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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7331029" data-attributes="member: 6696971">My first post in this thread talked about 3 different types of worldbuilding approaches.  One of which was Blades in the Dark.  Blades' mechanically weighty system and its setting of Duskvol has the following aspects that make the approach here work:1)  The world is haunted.  Outside of Duskvol's lightning tower perimiter lies the Deathlands and the Void Sea where unspeakable horrors, twisted spirits, and mighty leviathans roam.  This serves to constrain the sandbox (like a dungeon) and interacts with the game's mechanics (for instance, leaving the city to let your Heat die down is more dangerous than staying within the lightning barrier!). 2)  The mechanically deep system is intimately integrated with and synergizes with the setting.  For instance, lets talk about Heat (as invoked in 1).A gang of scoundrels that is attempting to climb the power ladder of the setting (this is a mechanical leaderboard based on tier) is invariably going to attract attention and make enemies.  Rather than just having this handled solely as GM fiat (as an extrapolation from the GM's view of the setting, what has occurred during play, what only the GM is privy to offscreen), Blades systematizes this in the following way:Heat can also be accrued in the midst of an operation as a complication.  What happens when you have too much Heat?How do you reduce your crew's wanted level?This is something I wanted to talk about earlier, so maybe there can be some conversation now.What is the impact on play holistically and on player decision-points (with respect to short term tactics, long term strategy, opportunity cost eval, cost/benefit analysis) when 1 and 2 aren't in play?  So take the setting outlined above (a haunted world that suffered a supernatural apocalypse...no sunlight...black seas filled with demonic leviathans that must be harvested for their green-glowing ectoplasm which powers the city's most fundamental infrastructure...dark, soggy, smog-choked, cramped, inky canals...like a huanted post-industrial London/Venice/Prague).   You're a gang of scoundrels climbing the power ladder of the city and trying to stay one step ahead of the corrupt Bluecoats (coppers) and the more noble detectives while seizing turf/resources, making alliances, crushing your enemies, fulfilling your vices (which will invariably get you into trouble), and staying low enough on the radar that the real city's powers don't deem you a threat.What happens if:(a)  There is nothing punitive outside of the walls of Duskvol or you have the (spellcasting or tech) resources to handle it?(b)  The power ladder (itself and the gaining and losing of Tier status thereby climbing it) wasn't systematized?(c)  The mechanics of Heat, Wanted Level, and Incarceration were all non-player facing...or weren't well-integrated (with each other, with the setting, with the rest of the game's play procedures/mechanics)....or weren't existent at all...and left entirely to GM discretion/fiat?Back to the above:What is the impact on play holistically and on player decision-points (with respect to short term tactics, long term strategy, opportunity cost eval, cost/benefit analysis)</blockquote>

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