[DM Help] New Blades in the dark campaign

[crabwizard77]

I am going to run a Blades in the dark campaign soon. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for things to make it easier

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Big question! I will try to remember to write up some longer advice later, but my first piece of advice is to read the whole book. The GM section is useful, but the book is filled with things to get you thinking and understanding the game. In particular, there's a lot of play examples for different actions in the game.

My main advice is that the game explicitly gives you mechanical tools in order to reflect what's going on in the game. This part is an art rather than a science: as the GM, it's your job to figure out a good way to represent a situation in the game, and there's often no one correct answer, so pick the one that makes sense to you. You have a lot of levers you can use to make the game feel right, so experiment! (The book has a few points where it leads you through this thought process, it shows you one way to handle a situation, and then asks you to think about how you'd do it, personally.)

There's a great freedom in running this game, but it does come with the responsibility of being a fan of the players' characters. Which is a thing I find pretty cool about the game, but it does require a shift from some other RPG mindsets.