Blades In The Dark

17 hours left.

Hi fellow BitD-ers! I am currently learning the system and started a solo campaign (don't judge me on that lol), two sessions in I finally have a reasonably good understanding of how different mechanics work. However, I did not manage to find some clear information about how flashbacks are supposed to work:

• How far or close in time can a player flashback to? IIUC, the whole mechanics is supposed to replace the tedious prep phase and taking some decisions before the actual mission. Can it be a flashback to a point in time before even knowing what the mission would be ("Several years ago I hid some tools in this prison, just in case")? Could it be to a moment during the mission ("In fact, I set some papers on fire before leaving the previous room so it should cause some panic and confusion among guards"). I did this last one on my first session and, given the fact that I am my own GM and my only player, I was pretty happy about that. However, I do not know how canon it is to the RAW.
• If I understand correctly, a flashback should always cost 1 stress. Hmmm, should it? I read every now and then that people only apply stress in some cases (bad flashback roll, very difficult task, etc.). I cannot find anything in RAW about it, are people just massively homebrewing that?
• I also see a lot of GMs saying that flashbacks should never fail and a bad roll should result in a complication (heat, stress, bad position) but not in a missed opportunity for a good player's idea. Once again, I cannot wrap my head around that in RAW, it seems to me that a flashback just calls for a roll and is interpreted as any other action.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has some details on that and may y'all retire with a fine stash!

A presentation of Blades' 68 if needed.

Time to plan a new heist, scoundrel, with this Blades in the Dark 2 Bundle. This new sequel to our December 2020 offer features the rulebook and play aids for the Blades in the Dark tabletop fantasy roleplaying game from One Seven Design Studio, along with many recent Forged in the Dark standalone games based on the Blades System Reference Document. One of the most acclaimed and influential RPGs of the past decade, Blades fine-tunes the Apocalypse Engine system, adding rules for clocks, stress, and Devil's Bargains that ensure fast play and suspenseful choices.

Wanting to bring more (relevant) factions to the forefront of my game I decided to map out relations between

• Solid bold lines are between the Crew and those they have direct relations to. Blue for positive, red for negative. (Edit: Clarification) The double line to Circle of flame shows the Crew have +2 relations to them, single line for +1 relations.
• Solid thin lines are between the Crew's relations and those they have relations to. Can be to another of the Crew's relations (such as between Circle of Flame and The Hive) or to a more distant faction (two steps separation).
• Dashed lines are relations between factions two steps away from the Crew. Not all relations of these factions two steps separated from the crew are included, only those between factions already on the board.

Kinda enjoyed the result, a bit pleasing to the eye. May fully map out the relations of the factions two steps separated (to factions three steps separated from the crew).

As a GM I enjoy handing out a copious amount of wounds. How I run wounds is that I name the wound, the level, and a group of skills that it affects (Insight, Prowess, Resolve). The wound impairs that specific ability rather than all. I think it's impactful, as it makes players think creatively and utilize other skills.

But I also feel like the default amount of healing is pitifully low. It basically takes both downtime actions in order to move your wounds down one step. Going into a score with prexisting wounds is brutal. Do any of you adjust healing in this game to be more forgiving?

I've yet to run a game of Blades, but I'm constantly waiting to jump on the opportunity.

What supplemental resources do you like to use for your games? Any particular playlists? Maps of Duskvol?

I was thinking of running a campaign of Blades in the Dark in New Capenna. It's a setting from Magic: the Gathering which is a 1920's style crime city, last city in postapocalyptic wasteland of what was once a typical fantasy world.

There is one problem. New Capenna has fantastic races/species/ancestries, whoever you wanna call it. There are humans, demons, cap people, bird people, rhino people. I know Blades is by default a game in a setting only with humans. Are there any ways to reflect mechnically choice of different species by a player? Any guide hwo to decide which abilities wouldn't break game balance? Or should I just lift ancestries from one of other Forged in the Dark games, like Band of Blades or Scumm and Villainy, and change names?

Arcane as in the League of Legends Netflix show (first few episodes mainly).

I’m not big on the sort “oppressive, endless darkness/ever encroaching void” vibe of the default Blades setting. But while watching Arcane I can see how well it could mesh with the system.

Thing is, I’ve never actually run a Blades game before. Mostly listened to podcasts, read some of the book and played a session of Scum & Villainy.

How easy is it to tweak the “vibe” of the default setting? Reading through the book is not doing much to inspire me, but I like the system a lot and think I could get into the setting if I could just make it more of my own.

Should be noted that I’m not looking to play in the world of Arcane verbatim. It’s just a touchstone.

There is no glass cannon on Lemmy yet I don't think

I wasn't ready for Haunted City to start back up again but I'm so happy it has. The cast have lost nothing in the break and I really want to see Josephine and Ross' film!

This community is for sharing everything about the TTRPG Blades in the Dark. Questions? Advice? Or simply share your virtual tabletops or original scores.