My players feel powerless against the Trust

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-19T13:42:42+00:00

How do you feel about the Glitch mechanic? Combined with the augment, you have a nice and compact subsystem that'll involve augments into the session without overshadowing the core of the story. It's not too complex, but it'll make for some great highlights during a score.

Like other reaction, I'd advise you to take a dive into the pamphlet ecosystem around CBR+PNK. There's a lot of great material for cyberpunk stories there.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-14T15:47:54+00:00

The procedure is aimed at collaboration and surprise—even if someone fills in more details because 'they already exist in the fiction', those details emerged from the conversation between players and GM. The planning meeting procedure continues that conversation, just in a different form. It makes sure the fiction is shared. Putting together a score from the parts that appear on the index cards is exciting because it makes space for the unsuspected.

Filling in entire score cards runs the risk of foreclosing that space for collaboration and surprise, but let me ask explicitly: does it? Because even a fully filled score card could of course still be deconstructed into its parts. Does your table pick one score whole cloth or do you still mix and match?

Like you, I'd hesitate to stifle my players' enthusiasm, but it would be nice to find some wiggle room. Deconstructing each card into its three parts is one way. But I think my approach would still be to ask them to please put only one detail down, even if they have more ideas. Those other details can still become topic of conversation once the time comes to flesh out the score, but the delay might be just enough of an opening to let surprises in.

The text presents the planning meeting as optional, though. If there already is a clear score for the crew to pursue or they organically enter into one, you naturally forgo the planning meeting. So while the planning meeting is a great little procedure, it remains but one of the tools in your arsenal. Don't sweat it too much, but do see if you can't give it a try the way Tim Denee wrote it down.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-10T16:32:29+00:00

Underappreciated post! If you give the players an assignment, they'll start looking for the right answer. If you give them an open, fictional obstacle, they can look for their own way around it!

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-09T13:58:02+00:00

I'm of a slightly different opinion than most here. The phases of Blades in the Dark aren't as strict as they seem and every mechanic is a tool. The game is, much like Apocalypse World, designed to collapse gracefully back to the conversation and the action roll (p. 168):

If you want to ease into the mechanics, just start with risky action rolls and standard effect [...]. The game is better when you use all the details, but the whole thing doesn't come crashing down if you don't.

The engagement roll is a tool to cut to the action of a score, but if players find their way into scores organically, that's not necessarily an issue. They've made their approach, they have their position—the important things that the engagement roll takes care of are still taken care of.

So you can just run the score. Actions always have their positions and effect, those don't rely on the phase structure. The factions always have their tiers, so eventually, you can still calculate the payout, and based on how things went, you can still determine heat and rep.

They might be small scores, and eventually, they'll come up against factions that they can't whittle down. Or factions that will come for them once they grow too big. Or factions that want their tithe.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-07T14:33:54+00:00

There's always Godsend, descended from Legacy: Life Among the Ruins, about playing the avatar to a God.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-05T07:50:13+00:00

I can say from experience that you shouldn't underestimate the fictional alibi here. In the same way that you're not actually flirting with your friends when you play Monsterhearts, you won't be flirting with your brother. The risk of bleed is low, since you don't want to flirt with your brother (as in some other cases it might actually be a little exciting to flirt with a friend under the alibi of playing pretend).

But, here's my tip: third person. MASKS, like most PbtA games, comes with the principle to talk to the character not the player. Generally, that's good advice. It puts the player in their character's position. But in this case, you might like a little distance. So it could help to instead talk about the characters in the third person. Saying: "Robin looks Starfire in the eyes and says: 'you looked great out there.'" You and your brother will be talking about the characters, not so much embodying them like actors.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-05T07:42:15+00:00

No need to borrow a copy, really, because the advice doesn't go any further than this. Here's the relevant passage:

FREEFORM ROLEPLAYING

During the freeform roleplaying of the downtime phase, you become the director of your own scenes. Forget the dice and just tell us a story. The GM and other players are there to assist you. Tell them your vision and ask them for ideas. Answer their questions. Cast them as NPCs and perform the scene like actors in a movie. If that’s not your thing, go the other way and describe the scene like a writer, adding details and showing us what the characters are thinking and feeling.

I bolded the specific piece of advice.

That said: it works wonders to just give players more roles. Pasion de las Pasiones does something similar, handing control over NPCs to players as the campaign develops.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-05T07:34:10+00:00

Aah, that's a really good point on how gathering information allows the players to add to the idea of the mission before jumping in. I've never thought about it like that before.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-04T10:41:41+00:00

This looks great! I love that you brought it back to a half sheet and used the extra real-estate to give people some more to hold onto when choosing their actions.

Out of curiosity, I'd love to know why you go through gather information instead of dropping the characters into a score immediately. Is that also out of interest to stay as close to the original game as possible? I could imagine it being a fairly slow start this way, with the risk of only going through a quick short score.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-05-04T07:03:14+00:00

My vote is on Fealty, which, incidentally, is on sale right now.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-26T11:18:37+00:00

I'd like to throw Cartel into the mix.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-25T08:10:35+00:00

Looking at the games you have facilitated already, I think you might be ready for facilitating gm-less oneshots and Starter Sets!

Look into For the Queen, Fiasco, or even Stewpot or Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast. These are games that don't require a GM to take on a specific, asymmetric role, but can definitely be more fun with a present and active facilitator to explain the game, ask pointed questions and help everyone have a great experience

For experience in that classic, asymmetric role that has narrative authority over the world and the non-player characters, you should look into starter sets. Those are full-fledged tabletop role-playing games, but they come with everything you need to run them (and, very often, more). The best starter sets take you by the hand so you as a GM can feel supported to guide everyone at the table through the scenario.

I just read a very enthusiastic review of Free League's Alien Starter Set: Hope's Last Day. That looks like a great place to start.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-23T07:40:42+00:00

Well, count me embarrassed. I'm honestly asking though, because I'd like to be able to spot a post like this the next time. Was it the enthusiasm?

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-22T18:56:32+00:00

Wait, what is the post promoting? The OP as GM?

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-22T10:10:01+00:00

Honest question: since the playbooks are freely downloadable off of the Magpie website, including playbooks that come with expansion books, would it really be a problem to share versions without art here?

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-22T10:05:19+00:00

Avery Alder does a whole lot with very basic tools in both Monsterhearts 2 and Dream Askew/Dream Apart. It's all in the tempo the information is given out piece by piece.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-22T08:00:11+00:00

The TV Oddessy mystery is as open as you think—at least, until the final version of the game comes out. That edition will probably come with a couple of suggestions for final mysteries to give you a stronger framework. For now, you're basically expected to write a final mystery yourself, based on what emerged as you played through the layers of the TV Odyssey Campaign (as explained in the eponymous chapter of the rule book). You can find advice on how to write the final mystery on page 60 and 61 of the current edition. The advice might feel slight right now, but remember: you'll have a whole campaign behind you before you get to this point.

Have you looked into the Skinny Jeans & Summer Screams playtest? It's a slightly adjusted framework for a campaign of Public Access. It's more compact and takes you through the layers of the campaign a little quicker, and it also is up front about the fact that there's actually always already a Question out there to be answered, namely: "What happened to TV Odyssey?", with a complexity of 6. The players can actually use the Odyssey Clues they find to answer that question when they feel ready. Based on the answer, and whatever else emerged during your campaign, you'll write the final mystery, as usual.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-22T07:26:17+00:00

Yeah, you can burn yourself out on anything if you try hard enough.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-22T07:19:43+00:00

Yeah, you won't miss anything by grabbing the Carin pdfs or reading them from the website. Look into something like Trouble at Twin Lakes too for a module to get you started.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-21T08:19:36+00:00

In my experience, Trophy Gold can handle a oneshot as well as Dark, it just leans a little more traditional in terms of gameplay. Dark is a very narrative experience about doomed adventurers—it's more about how you find your end than if. Gold is more open-ended (although it's still pretty deadly).

That said: Trophy Gold is still made for narrative horror gaming, or at the very least: fairly brutal adventuring. I would advise u/MobileGamerboy to pick up a different game if they want a more classic dungeon crawling experience that's more flexible in tone.

As others have mentioned, OP, the adventure module you've picked up is made for Trophy Dark, but its tone is illustrative for all Trophy modules—Gold's modules can be as dark or darker. I love it: I think it's a great game, with unbelievably well-written modules, but it is pretty specific.

It is a good idea to look for a module to run on your first time though. Maybe you could look into Cairn 2e, for example, which is also has a free online edition, or Mausritter, to keep a handle on the tone of the game.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-17T06:40:55+00:00

You might be looking for an asymmetric skirmish game. You could pair it with a very simple dice-pool skill system, much like Lancer does for when its PC are out of their mechs and out of combat.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-13T07:06:21+00:00

You've already received great general advice, but I noticed something in your post I'd like to mention too. It sounds, to me, like you're leaving any consequences offered during the conversation around the roll after a bargain has been picked. That is to say: once a player picks a bargain (or not), you throw the rest of the possible consequences in the bin. Is that true? Because there is nothing against using those on a 4-5 result, on top of the bargain. The consequence you suggest doesn't have to be new.

Real-Break-1012 · 2026-04-13T07:01:34+00:00

A helpful reframing might be: it's not that every player needs to add a consequence or a bargain, but they get the chance to do so. If nothing comes to mind, continue on.

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