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John answered that on G+:quote:Think of it this way.
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Apr 16, 2015 08:21
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About 5-7 days from now, roughly.
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May 3, 2015 01:30
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They're doing a stream of Blades on Adam's Twitch channel. He'll probably put it up on John's Youtube after or maybe his own.
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Aug 13, 2015 03:35
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Version 3F of the Quickstart is up if you're a backer. Haven't had time to really look it over.
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Aug 29, 2015 00:37
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New Blades v6 out. John was sick for most of February so a lot of his milestones got pushed back to March. I haven't had a chance to look it over, but changelog: CHANGELOG V6 1. Example of NPC taking action against a PC. See page 23. 2. Players' Best Practices. See page 25. 3. Write-ups for the factions of the Criminal Underworld. See pages 46-49. All of the factions will have write-ups like this in the full book. 4. A guide to supernatural forces. Guidelines for arcane magnitude and stress costs. See page 61. 5. Rules for Rituals. See page 62. 6. Rules for Alchemy. See page 63. The Leech playbook has been tweaked a bit to suit. 7. New playbook: The Hull. Now you can play a spirit-powered automaton. See page 65. 8. New playbook The Vampire. Now you can play a spirit inside an undead corpse. See page 66. 9. Modified the Thieves crew ability Everyone Steals. I tweaked it to be less finicky, and to match the similar abilities on other crews. 10.Four new criminal factions! The Billhooks, The Gray Cloaks, The Grinders, and The Wraiths. Special thanks to Adam Schwaninger for the faction names. 11.Random generators for streets, buildings, people, and devils (ghosts, demons, etc.). See pages 67, 73, and 74. 12.I wanted to incorporate the original name of the city—Doskvol—so I did! I like it because it helps show that the city is very old (pre-dating the current common language) and I also like the implied double meaning—both "the Dosk River valley" and "the Dark Veil." Like most old cities, Doskvol has collected many names, including the nautical name North Hook and the modern nickname: Duskwall (or simply "The Dusk"). So you can still use the nickname in your games if you don't want to change what you're calling it. But Doskvol is what the Imperial Cartographer prints on her maps. 13.You’ll find some other new odds and ends throughout, some of which aren’t fully complete. I wanted to get this update out to you now so I left some things undone, but I figured you might like to see more of what’s coming.
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Mar 8, 2016 06:51
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Nope, highly unlikely they would be. If they're from the author that's just delaying the main book for no good reason (assuming it's not held up in outsourced stuff: editing, layout, printing, etc). From other people... Unlikely since they're gonna wanna wait for a lot of stuff until it's officially Done so they don't waste time on something that gets totally changed from feedback or whatever. Not that it can't happen, and I'm sure it has, but I just wouldn't expect it at all.
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Sep 9, 2016 03:42
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John is going live right now with a Blades Developement AMA on Twitch.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:30
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Yeah it's one of those things that's not explicitly defined except that noble houses have leviathan hunters, it's an extremely lucrative trade, and leviathans are badasses. All of which points to it being a valuable resource. The city needs electricity and ghost lights for its infrastructure (due to lack of sunlight) but individuals are unlikely to be able to afford it. Someone with electricity in their house or business is a mark of success.
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Apr 19, 2017 04:06
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Also just hustling them along and letting them use flashbacks can help a lot if the game is dragging. Just saying "Okay, you've got <a target/job>, so just go ahead and pick an approach and give me the detail. You can always flashback when something unexpected comes up if you need!". On the other hand if there's lots of roleplaying going on and everyone is having a good time, there's not a need to rush to the next job. You could also bring the job to them. Have things they've done in the past come back to haunt them or claim their due. Put a clock on the job and let them know that they've got time to do things, but not a lot of time to gently caress around. You're not looking to punish them, just motivate them to move onward. Also keep in mind this rule: pg36 posted:Each attempt to gather information takes time. If the situation allows, you can try again if you don’t initially get all the info that you want. But often, the opportunity is fleeting, and you’ll only get one chance to roll for that particular question. So if they're trying to eek out information, you can just say they've learned all they can about that particular aspect. And/or show the passage of time, or consequences of the rolls. Also you could set up an Investigation Clock (again page 36) since they're expending a lot of time/resources working at, which then makes it a Downtime Activity and so they're going to need to spend Coin/Rep to work on it more if they want. Which Gathering Information doesn't have a cost (besides roll results) since it's not a Downtime Activity normally. pg153 posted:Activities on the downtime list are limited; normal actions are not. During downtime, you can still go places, do things, make action rolls, gather information, talk with other characters, etc. In other words, only activities that are on the list are limited Basically I favor just answering some questions and trying to move them onto the job if they're not doing any interesting/fun roleplay.
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May 20, 2017 06:22
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I'm just hoping John releases the U'Duasha stuff as a PDF. Didn't even realize that was part of the SE since I tend to ignore physical rewards. Though with the form factor and style of Blades' SE I almost wish I had gotten it.
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Jun 5, 2017 23:12
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Yeah, but not at the SE level, since I didn't want any physical rewards. I'm in the:quote:THE INFILTRATOR: You get the Quick Start PDF, a PDF copy of the complete game when it launches, and credit in the book. You also get all the additional PDF content unlocked over the run of this Kickstarter campaign, plus a code for a softcover POD version of the book at cost. John just replied with "Maybe" on twitter though, so there's hope at least!
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Jun 5, 2017 23:24
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Scum and Villainy 1.6 is out by the way. Same link as in the original Kickstarter post for it (or DriveThru if you bought it there).quote:Hey Folks.
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Jun 7, 2017 00:59
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Mentioned this in the Shadowrun thread, but anyone looking for a more narrative Shadowrun there is an in-progress Blades hack that seems pretty solid. Runners in the Shadows (Direct link to PDF). It's rough around the edges, but seems totally playable.
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Jun 8, 2017 21:58
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There are already gobs of hacks posted on the G+ page. John is currently working on nailing down what is in the SRD and releasing it. You can get some pretty big thematic shifts just by messing with the Stress/Trauma tracks, and what kind of currencies you're working with. As well as what goals the crews are after. Plus the kickstarter unlocked something like a zillion hacks. Talk about the SRD. quote:I'm working on the SRD with John now (it's almost ready). Here's the skinny so far. All core rules are in. All of Doskvol (including playbooks, ghosts, and all that business is out), except that we give some example moves culled from the playbooks as examples. GMing and playing advice is also out, but it will be included in a separate doc that can't be reproduced but will freely be available as a general "guide" to making Powered by Blades games. quote:yep, what we have in the SRD will be what's available for reproduction. Just like you don't see Beholder or the Mind Flayer in the d20 SRD, we'll have a few abilities that are closely enough tied to the setting they can't be re-used. Those are are pretty few and far between though. I think I only pulled out 2-3 from the entire list of character abilities. Going through crews now.
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Jun 8, 2017 22:06
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Last John said, nope. They had a limited number of them for backers and presumably some extras for friends or mistakes or whatever. But chances of them ever selling it again are slim for multiple reasons (kickstarter exclusivity and printing run costs being two big ones). Secondhand or bust sadly.
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Jul 22, 2017 23:36
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So some of those emergency overstocks they had for the Special Edition are up for sale. No international shipping for it, though there are services you can use. More info here.
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Aug 9, 2017 22:52
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 This is the core gameplay loop. Free Play -> Engagement Roll -> Score -> Downtime. So you finish a Score then:
So it's a very mechanics driven section of the game still. Free play is where you discuss who you want to hit next, figure out How you want to hit them, then provide the Detail and move into the Engagement roll. The "realm-management mini-game" is done through Scores as well. You run a Score that results in you gaining a Turf or you can also run a Score that results in you gaining a Claim. Claims are listed on the Crew Sheet, and you generally follow the connected paths therein claiming things as you go. Claims have an actual mechanical benefit beyond the fictional benefit. Turfs do too, but it's "just" "permanent" Rep. If you want to skip to another section of the Claim Map, it'll be more difficult and likely require multiple Operations or Long Term Projects to discover and then Claim it. Beyond that, the other thing that keeps the city moving is GM Clocks. Factions work on projects and if you're not interfering with (or helping) them, they're still going to advance those clocks while you're off doing your own thing. That'll impact the fiction, but isn't going to directly have a mechanical side besides maybe making some Fortune rolls to see how well they do. Or when they come calling to take something of the Crew's.
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Sep 23, 2017 20:23
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Yeah, that's the key. Getting people to lean on Flashbacks. Get them to watch some Leverage or Ocean's movies and see how they're about to be hosed... except flashback to where they anticipated this very thing. That and Load where you don't even need to figure out what items you brought with you until you need them. Basically free play should involve cool roleplaying scenes. If no one has any cool roleplaying scenes they want to [edit]explore[/edit], then you quickly discuss Who you want to Hit. Once it's pretty clear they've picked the Who, ask them for the How and the Detail and then just go right into the Engagement Roll. If they want some more specific info they can Gather Information, but don't let them keep rolling for the same bit of information or just get caught trying to figure out every aspect of a plan ala Shadowrun. DemonMage fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Sep 23, 2017 |
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Sep 23, 2017 20:44
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Don't think I've seen it mentioned here before, but another hack to keep your eyes on: A Nocturne.quote:The future of humanity was the spitter craft. It took us to distant stars, flung us out into the starry nothing. We formed the Panhuman Diaspora. We thought ourselves an evolved species.
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Sep 23, 2017 22:16
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If you drop the engagement roll then you're just arbitrarily deciding how the engagement starts. So... don't really have much to rewrite, but there's also not a compelling reason to drop it since it helps push play along and helps you frame how the Score starts.
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Oct 8, 2017 08:15
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I feel like you're thinking the Engagement roll is something it's not. Prior to the Engagement roll: Discussion on who to hit. Likely they start discussing HOW they want to hit the target too. After a bit you go "sounds like you're trying to do an assault on the Iruvian's, what's the point of attack?" "Hitting their treasury cart as it drives on it's route." "Sounds good, let's do the engagement roll!" Without Engagement roll: You creep up on the overhang just as the Iruvian consulate treasury cart is driving by, there's two bored guards riding in the back. What do you do? With Engagement roll: 1-3: You creep up on the overhang just as the Iruvian consulate treasury cart is driving by, unfortunately the guards are armed to the teeth and looking ready for a fight. You can still jump on, but it's not going to be pretty, what do you do? 4/5: As without. 6: You creep up on the overhang just as the Iruvian consulate treasury cart is driving by, you're in luck that they're short staffed today and the guard is asleep. What do you do? Crit: You creep up on the overhang just as the Iruvian consulate treasury cart is driving by, you got a crit here, so narrate how you handle getting onto the cart and dealing with the sleeping guard. There's not much you're missing out on here. Roleplaying or gameplay wise. You're either coming up with bits of how the route is approached or asking your players to provide a bit more setting dressing (an overhang vs an alleyway vs a rooftop etc) or just asking them how they go about physically moving across a city which is rarely worth talking about. So what gameplay are you cutting out, especially with the Engagement roll vs just the whole concept of cutting planning short?
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Oct 8, 2017 08:51
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Not yet. John moved a couple months ago and just dealing with Life so progress has been slower. He said a couple weeks ago he's still working on it and the website though.
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Nov 13, 2017 18:21
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Glow in the Dark just came out. Scum and Villainy is waiting on the SRD for the final push but is largely complete. And the game was just finished in Feb of this year, that's nowhere near 2 years. Yeah moving and getting married definitely cut into his time the past few months, so the SRD/website are absolutely behind. Leech and Spider are long since done, Vigilantes is done. John has to deal with: Bluecoats which he wasn't happy with and went back to the drawing board on. The Ghost Lines: As of July " John has a new engagement roll drafted as well an initial playbook." Null Vector: "Playbooks drafted. Estimates to follow the release of Ghost Lines and Bluecoats." Blades of the Jhereg wasn't even mentioned, so that's a bit odd. Everything else is other author's responsibilities and also had some update in the July post. Most of which were supposed to have worked started in earnest this Fall, so I wouldn't expect anything until early next year. Given that they had to wait for Blades to be Done before they could really get to work. There's also far along playtests of: A Nocturne Copperhead County Girl by Moonlight Runners in the Shadows Just off the top of my head. Oh and U'Duasha is getting some form of digital release for non-Deluxe owners. But yeah, I mean RPG kickstarters can take a long time to fulfill. John's done a solid job for his first run at it, but it's no Kevin Crawford well oiled machine for sure.
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Nov 24, 2017 23:53
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That's awesomeSean posted:I just sent an email to John about it. The SRD is done and we've got in on the blades site. We just need to do some DNS work and we can launch it. Some of the licencing bits will still be forthcoming, but the SRD is done. The things they're offering for hacks sounds fantastic as well. He explicitly says they prefer plain text, meaning you can focus your time on making an interesting game and less on the fiddly bits of making a product.
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Nov 28, 2017 06:28
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quote:Will this project be on Backerkit or Pledgemanger? Yeah that's a shame. Does look interesting. The art looks great, little wary of it being by the same people as the Veil but I'm cautiously optimistic. Estimated delivery is Jan 2019, so we're way out on this project. And sounds like they have a lot of work left to do based on the updates I skimmed. So I wouldn't be surprised by a decent delay (but this isn't also their first effort, so maybe not). DemonMage fucked around with this message at 23:45 on May 22, 2018 |
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May 22, 2018 23:42
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Working fine here, the Drive link for the main rules is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZUUqq-04qNdFbDvwZIfgObpzhjWpawS5/view Characters: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17MmYAY_3rW-KTUG7U_X5ESpPtrYTQu29?usp=sharing Teams: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TmJVPofp2zZCJEqH0Ny8K-5wQCqGogV0?usp=sharing
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May 25, 2018 21:30
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Nope. Band of Blades is still private beta only as far as I know. Only public stuff has been a couple con games/the YouTube videos. That said: https://twitter.com/strasa/status/1000063364293275648 I imagine that's BoB related.
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May 26, 2018 00:47
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Also re: stretch goals, someone called out John on the G+ and he had this to say:John Harper posted:I can't force other authors to produce content. I can only control my own work. Which is pretty much what we all figured anyways.
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May 27, 2018 09:16
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https://twitter.com/strasa/status/1002063528230965248 Backer download is up at http://bladesinthedark.com DemonMage fucked around with this message at 07:13 on May 31, 2018 |
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May 31, 2018 07:01
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quote:Greetings Scoundrels, Also yeah, we do need to have the rules reprinted. For the cross-referencing issue as well as the fact that there's gonna be people who haven't ever played Blades who find and buy/play these games. And that's totally fine and should be supported. Not to mention that some of them can make tweaks to those rules. Also another hack: In Which We Live and Breath a heavily Shadowrun influenced game. Looks good so far and is in active development by Ashton McAllan. DemonMage fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Jul 15, 2018 |
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Jul 15, 2018 14:28
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Yeah those are totally fair criticisms, I hadn't really gotten a chance to finish reading it. On the bright side, it's in active development and you can hit her up on Twitter or whatever and point those things out if you care enough! I'm a sucker for Shadowrun related stuff, so I'd love to see it succeed eventually.
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Jul 16, 2018 14:43
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2018 End of Year Updatequote:
So some interesting stuff coming in Q1 it sounds like. Still looking forward to it even if I'm not hype anymore. Oh and the Grifters supplement with crew and con jobs is out in the backer downloads! [edit] quote:City of Red Waters, by Ash McAllan - Draft coming out in our next update (#66). DemonMage fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jan 1, 2019 |
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Jan 1, 2019 06:04
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