Blades in the Dark: A bunch of hacks

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

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Blades in the Dark is the latest effort from industry veteran John Harper, possibly best-known for Lady Blackbird. Well, he was; it's probably going to be Blades now, because that poo poo caught fire and destroyed on Kickstarter, achieving $180,000 of its $7,500 goal, eating through nearly two dozen stretch goals. Don't worry, most of it is up to other people to write. It probably won't suck the life out of the core game's author and cause another embarrassing RPG industry implosion!

Quick pitch: You're a crew of Garretts and Corvos looking to grow a criminal empire in a smog-choked Victorian-style city beset by ghosts and other supernatural weirdos. There might also be lightning guns and monorails.

The Gates of Death have been destroyed, which isn't as "eternal life" as it might sound because it just means ghosts loving everywhere. Also demons, I guess? Now, the Empire rules scattered city-states hunkered behind electroplasmic fences, because ghosts are basically transparent cows, and the wilderness is a haunted hellscape. These cities are likewise connected by electricity-powered trains, which may sound familiar if you've played Harper's previous game Ghost Lines (they're the same setting). Despite these and other technological marvels, the setting is very Victorian London stereotype, full of gas lamps and coal fires getting grime all over the teeming dirty peasants crammed into ~~Mega City One~~Dunwall, while the rich elite eat stuffed pheasant off diamond-encrusted slaves' backs. John Harper calls it "industrial fantasy."

Blades is a game about playing a gang of filthy criminals moving up in the underworld. Typically, projects like Thief: The RPG are ill-starred, since vicious backstabbing loners tend not to work together very well. Luckily, we have the terrible scourge of ~story games~ to thank for a functional game about criminal empire-building. On top of each character having their own traits, their Crew has its own character sheet, reflecting their pooled resources, prestige, allies and enemies. Plus, the basic premise is that you all want to form a gang and are not actually anti-social goons. So maybe not all that much like Garrett and Corvo.

Characters choose from a selection of playbooks that guide you in what kinds of actions you favor and what gear you have. Thanks to stretch goals, there are seven core playbooks, ranging from the Cutter (bruiser, back-alley brawler) to the Lurk (cat burglar), from the Spider (mastermind with back up plans) to the Whisper (scholar and occultist). There's a touch of cross-classing available. The Crew has a playbook, too, covering groups like Thieves and Cultists. Crews have a lair and other resources, including minions, special group training, and libraries.

To resolve actions in Blades, players roll a pool of d6's and take your highest result (multiple 6's count as a Crit). This is a "fail forward" kind of game, so even if you don't get what you want, something happens. When you're setting up an action, your group hashes out whether what you're doing is Controlled, Risky or Desperate�your "position"�which helps determine how easy it is to succeed and determines the quality of your success. Even if you roll poo poo, you can re-try from a worse position. The GM doesn't roll anything, but they do determine how hard things are, not just by helping do adjudicate an action's position, but also by setting up "clocks" for long-term tasks. Clocks are segmented circles that demonstrate progress towards an objective, from "break into the mansion" to "kill all the guards." Actions fill in the segments of the clock, and once it's filled up the objective is completed or the obstacle is overcome.

Typically, your Crew will pursue a Score in order to acquire Coin and Hold to bolster their position in the underworld hierarchy. Scores generate Heat, though, which means you're getting more attention from the bluecoats, but you're also getting famous enough that bigger crews are taking notice. When you're on the job, characters trade off being leader ("on point"), using their particular expertise to advance the crew's agenda, even if that's just setting up things for the next person who's going on point. The Lurk leads the party through the sewers into the mansion basement, the Hound knocks out the guards in the library, the Whisper deals with the occult seals on an ancient book, and the Cutter leads the charge against the demon that pops out. Characters who aren't on point are instead "backup" and provide assistance, say by facing an Effect in place of the person on point, or providing a bonus die to an action. In addition to any other problems that arise, failed group actions add Stress to everyone providing backup because they so totally could've done better you guys.

Stress is your damage track. Once it fills up, you suffer some Trauma, whether it's a bad wound or a new personal enemy. Your Stress resets to 0 and you start the journey to Trauma all over again. Once your character has acquired four Traumas, the mean streets have proved too mean for him, and he retires. Depending on the Coin in his Stash, he retires in ignominy or he settles into a slightly more honest small business empire.

Between Scores, characters spend Coin and Hold to buy toys and influence, to advance Downtime plans like setting up front businesses or bribing officials to be friendly, and to try to reduce the Heat drawing attention to your Crew. Characters also engage in their favored Vice to reduce their Stress, staving off that next bit of Trauma.

Character and Crew advancement comes in "ticks" in certain categories, and once you have enough you get a new Skill rank or buy a new move. These ticks are awarded for things like the group agreeing on which Skills you used best, fulfilling your playbook's themes, or doing what your Crew does best. For instance, at the end of the session everyone might say your Hound used Prowl to great effect, so you get one tick over your Cloak Skills, and you also "hunted or killed a challenging target" which gets you a tick towards a new special move. Maybe you also pulled a couple of Desperate tricks, so you get two ticks you can place anywhere. Finally, your Thieves Crew might get an advancement tick towards a new special ability after executing a successful robbery.

You start out as a very low-level Crew, but as you progress you should move up, controlling multiple neighborhoods, bribing more important officials, and potentially turning the whole city of Dunwall into your giant gang's turf. Maybe somewhere along the way you steal cool jars full of souls from creepy witches, uncover deathgod cults' plots to subvert city councilors, or even organize construction efforts to seal up the crumbling wall before ghosts overrun the city. There is a pretty extensive Faction Ladder used to track your influence over other groups and parts of the city, and to track your Crew's relationships with other potential allies and rivals.

There are a number of suggested tools to give the game a quick start up time. The base advice on how to run all the set up and planning that goes into executing a Score is mostly "don't." Your PCs are experienced criminals. They already bought floor plans, they already timed guard patrols�take a few minutes to outline what their "plan" is, then get into the actual caper. There is a Flashback mechanic for pulling contingencies out of your rear end, something that the stretch goal playbook the Spider is probably expert at. The GM section also has some tables for randomly generating Scores, or they can just act as lists of possibilities to choose from! They include Client/Target, Work, Location, Troubles and Twists.

The world of Blades in the Dark is full of ghosts, demons and other monsters, which means it's ripe for adventures other than the purely criminal enterprise. Among the Kickstarter's stretch goals are a grip of playsets that completely change up the game, providing new player and crew playbooks tailored to them.

quote:

� Broken Crown: A playset for the game that adds new character and crew types so you can play a group of revolutionaries intent upon doing the impossible � assassinating the Immortal Emperor himself. By James Stuart.

� Bluecoats of the Watch: A playset for the game that adds new character and crew types so you can play the meanest gang in Duskwall: The City Watch! Play as the inspectors, enforcers, and guardians that hunt and capture the scoundrels in the darkness.

� The Ghost Lines: A playset that adds a whole new dimension to the game beyond the walls of the city. Play as the daring Rail Jacks that deal with deadly ghosts on the electro-train lines which connect the cities of the imperium.

� Leviathan Song: The hunting vessels sail out from Duskwall, enormous steam ships financed by the noble houses, captained by their unrecognized scions, and crewed by the unwashed masses. Following signs from shipboard dogs, gifted orphans, and madmen trained to hear the demon-song chanted in the depths, they sail the Never Sea, harpoons and hoses ready, preparing to drain the great beasts of their precious fluid. A new playset by Jonathan Walton (author of the Dungeon World Planarch Codex).

Also in Addition On Top of That
On top of the core game and its directly related stretch goals, the Kickstarter's runaway success resulted in a bumper crop of setting hacks.

quote:

� Band of Blades: A complete dark fantasy hack, Band of Blades allows you to play a small band of soldiers desperately trying to shift the tide in a war against powerful sorcerer-kings and their undead minions. By Stras Acimovic.

� Blades Against Darkness. Get your dungeon-crawling fix with this total reskin and new playset for the game! You are a tomb robber � desperate for coin, driven by a thirst for knowledge, on a quest for your inscrutable deity, or, perhaps, just crazy. One way or another, you�ll take almost any job that comes your way. The Gods know there is plenty of bloody work to be had in the dark passageways below the earth. drat little is honorable. Most all of it will get you killed. But you just might make it out alive... and rich. By Dylan Green.

� Blades of the Jhereg: The underworld of Adrilankha is ruled by a council of five ruthless bosses, known as the Right Hand of the Jhereg. You and your crew of scoundrels have been given a tiny piece of turf and are expected to impress them with your greed and opportunism. Will you rise to power in the Organization or be strangled by your ambitious rivals? Blades of the Jhereg is an official licensed supplement for Blades in the Dark featuring the world of Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels (Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, Taltos, etc.). The playset will include the character and crew types, NPCs, factions, situations, maps, and additional rules needed to play the exploits of a Jhereg criminal enterprise in Adrinlankha. Just remember to keep an eye out for that upstart Easterner. People say he's trouble. By John Harper (with editorial oversight from Steven Brust).

� Coneycatchers is a reskin of the game with new character and crew types, factions, situations, and a guide for playing in Elizabethan London. By Jason Morningstar (author of Fiasco, Durance, and Night Witches).

� The Doomed: "Look, we don't have to worry about The Dark Avenger; he's in the morgue. The Hero Squadron just got their minds swapped by The Mystic Eye or whatever, who knows. What I'm saying is: nobody's around to stop one little bank robbing spree. We just keep it low key and it's us and our powers versus a bunch of beat cops. What could go wrong? " The Doomed takes Blades in the Dark to the worlds of superheroes. You'll be playing the small-time villains trying to make it big in a world where an alien invasion is just another Tuesday. New characters and crew types give you everything you need to play in the style of The Superior Foes of Spider-Man and the Giffen/DeMatteis Injustice League. By Sage Latorra (co-author of Dungeon World).

� Moon Over Bourbon Street: A completely new setting for the game, plus new character and crew types. You are a thief in Crescent City, a bustling m�lange of French colonials and planters, Spanish traders, American river men and adventurers, and Afro-Caribbean free men and slaves. Steamships traveling up and down the Mighty River disgorge a constant stream of valuable cargoes along with scoundrels and gamblers of every bent. But at night, the city turns dark indeed.... By Chris Bennett.

� Null Vector: Four artificial intelligences secretly rule the world. You and your crew of cyber-augmented outcasts are some of the only people who know the truth. Will you oppose the invisible masters? Will you join one of the AIs, to bring its vision for humanity to life? What will you do to change the world? Null Vector is a complete reskin of the game for cyberpunk thriller action in the vein of Ghost in the Shell.

� P38: Blood on the Streets. Italy, the 1970s. Upstart bank robbers compete and consort with the organised crime establishment, while the public follows from the front pages of newspapers, afraid and morbidly fascinated. This, however, is only the surface. The criminal underworld traces a wide, murky network, connecting the mob, terrorism and espionage. Some want to tear down the bourgeois state and start a revolution, others are building support for an authoritarian coup. Many are just in it for profit. Everyone is involved, and no one is innocent: terrorist groups and ruling parties, idealist students and national security agents, gangsters and foreign spies. In P38: Blood on the Streets, you will step into this web, for money, power and ideology. What will you make of it? A playset based on one of the darkest decades of Italy�s republican history, by them crazy Italians: Flavio Mortarino, Alberto Muti, Renato Ramonda, Enrico Ambrosi, Daniele Di Rubbo, Luca Veluttini and Domenico Marino.

� Scum and Villainy is a complete reskin of Blades in the Dark for playing Rogues, Scoundrels, Bounty Hunters and aliens of all types looking to make a credit and keep their ship flying in a Space Opera setting. Includes new character types, crews, ships and modified basic moves that encourage blaster-shooting, hoverbike chasing and other over-the-top cinematic action. By Stras Acimovic.

� Sparrow's Folly is a complete reskin of Blades in the Dark for playing gritty adventures in the Wild West, with new character types, crews, and factions, plus the guide and maps to Sparrow's Folly itself. By Allison Arth.

� Throne of the Void "The forms must be obeyed." �The Great Convention The Interstellar Empire was unified less than a century ago by the first Imperator. Since then his iron fist has enforced the compact that binds the Empire together. But he ages, and his grip weakens. And now the churn of plans, schemes and politics begins. In this decadent world, inhuman nobles, merchant guilds and religious groups all aim to control the throne by any means necessary. You play a crew of Agents, serving a powerful faction of the Interstellar Empire vying against Agents of other factions ... and those of your own. You will be trying to move wheels-within-wheels as you play large-scale political and faction-based games in a deadly web of shifting alliances and rivalries. Throne of the Void is a complete stars-and-starships hack of Blades in the Dark and includes new character types, crews, factions, changed faction and downtime rules, plus galactic maps to the Empire itself. By Stras Acimovic.

� Womb of Night: A black expanse stretches between the stars, whose dim light shelters the thousand colonies of humanity. Riding the star-seas between them are crews of traders, marauders, explorers and pirates - all guided by the Sisterhood, whose Navigatrix acolytes portend safe passage through the hellish storms that make up the roiling mass they call the warp-space. In Womb of Night you play brave opportunists who seek out their fortune in the void of the cosmos, preying on fat merchant ships or finding rich new worlds to exploit. Space holds riches and power beyond your dreams, if you're bold enough to take them. By Adam Koebel (co-author of Dungeon World, and GM of Swan Song. Adam knows a thing or two about tense situations in space. His primary inspirations for Womb of Night are the art of Moebius, 70s heavy metal and a heavy dose of psychedelic culture.)

Other
There's a G+ community, where John Harper has been pretty active. There's a growing FAQ pinned at the top of the community. On a personal note, it's nice to see the author being really engaged with feedback and publicly musing on pretty significant changes to his game in pursuit of making it fun and accessible.

Here is the first part of a session run by John Harper on Google Hangouts. Here is a write-up of that session.

Welcome to a thread guaranteed to die a pathetic death waiting for Kickstarter fulfillment. Prove me wrong, motherfuckers!

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Apr 14, 2015

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 11:37

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 19:41

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

gradenko_2000 posted:

I'm currently running a PbP game of this.

The system feels quite flexible and fast-playing, and the "one detail for planning then drop the players in medias res" is a general principle that you could apply to other games. I could definitely see it being used in a SWAT/HRT/Rainbow Six-type setting.

The clock mechanic also strikes me as eminently poachable because it dovetails well with a GM never saying no. Even the most outrageous ask can be reduced to a "long-term project" with a clock that the party can work on over multiple sessions.

I feel like I already got a lot of value out of the quickstart rules.

I do think though the game could use with some options for cutting down on the number of Actions - 16 feels a little too many for a quick oneshot/fast Chargen.

EDIT: My thread title was totally going to be Blades in the Dark: Dirty D6s Done Dirt Cheap

Woops, I forgot to talk about the score generation stuff in my post! Yeah, the Quickstart definitely had a lot of value for a teaser on an unfinished game. It helped me up my pledge.

He already said he's cutting down on Effects, I think, and he made a pretty big G+ post about eliminating half of the "roll to-hit, then roll damage" aspect of the system. Maybe Skills will get a paring, too.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 12:56

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Impermanent posted:

I'm so bummed I missed this kickstarter. Is there any way for me to buy in for a copy of the rules quick start rules?

He's going to do one of those "late backers" things, so that might be it whenever that's ready.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 21:02

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

So: a hack based around the idea of low- or no-powered wannabe superheroes fighting crime. Think Arrow/Daredevil/that upcoming "We Are Robins" comic.

Talk to me.

e: I'm thinking of playbooks like The Striker (DD), The Weapons Master, The Sleuth, or Control (the Oracle-type). Not sure what to do for crews, though

They're definitely "Teams" instead of "Crews." Ideas off the top of my head are: the Nine-to-Fivers (government agents), Outcasts (certain versions of X-Men), Fightin' Family (Fantastic Four) and Bickering Soap Operatives (Avengers, or really every team ever).

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 23:34

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

He seemed pretty clear to me that there was still significant writing to do, which is why I was hesitant myself. He's mused about changing an aspect of the core mechanic, but as long as he does the math right it shouldn't have a major development impact (especially if he keeps the fairly mediocre playbook moves), and he's got half a year to find out before crunch-time even starts to loom.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2015 17:00

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Kai Tave posted:

It's mind boggling to hear people saying that tinkering with a game post KS is a big red flag when Exalted 3E is a thing that should still be fresh in peoples' memories.

That's a pretty low bar you're setting, there.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 03:26

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Harper has posted more recent APs on his YouTubes, too.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 19:49

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Part of the update asked that backers keep the news under wraps until the 13th.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2016 02:58

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Since I wasn't following development closely after something like version 3, I'm doing a thorough read of the final release and I'm pretty happy. I was worried about rule bloat when the very simple game originally presented by the Kickstarter seemed to expand suddenly with every new draft, but I think it's all pretty good in the end.

However, I just got to the Slide's always-detect-lies ability, and I'm sorely disappointed. This kind of poo poo is always a headache, and it just brutally undercuts a massive portion of social interaction, particularly in Victorian Crime World. Which is a massive dump on the very thing the Slide is supposed to be doing.

Was there any discussion of this whenever it was introduced? I notice it's in at least the last few drafts. Are there any particularly interesting house rules anyone's come up with to replace it?

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 11:02

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

bewilderment posted:

If I want both a physical book and a PDF, what are my options now? DriveThruRPG has the PDF, and the link from Evilhat for 'Buy Now' links to Backerkit for a physical book but I don't know what, if anything, that will get me since preorders closed a month ago.

I'm not sure when, but there will be a PoD option on DTRPG at some point. I assume once fulfillment actually starts happening, or maybe they're just going back and forth with PoD proofs right now. :shrug:

There will likely also be extra/overflow traditionally printed books on the Evil Hat site, which I believe always has an option to buy a PDF alongside print products for +$0.

So, I guess your best option now is just to wait until later. Sorry.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2017 07:22

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Phone posting, but I believe you can perform downtime actions as part of a flashback.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 02:42

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

admanb posted:

Clearly we will have to buy copies of the standard edition to carry around so the special edition can stay undamaged.

(I'm honestly considering doing this.)

It's why I bought two standard editions. They were loving cheap, too, so why not?

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 21:17

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Shockeh posted:

I've got a fairly elementary question - I'd love to get into this game, but being in Australia, can I find anywhere that'll sell me the fucker? Of course not.

Apparently the DTRPG PoD book's availability is imminent, and there's a Lightning Source office in Melbourne. So maybe that?

# ¿ Jan 2, 2018 12:58

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 19:41

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

A couple of Bluecoats show up and kill the mood at the entrance for a minute, but don't actually say anything. Then the stuffy-looking noblewomen they're being paid under the table to act as bodyguards to show up and commence to get 10000% ripped out of their minds. This may be fun or still bring the mood down depending on people's attitudes towards these women or nobles in general.

Rumor starts going around that a card game is haunted or otherwise magically addictive, or a player is a warlock entrapping people with it. It turns out they're just really well-illustrated and everyone playing is extremely high.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2023 00:39

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