Obviously. I have tried to explain it several times already, to no avail.
The situation at the score. Whether it is a developing dynamic situation where something of interest is going on regardless of what the PCs do, or whether it is just a static situation where nothing out of ordinary would happen unless the PCs initiate it. I really do not understand how this is so complicated...
Yes, I am talking about the score.
No, that is not what I'm talking about.
That is static. Those defences will sit there doing nothing interesting unless the PCs try to overcome them. Basically, the question is, if the PCs did nothing, would the situation nevertheless evolve in some meaningful way. If the answer is no, it is static, if it is yes, it is dynamic.
We're not just talking past each other, we're talking about different things entirely. My sense is that the lens through which you're looking at Blades in the Dark play is not the correct one. And I can't calibrate even the language we're using. Frex, at the top you say "Yes, I'm talking about the Score." Then, when I talk about an individual obstacle (the courtyards with the snipers in overwatch position) to try to get a sense of what you're talking, you call that obstacle
static. So you're not just talking about the Score. You're talking about individual obstacles as well (and maybe running that together?...or not realizing these are entirely different concepts in terms of the gameplay?...I don't know?).
But it gets even more difficult here with the discussion of the obstacle above. Your concern about "dynamic vs static" with respect to this particular obstacle is whether "if the PCs did nothing, would the situation nevertheless evolve in some meaningful way?" That isn't remotely the zoom or level of evaluation that Blades in the Dark is preoccupied with. If you're preoccupied with something like that then either (a) you need to recalibrate or (b) Blades in the Dark isn't a game that is going to work for you. Blades in the Dark's engine and premise doesn't instantiate or ponder individual obstacles and then engage with "what would happen if the PCs weren't here?" It doesn't care about that at all.
I think its finally connecting. I think you're expressing some kind of atomized Simulationist concern that Blades in the Dark doesn't address at all (nor care to address).
Where Blades cares about
dynamism is the following:
* The layer of premise.
What happens when this lowly Crew of scoundrels dares to climb the ladder? What happens to them collectively, individually, to Duskvol-at-large, and how does the city rise up against them to trample them underfoot?
That question will get dynamically answered all throughout the course of play.
* The layer of theme for each particular character;
relationships, struggles, cause, apotheosis, dissolution.
These questions will get dynamically answered all throughout the course of play.
* The tactical game layer; managing and marshalling resources (personnel, loadout, armor/special boxes, setting yourself and others up to amplify the Position: Effect matrix to your favor, accepting or declining Devil's Bargain, Flashback execution, etc), orienting the situation toward your better lines of play (Action Dots and playbook specials) and executing your decision-tree to best manage individual obstacles with skillful plays, when to Resist and what complications to Resist and when to "suck it up and deal," when to devote "Effect margins" toward
this clock vs
that clock or toward
this clock vs
this other obstacle that is in your face right now.
All of your tactical decisions dynamically change both the gamestate and the fiction and these individual plays will affect future individual plays (as well as the strategic layer).
* The strategic game layer; handling PC/Crew advancements, choosing friends and enemies wisely, managing Heat and Wanted Level, managing cross-loop Stress and Trauma, managing adverse Factions and Setting Clocks so they don't "go boom" via taking Scores to resolve/mitigate them or via Longterm Projects, managing Claim Map, etc etc etc (there is so much more here...).
All of your strategic decisions pile and pile and pile and infect other strategic decisions and tactical decisions in a multivariate positive feedback loop. This gameplay is as dynamic as it gets.
I am not sure about implication. It was my observation about how our games tend to function, and I was wondering about whether that is something the system is liable of producing or just how our GM runs things. My hypothesis was that the structure of rules where difficulties are mainly supposed to rise from player rolls gone badly has something to do with it.
What I've bolded that you've written isn't correct. Opposition/antagonism/threat arises in several different ways. The "snowballing effect" of action resolution in Blades is only one of them. I won't mention that below. The others are:
* The core of the game is the GM framing situations/obstacles with stakes and consequences. You make the equivalent of soft moves in this game just like PBtA. A soft move ignored means a Consequence (which a PC can Resist). Further, there are three levels of threat; mooks are fodder who can't seize the initiative (this is your bold above), Skilled-threat NPCs can and will sieze the initiative and make soft moves (here is your soft move to hard move), Master-threat NPCs are the big bads...they just hit you with Consequences (hard moves) and you can choose to Resist or suck it up.
* Faction Clocks during Downtime where they pursue their agenda, increasing their capabilities. The only Faction Clocks that should be active are the ones that are onscreen and have been featured during play. If the Crew has interacted with them directly or transgressed against them indirectly, then create a Faction Clock and resolve it during Downtime. Should it fill, the bad thing we've outlined will happen...well, it happens.
We don't care about the rest of the Factions. This isn't "Sim-Duskvol." We only care about the Factions that are onscreen and relevant.
* Setting Clocks same as above. Supernatural Plague? Massive labor upheaval in Coalridge? Eeleries and farms in Barrowcleft suddenly failing due to some unknown pathogen? Prison Riot in Ironhook? Gaddoc Rail accident? Etc etc. Put a Clock to it and we have persistent fiction and gamestate effery that happens until whoever is responsible for "cleaning up the mess" cleans it up. Resolve each Downtime.
* Crime Bosses post-Score make demands. Suck it up and give them Coin/Rep or you get a Clock.
* Entanglements are Downtime problems based on Heat/Wanted Level. Deal with it in whatever way.
* Devil's Bargain dynamically introduce complications into situations but players get the opt-in/out option (carrot/stick).
