Quote from: Itachi;956343Thanks for the replies, guys. I find the more basic crews (Bravos, Shadows and Assassins) fit better the game core premise.

About Scores, do you use actual floor plans to help players visualize the area, or just verbally describe them as suggested by the book? I feel my group would like it better if they could visualize it.

If using floor plans helps with imaging the scene, go for it. They aren't needed in a D&D 3.5 sort of way, though. Pictures and plans can be very helpful to create a collective visual consensus, which will help support the fiction.

The descriptions of this game remind me of the campaign games we use to generate wargame battles... like a more abstract board-game sitting at a higher level than the actual miniatures/terrain/slugfests.
Without reading it I imagine it generating roleplaying sessions that are less contiguous than I'd usually expect... playing out the board-game till a particularly tasty situation arises and then 'zooming in' to play that out real-time with actual PCs.
It would be weird at first, but it's something I wouldn't mind trying.

Quote from: Simlasa;956510The descriptions of this game remind me of the campaign games we use to generate wargame battles... like a more abstract board-game sitting at a higher level than the actual miniatures/terrain/slugfests.
Without reading it I imagine it generating roleplaying sessions that are less contiguous than I'd usually expect... playing out the board-game till a particularly tasty situation arises and then 'zooming in' to play that out real-time with actual PCs.
It would be weird at first, but it's something I wouldn't mind trying.

We haven't gotten a board game vibe from our sessions, but that might just be us. We do zoom in and out, focusing on what's interesting, as wanted. Some of the most innocuous aspects of downtime have become deep roleplay scenes and it's been great. At other times we've glossed over the "big stuff", such as what amounted to a minor score. It's an extremely modular system and has been a joy to play.

Yep, I got the same impression as Alderaan. This game doesn't ask players to play precisely the way its described (as is the case with most PbtA games). Instead, it offers a toolbox for playing crews of scoundrels on a urban sandbox environment. You can zoom in and out of scenes as the group sees fit, or even ignore some fiddly bits of you wish.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;956511We haven't gotten a board game vibe from our sessions, but that might just be us. We do zoom in and out, focusing on what's interesting, as wanted. Some of the most innocuous aspects of downtime have become deep roleplay scenes and it's been great. At other times we've glossed over the "big stuff", such as what amounted to a minor score. It's an extremely modular system and has been a joy to play.

Quote from: Itachi;956803Yep, I got the same impression as Alderaan. This game doesn't ask players to play precisely the way its described (as is the case with most PbtA games). Instead, it offers a toolbox for playing crews of scoundrels on a urban sandbox environment. You can zoom in and out of scenes as the group sees fit, or even ignore some fiddly bits of you wish.

OK, now you got me interested again.  Something else to save up for.

Quote from: Itachi;956803Yep, I got the same impression as Alderaan. This game doesn't ask players to play precisely the way its described (as is the case with most PbtA games). Instead, it offers a toolbox for playing crews of scoundrels on a urban sandbox environment. You can zoom in and out of scenes as the group sees fit, or even ignore some fiddly bits of you wish.

TBH, if it wasn't for the influences of the game I probably wouldn't have gotten into it. Apocalypse World left me cold and turned me away from PbtA, but Blades sucked me right in. I stuck with it and learned the ropes and now I absolutely love it. Is there friction in learning it? Absolutely, but I've found it more problems with my thinking than the game.

One piece that tripped me up was the structure of "gather information, score, downtime, repeat". It looked too rigid but I have happily learned that it's a firm but flexible framework to balance where fiction meets mechanics. In the spaces where my first instinct was to think "WTF?!" I've instead gotten a "Ooh! How do I handle this?". The answers have been fun.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;956840TBH, if it wasn't for the influences of the game I probably wouldn't have gotten into it. Apocalypse World left me cold and turned me away from PbtA, but Blades sucked me right in. I stuck with it and learned the ropes and now I absolutely love it. Is there friction in learning it? Absolutely, but I've found it more problems with my thinking than the game.

Do you think Blades may have opened up PbtA games for you now that you grokked some its concepts? I can see The Sprawl allowing a similar urban sandbox experience as Blades only in a cyberpunk environment, and even AW allows for a kind of "community survival management" experience if the Hardholder or similar playbooks are involved.

QuoteOne piece that tripped me up was the structure of "gather information, score, downtime, repeat". It looked too rigid but I have happily learned that it's a firm but flexible framework to balance where fiction meets mechanics. In the spaces where my first instinct was to think "WTF?!" I've instead gotten a "Ooh! How do I handle this?". The answers have been fun.

One question that's puzzling me: are Downtime actions supposed to work in regard to the last mission (treating harm, relieving stress, etc) or could I use them to advance the next score somehow (doing research on the next target, legworking, etc)?

Forgive not quoting and such. I'm on my iPad and it a pain.

To the first question, absolutely! In fact, I have The Sprawl and love what I've read. Blades really helped get it, you know? We haven't played it yet, as other games have come first, but The Sprawl is definitely on the "Must Play!" list.

As far as DTAs (Downtime Actions) go, yes, they mechanically fall after a score in the downtime phase. You get two by default, but things can change that, such as a special ability or being at war. In this it seems very rigid and possibly annoying, however you can spend coin and/or rep to take as many as you want. This price is purely balance and to me makes fictional and mechanical sense. It gives just enough pinch to "doing your thing" without beating you into the ground, so-to-speak.

If you need or want to interact with those mechanics after your two free DTAs, just pay the coin/rep and do what you need, when it's fun and makes sense. The mechanical reason it costs is to put a limit so you're not running amok with projects, healing, etc. The fictional reason is that if you're in bed, training or working on your new gadget, you're not out making money and/or being known, which hurts revenue and reputation. It's a nifty "mini-game", if it can be called that. I see it much like long and short rests, you know?

The way we handle scenes in Blades is interacting mechanically, then assembling the narrative in the most logical and fun-for-the-group sense. For example, during the downtime steps you roll for entanglements before each player takes their DTAs. Let's say your entanglement says a gang member causes your crew trouble. We shelve it for now and later on your character indulges their vice by drinking. Maybe the gang was with them and that's when they caused a stink. Did you beat their ass in front of the aggrieved party or pay coin to smooth things out? Up to you and we easily and logically linked two distant rolls in one nifty, fictional bundle. Let's say another player overindulges and adds Heat to the crew but there are no DTAs left. So, they spend rep to reduce Heat and explain how they went around browbeating the locals to shut their mouths about everything. The loss of rep could be from having to cover their asses, making the crew look weaker or that they bullied people. Your choice. We've done this kind of thing a lot and it's worked great.

As far as legwork goes, that's not a DTA, it's just gathering information. That used to be an official, listed DTA, but it's been (thankfully) changed. So, before a score you can pick and action or actions and dig around for what information you need on the target. This is most often used to provide the detail for the plan, but it can also help with the engagement roll (maybe you learned a drastic weakness you can exploit).

You can mix and match gathering information, roleplaying scenes, DTAs and even the score in whatever fictional way you like.

I hope that was remotely coherent and helped. If not, let me know. lol