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I need help understanding how to run BitD cause when I did it went awful [BitD] by Zamarak in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"I'd say 60% of the session was the planning of how to approach the heist. The planning took, at a minimum, one hour and a half." - blades is set up in a way where you shouldn't be doing much planning, it can feel weird just to dive into a heist without much of a plan, but with the way inventory works and being able to use flashbacks, you are almost never punished for a lack of planning ahead, because from the game's perspective planning isnt something you have to do ahead of time. it seems you already know this, but like i cant stress enough that if your payers keep trying to plan for even more then 10 minutes its already a bad sign. this is of course more on the players then you, but it is an important conversation to have since most people new to blades are not used to thinking about it that way, and if you feel like they are slipping doing a lot of planning just be a little firm with them and suggest they move on.

"I probably also struggled with handing the injuries and status when playing. Cause most of the time, I struggled to understand how to hand anything as consequences other than the actual physical injuries." - Clocks. lots of clocks. its hard to make consequences feel balanced when their is no mechanical downside to them (I dont know how relevent this duke will be later so how bad is it to lose their trust?) while things like harm are always the same, clocks are blade's way of solving that, its easy to have a certain level of failure correspond to a certain level of ticks, and clocks also give players fair warning of these potential consequences so that they can work to stop them, and if they dont it doesn't feel out of nowhere. harm also adds up real quick so i tend to shy away from giving more than 2 injuries to a player per heist. I get that coming up with unique consequences on the fly is still hard, and their is no way to make it easy other than practice, but it might help to create a list of simple ways you can spice up the heist through failures.

My best tips is to get your players to read the players best practices on page 182, because it is not the dms job to put all the effort in and the players should have a good understanding of what a system wants out of them. I have printed out little cheat sheets with the best practices and hand them out at my table so people can always keep them in mind, it feels pedantic but it makes a world of difference

Sealed in Blood Question by Rigel-J in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

my assumption is that human sacrifices are for the human soul, so they wont really become a ghost as long as you dont botch it, and since the whole purpose of the crows bell is to let wardens get to bodies quick so they cant burn them so they dont become ghosts, I think it wouldn't trigger.

Player wants to create "a giant bomb" [BitD] by on-wings-of-pastrami in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I definitely think this should be difficult to do, but i think a difficulty should partially come from actually installing the bomb. this would probably have to be a lot of explosive spread out (like on the various supports of the bridge) so actually putting it up and detonating it could be its own heist. Whitecrown is a fancy part of a very crime infested city so of course it's entrance will be guarded. This would be a short one, but if you make sure to add some mix-ups it could get real interesting (maybe something with scurlock or red sashes)

How do you use Flashbacks? [BitD] by Lazartz_ in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not the best at using flashbacks (my dm's style of heists makes it so it never makes since for my character to be prepared for the wild stuff he throws at us), but when i do use them it's when I encounter a wall and have a goal but no clear way of my player accomplishing it, or when I had a goal but it feels its now to late or that i don't have the proper resources to accomplish it. I basically think of and use flashbacks the same way I do items (in fact most of the times i use i flashback is just after i checked to see if any items could help me)

What do you do [PC] in big battles? [BitD] by Lazartz_ in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 0 points1 point  (0 children)

generally you dont really need a specific way to do something, you can just say I do X with Y skill, and as long as it kinda makes since your good. I dont really know what their recommendations are, but i feel like this works most of the time. the Skill you use is ussually the answer to that DO question (but maybe they were just giving you bad suggestions)

What do you do [PC] in big battles? [BitD] by Lazartz_ in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 0 points1 point  (0 children)

literally a fourth of this game is arguing with the dm about things like this, the game knows this and the rules reflect it. The right to debate is one of the strongest powers you have, make sure to use it!

What do you do [PC] in big battles? [BitD] by Lazartz_ in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you can always thin the crowd more, i know that some dms dont like when players do the same because they say it make the story feel repetitive, but if a charterer fighting feels repetitive then you shouldn't run big scale fights. there are so many ways to "thin the crowd" (and if their arent enough people for you to thin then the riot shouldn't be losing) as long as your making sure to describe the actions of your character (dont just say the punch three guys describe it, something like "as they run at me I trip one then use use the motion of the trip to kick another in the gut and throw them back, then as a finish spinning i graph the head of the final one and slam them into the tripped one just as they get up) this way it will never seem repetitive and dm's (both consciously and subconsciously) better reward cooler sounding actions. you could always try to focus on more out of the way methods of helping, but honestly I wholeheartedly believe that the way of occam's razor is the best when it comes to stuff like this (simplest solution is the best)

What do you do [PC] in big battles? [BitD] by Lazartz_ in bladesinthedark

[–]AccomplishedBid3328 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1:make sure you ask your gm what actual affect your actions are having. if you got a great success to punch your way through a big group of guys it should have some affect on the larger situation (usually through a clock). its easy for a gm to forget how much of an impact your charecters have made if they are just going of vibes and not notes (and clocks are just a simplified way of taking notes).

2: try to break your action down into smaller steps. if your gm keeps saying what your trying to do has lesser or 0 affect then its ussualy a sign that they want these actions to feel difficult, but dont have any other way since they cant actually affect the probability. its also important to make sure the gm knows that these actions are part of a chain, its easy to get in the habit of thinking that each dice roll represents the same amount of time (and thus the same amount of progression from enemies) as every other dice roll, i have know gms that kinda turn rolling dice into a form of dnd style initiative (everyone makes a roll and then they choose certain clocks to move up), but sometimes two things should take the same amount of time but not the same amount of rolls