yet so not sure if this makes complete sense.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 11:55

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 01:00

Flavivirus: Dec 14, 2011; The next stage of evolution.

Lemon-Lime posted:

The game is cooler with the serial numbers filed off, rather than being tied to an existing setting.

Plus it's a pretty equal Dishonoured/Locke Lamora/Vlad Tlatos mix, so if it still had serial numbers it'd lose at least one of the interesting things in the mix.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2016 13:50

Flavivirus: Dec 14, 2011; The next stage of evolution.

Foglet posted:

Coincidentally, our very own Flavivirus is supposedly working on an expansion titled Rhapsody of Blood for the second edition of his Legacy game (PbtA isn't Blades in the Dark, but close enough) which sounds extremely close to that premise.

Yup, Rhapsody should be out pretty soon - it's going to the printers in a few days. It's a pretty barebones book at about 60-something pages, but I've had a lot of fun with it.
I have plans for expanding it into a modern P5-style setting where the gothic evil castle is invading the corners and alleys of a city and people on the fringes have to band together and stop it, though that's a ways off. I'm actually bringing in more Blades ideas for that one, to help manage the downtime between castle raids where you maintain your social links, get rid of stress and try to keep your job/avoid expulsion from school/stave off debt collectors.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 08:16

Flavivirus: Dec 14, 2011; The next stage of evolution.

Macdeo Lurjtux posted:

Did the dark fantasy military hack modeled Black Company and Malayan ever get finished?

Pretty sure none of the hacks have been finished, and only a few even have playable drafts out - Scum and Villainy, Blades Against Darkness, Copperhead County, A Fistful of Darkness have drafts out, Glow in the Dark might be done?

# ¿ May 11, 2018 21:24

Flavivirus: Dec 14, 2011; The next stage of evolution.

Golden Bee posted:

Was his goal to make a one man PBTA blitz? This is like a GURPS line.

I reckon so, though it's a little disappointing how little on that list is done. It's to be missing A Nocturne, though, which actually seems to be coming along pretty nicely.

It's not 100% unfeasible, but I think it's suffering from not having any real deadlines. I managed to get 5 stretch goal pbta games done in 10 months for legacy, but that was in a large part through setting strict deadlines and trying to clamp down scope creep as much as possible.

# ¿ May 12, 2018 06:33

Flavivirus: Dec 14, 2011; The next stage of evolution.

Foglet posted:

I also like the "IF any of the authors of the other stretch goals bow out of their commitments, I will replace them with other authors so those stretch goals will be completed" part; I presume the replacement will be based on the same unpaid principle, keeping the full potential for the story to repeat (otherwise, if he means he will pay the new authors, why not just pay the ones he has?)

And, wait, if he can just swap out authors for the stretch goals, doesn't that put the lie to the idea they're being compensated with full rights to their work instead of money? A bunch of hacks is right.

# ¿ May 29, 2018 06:13

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 01:00

Flavivirus: Dec 14, 2011; The next stage of evolution.

Foglet posted:

I just wanted to say my expectations have recently been set by Legacy 2. That's an example of doing things right which will very likely bring me back as a return customer. While I like Blades a great lot as a product, to the extent of buying a premium hardcover, Harper has been making me less willing to commit to another crowdfunding of his.

Thanks!

I kinda get the feeling John wants hobbyist levels of obligations for himself and others, but professional levels of production quality and take-home money. This goddamn industry... it's really not hard to pay people a far rate, pay people on time, and thus get a much better product and make RPG design more attractive for people who aren't independently wealthy.

DigitalRaven posted:

Well they can gently caress themselves with rusty spikes.

The reason nobody's lashed back about it before now is because nobody knew that these idiots were working without contracts and without compensation. And it may be common among a certain subset of indie authors, but it really shouldn't be and by their efforts they are loving the rest of us — writers who cannot afford to waste time and effort without compensation. You just know that if Person A volunteers to write a stretch goal for nothing and Person B says "Sure, I'll do it for $X" then Person B ain't getting a look in. All because Person B has a normal attitude towards work. Must be lovely to have the time and energy and financial security to spunk out thousands of words for no recompense.

This is a fundamentally toxic attitude to have. It's why it's so hard for indie game designers who aren't willing to work for free have such a hard time getting known (and thus getting sales). It's also part of why games are so cheap — nobody's going to pay a writer a competitive rate when so many of these fucks are willing to work for free. This is the indie equivalent of established games paying poo poo: they don't have to pay more than 1c a word when they've a pool of fans desperate for work for the love of seeing their name on a product (and the fan-authority that comes with that) and wouldn't know a competitive word rate if it bit them on the arse.

If you can pay your writers, do. If you can't, don't offer their work as rewards. And don't ever pretend that doing work for free is normal, because when you do you gently caress over those of us who need money for little luxuries like rent and food. Take your bougie hipster attitude towards real work and gently caress off you worthless bastards.

Funnily enough one of my Legacy 2 stretch goal writers said they were wondering why John Harper never responded to their pitch for a BitD stretch goal, but now they realise their crucial mistake was asking what the rates were.

# ¿ May 30, 2018 11:54

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