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    Troll in the Playground
     
    BisectedBrioche's Avatar

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    Default Any tips for a first Blades in the Dark session?

    I've searched as best I can (including just straight up using google as well as the forum's search function) and couldn't find an existing BITD thread. Hopefully I haven't somehow missed one, and I've put this in the right sub-fora.

    So, I've been wanting to play Blades in the Dark since 2019. Good news is, I finally have the chance, bad news is I basically agreed to GM while my D&D group is on hiatus.

    Does anyone have any advice for running a game for the first time? Especially any prep work I need to make sure I've got done.
    Hi, I'm back, I guess. ^_^
    I cosplay and stream LPs of single player games on Twitch! Mon, Wed & Fri; currently playing: Nier: Replicant (Mon/Wed) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Thurs or Fri)

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    Yora's Avatar

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    Default Re: Any tips for a first Blades in the Dark session?

    Blades in the Dark is a game that is very much designed to make thing up as you go. In a way, it might actually work better to start with little preparation and only introduce important NPCs and ongoing situations later on.

    I think a good way to prepare is to make sure you know how you would play out encounters with guards, traps, or ghosts.

    PtbA games have a very unconventional structure, and while Blades in the Dark is by far the best of the bunch in regards to explaining itself that I've seen so far, the function and purpose of many rules is often not immediately obvious. So at least for the start, stick to the procedures that the game recommends, even when they seem superfluous or needlessly convoluted. Decide if you want to drop or change something after you've actually seen how it works in practice.
    We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.

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    Troll in the Playground
     
    BisectedBrioche's Avatar

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    Default Re: Any tips for a first Blades in the Dark session?

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    Blades in the Dark is a game that is very much designed to make thing up as you go. In a way, it might actually work better to start with little preparation and only introduce important NPCs and ongoing situations later on.

    I think a good way to prepare is to make sure you know how you would play out encounters with guards, traps, or ghosts.

    PtbA games have a very unconventional structure, and while Blades in the Dark is by far the best of the bunch in regards to explaining itself that I've seen so far, the function and purpose of many rules is often not immediately obvious. So at least for the start, stick to the procedures that the game recommends, even when they seem superfluous or needlessly convoluted. Decide if you want to drop or change something after you've actually seen how it works in practice.
    Thanks, I'm getting everything ready for my first session tomorrow!

    Also, lore question if anyone can answer it; how rare/expensive are cereal crops? The rulebook suggests it's mostly eel and mushrooms, with veg grown using sunlamps being harder to come by, but the lore casually talks about pies, which would suggest flour isn't that expensive.
    Hi, I'm back, I guess. ^_^
    I cosplay and stream LPs of single player games on Twitch! Mon, Wed & Fri; currently playing: Nier: Replicant (Mon/Wed) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Thurs or Fri)

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    Eldritch Horror in the Playground Moderator
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    Default Re: Any tips for a first Blades in the Dark session?

    I'd just assume the flour was made from roots, nuts, or something else that is readily available?

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    BisectedBrioche's Avatar

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    Default Re: Any tips for a first Blades in the Dark session?

    The rulebook had some stuff about animals being modified to fluoresce to grow plants, so I went with wheat grown that way to make it suitably decadent.
    Hi, I'm back, I guess. ^_^
    I cosplay and stream LPs of single player games on Twitch! Mon, Wed & Fri; currently playing: Nier: Replicant (Mon/Wed) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Thurs or Fri)

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    BisectedBrioche's Avatar

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    Default Re: Any tips for a first Blades in the Dark session?

    OK, it's been a few months, and I'm a few sessions in, now I have another question: How to I make a given character mechanically harder to beat?

    I tried running a session where the crew were being stalked by an assassin, who I figured would be easy to run as just an NPC with a fortune roll equivalent to the faction who sent him after them.

    The plan was going to be a cool cat and mouse game through the city, where they'd have to lure him into an ambush...but the cutter promptly just ran up to him and knocked him out. Cue the part of the session I planned being over in 30 minutes.

    Is there a way I can make NPCs who're a bit harder to take down without feeling like it's just "because I'm the GM, so there!"? In D&D or something it's just a matter of a beefier stat block, but...
    Last edited by BisectedBrioche; 2021-10-27 at 07:34 AM.
    Hi, I'm back, I guess. ^_^
    I cosplay and stream LPs of single player games on Twitch! Mon, Wed & Fri; currently playing: Nier: Replicant (Mon/Wed) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Thurs or Fri)

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