Blades in the Dark: A bunch of hacks

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

thefakenews: Oct 20, 2012

Harrow posted:

Gonna run a test of this on Saturday.

How do people generally handle progress clocks during play? Do you draw them in some place where the players can see them all, or do you keep them hidden but give the players feedback about their overall progress?

I think drawing the clocks on index cards and making them visible to the players is the usual course. I played online, so did it on the VTT, but I made the clocks public information.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2016 13:04

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:08

thefakenews: Oct 20, 2012

Boing posted:

Awesome. Apparently that'll be out on DriveThru later today, looking forward to incorporating the new stuff.

I have a question about running the game - something that also comes up when I GM Dungeon World or other things like it. How do you come up with good consequences on the spot for partial successes? I have a list of general consequences that can be slotted in (deal harm; split up the crew; reduced effect; use up their resources; show a downside of their Load, etc.), which work alright, and can be made more or less dangerous depending on severity of failure and Controlled/Risky/Desperate position... but they're not exactly what I want to be rolling with all the time, because I know that ramping up threats and complicating the situation and offering tough choices are the more interesting consequences. Does anyone have advice for pulling these out of situations that require it?

For example - the Leech sets a trap for a carriage carrying valuables by building some kind of triggered road spike thing. I let him flashback to using his Tinker to build the trap, and he rolls a 4-5 for the Controlled action. On a success, I'd have him stop the carriage where he wanted it so the rest of the crew can pull the hold-up; on a failure, I'd have the trap burst only a couple of the wheels and spook the horses, so they start galloping off and start a chase scene or something. But on a partial? How do you make an interesting consequence from that? Sure, I could probably think up something after the fact, but in the heat of the moment I found myself stumped and it brought the game to a bit of a stop. Is it the case that I shouldn't ask for an action roll unless I already know some interesting ways in which to introduce twists or complications?

I dunno if this helps, but my approach to this sort of thing is to identify very clearly what the player wants to accomplish with their action. On a partial success they get that thing, but: then you get to gently caress with any other aspects of what's happening. With your example of the carriage, the player wants the carriage to stop so his allies can try and hold it up. On a partial success the carriage stops, but: maybe the guys in the carriage saw it coming, and pop out guns blazing; or maybe the carriage spins wildly and slams into a building alerting nearby blue coats; or maybe the carriage rolls and the occupants get the chance to get out and try and run while the road is blocked.

That's how I approach thinking about complications in general. Blades is a little more complex, because you have reduced effect and losing the opportunity to act which might interact with complications such that the player doesn't actually get what they want, but I think it's still a good starting point.

Another thing to do, although it slows things down a bit, is to discuss the stakes with the player before the roll. Work out what success looks like to them, and what failure will mean. This will give you a moment to think about what complications look like.

Depending on your players, asking them to tell you what went wrong might also work. Tell them, the trap goes off and the carriage rolls to a stops but: something goes wrong, what is it? A lot of players are more than happy to drop their character deeper in the poo poo if it makes things exciting.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2016 14:19

thefakenews: Oct 20, 2012

Dzurlord posted:

I'm almost positive that the Kickstarter stretch-goal playsets included either a Cyberpunk set or a couple things that could easily be slapped together to make one go. So maybe there might be a decent-quality one out of the gate, anyway!

Blades in the Dark Kickstarter posted:

UNLOCKED! ($80,000) 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.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2016 15:14

thefakenews: Oct 20, 2012

I made this thing the other day. Don't really have time to work on it any more deeply at the moment though.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2016 03:00

thefakenews: Oct 20, 2012

neonchameleon posted:

Are many people hacking Blades in the Dark? Because Blades on the Borderlands will simply not get out of my head until I write it. (And as The Old School Job in Cortex+ said "What is a dungeon crawl but a poorly-planned heist")

Isn't this just the Blades Against Darkness stretch goal? There is a draft out there somewhere.

Edit: the early draft is here

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Mar 22, 2017

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 04:28

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