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Blades in the Dark Gets First Official Expansion
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<blockquote data-quote="Elvish Lore" data-source="post: 9501377" data-attributes="member: 48873"><p>If anyone is curious...</p><p></p><p>John Harper kind of changed the DNA of Blades in the Dark and it amounts to a '2e' version of the game but he doesn't call it that.</p><p></p><p>Deep Cuts was published over the weekend and it adds a bunch of lore to the game and tinkers with a bunch of system rules but the biggest deal is that is alters how players of the game think of conflict.</p><p></p><p>Basically, in original-BitD, PCs made Action Rolls which, based on the GM establishing position and effect (in turn strongly influenced by player action), let the player know if they will succeed or not and what kind of consequences (suggested by a chart) they might have to deal with depending on the roll. (reminder: single highest result in a d6 dice pool is what you're looking for).</p><p></p><p>Now, Action Roll has been replaced by the Threat Roll. The game <em>assumes success</em> and is now looking to see if the player's roll is sufficient to deal with any Threats that the GM has already made clear. You roll 1d for each dot in the Action (your skills/capabilities) you're using, then look for highest. If you're facing multiple threats, add 1d to your pool for every additional threat then assign a die result to each one.</p><p></p><p>Ex from the book:</p><p></p><p>Oskarr Skurlock is dragging a vengeful ghost into a spirit bottle</p><p>with his lightning hook. The GM describes two threats:</p><p></p><p>- Electroplasmic energy backlash from the ghost (Harm 2) and</p><p>Spirit Warden attention (2 ticks on their Alert clock).</p><p></p><p>- Oskarr’s player rolls 4 dice: 3 for Attune and 1 more for the</p><p>additional threat — and gets 6, 4, 4, 2. He assigns the 6 to the</p><p>energy backlash threat, so he avoids it. He assigns a 4 to the Spirit</p><p>Wardens threat, so he suffers a reduced consequence (1 tick on</p><p>the clock) or may push himself to avoid it entirely.</p><p></p><p>You can assign a Fail Threat but that's a rarer and special thing. The default in the game is that your scoundrel is a bad-ass and able to succeed in the vast majority of time. When you roll, it's a not a matter of whether or not you'll succeed.</p><p></p><p>Any threats that are NOT dealt with result in effects and consequences that are organized into 4 levels of impact - ranging from limited to extreme. These include all sorts of things... everything from harm, to progress clock ticks, to narrative developments. (Push rules exist where you are simply trading in stress for an appropriate Attribute roll to avoid or reduce associated Stress)</p><p></p><p>This has got a lot of long-term players going whoa... because it leaves behind the Simulatoinist vibe of the Action Roll for a more narrative approach (you'll succeed, you just have to avoid/deal with consequences and effects).</p><p></p><p>There's also more Fate-language in the conflict rules with Harm levels and Trauma conditions able to be invoked by the GM for narrative effect.</p><p></p><p>And, to some degree, the 'hard move' that GMs made in Apocalypse World-engine games on a 6 or less has been added back into Blades now. There's more permission for GMs to do narrative fuckery when the players roll poorly.</p><p></p><p>The other big thing Harper changed is that advancement is way slowed down so PCs won't get nearly so super-good at avoiding bad-stuff so fast. He's mentioned that he's codifying best practices from ten years of game play into this new supplement so perhaps he was seeing too often how players were able to have decent dice pools (and thus getting better highest single die results) too quickly.. where people wanted campaigns to last longer and still maintain dramatic tension with dice rolling.</p><p></p><p>There's a bunch of stuff in this new supplement and it's worth your money if you're into Blades. Hope my post lends some degree of clarity for you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elvish Lore, post: 9501377, member: 48873"] If anyone is curious... John Harper kind of changed the DNA of Blades in the Dark and it amounts to a '2e' version of the game but he doesn't call it that. Deep Cuts was published over the weekend and it adds a bunch of lore to the game and tinkers with a bunch of system rules but the biggest deal is that is alters how players of the game think of conflict. Basically, in original-BitD, PCs made Action Rolls which, based on the GM establishing position and effect (in turn strongly influenced by player action), let the player know if they will succeed or not and what kind of consequences (suggested by a chart) they might have to deal with depending on the roll. (reminder: single highest result in a d6 dice pool is what you're looking for). Now, Action Roll has been replaced by the Threat Roll. The game [I]assumes success[/I] and is now looking to see if the player's roll is sufficient to deal with any Threats that the GM has already made clear. You roll 1d for each dot in the Action (your skills/capabilities) you're using, then look for highest. If you're facing multiple threats, add 1d to your pool for every additional threat then assign a die result to each one. Ex from the book: Oskarr Skurlock is dragging a vengeful ghost into a spirit bottle with his lightning hook. The GM describes two threats: - Electroplasmic energy backlash from the ghost (Harm 2) and Spirit Warden attention (2 ticks on their Alert clock). - Oskarr’s player rolls 4 dice: 3 for Attune and 1 more for the additional threat — and gets 6, 4, 4, 2. He assigns the 6 to the energy backlash threat, so he avoids it. He assigns a 4 to the Spirit Wardens threat, so he suffers a reduced consequence (1 tick on the clock) or may push himself to avoid it entirely. You can assign a Fail Threat but that's a rarer and special thing. The default in the game is that your scoundrel is a bad-ass and able to succeed in the vast majority of time. When you roll, it's a not a matter of whether or not you'll succeed. Any threats that are NOT dealt with result in effects and consequences that are organized into 4 levels of impact - ranging from limited to extreme. These include all sorts of things... everything from harm, to progress clock ticks, to narrative developments. (Push rules exist where you are simply trading in stress for an appropriate Attribute roll to avoid or reduce associated Stress) This has got a lot of long-term players going whoa... because it leaves behind the Simulatoinist vibe of the Action Roll for a more narrative approach (you'll succeed, you just have to avoid/deal with consequences and effects). There's also more Fate-language in the conflict rules with Harm levels and Trauma conditions able to be invoked by the GM for narrative effect. And, to some degree, the 'hard move' that GMs made in Apocalypse World-engine games on a 6 or less has been added back into Blades now. There's more permission for GMs to do narrative fuckery when the players roll poorly. The other big thing Harper changed is that advancement is way slowed down so PCs won't get nearly so super-good at avoiding bad-stuff so fast. He's mentioned that he's codifying best practices from ten years of game play into this new supplement so perhaps he was seeing too often how players were able to have decent dice pools (and thus getting better highest single die results) too quickly.. where people wanted campaigns to last longer and still maintain dramatic tension with dice rolling. There's a bunch of stuff in this new supplement and it's worth your money if you're into Blades. Hope my post lends some degree of clarity for you. [/QUOTE]
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