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Author Topic: Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)  (Read 2086 times)

ThePoxBox

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Looking for something with great lore but flexible enough to make it much your own? Looking for a game where the metagame is in control of everyone involved? Looking for a game where you can zoom in and out as much as you want on any element? Blades in the Dark is very different than my lifeblood of Dungeons & Dragons, but when it comes to a low prep, highly improvisational experience it can't be beat. Just make sure you have a GM and are playing with people that are capable of that improv and don't overthink things.

finarvyn

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2018, 10:45:58 AM »
I played one game of this, with a group that got stuck by improv and constantly tried to overthink things. The game seemed solid, but our adventure was sort of lame.
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ThePoxBox

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2018, 11:54:19 AM »
Sorry to hear it fin. Like all tools they need an artisan and a good team to shine.

finarvyn

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2018, 06:10:25 AM »
Agreed. Like I said, the concept seemed pretty solid but our group dropped the ball. I suspect that BitD is one of those games where once you really "get it" then things flow a lot smoother, but if you have a group which is sort of passive or clueless it sort of flops. I had trouble running Sorcerer for some of those same players a few years ago.
Marv / Finarvyn
Kingmaker of Amber
I'm pretty much responsible for the S&W WB rules.
Amber Diceless Player since 1993
OD&D Player since 1975

Rafael

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2018, 02:49:38 AM »
This interests me! Is this game tied to a specific setting, or could it be ported to, say, another prominent city of thieves without much ado? - Because, as much as I appreciate modern renditions of that motif, there is that classic that I consider truly special! :)

ThePoxBox

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2018, 11:50:21 AM »
Quote from: Le Noir Faineant;1040420
This interests me! Is this game tied to a specific setting, or could it be ported to, say, another prominent city of thieves without much ado? - Because, as much as I appreciate modern renditions of that motif, there is that classic that I consider truly special! :)

The core system of BitD can be used very easily, but one of the things that makes the game a great product is how much of the content of the book is pretty specific to the world where the city of Doskvol exists, the kinds of archetypes that Blades playbooks encapsulate, and the tribal archetypes that the crew types outline. If you wanted to port it to another setting whole cloth, you've got a lot of work to do. A lot of the mechanics may be the same, but the fiction around the mechanics would take a lot of writing if you wanted to create something for more than just yourself. There are plenty of hacks out there to check out, and some of them are even different genres, but personally I haven't pursued them so I don't know where to point you. Forged in the Dark is the name for the core system that is more generic, but that system hasn't been formally published as of yet.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2018, 12:19:57 PM by ThePoxBox »

Trond

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2018, 01:28:38 PM »
Sounds interesting. Not to derail too much, but ever tried Houses of the Blooded? That's the best little-to-no-GM-prep-time game I have tried.

ThePoxBox

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« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2018, 05:49:48 PM »
Quote from: Trond;1040977
Sounds interesting. Not to derail too much, but ever tried Houses of the Blooded? That's the best little-to-no-GM-prep-time game I have tried.


I have not, but Blades is kind've "low prep, mid level world/mechanics knowledge needed." A lot of the direction is given by the players in Blades, so the more you know, the more specific you can be on where you're going, what you might be working towards as an individual and/or as a group, and who you might encounter or have tag along with you.

Rafael

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« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2018, 03:33:03 PM »
Quote from: ThePoxBox;1040805
The core system of BitD can be used very easily, but one of the things that makes the game a great product is how much of the content of the book is pretty specific to the world where the city of Doskvol exists, the kinds of archetypes that Blades playbooks encapsulate, and the tribal archetypes that the crew types outline. If you wanted to port it to another setting whole cloth, you've got a lot of work to do. A lot of the mechanics may be the same, but the fiction around the mechanics would take a lot of writing if you wanted to create something for more than just yourself. There are plenty of hacks out there to check out, and some of them are even different genres, but personally I haven't pursued them so I don't know where to point you. Forged in the Dark is the name for the core system that is more generic, but that system hasn't been formally published as of yet.


Thank you for your assessment! :) I'll then wait how "Forged in the Dark" fares. I am currently running TW with "Beyond the Wall", and... It's not terrible.

Alderaan Crumbs

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2018, 10:32:22 PM »
I fucking LOVE Blades and got really good at it. It felt awesome. Scum & Villainy rocks, too. A lot.
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Premier

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Blades in the Dark: Best Story Game I've Experienced (Good GM Helped)
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2018, 05:21:08 AM »
I played BitD a couple of times with a guy who was part of the playtesting (and other players, of course). It's very different than my neck of woods in the OSR, but I generally had a fine time and the setting and some of the mechanics are rather intriguing.

I did find it imperfect, especially in regard to one particular issue. Essentually, my main beef is that the system is way too stingy with the sense of accomplishment, and you spend most of the gametime feeling frustated.

Here's what I mean: a single heist might have, let's say, three tasks, maybe four. (Get in unnoticed, locate the loot, actually acquire the loot, maybe get out unnoticed.) Each task is divided into maybe 2-4 subtasks on those little task wheels, or whatever you call them. So you have anywhere between 6 to over a dozen subtasks to accomplish.

The problem is, the action resolution die rolls are set up so that you're pretty unlikely to get a simple success on any given attempt, and you're very, very likely to be pushed into risky and desperate rolls where all sorts of shit can go bad. I understand the purpose of that, it's there to provide a sense of urgency and risk and escalation. That's all cool, but like I said above, you have to pass 6-12 situations in a single heist, and MOST of those get pushed into a desperate struggle, which I think is just too much, and it ends up achieving the opposite of what it set out to do: at the end you don't feel "Oh, good, we FINALLY got the golden statuette!"; you feel "Going through all that bullshit for this golden statuette really wasn't worth it, why can't our crew just live on a smaller income with simple kneecap-busting jobs instead?"

It's like a traditional D&D dungeon crawl, but with 9 out of 10 encounters (random or otherwise) being a 5 liches, 50 death knights, 20 umber hulks or some other bullshit where all you can do is try to run away and hope you succeed.

Which is a pity because the game has great potential, but I think it really needs to be recalibrated to be less punishing and less misery touristy. Every single burglary job shouldn't involve 8 or so near-catastrophes; you're supposed to play a bunch of cool fantasy criminals, not bumbling idiots.
Obvious troll is obvious. RIP, Bill.

Alderaan Crumbs

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« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2018, 03:28:00 AM »
Quote from: Premier;1051172
I played BitD a couple of times with a guy who was part of the playtesting (and other players, of course). It's very different than my neck of woods in the OSR, but I generally had a fine time and the setting and some of the mechanics are rather intriguing.

I did find it imperfect, especially in regard to one particular issue. Essentually, my main beef is that the system is way too stingy with the sense of accomplishment, and you spend most of the gametime feeling frustated.

Here's what I mean: a single heist might have, let's say, three tasks, maybe four. (Get in unnoticed, locate the loot, actually acquire the loot, maybe get out unnoticed.) Each task is divided into maybe 2-4 subtasks on those little task wheels, or whatever you call them. So you have anywhere between 6 to over a dozen subtasks to accomplish.

The problem is, the action resolution die rolls are set up so that you're pretty unlikely to get a simple success on any given attempt, and you're very, very likely to be pushed into risky and desperate rolls where all sorts of shit can go bad. I understand the purpose of that, it's there to provide a sense of urgency and risk and escalation. That's all cool, but like I said above, you have to pass 6-12 situations in a single heist, and MOST of those get pushed into a desperate struggle, which I think is just too much, and it ends up achieving the opposite of what it set out to do: at the end you don't feel "Oh, good, we FINALLY got the golden statuette!"; you feel "Going through all that bullshit for this golden statuette really wasn't worth it, why can't our crew just live on a smaller income with simple kneecap-busting jobs instead?"

It's like a traditional D&D dungeon crawl, but with 9 out of 10 encounters (random or otherwise) being a 5 liches, 50 death knights, 20 umber hulks or some other bullshit where all you can do is try to run away and hope you succeed.

Which is a pity because the game has great potential, but I think it really needs to be recalibrated to be less punishing and less misery touristy. Every single burglary job shouldn't involve 8 or so near-catastrophes; you're supposed to play a bunch of cool fantasy criminals, not bumbling idiots.


None of this is correct. If that's your experience, it was done wrong by your group, not the game.
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Premier

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« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2018, 09:52:37 AM »
Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1051282
None of this is correct. If that's your experience, it was done wrong by your group, not the game.

All of that is correct. You are the one who's wrong. If your experience is different, your group is playing the game wrong.


See? It's easy to make assertive declarations without any sort of actual argument, explanation or support. So easy, in fact, it's worth nothing for the purposes of public discussion. Like your post.
Obvious troll is obvious. RIP, Bill.

Warboss Squee

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« Reply #13 on: August 05, 2018, 11:49:28 AM »
Quote from: Premier;1051463
All of that is correct. You are the one who's wrong. If your experience is different, your group is playing the game wrong.


See? It's easy to make assertive declarations without any sort of actual argument, explanation or support. So easy, in fact, it's worth nothing for the purposes of public discussion. Like your post.

Played the game extensively. Pretty sure your GM had the difficulty dials turned up to high.

So yes, yours would not be the ideal experience, but the typical one for first timers.

Alderaan Crumbs

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« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2018, 09:53:43 PM »
Quote from: Premier;1051463
All of that is correct. You are the one who's wrong. If your experience is different, your group is playing the game wrong.


See? It's easy to make assertive declarations without any sort of actual argument, explanation or support. So easy, in fact, it's worth nothing for the purposes of public discussion. Like your post.


You described the game incorrectly and if the game was run that way, it was done poorly. I wasn't being rude, I was stating a fact. You're painting the game as having a major flaw, based on an experience you had that, itself, was based on the game being run poorly. To place your displeasure at the feet of the game was disingenuous. I know this because I did the same thing when I started. I also have extensive experience with the system. Clocks...a term you should know and use (not "task wheels" as that hurts your credibility) if criticizing them...are optional. They simply represent more complex obstacles. I've run scores that use them extensively and some that are resolved in a few action rolls. Your D&D example is completely off-base and again, purely based on poor implementation. Every burglary doesn't involve "8 or so near-catastrophes".

If you had posted frustration concerning how you perceived things and/or that the session went poorly because of any number of group-focused reasons, I could get behind that. You didn't. You blamed poor design on your poor experience, which is disingenuous.
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