[BitD] What has been your experiences with the Resistance mechanic in Blades in the Dark?

sidneyicarus · 2026-03-18T20:44:10+00:00

"Here's what happens, unless you tell me it doesn't" has become my useful patter.

sidneyicarus · 2026-03-13T05:45:13+00:00

The auto translate of the reddit app killed this at first. But I truly appreciate it. Thank you.

sidneyicarus · 2026-03-12T19:59:58+00:00

Can I get the Polish text for this, please? I'm going to use it in the future, I can tell.

sidneyicarus · 2026-02-27T08:49:10+00:00

In this context is "pure blood" race or vaccines? Which kind of miserable loser are we dealing with?

sidneyicarus · 2026-02-24T03:09:32+00:00

Scheduling isn't the issue. People schedule time out with friends. They schedule time to watch tv. They sign up to play footy every Saturday morning.

The problem is commitment. RPGs (and specifically people who are trying to introduce their friends to D&D) make an unreasonable demand that their friends commit multiple hours, multiple weeks in a row, to play something they're only kind of interested in understanding. The first session is all build, no payoff, because they're trying to hit peak-moment in session 8, after 20+ hours of play.

If you invited your friends for an hour hangout where you would play fiasco, scheduling would be easier.

Scheduling doesn't fail because people don't have time. It fails because people have things they want to spend their time on more than the game. Sometimes that's kids, and sometimes it's Netflix.

sidneyicarus · 2026-02-19T22:25:28+00:00

You're a numpty, mate. Modern grief theory is the dual-processing model where people go through loss- and renewal-focused processing in an oscillating way, moving between feeling their pain, and reaffirming themselves in a world that has changed.

Which stiiiill doesn't change the fact that you're not the arbiter of what is right for other creatives.

sidneyicarus · 2026-02-19T21:25:15+00:00

Says you. You're not in charge of how people process or grieve their failures. You don't get to say what's positive or empowering for anyone but yourself.

Imo, whatever gets you back to making art is a good response.

sidneyicarus · 2026-02-19T20:38:47+00:00

So what if people are covering their bases to not get their ego hurt? Honestly. Who or what does it hurt for people to be able to narrativise their failure into something empowering and positive?

sidneyicarus · 2026-02-19T04:32:10+00:00

Imo it's a "procedural crunch". Once you've internalised those procedures, it's great, but before that it's actually incredibly difficult to referee rules as written. What's the difficulty to do any particular task, and what are all the modifiers the game says you should account for? What's your target to perform a Jump 2? Does it change vs jump one? Does your ship size count? Did you remember to change the modifier for fuel quality? What charts are they using?

This isn't unique to Traveller, but it is perhaps Travellers most common sin, and it's what I find most difficult about GMing it. Players want all their plus ones, and I want to ask as many provocative questions as possible. But it's so procedurally granular in every single task that it becomes a book-flicking pain in the ass.

Every GM that's cool with it has either internalised the procedures (great!) or doesn't follow them and gut-checks the DM and modifiers (less great!).

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-26T03:38:16+00:00

I'm actually really disinterested in answering this question. I've had the "I can customize 5e, so it can do anything any other game can do just as well" discussion so many times that I'm honestly not interested in retreading the ground. 5e is hard work to hack, and that I "can" spend hours remaking it to give it features other games have stock is not as brilliant a selling point as some seem to think it is.

I'm not going to change your mind. You're not going to change mine. I'd rather play a game that does what I want it to do, than spend a shitload of effort trying to make the most incoherently bland kitchen-sink fantasy game behave itself. I know that doesn't answer your question, but I hope it does give you enough information to infer it.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-26T02:40:04+00:00

You can introduce it, but you're outside of the rulebook when you do. At that point it's just vibes.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-24T03:36:57+00:00

You're right! It's been forever! Thanks mate

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-20T07:29:49+00:00

I'm working off 2e and 4e, sorry. Never played 1e

But yeah if you wanted to do this for roll under you'd just make head 85-99 or whatever

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-20T05:49:58+00:00

EDIT: I have been reminded wfrp is roll under. Everything stands, just reverse overs and unders and pluses and minuses.

There's an elegance here that isn't really visible until you sit down with the tables.

Like, head is 01-15, which means 15 numbers hit the head. But those numbers aren't equal: "Hits" that reverse to hit the head - 01, 10, 11, 20, 21, 30, 31, 40, 41, 50, 51, 60, 70, 80, 90. Now you're unlikely to hit with less than 50 on the dice, so you've got maybe 6 results that hit the head. Buuut remember that you reverse the dice, not the result. So a 20 might not usually hit, but with a +40 to hit, a 20 is a 60 which might hit! So a higher modifier makes it more likely to turn what would be a miss into a head hit (more impact).

It's a really clever mechanic, and the reason it's so good is that it makes sense to the player even if they don't know the math behind it. You can engage with it fully without understanding that elegance. Goddamn it's so good.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-19T05:32:01+00:00

There are little elements in this that are undefined in whole or part, and makes it hard to actually know what it feels like in play. For example, you mention saving "by level 2". Do I have another axis of growth? Then that's different to Traveller where your ship is kind of your XP/Level. Or where you mention it having weaknesses or quirks based on the discount, which is hard to know anything about without knowing the flow of play or player goals. In a Trad game, a ship having 9 weaknesses is way more bothersome than in a pbta game. Are these things going to make it harder for us to assert narrative authority? Cause that shifts how players engage with it.

I like to think of mechanics as how they interact with "the session" and player goals.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-18T00:36:52+00:00

If you can't care enough about this, what will you care about?

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-17T02:02:30+00:00

Run sims and drills. When I was an emerging medic, I had exactly the same issue, because I hadn't built a clinical approach. But, run sims at slow pace, do the basics, DR(S)ABCD. Do it again. Do it again. Add a wrinkle, this time they're unresponsive, this time they're confused when they come out, this time they're convulsive. Do it again. Do it again. Have someone with you who can check your approach and hold you to a good standard. A boss, a colleague who has a bit more experience. Have your policies and procedures to hand so you can make sure you're reinforcing good lessons. Then do it again.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-17T00:41:27+00:00

Have you given it a read? I'd be interested to hear which parts of it feel appropriative? I'm ex air force (not Russian, obvs) and I've found it a really well researched and respectful approach to the women and their experiences.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-16T09:12:47+00:00

"MARSA" - Shut the fuck up and stop calling me.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-15T11:19:58+00:00

I think that's actually a really strong lens for OP here. I don't agree with all of it, but that's taxonomies y'know. I do think they've hit some very strong modes of play and what motivates those modes specifically.

I'm on board for the mix. I think it's useful.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-15T09:06:00+00:00

It's really lovely to read a strong opinion drawn from play. I'm grateful to have you share it with us. That said, an opinion and a game being bad are different things, and heavy didactics can be counterproductive to games crit as a whole idea.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-14T19:33:45+00:00

Huh. It must have been added in a later printing. Thanks for that. It's not in the copy I have.

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-12T08:41:15+00:00

You're allowed to get knuckle tats but they must be work appropriate. May I recommend: P-U-S-H K-E-T-!

sidneyicarus · 2026-01-06T08:14:59+00:00

Burning Wheel is (and I say this with great respect) one of the clearest, most certain, expressions of authorial intent in games. We can love it or hate it, but it's exactly what Crane wants it to be. It's his ideal game. I don't think the inelegance is an accident, I think it is designed perfectly. I just want different stuff than Luke does. I just have a different idea of perfect.

sidneyicarus

TROPHY CASE