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Blades In The Dark
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<blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 7518995" data-attributes="member: 6792361"><p>The linked “actual game play” thread does a pretty good job of outlining the game but I’ll answer your questions anyway for the sake of another perspective. </p><p></p><p>If you really want to see the game in action I would strongly suggest looking up Roll Play Blades on youtube in which the creator of thr gamer, John Harper, runs a group through some twenty-one sessions. Not only will this give you a very good idea of how the game shakes out over extended play, it’s tremendously entertaining Harper gives what I consider a master class in the art of Gming, and the players themselves are wonderful. I literally got a little misty eyed during some scenes. To put it another way, it’s about 80 hours of gameplay and I’ve watched the whole thing twice. It also helped a great deal in parsing some of the more abstract elements of the game that I was having some issues with. </p><p></p><p>In my experience of ten or eleven sessions I feel like Blades handles a lengthy campaign just fine. In, fact, given it’s focus on role-play, my groups characters are some of the most fleshed out and “real” characters I’ve seen in a long time. </p><p></p><p>Mechanically everything seems to be on course. As far as stress goes, it took a couple of sessions for my players to really grasp how to utilize it, but now that they have they’re very comfortable with balancing it. I’ve got two players with single traumas each, one of which was self inflicted after the player accepted a bargain from a demon and headed down the Path of the Forgotten God. </p><p></p><p>In short, none of them are currently at too much risk of having to retire due to trauma. </p><p></p><p>Crew Advancement: I think this is actually one of the mechanical features of the game that the players enjoy the most. As you probably already know, the crew is it’s own entity and has it’s own “character” sheet. It gains experience when the players do certain things and advances according to the player’s collective desire. It’s a bit like some video games where you get to trick out your lair with cool features. </p><p></p><p>The players absolutely dig it and it’s fun to watch them decide among themselves which upgrades they’ll choose when the crew advances. Personally I think it’s very well implemented and it adds another layer to the game. I don’t know if this is a unique game design idea for an rpg, but it’s new to us and it really adds a lot to the game. </p><p></p><p>Downtime Rules: Clunky? I don’t think that’s a fair term to use. Most of the time they actually work quite well, and it generally goes pretty quickly. First you do payoff and rep gain from the score, then figure out how much Heat the crew has acquired due to their illegal activities. Then there’s an entanglement. Then, downtime activities. Each crew member gets two free downtime activities with the option to buy more with either coin or rep. These activities include indulging their respective vices in order to clear stress, acquiring an asset, working on a long term project, recovering from harm, reduce heat, or train. </p><p></p><p>All of those post-score steps can be either role-played out at length or hand waved depending upon how interesting or important they are. </p><p></p><p>Sometimes entanglements can be a bit tricky. For example, you might get an entanglement that doesn’t really apply to the crew. But with a little imagination it’s usually pretty easy to work out. Also sometimes entanglements can be a bit overwhelming. During our last game the crew had just completed a pretty difficult score. They were beaten up pretty bad and just wanted to lick their wounds. But they rolled a pretty bad entanglement that suddenly had an opposing faction knocking on their door wanting a piece of their action. They are now at war with that faction. </p><p></p><p>But this is by design. The game purposely pushes back from all directions and makes the PC’s fight for every inch. It’s a hard world they live in. </p><p></p><p>Sometimes I’ll delay an entanglement if it makes sense in the fiction. I suppose you could even skip one here or there if you were feeling generous, but so far I haven’t. </p><p></p><p>One thing I’d say is that I’ve been pretty generous with score payout. My crew usually nets about 8 to 12 coin per score and they spend it as fast as they get it. There’s always something to spend coin on, especially if you accrue a lot of stress or wounds. </p><p></p><p>So no, I personally don’t find downtime clunky. In fact, it serves to push the story forweard in new and interesting ways. For example, I hadn’t planned on the crew going to war with an opposing faction, but the entanglement rules pushed events in that direction. It was ultimately the PC’s choice to go to war (they could have paid the other faction off), so they get the feeling of steering their own fates, and I benefit from a whole new story line! </p><p></p><p>And that, I think is where Blades really shines. The rules themselves push the story forward. I don’t do a whole lot of prep work for our sessions because I know that the game will provide hooks and plots and conflict and interesting NPC’s. I’ve been keeping a list of potential plot hooks that now numbers eighteen items, any of which I can introduce whenever I need to. And many of those hooks are related to fctions and NPC’s that are doing their own things in the background which gives the sense of a breathing, living, world spider webbed with intrigue. I’ve got about a half dozen clocks going on that relate to the PC’s and every session they get a little closer to being filled. The PC’s don’t know it, but that bounty hunter is getting awfully close to tracking down the PC who is an escaped slave. The Red Sashes want to know who framed their man and caused his murder, and that clock is filling. The Grinders want to know who assassinated their leader, and sooner or later that chicken will come home to roost. </p><p></p><p>I’ll give one more quick example of how Blades pushes the story: The crew is involved with a faction that is at odds with a very dangerous vampire named Lord Scurlock. So they are at odds with him too. The faction that the crew is on good terms with has a healer friend named Quellyn. </p><p></p><p>About four sessions in we had a new player join us. During character creation one of the things the player will do is choose two NPC’s from a list provided on their character sheet. One of those NPC’s is an enemy, one is an ally. </p><p></p><p>So this new player gets to that step of character creation and looks over his list (which I had not even looked at; I had no idea who was on his list) and chooses Lord Scurlock as an ally and Quellyn as an enemy! He had no prior knowledge of any of the preceding sessions. It was pure chance! But oh my gosh, it’s been a hoot watching him tread the line between the two factions! He’s ducking Quellyn and doing his level best to keep his relationship with Scurlock a secret. It’s been wonderful to watch and a joy to role-play, and I didn’t have a thing to do with it! </p><p></p><p>Sorry for the length of this reply, but I hope that answered your questions and maybe shed a little more light on this great game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cthulhu42, post: 7518995, member: 6792361"] The linked “actual game play” thread does a pretty good job of outlining the game but I’ll answer your questions anyway for the sake of another perspective. If you really want to see the game in action I would strongly suggest looking up Roll Play Blades on youtube in which the creator of thr gamer, John Harper, runs a group through some twenty-one sessions. Not only will this give you a very good idea of how the game shakes out over extended play, it’s tremendously entertaining Harper gives what I consider a master class in the art of Gming, and the players themselves are wonderful. I literally got a little misty eyed during some scenes. To put it another way, it’s about 80 hours of gameplay and I’ve watched the whole thing twice. It also helped a great deal in parsing some of the more abstract elements of the game that I was having some issues with. In my experience of ten or eleven sessions I feel like Blades handles a lengthy campaign just fine. In, fact, given it’s focus on role-play, my groups characters are some of the most fleshed out and “real” characters I’ve seen in a long time. Mechanically everything seems to be on course. As far as stress goes, it took a couple of sessions for my players to really grasp how to utilize it, but now that they have they’re very comfortable with balancing it. I’ve got two players with single traumas each, one of which was self inflicted after the player accepted a bargain from a demon and headed down the Path of the Forgotten God. In short, none of them are currently at too much risk of having to retire due to trauma. Crew Advancement: I think this is actually one of the mechanical features of the game that the players enjoy the most. As you probably already know, the crew is it’s own entity and has it’s own “character” sheet. It gains experience when the players do certain things and advances according to the player’s collective desire. It’s a bit like some video games where you get to trick out your lair with cool features. The players absolutely dig it and it’s fun to watch them decide among themselves which upgrades they’ll choose when the crew advances. Personally I think it’s very well implemented and it adds another layer to the game. I don’t know if this is a unique game design idea for an rpg, but it’s new to us and it really adds a lot to the game. Downtime Rules: Clunky? I don’t think that’s a fair term to use. Most of the time they actually work quite well, and it generally goes pretty quickly. First you do payoff and rep gain from the score, then figure out how much Heat the crew has acquired due to their illegal activities. Then there’s an entanglement. Then, downtime activities. Each crew member gets two free downtime activities with the option to buy more with either coin or rep. These activities include indulging their respective vices in order to clear stress, acquiring an asset, working on a long term project, recovering from harm, reduce heat, or train. All of those post-score steps can be either role-played out at length or hand waved depending upon how interesting or important they are. Sometimes entanglements can be a bit tricky. For example, you might get an entanglement that doesn’t really apply to the crew. But with a little imagination it’s usually pretty easy to work out. Also sometimes entanglements can be a bit overwhelming. During our last game the crew had just completed a pretty difficult score. They were beaten up pretty bad and just wanted to lick their wounds. But they rolled a pretty bad entanglement that suddenly had an opposing faction knocking on their door wanting a piece of their action. They are now at war with that faction. But this is by design. The game purposely pushes back from all directions and makes the PC’s fight for every inch. It’s a hard world they live in. Sometimes I’ll delay an entanglement if it makes sense in the fiction. I suppose you could even skip one here or there if you were feeling generous, but so far I haven’t. One thing I’d say is that I’ve been pretty generous with score payout. My crew usually nets about 8 to 12 coin per score and they spend it as fast as they get it. There’s always something to spend coin on, especially if you accrue a lot of stress or wounds. So no, I personally don’t find downtime clunky. In fact, it serves to push the story forweard in new and interesting ways. For example, I hadn’t planned on the crew going to war with an opposing faction, but the entanglement rules pushed events in that direction. It was ultimately the PC’s choice to go to war (they could have paid the other faction off), so they get the feeling of steering their own fates, and I benefit from a whole new story line! And that, I think is where Blades really shines. The rules themselves push the story forward. I don’t do a whole lot of prep work for our sessions because I know that the game will provide hooks and plots and conflict and interesting NPC’s. I’ve been keeping a list of potential plot hooks that now numbers eighteen items, any of which I can introduce whenever I need to. And many of those hooks are related to fctions and NPC’s that are doing their own things in the background which gives the sense of a breathing, living, world spider webbed with intrigue. I’ve got about a half dozen clocks going on that relate to the PC’s and every session they get a little closer to being filled. The PC’s don’t know it, but that bounty hunter is getting awfully close to tracking down the PC who is an escaped slave. The Red Sashes want to know who framed their man and caused his murder, and that clock is filling. The Grinders want to know who assassinated their leader, and sooner or later that chicken will come home to roost. I’ll give one more quick example of how Blades pushes the story: The crew is involved with a faction that is at odds with a very dangerous vampire named Lord Scurlock. So they are at odds with him too. The faction that the crew is on good terms with has a healer friend named Quellyn. About four sessions in we had a new player join us. During character creation one of the things the player will do is choose two NPC’s from a list provided on their character sheet. One of those NPC’s is an enemy, one is an ally. So this new player gets to that step of character creation and looks over his list (which I had not even looked at; I had no idea who was on his list) and chooses Lord Scurlock as an ally and Quellyn as an enemy! He had no prior knowledge of any of the preceding sessions. It was pure chance! But oh my gosh, it’s been a hoot watching him tread the line between the two factions! He’s ducking Quellyn and doing his level best to keep his relationship with Scurlock a secret. It’s been wonderful to watch and a joy to role-play, and I didn’t have a thing to do with it! Sorry for the length of this reply, but I hope that answered your questions and maybe shed a little more light on this great game. [/QUOTE]
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