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The importance to RPGing of *engaging* situations
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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8924235" data-attributes="member: 87792"><p>I get what you are saying - but Blades in the Dark <em>absolutely does not fit that mold.</em> It has a deliberately precarious board state - but you level up and tier up over time. Although it has lower lows than most D&D games the overall trajectory of Blades characters and especially a Blades crew is to struggle upwards through the mud with some falling along the way but others not in the same way it is in e.g. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.</p><p></p><p>The only RPGs I can think of (other than <em>maybe</em> Call of Cthulhu where your Sanity in particular only ever goes down) that are parasitic in the way you describe are one-shots. In Fiasco you go into the game expecting and intending ... a fiasco. Montsegur 1244 is a GMless game where almost everyone will have to either recant or be burned at the stake. Dread of course uses the Jenga tower and that always makes the situation worse. But these are one shots and take the right mood.</p><p></p><p>By your definition of Parasitic Design <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> is textbook parasitic design. Every spell you cast is a spell crossed off and resources being spent. Every time you take damage that's fewer resources you have for the rest of the day. Every single action you take in D&D under your definition unless the DM is specifically throwing you a bone <em>at best </em>keeps the board state neutral and most of them degrade it. ("What is an old school dungeon crawl if not a poorly planned heist?" - Cortex Plus). So we have exactly the same situation in D&D that you are decrying in Blades in the Dark.</p><p></p><p>So what's the difference? I think that it's that you've been playing one shots and only one shots in Blades. You've been playing the equivalent of a version of D&D in which you never level up and there is for practical purposes is no reward for the heist/dungeon crawl. Levelling's actually relatively fast in Blades; after you have your first trauma you should be getting an average of about 5XP at the end of each session plus any you earned for desperate actions. It takes 6XP for an extra skill point or 8 for an extra playbook move. You should be therefore getting an extra character dot at the end of literally almost every session (and an extra ability on your party Crew Sheet about every other session plus whatever territory you take).</p><p></p><p>And yes skill dots and crew abilities both matter significantly. There's a huge difference between 2d6 pick the lowest for being unskilled and 2d6 pick the highest.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 8924235, member: 87792"] I get what you are saying - but Blades in the Dark [I]absolutely does not fit that mold.[/I] It has a deliberately precarious board state - but you level up and tier up over time. Although it has lower lows than most D&D games the overall trajectory of Blades characters and especially a Blades crew is to struggle upwards through the mud with some falling along the way but others not in the same way it is in e.g. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The only RPGs I can think of (other than [I]maybe[/I] Call of Cthulhu where your Sanity in particular only ever goes down) that are parasitic in the way you describe are one-shots. In Fiasco you go into the game expecting and intending ... a fiasco. Montsegur 1244 is a GMless game where almost everyone will have to either recant or be burned at the stake. Dread of course uses the Jenga tower and that always makes the situation worse. But these are one shots and take the right mood. By your definition of Parasitic Design [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I] is textbook parasitic design. Every spell you cast is a spell crossed off and resources being spent. Every time you take damage that's fewer resources you have for the rest of the day. Every single action you take in D&D under your definition unless the DM is specifically throwing you a bone [I]at best [/I]keeps the board state neutral and most of them degrade it. ("What is an old school dungeon crawl if not a poorly planned heist?" - Cortex Plus). So we have exactly the same situation in D&D that you are decrying in Blades in the Dark. So what's the difference? I think that it's that you've been playing one shots and only one shots in Blades. You've been playing the equivalent of a version of D&D in which you never[I] [/I]level up and there is for practical purposes is no reward for the heist/dungeon crawl. Levelling's actually relatively fast in Blades; after you have your first trauma you should be getting an average of about 5XP at the end of each session plus any you earned for desperate actions. It takes 6XP for an extra skill point or 8 for an extra playbook move. You should be therefore getting an extra character dot at the end of literally almost every session (and an extra ability on your party Crew Sheet about every other session plus whatever territory you take). And yes skill dots and crew abilities both matter significantly. There's a huge difference between 2d6 pick the lowest for being unskilled and 2d6 pick the highest. [/QUOTE]
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