Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8439838" data-attributes="member: 16814">Yes, and no.&nbsp; You can prep things like this -- ideas you might use and have against need.&nbsp; But you can't deploy them unless the game calls for them.&nbsp; So, if I have an idea that Bobbo the Clown is the murderer, I should toss this idea straight out -- it's unlikely to be relevant.&nbsp; If I have an idea for a murderous clown that haunts dark alleys, I can put that on the back burner and maybe, in a score where a failed roll might in a situation might very well lend itself to me narrating a creepy clown laugh coming from the darkness at the end.&nbsp; Bobbo the Haunted Clown makes an appearance!&nbsp; But only if I need a quasi-supernatural, super creepy threat to pay off the promise of position and effect on a failed roll.Here's how I would prep for a score to the Deathlands -- I'd read up on the (scant) description in the rulebook, imagine a couple of creepy deathland horrors, and maybe a few ideas for haunted ruins, and maybe even write one or two things down.&nbsp; Then, I'd not ever look at any of it when I ran the game.&nbsp; Why bother?&nbsp; Because it sets a mood, a set of thoughts, and helps me evoke more clearly since I've spent a bit of time in that groove.&nbsp; I once presented a zombie in a Blades game -- an alchemical recipe gone wrong.&nbsp; The wasn't anything special, just needed a threat and the crew were investigating missing alchemists.&nbsp; But, then the Hound shot at it, from about 10 paces away, and rolled all 1's.&nbsp; A clean failure!&nbsp; However, you do not ever narrate incompetence as part of a failure in Blades -- the PCs are assumed competent!&nbsp; How on the broken earth could the Hound have missed?&nbsp; Ah, turns out that the zombie wasn't just a zombie -- in that very moment we all discovered that it could stutter-step through the ghost-field, and instead of being ten paces away, it just stuttered through the intervening space like a flickering jump-cut in an old Super 8 reel, and that's how the Hound missed. And now had a zombie in their face -- a super creepy teleporting zombie!That's how improve in Blades works -- you stick to the genre and principles of play and you find out what happens right alongside the players.&nbsp; That zombie was a running bad guy -- got their own clocks even -- for a number of sessions after.&nbsp; I framed it as a run of the mill threat to start, because &quot;zombie&quot; sounded suitably okay for alchemy gone wrong.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8439838, member: 16814"] Yes, and no. You can prep things like this -- ideas you might use and have against need. But you can't deploy them unless the game calls for them. So, if I have an idea that Bobbo the Clown is the murderer, I should toss this idea straight out -- it's unlikely to be relevant. If I have an idea for a murderous clown that haunts dark alleys, I can put that on the back burner and maybe, in a score where a failed roll might in a situation might very well lend itself to me narrating a creepy clown laugh coming from the darkness at the end. Bobbo the Haunted Clown makes an appearance! But only if I need a quasi-supernatural, super creepy threat to pay off the promise of position and effect on a failed roll. Here's how I would prep for a score to the Deathlands -- I'd read up on the (scant) description in the rulebook, imagine a couple of creepy deathland horrors, and maybe a few ideas for haunted ruins, and maybe even write one or two things down. Then, I'd not ever look at any of it when I ran the game. Why bother? Because it sets a mood, a set of thoughts, and helps me evoke more clearly since I've spent a bit of time in that groove. I once presented a zombie in a Blades game -- an alchemical recipe gone wrong. The wasn't anything special, just needed a threat and the crew were investigating missing alchemists. But, then the Hound shot at it, from about 10 paces away, and rolled all 1's. A clean failure! However, you do not ever narrate incompetence as part of a failure in Blades -- the PCs are assumed competent! How on the broken earth could the Hound have missed? Ah, turns out that the zombie wasn't just a zombie -- in that very moment we all discovered that it could stutter-step through the ghost-field, and instead of being ten paces away, it just stuttered through the intervening space like a flickering jump-cut in an old Super 8 reel, and that's how the Hound missed. And now had a zombie in their face -- a super creepy teleporting zombie! That's how improve in Blades works -- you stick to the genre and principles of play and you find out what happens right alongside the players. That zombie was a running bad guy -- got their own clocks even -- for a number of sessions after. I framed it as a run of the mill threat to start, because "zombie" sounded suitably okay for alchemy gone wrong. [/QUOTE]

Verification