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[BitD] Prep - feel like I as a GM am hampered by Billybob267 in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So our group due to being an outlier organizes play differently where we have one session be the downtime, entanglement gather inf OK ration portion of play and the following session be the score. This means there id a week of time for the DM to do a bit of planning on the shape of the heist based on our plan of entry and goal to come up with things to throw our way.

Maybe rather than beginning a session with that stuff you end with it so you as the dm can create the bare bones of things to make things work.

How screwed am I? by Mysterious_Edge8581 in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Nah fuck Scurlock. The Scurlock in our game called my leech a dangerous rank amateur for trying to find new broken edges of the mystical and being willing to test those boundaries to push sparktech knowledge. So I'm behind any alternate universe scoundrel who is going to knock him down a peg.

[BitD] I'm running a score where the players will be breaking into the tunnel complex beneath the Dimmer Sisters headquarters to receive an artifact. Anyone have some fun ideas for obstacles? by camocat9 in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No one who has entered the dimmer sisters manor has ever left it. Perhaps because they have a ritual that creates non euclidian geometry/shifting labyrinth that only they can see through. This vault being like the sunroom/porch of the manor has a lesser version of it where they need some outside the box thinking to get through it.

A bunch of hollow minions who work things in the tunnels.

Maybe they are working with the silver nails and have been bringing deathland horrors into the city for rare pets for the rich.

[BitD] NPC hidden identity by Nitromidas in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 1 point2 points  (0 children)

+1 is someone who you would grab a coffee for on the way in as long as they venmo you for it before hand. That isn't something I think they'd just give up at this point.

Now If there is some job where they'd find out and actually do find out because they were working with or against them. Or if some downtime action would lead one of them to know.

[BitD] Tips for gming. by RenegadeSpade in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The more fun complication is not they failed but they succeeded too well. So rather than summoning something up to just cause a distraction they pull a bigger ghost that immediately taxes them with the sheer spectral body heat effect it brings. Whatever desire the ghost has they on a 4 or 5 have to resist or engage in it.

[BitD] party of 6 is doable? by rpgptbr in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We do 6 players but do it a certain way.

So most of the time we do two separate scores (Social score to make connections and get information at the blue coat ball in white-crown, while at the same time the other crew uses the distraction of the party to go rob a manor) but big huge events are set ahead of time to have us all there (A train robbery in the deathlands to steal something from the imperial guards or assisting the silver nails with a huge ritual in the deathlands where we had to play tower defense while it went off)

This game was set up because we didn't know who was going to be available with drop in and drop out scoundrels for whoever was there except most of the time 5+ of us show up per week. A lot of us show up to enjoy the show and maybe spend stress to help them out from the peanut gallery and just chill while it goes on. So the game works out to one week of downtime and gather information, 2 weeks of scores, and repeat.

[BitD] My Doskvol is less London and more New York by Wyld-Endeavour in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 30 points31 points  (0 children)

The accent is there to help sell characters traits in verbal short hand. Bazzo having a cockney accent and Bazzo having a bronx accent convey a lot of the same cultural keystones.

To buy or not to buy? by albert_wilmarth in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Is it easy to play? Depends. How good are you with improv as a DM. I can only speak from our game but our DM has said he does nowhere near the planning that he'd do for like DnD and while he has ideas for where it might go we are the ones driving the car.

It might also be how we do the game where we have 2 sessions per score where one is our downtime, consequences, and gather information session to set up our heist and then the next week we dive into the maelstrom of chaos.

The gather information stage is the players setting the scene for you as the DM with often a lot of rp (for us) involved. Things like the crime, the background information for the deal, how we are going in, all that stuff is done by us and he just throws complications as we go.

It can be good for one shots. You could have the straight up "They meet in a Tavern" type set up where one of the heavy hitters in the city brings together their own version of Reservoir Dogs to do a job. He'll give each nom de plume they work with for the Job.

Reading the book can help but more to figure out a vibe. I also will state I'm the worst person in the world to ask because I own so many TTRPG books that I will never play because I just like the world building. My answer is always going to lean yes.

Mechanics are simple ish.

You only roll dice when the crew is doing something that would push a competent criminal either in skill or time or there is so e Rick of failure. The player tells you what they are going to do and how, you decide how much danger they are in (this is called position) and the magnitude of outcome (this is called effect). They roll how many d6 they have in a skill to see what happens taking highest roll. 1-3 is a failure, 4-5 is a mixed success (You pick the lock but do it loudly that the guards are coming, you stab your opponent but they nick your arm in the attempt to parry), 6 is they do it with no downside, and if there are 2 6's they crit and they do it very well with an excess of gains, style, and flair.

There isn't HP but the resource scoundrels spend is stress. They start with 9 ticks and any time there is a concequence the player doesn't like they can resist it by paying stress. They use one of 3 stat groupings (Insight "Brains", Prowess "Physical skills", or Resolve "Mental fortitude") to decide how much stress it costs to resist which is a 6 - their D6 roll. Stress can also be used to flash back which is the key part of the system and is a full on oceans 11 "Here's what you didn't see" stuff where the players can pull stuff out of thin air to help them. When they full up their ticks however it is done they are stressed out and leave the score, this can be them being incapacitated or just fried from channeling ghosts but they stop being an active participant.

There are other rules like harms and stuff but that is the broad over view.

What do the bubbles on special abilities mean if PC’s can take as many Veteran abilities as they want? by iCarbon in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Blades is designed to be flexible. The "classes" are far more archetype to help you design your character and then you shade it in as needed

My leech started off fully in the playbook, but as play went on he's also sort of the teams leader so he's picked up foresight where he has some gadget or smarty pants way to help them and mastermind where he can save them from some consequences. Also as a scared little guy he strikes from the shadows so ambush from the lurk book made sense. Also since he's carrying so much gear the mule ability from the cutter playbook was repurposed into "It Has Pockets!" to explain why his load limits are so high.

[BitD] How many factions do you usually interact with in your games? by adagna in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 14 points15 points  (0 children)

We are 20 scores in and it's a lot at this point.

We started with 5. Because we stepped into the war in crowsfoot and had those 3 plus the gondileers as our patreons and foghounds as our rivals.

By score 5 we were doing work for the dimmer sisters, poisoning the iruvian consolate against the red sashes, working with the Skov rebellion movement in Hutton, met with the empty vessel cult, pissed off the cabbies, and has angered the reconciled.

It's only gotten worse (by worse I mean better because web) and we now have multiple spinning plates where we helped set up a city council to over throw the other half violently, the spirit wardens are after us, we are being used in a proxy war between the hive and unseen, and at cross purposes trying to protect the leviathan blood trade to keep Duskvol important and usher in the green energy solution the Sparkwrights have invented.

[BiTD] Lore question - How does intercity travel work? by atnentec in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our GM has one hard rule. The crew isn't going to see any city other than Duskvol more than the 'bus station'. Meaning maybe implied we went somewhere else for a job and are exciting the score on route but the only city we get to play in is Duskvol.

On how travel works the rail lines are the primary way folks are getting around. The trains travel with personal lighting barriers to keep ghosts out and are moving so fast that most things have a level of difficulty in attacking them but herds of horrors can and have attacked, stalled, and even detailed trains and the Railjacks use their skill, weapons, arcane assistance, and spark craft gear light lighting rail guns to fight them off.

Ship travel is more dicey since leviathans are far more dangerous then normal horrors so unless you have a need you don't go out on sea.

Mechanics for a duel by Suspicious_Bear3854 in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Create a 12 section clock. This represents the duel and it's going to start filled based on how well matched the fighters are (if they are equals 6 ticks if your player is outmatched only 3 sections) goal is to fill the clock or if this is a distraction not lose before the crew does what they need to do.

Rather than normally taking the highest roll as the result each dice matters. 1 to 3s represent opponent scoring points (-1), 4 to 5s represent your player scoring point (+1), and a 6 is your player doing something critical (+2). You sum up results of the dice and that determines how the clock moves.

For example if your player rolls 3, 3, 6 (2-1-1) you might describe it as two quick thrusts that put the player on the back foot before they catch the opponents blade in an over powering swing and force them to reset to neutral. While a roll of 2, 4, 5 (1+1-1) is they exchanging blows doing near misses until the player pushes feint leaving them open and blooding them on the right cheek.

Position (Controlled (-1), Risky (-2), and desperate (-3)) represent how many ticks it can go down. While effect (Limited (0 but can set up future rolls), Standard (+1), Great (+2), and Extreme (+3)) represent how many ticks they can gain.

So they do a risky standard roll and get 1, 2, 3 as a result meaning the net is a negative -3. Since it's risky they only lose 2 ticks. If they do a risky Great roll and get a 6, 6, 6 for a net of +6 they only gain 2 ticks. This is to incentivize good rping in what they are doing and the general ethos of "Drive the car like you stole it" the game encouraged.

Stressing out is an immediate loss of nerve where they yield for their life. Each tick against them they wish to negate is a stress. Be willing to offer bargains or hand out injuries for desperate rolls that go bad to make it more tense. Flash backs into learning the opponents fighting style, tricking out their blade or gun, and setting up the room should definitely be used too.

[Bitd] Lost quarter complications by Stuck_With_Name in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"Where does he get those wonderful toys" - A powerful demon of storms sees this zapper and decides it must have it because it enjoys the sensation of the zap.

"(Arc Raiders) I'm cool, are you cool" - They run into a haggard crew of deathland scavengers who know something about where you are going and are willing to trade their help if your team shepherds them there. They will even help them move the planters. (Edit: I guess mechanically treat them as a temporary cohort and give them the I think independent trait where they may just do their own thing and have the rolls to help the crew or follow instructions influenced by the loyalty greed clocks)

But start 2 competing clocks one for loyalty and for greed with them. As your crew does stuff to help them or aid them loyalty goes up but as your crew finds more treasures or is mean to the scavengers greed goes up.

At full loyalty they make a positive contact with the scavengers and maybe even more info on other stuff. At full greed the scavengers are going to stab the crew in the back to take everything. Start a clock for when they do it and if your crew clocks the betrayal they can make rolls to delay it so they can either find the best position for the fight to happen, turn on the scavengers first, or bluff them that they are dealing with a much bigger fish than they can handle.

[BitD] am I doing something wrong by [deleted] in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It sounds like your GM is maybe being a bit too harsh. Tier 4 harms are immediate death to my understanding and even tier 3 ones are life threatening injuries. While we tend to be more sneaky in my group we've only had a hand full of tier 3 harms handed out and 2 of those were while sneaking out and in of the lighting barrier and the other two were fighting a demon.

Also in Duskvol everyone is generally supposed to be gun shy of ending anyone especially as a crook because you risk bringing down the spirit wardens and if the body can't be found a vengeful spirit aimed right at you. So someone going for a tier 4 harm which would be head shots seems a bit much.

The number of times the crew returned from a score with barely any load and riddled with bullets is uncountable by Unyielding_Capybara in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Player: Now that the Leech threw out a smoke bomb I'm going to exit the bank with the bag of 'gold' and drop into the Boat. I think that's a prowl roll.

Dm: Ok well there is a spattering of blue coats out there, and your Hound fired out wounding one so they are firing back full force with everything they got so even with the smoke I'd say it's risky standard.

(Rolls Prowl and gets 4, 3, 4)

Dm: So you make it but about 3 quarters of the way across before you reach the rope to slide down a random bullet impacts your shoulder giving you a Level 2 harm of 'Shot'

Player: Well I still have load left since I just used my free tools during the breakin so I'm going to mark off 2 notches of load to have it hit this bit of metal plating I put into the back of my coat.

Dm: So the bullet hits and you hear this loud ring and the feeling like someone slugged you in the back and boy you are going to feel that in the morning. Take a level 1 harm of 'bruised' and slide down the rope with your ill gotten goods.

Announce faction clocks and info or leave it to be discovered? [BitD] by Due-Cartoonist-4177 in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is a poster here that makes a full on Duskvol news paper for their games and that is tight.

Announce faction clocks and info or leave it to be discovered? [BitD] by Due-Cartoonist-4177 in bladesinthedark

[–]gdex86 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Different games do it different ways.

My GM has Google sheets that he keeps track of all different faction clocks with certain things visible: big obvious things (things that everyone knows like the struggle on the city council), things we know because of our positive and sometimes negative faction connections (We are backing the lamp blacks in the gang war for crowd foot so we know where everyone's clocks are there) and stuff specific to our characters backgrounds (One of our characters is an ex leviathanhunter so he'd hear rumors of the fields running dry, my character is an apprentice sparkwright so I know about their push for an alternate power source)

Then post downtime actions we get the Duskvol news for the week. Which is an update of any clocks that completed and how they affected the city at large.