But wouldn't a Blades in the Dark game disintegrate in a similar way if a character wanted to, say, hang out in cafes and find true love? Meaning, to what
@Manbearcat said (or rather my reading of what they said), it seems less about the presence or not of dramatic need, and more about the premise of the game.
Do the players in The Between, which contain very explicit playbooks and a very very specific genre (Penny Dreadful), really author their characters dramatic need? Again, the premise of the game is doing a lot of work to provide such needs.
I agree that different games
treat those needs differently, along the lines you mention. But those needs are system-authored, it seems to me. It might be an academic distinction.
Great response. A lot of this is on-point, but some of it is a little off. Yes, premise and procedures around premise does a lot of work in these games...but...pile-o-stuff:
* Vice is primarily (with Friends as well) where you find "love" in Blades and my games have seen lots of it with some of it heavily featured. Obligation for being devoted to a ward or a charity or true love or a secret daughter/son in an orphanage. Faith as the expression of love for a Forgotten Goddess that you're trying to bring back into the world no matter the cost (I've had this play out 3 times).
No, PCs aren't gong to be passively hanging out a tavern and pining away for the object of their Obligation/Faith (love), but it will be featured heavily in myriad ways (see below for more on that).
* Heritage, Background, PC relationships of Friend, Rival, Crew Contact, Allied Factions, Cohorts should be heavily sited in play by all participants. The GM should do so in their foregrounding of situation, in their handling of Obstacles & Consequences, in Faction & Setting Clocks during Score and Downtime, in Entanglements, in Devil's Bargains. The players will do so in their PC building, their choices during Info Gathering/Free Play when they are developing their next Score, when dealing with a suite of intra-Score Complications, when making decisions about Downtime Faction/Setting Clocks that put these things at risk, in their Flashback framing, in their Longterm Projects, in their decisions on Entanglements, potentially in their decisions about Overindulgence.
* xp triggers create the Reward Cycles for the above (incentivizing players to bring them into play and risk related struggle/loss).
* So yes, premise does a lot of work in Blades (as it does in a lot of these games), but the above should be primary drivers of play (for all participants as outlined).
Was going to get to The Between as I've run like 8 sessions of it (The Vessel and The American)...but, its late, I'm tired. If I have time tomorrow, I'll post on that game. But I remember the combination of The Unseen + the thematic End of Session xp trigger questions for each playbook + The Janus Mask stuff doing a whole lot of work to foreground those two playbook's inherent motivations and reveal their backstory in the course of resolving the emergent mysteries at the center of play. It was pretty rad to be honest. I'd love to run that game again for two players.