With the news that a new tv series is going to be coming out based on the Blades in the Dark RPG, I am completely stoked. I looooove the setting of this game. I am pulling out my stuff for the game again and going to push to finally play the game. I've wanted to play this for sooooo long.
What book series out there is the most similar to Blades in the Dark and which should I read as inspiration? I've heard Six of Crows and Gentleman Bastard mentioned, but do not know much about either. I do not know what series is the most like BitD and would be worth reading.
Stand by for wikipedia dump: ...
The Dragaeran books by Steven Brust
The Vlad Taltos series, written as high fantasy with a science fiction underpinning, is set on a planet called Dragaera. The events of the series take place in an Empire mostly inhabited and ruled by the Dragaerans, a genetically engineered humanoid species, having characteristics such as greatly extended lifespans and heights averaging about seven feet. Referred to as "elfs" by some humans, they refer to themselves as "human." The Dragaeran Empire controls a region that is "enclouded" by a perpetual overcast that blocks the sun from view.
Vlad Taltos is one of the human minority (known by Dragaerans as "Easterners"), which exists as a lower class in the Empire. Vlad also practices the human art of witchcraft; "táltos" is Hungarian for a kind of supernatural person in folklore. Though human, he is a citizen of the Empire because his social-climbing father bought a title in one of the less reputable of the 17 Dragaeran Great Houses. The only Great House that sells memberships this way is, not coincidentally, also the one that maintains a criminal organization. Vlad proves surprisingly successful in this organization. Despite being a human and a criminal, he has a number of high-ranking Dragaeran friends, and often gets caught up in important events.
Brust has written 15 published novels in the series, which is proposed to run to nineteen novels – one named for each of the Great Houses, one named for Vlad himself (Taltos), and a final novel which Brust has said will be titled The Final Contract. The first three novels resemble private-eye detective stories, perhaps the closest being Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. The later novels are more varied than the first three. Though they read like fantasy, there are science-fictional explanations for some things.
Brust has also written another series set in Dragaera, the Khaavren Romances, set centuries before Vlad's time. Since Dragaerans live for thousands of years, many characters appear in both series. It is partly an homage to Alexandre Dumas père's novels about the Three Musketeers, and is five volumes long, following the pattern of Dumas' series. The books are presented as historical novels written by Paarfi of Roundwood, a Dragaeran roughly contemporary with Vlad. Paarfi's old-fashioned, elaborate, and highly verbose writing is explicitly based on Dumas', though with a dialogue style that is, at times, based on Tom Stoppard's wordgames in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (according to Pamela Dean's introduction to Five Hundred Years After). The Baron of Magister Valley, an additional Paarfi novel, is modeled after Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo.
The two series are finally brought together in the thirteenth novel in the Vlad series, Tiassa, which can also be viewed as the sixth novel in the Khaavren series. Tiassa comprises what are in effect three related novellas, each told in a different style and connected by a common theme. The first section reads like the first three novels in the series, with a first-person narration by Vlad but including Khaavren's son, Piro; the second section has a different viewpoint character in each of its chapters; and the third section is narrated by Paarfi in the style of the earlier Khaavren Romances, with Khaavren as the viewpoint character and interacting with Vlad.
The setting for Blades in the Dark really caught my eye hardcore. But the system for play is lackluster to me. I dislike it. And I did get a game in for about two months before I just couldn't really stand it any longer. I ripped the setting out and figured on using different mechanics for it but wasn't sure what yet. Honestly thinking SotDL at this point.
What alternative system would those of you out there choose to run the Blades in the Dark setting?
What are its key mechanics?
I have a Blades In the Dark IN SPAAAAAACE rpg called Scum & Villainy. Sort of a Firefly/Starwars crooks thing.
Quote from: palaeomerus on September 05, 2021, 11:18:30 PM
I have a Blades In the Dark IN SPAAAAAACE rpg called Scum & Villainy. Sort of a Firefly/Starwars crooks thing.
I have that one also. It looks interesting.
Quote from: Snowman0147 on September 05, 2021, 07:51:36 PM
What are its key mechanics?
As I recall:
D6 dicepool, one to five dice, I think. Take best result. 6 is success, 4-5 is success with complication, 1-3 is failure.
It focuses on constant action, and the complications and failures typically cause any tense situation to rapidly spiral completely out of control, with the PCs racing to keep up with events. The pre-mission check can result in a mission essentially starting after the first obstacle has already been overcome or, conversely, things may have already spiralled completely out of control before you even start (eg, just as you're breaking into the rival gang's lair, you discover the city watch are launching their own raid).
It requires a lot of improvisation from the GM to come up with interesting complications and prevent things from getting boring or repetetive. It's also the only game I've ever run where I rocked up to every single session after the first having done zero prep, with no clue whatsoever what the PCs would decide to get up to, and every session was still fun.
So explain to me how D&D couldn't do that with simple tweaks over the roll result?
Seriously make nat 20 the best possible outcome.
Above DC as a good outcome.
Exactly DC as success with complication.
Below DC just a bad outcome.
Finally nat 1 for worst outcome.
With proficiency die (DM Guide) improving your chances while offering risk.
Quote from: Snowman0147 on September 06, 2021, 12:08:57 AM
So explain to me how D&D couldn't do that with simple tweaks over the roll result?
Seriously make nat 20 the best possible outcome.
Above DC as a good outcome.
Exactly DC as success with complication.
Below DC just a bad outcome.
Finally nat 1 for worst outcome.
With proficiency die (DM Guide) improving your chances while offering risk.
I assume that question isn't actually directed at me, since I'm not involved in discussions of which system to use.
However, in my opinion, if you're trying to emulate the way the the BitD system plays out, you'd use the BitD system, which does what it sets out to do extremely well. However, since Dropbear doesn't like the system, I assume they also don't like the way it plays out ... in which case, pretty much any system you're comfortable with using for a fantasy, steampunk or fantasy noir game should work just fine.
Quote from: Snowman0147 on September 06, 2021, 12:08:57 AM
So explain to me how D&D couldn't do that with simple tweaks over the roll result? .
Explain to me how Monopoly can't do that with simple tweaks to the dice roll mechanic?
Quote from: Sable Wyvern on September 05, 2021, 11:57:27 PM
Quote from: Snowman0147 on September 05, 2021, 07:51:36 PM
What are its key mechanics?
As I recall:
D6 dicepool, one to five dice, I think. Take best result. 6 is success, 4-5 is success with complication, 1-3 is failure.
It focuses on constant action, and the complications and failures typically cause any tense situation to rapidly spiral completely out of control, with the PCs racing to keep up with events. The pre-mission check can result in a mission essentially starting after the first obstacle has already been overcome or, conversely, things may have already spiralled completely out of control before you even start (eg, just as you're breaking into the rival gang's lair, you discover the city watch are launching their own raid).
It requires a lot of improvisation from the GM to come up with interesting complications and prevent things from getting boring or repetetive. It's also the only game I've ever run where I rocked up to every single session after the first having done zero prep, with no clue whatsoever what the PCs would decide to get up to, and every session was still fun.
I'm not super fond of the pre-mission roll and hinging a session's state of affairs on that, using flashbacks to describe what happened to get to that point. The task resolution is okay, but not thrilling or anything. Everyone found that easy to use, but hinging everything on that first roll and then improv acting why it was the way things were rolled was not really an attractive feature of the game to myself or the rest of the group I play with. Nor was the mechanic embedded to handle the gear you carry, with flashbacks of picking up just the right item to get the job done.
I guess we are just more attuned to pre-planning and buying gear for the jobs with our years of Shadowrun that this style of play espoused by BitD's system just wasn't all that appealing. We gave it a shot, but it wasn't our style.
But the setting is cool.
Quote from: Sable Wyvern on September 05, 2021, 11:57:27 PM
Quote from: Snowman0147 on September 05, 2021, 07:51:36 PM
What are its key mechanics?
As I recall:
D6 dicepool, one to five dice, I think. Take best result. 6 is success, 4-5 is success with complication, 1-3 is failure.
It focuses on constant action, and the complications and failures typically cause any tense situation to rapidly spiral completely out of control, with the PCs racing to keep up with events. The pre-mission check can result in a mission essentially starting after the first obstacle has already been overcome or, conversely, things may have already spiralled completely out of control before you even start (eg, just as you're breaking into the rival gang's lair, you discover the city watch are launching their own raid).
It requires a lot of improvisation from the GM to come up with interesting complications and prevent things from getting boring or repetetive. It's also the only game I've ever run where I rocked up to every single session after the first having done zero prep, with no clue whatsoever what the PCs would decide to get up to, and every session was still fun.
Seems like a good summary. The Blades in the Dark engine has become a bit of a darling for indie publishers/designers. There's lots of fairly new "Forged in the Dark" games, they have an SRD (https://bladesinthedark.com/basics). This is a lot like Powered by the Apocalypse, or Fate before that, being a kind of base engine that you adapt with some custom rules and a setting/genre.
The ones I know of off the top of my head are:
the aforementioned Scum & Villainy,
Galaxies in Peril (https://samjokopublishing.com/blogs/news/galaxies-in-peril-a-new-superhero-tabletop-rpg)(superheroes) - Samjoko Publishing also has - Hack the Planet,
The 13th Fleet (https://the13thfleet.com/) -- I'm dying to get this one to the table, it's about treacherous and incompetent ship captains backstabbing each other as they "advance backwards" from the "nearly victorious battle." Heavily inspired by Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series. unfortunately as far as I know, you had to back the kickstarter to get this one.
Sig: City of Blades, is waiting on delivery of it's print run. The setting has been explored by Genesis of Legend (https://composedreamgames.com/marketplace/Genesis-of-Legend-Publishing) before, but it's basically a love letter to planescape. So... planescape + Blades in the Dark.
Quote from: Dropbear on September 06, 2021, 06:37:04 AM
I'm not super fond of the pre-mission roll and hinging a session's state of affairs on that, using flashbacks to describe what happened to get to that point. The task resolution is okay, but not thrilling or anything. Everyone found that easy to use, but hinging everything on that first roll and then improv acting why it was the way things were rolled was not really an attractive feature of the game to myself or the rest of the group I play with. Nor was the mechanic embedded to handle the gear you carry, with flashbacks of picking up just the right item to get the job done.
I guess we are just more attuned to pre-planning and buying gear for the jobs with our years of Shadowrun that this style of play espoused by BitD's system just wasn't all that appealing. We gave it a shot, but it wasn't our style.
But the setting is cool.
I feel like not all Forged in the Dark games are this heavy on the "pre-mission", though they do tend to lean towards more on the go improv and such. 13th Fleet has event cards for the GM to help randomize what kind of things happen in the solar system the fleet has just jump to, but there isn't much in terms of "flashbacks" resolving things. Mind you it also operates at an atypical scale, in that each player is responsible for a ship, and it's captain.
Setting cool.
Our group's 'meh' on mechanics meant... Leverage in the Dark. A fun time.
Setting was good... But it felt like a very cookie cutter game beyond the mechanics. Game play was very samey too.
Not really my thing.
I'm surprised Blades in the Dark got a series. Is it really that popular compared to all other non-licensed RPGs?
I would describe Scum and Villainy as Paranoia lite without a computer to explain why you are that way but more of a mechanic that you just accept as " you are a jerk and so it everyone else, this is how jerks are" and when you fail rolls to varrying degrees it makes a sort of plot timer/ai tell the DM how to screw you and it has an enemy force that is activated and affected by how you fail and succeed which sets up new goals and encounters so it is kind of trying to automate the formula for a team caper show and get the crew in the mind set that they ought to be looking for opportunities to use each other as shields or sell them out or rip them off or put them in danger as a distraction to get the maximum experience of the game. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Still reading through. Think of this as me looking at the pseudocode and not the syntax or assignments.
Books:
Fantasy:
Lies of Locke Lamora (1st book)
Taltos books - seconded...
Real World:
The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld 2008
The Real Peaky Blinders: Billy Kimber, the Birmingham Gang and the Racecourse Wars of the 1920s
Crime City: Manchester's Victorian Underworld
The Mysteries of London, by George W. M. Reynolds
Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on September 06, 2021, 06:29:33 PM
Setting was good... But it felt like a very cookie cutter game beyond the mechanics. Game play was very samey too.
Not really my thing.
PBtA and BiTA games do have a very laser focused genre playstyle. Very much the PC's are "on mission" all the time. No side quests, no time outs for PC doing in-character nonsense. The play is expected to be driving and on-point, All The Time.
This style of play is not for everyone.
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on September 07, 2021, 03:48:48 PM
I'm surprised Blades in the Dark got a series. Is it really that popular compared to all other non-licensed RPGs?
I would say that it is fairly popular. Making the BiTD game engine OGL from the beginning is a big key to its success and proliferation.
IMHO - its popularity is due to the fact that it echoes elements of old school D&D style play in a lot of areas.
As an IP for Movies/Tv...
As a Theme it is not unique, but I doubt much money changed hands for the rights. But it has a catchy name and the "world" is both quasi-unique and vague enough that the creatives have enough to grab on to, yet plenty of room to add things themselves.
All the following recommendations are set in a more traditional fantasy environment, but - for starters, Thieves' World (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves%27_World) might be worth a look to you. It's the godmother to all of those "thievery" fantasies. Andrew Offutt's work on that series is some of the best 80s fantasy has to offer.
If you're looking for more recent stuff, I'd personally recommend you the "Ryria" series for more heisty, cheeky stuff, and the "Powder Mage" and "Greatcloaks" series for more "gunpowder fantasy"-oriented tales. In my opinion, "Ryria" is the weakest of the three series I named, and "Greatcloaks" is the best.
Wait a minute... isn't Evil Hat one of those psycho woke companies?
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on September 08, 2021, 10:21:15 AM
Wait a minute... isn't Evil Hat one of those psycho woke companies?
They are the Queen of woke companies.
Quote from: Godsmonkey on September 08, 2021, 11:19:12 AM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on September 08, 2021, 10:21:15 AM
Wait a minute... isn't Evil Hat one of those psycho woke companies?
They are the Queen of woke companies.
Yup. They're absolutely horrid.
A shame, IMHO BiTD is a decent game, and does some things worth looking at - I picked up my copy years ago before I started really paying attention to company politics.
If you want to take a look at it now;
Buy Used.
Don't put a dime in their pockets.