Forged in the Dark?

[Drakevarg]

There's a system I've been interested in looking at lately called Blades in the Dark. I was initially turned off because of its very limited scope - you're always a team of scoundrels running jobs - but then I learned that there's a broader "Forged in the Dark" umbrella system with multiple games tied to it where you can play vigilantes, crooked cops, tomb raiders, seafarers, legionnaires, etc. Since the overall tone of the game seems to be exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for, this got my curiosity, with one major sticking point:

How hard is it to decouple the rules from the setting? Because I don't want to run a game in Doskvol or Skydagger Keep or whatever. I like worldbuilding, I want to run a game in my own world. But for some systems that's easier than others. So I wanted to check if anyone around here has played games in this system and can give their perspective on it.

[kyoryu]

I think "Forged in the Dark" is similar to "Powered by the Apocalypse". It's less of a generic/base system, and more of an umbrella term used to denote games developed based on Blades in the Dark, taking their design cues and general structure from it.

https://bladesinthedark.com/basics

Like PbtA, each FitD game is going to be fairly narrow in scope, and running FitD in a given setting is going to take a certain amount of work. It's not like Fate/GURPS/etc. where you can reasonably jump into a new genre and just start playing.

[Drakevarg]

Like PbtA, each FitD game is going to be fairly narrow in scope, and running FitD in a given setting is going to take a certain amount of work. It's not like Fate/GURPS/etc. where you can reasonably jump into a new genre and just start playing.

I'm not so much concerned about the genre and more how much of the setting is baked directly into the ruleset. To give a point of comparison, I use nWoD to run campaigns in one of my settings. It's still horror-noir with elements of animism, but it's not set on modern-day Earth. Similarly, the setting I'm contemplating using FitD for is still a gothic, semi-apocalyptic fantasy-steampunk world with lots of corruption, it's just not Doskvol.

I've never played a PbtA game so I can't make a direct comparison there, but I assume that it means that there's more of a disconnect between different games under the umbrella than there is between say, Vampire: the Requiem vs. Werewolf: the Forsaken, or Age of Rebellion vs. Force and Destiny.

[atanamis]

I don't think you will have any problems. I did the opposite (taking the Blades setting and using FATE ruleset), but the rules are interesting and can be reasonably applied to any world. I don't think many of the rules are even super deeply narrative in their approach. They are built around a team of agents planning and executing an operation though. This doesn't have to be scoundrels in Dovsky, but you're letting players use flashbacks to define how they prepared for the plan they executing, and then building reputation and power of their "team" which is essentially a character unto itself. But I don't think you'll have too hard a time applying the ruleset to a home brew setting.

[kyoryu]

I'm not so much concerned about the genre and more how much of the setting is baked directly into the ruleset. To give a point of comparison, I use nWoD to run campaigns in one of my settings. It's still horror-noir with elements of animism, but it's not set on modern-day Earth. Similarly, the setting I'm contemplating using FitD for is still a gothic, semi-apocalyptic fantasy-steampunk world with lots of corruption, it's just not Doskvol.

I've never played a PbtA game so I can't make a direct comparison there, but I assume that it means that there's more of a disconnect between different games under the umbrella than there is between say, Vampire: the Requiem vs. Werewolf: the Forsaken, or Age of Rebellion vs. Force and Destiny.

I think the bigger potential disconnect is that BitD wants a specific campaign structure. Some of that informs the setting or is informed by the setting.

In Blades, you're a crew pulling heists. You do this to basically take over territory. There is a territory map specific to Doskvol.

If you wanted to make a setting like Doskvol, it'd probably work, even though you might need to redo the faction/territory map. If you wanted to do a game not about a criminal crew pulling heists, I think it would be more difficult.

Note that not every FitD game uses that conceit, but the idea of a central campaign structure seems to be fairly central. Band of Blades, for instance, is about an army that's lost a major battle, has to get back to their keep, and is constantly being attacked by the enemy. Even if you wanted to reskin it or adapt it in some way, it's going to be based on something similar to that central concept.

(I don't think that's a terrible idea, btw. I think that campaign-level structures are an interesting idea that is under-explored).

And, yeah, you're correct on PbtA games often varying more than a WoD game would between settings.

[The_Snark]

I have actually played in a Blades in the Dark game set in an entirely different setting (specifically, mortal-level Exalted). It worked reasonably well, although as kyoryu notes you will need to put in a bit of extra work coming up with your own factions and internal politics, rather than being able to use the map and faction list for Doskvol. Along the same lines, you may need to tweak a few things if your setting's magic diverges from what Blades in the Dark does, but we found this fairly doable.

However, while we changed the setting, the game premise was still "a group of scoundrels pulls heists". I think trying to de-couple Blades in the Dark from that premise would be more trouble than it's worth, and while I have not played other Forged in the Dark games, I imagine the same is true for them - they're each tied to a fairly narrow game premise. There is not, to my knowledge, a generic Forged in the Dark ruleset like there is for World of Darkness.

[Drakevarg]

However, while we changed the setting, the game premise was still "a group of scoundrels pulls heists". I think trying to de-couple Blades in the Dark from that premise would be more trouble than it's worth, and while I have not played other Forged in the Dark games, I imagine the same is true for them - they're each tied to a fairly narrow game premise. There is not, to my knowledge, a generic Forged in the Dark ruleset like there is for World of Darkness.

Yeah, that's fair. To be honest, researching this idea has only settled for me that D&D/Pathfinder (or at least something resembling it) really is the right system for this particular setting. Because while I might be taking a very interpretive definition of 'dungeon' or how one approaches 'crawling' one, the stories I want this setting to tell are ultimately supposed to be dungeon crawlers.

[cavalier973]

For anyone interested, here is a podcast of actual gameplay:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtBYin1uOBmAr1IBv4lT8TWSe-jtl740h

This is the character creation; there are several
more sessions of the group playing

[kyoryu]

I mean, maybe it would work if you framed your dungeon escapades as, effectively, heists. Some dungeon crawls are very heist-like anyway.

[Drakevarg]

I mean, maybe it would work if you framed your dungeon escapades as, effectively, heists. Some dungeon crawls are very heist-like anyway.

True, but my conclusion went the other way. Blades seems to have a lot of narrative-style mechanics to it that, while interesting, seem less conducive to the minutiae of searching dungeons, navigating traps and other hazards, etc. It's built to closer resemble a crime thriller TV show, whereas - despite my setting have basically all the same inspirations (Thief, Bloodborne, Peaky Blinders...) - my emphasis is much more on the actual act of exploring the levels in those games moreso than the narrative beats they hit, something Blades seems more inclined to gloss over the details of.

I don't doubt that Blades an excellent system for someone, I just have concluded that that someone isn't me right now.

[kyoryu]

True, but my conclusion went the other way. Blades seems to have a lot of narrative-style mechanics to it that, while interesting, seem less conducive to the minutiae of searching dungeons, navigating traps and other hazards, etc. It's built to closer resemble a crime thriller TV show, whereas - despite my setting have basically all the same inspirations (Thief, Bloodborne, Peaky Blinders...) - my emphasis is much more on the actual act of exploring the levels in those games moreso than the narrative beats they hit, something Blades seems more inclined to gloss over the details of.

I don't doubt that Blades an excellent system for someone, I just have concluded that that someone isn't me right now.

Totally fair!

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Yeah; I've had a lot of fun running a dungeoncrawl game that's mostly based on Blades, but if what you want is the minutiae of searching rooms and poking/prodding at traps, it definitely isn't the game for that. It's built for high-octane, risky, scoundrelly play and adventure capers.

[Razade]

There's a system I've been interested in looking at lately called Blades in the Dark. I was initially turned off because of its very limited scope - you're always a team of scoundrels running jobs - but then I learned that there's a broader "Forged in the Dark" umbrella system with multiple games tied to it where you can play vigilantes, crooked cops, tomb raiders, seafarers, legionnaires, etc. Since the overall tone of the game seems to be exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for, this got my curiosity, with one major sticking point:

How hard is it to decouple the rules from the setting? Because I don't want to run a game in Doskvol or Skydagger Keep or whatever. I like worldbuilding, I want to run a game in my own world. But for some systems that's easier than others. So I wanted to check if anyone around here has played games in this system and can give their perspective on it.

What you're looking for is In The Dark by David Burnell-Brutman: https://dbb-8.itch.io/in-the-dark