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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8935652" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Yeah, 'Heist Game' isn't really a good way to describe Blades in the Dark. You can certainly do a type of heist, it falls within the range of 'missions' that are genre appropriate to BitD. I'm sure some games do a lot of this sort of thing, but our game, for instance, is doing lots of crazy stuff. We are basically penetrating the power structure of Doskvol (maybe the whole Empire and World). I think we did a 'score' to steal stuff once or twice. Most of them were to destroy some rival, rescue an ally, forge a new alliance, or take over some kind of claim. Some of them were also straight up paid assassinations, but always taken with an eye to how they benefit us.</p><p></p><p>In the last session my character broke out of prison, and gained a new ally/cohort (also broke my children out with me). Tal Rajan dealt with the ongoing saga of himself and his two Iruvian clans with whom he now has marriage arrangements. Beaker and Co went for a crazy jaunt through the Ghost Field and fought a mega-boggle. None of it was heist-like, though there was sneaking around and such in my part. The other parts included spiritual combat, negotiation and social interaction, various magical goings-on, etc. None of it was heist-like.</p><p></p><p>BitD does use an overall architecture of play in which each session ideally has 3 phases, an initial planning phase in which the players decide what their characters will do this session, and then they prep/gather info. Next there is the actual action part of play where the characters attempt to achieve their selected goal or goals. Finally there is a 'fallout' phase where any consequences are resolved and crew advancement happens, and then the PCs undertake their downtime activities (healing, vices, long term projects, etc.). I don't recall if the resolution of clocks attached to the crew's situation get resolved as part of downtime or prep. Honestly since we play online we do both of those phases mostly during the week, then play for a session, and repeat, though our prep phase often has stuff we play out together.</p><p></p><p>Note that Prep/Downtime CAN include actions taken by the PCs. USUALLY they are 'fortune rolls', like to see how far you got on your project to create a hull (golem sort of) to hold your dead brother's spirit so he can rejoin the crew. Gathering info and supplies generally involves these sorts of checks, as does recovery/healing. It is also possible to do more 'active' stuff, generally as a set up to the start of the score phase. </p><p></p><p>So, as written at least, the FitD system will most easily handle game concepts where the PCs are a team and they episodically engage in some activity(s). It also has a number of rules related to the relationship of that group to the local power structure. This is why I say it will easily lend itself to a fair range of TV show plots. The fact that there are TWO Stark Trek hacks is unsurprising, an episodic format with the PCs being a crew, and their relations with Star Fleet being a significant factor in the plot. It practically writes itself. </p><p></p><p>But pretty much all RPGs are fairly episodic. People play in sessions, and since you want to engage a number of players at a time in the same session, a team-like framework ALMOST always exists. FitD is going to work in that sense for like 99.99% of all likely RPG concepts. You can pretty easily tie into a less episodic format by simply using the clock rules in a specific way. Like if the game is Star Trek ToS, there are basically no long-term clocks, each episode stands entirely on its own. DS9 would be quite different, you would liberally employ clocks and long term projects, and heavily employ the "how does the crew relate to the power structure" rules to handle your relations with the Cardasians, the planet, the shape shifters, whatever.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8935652, member: 82106"] Yeah, 'Heist Game' isn't really a good way to describe Blades in the Dark. You can certainly do a type of heist, it falls within the range of 'missions' that are genre appropriate to BitD. I'm sure some games do a lot of this sort of thing, but our game, for instance, is doing lots of crazy stuff. We are basically penetrating the power structure of Doskvol (maybe the whole Empire and World). I think we did a 'score' to steal stuff once or twice. Most of them were to destroy some rival, rescue an ally, forge a new alliance, or take over some kind of claim. Some of them were also straight up paid assassinations, but always taken with an eye to how they benefit us. In the last session my character broke out of prison, and gained a new ally/cohort (also broke my children out with me). Tal Rajan dealt with the ongoing saga of himself and his two Iruvian clans with whom he now has marriage arrangements. Beaker and Co went for a crazy jaunt through the Ghost Field and fought a mega-boggle. None of it was heist-like, though there was sneaking around and such in my part. The other parts included spiritual combat, negotiation and social interaction, various magical goings-on, etc. None of it was heist-like. BitD does use an overall architecture of play in which each session ideally has 3 phases, an initial planning phase in which the players decide what their characters will do this session, and then they prep/gather info. Next there is the actual action part of play where the characters attempt to achieve their selected goal or goals. Finally there is a 'fallout' phase where any consequences are resolved and crew advancement happens, and then the PCs undertake their downtime activities (healing, vices, long term projects, etc.). I don't recall if the resolution of clocks attached to the crew's situation get resolved as part of downtime or prep. Honestly since we play online we do both of those phases mostly during the week, then play for a session, and repeat, though our prep phase often has stuff we play out together. Note that Prep/Downtime CAN include actions taken by the PCs. USUALLY they are 'fortune rolls', like to see how far you got on your project to create a hull (golem sort of) to hold your dead brother's spirit so he can rejoin the crew. Gathering info and supplies generally involves these sorts of checks, as does recovery/healing. It is also possible to do more 'active' stuff, generally as a set up to the start of the score phase. So, as written at least, the FitD system will most easily handle game concepts where the PCs are a team and they episodically engage in some activity(s). It also has a number of rules related to the relationship of that group to the local power structure. This is why I say it will easily lend itself to a fair range of TV show plots. The fact that there are TWO Stark Trek hacks is unsurprising, an episodic format with the PCs being a crew, and their relations with Star Fleet being a significant factor in the plot. It practically writes itself. But pretty much all RPGs are fairly episodic. People play in sessions, and since you want to engage a number of players at a time in the same session, a team-like framework ALMOST always exists. FitD is going to work in that sense for like 99.99% of all likely RPG concepts. You can pretty easily tie into a less episodic format by simply using the clock rules in a specific way. Like if the game is Star Trek ToS, there are basically no long-term clocks, each episode stands entirely on its own. DS9 would be quite different, you would liberally employ clocks and long term projects, and heavily employ the "how does the crew relate to the power structure" rules to handle your relations with the Cardasians, the planet, the shape shifters, whatever. [/QUOTE]
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