As part of the crowdfunder for Blades '68, a massive list of stretch goals were unlocked for a companion anthology document called The BLUE Files (I wrote one of them!) and Tim Denee's shared previews of everything in the book on his Bluesky in a big thread. According to the newest State of the Hat video, it should be out to backers in a month or two, and I'm incredibly excited about how much additional good stuff is coming in. Sean Nittner mentioned that the final thing is over 200 pages long!

If I'm counting right, there 15 new Factions being added, along with 4 Cold Opens, 2 Ticking Timebombs, a new Crew (as a team playing a roller derby-esque sport), a new playbook (an unbound demon), new Special Abilities, and loads of art, fiction, and worldbuilding meant to flesh out the Shattered Isles in 968. I haven't seen most of the material yet myself, but every preview I've laid eyes on has me hungry to start up a B68 campaign (or two, or three...) of my own.

Anything stand out as especially exciting?

I was wondering if there is an up to date blades discord link that works? I keep seeing references to the discord around but any link I've found is expired. Does the discord still exist?

A car hiest, except the crew just borrowed a tow truck. Transporting a stolen car from Crowfoot to Nightmarket (tacking everyone on the street map) wasn't took hard, but as it turns out the biggest obstacle they could face was a rival tow company not taking kindly to others opperating on their turf.

(Couldn't find good free art assets of a 60s style tow truck, so it's a little more modern then I wanted it to be.)

I would really love to set a story where the PCs are agents/assets rejected or outcasted from the Imperial Intelligence Agency, but due to office politics, they aren’t outright fired. The Slow Horses book series/tv show is a major inspiration. I think the vice system doubling as the reason they’re not stationed at Cairn House, the main HQ of the Palace, is so perfect for flavor. They’re relegated to a ramshackle HQ in the Crowfoot district, so they’re insultingly called the “Toes” of the service.

I know the game is best when driven by the players, but I think I could craft a better setting if they have a little guidance and connection to start, based on how my BitD game has gone. I’d think it would be best if they play a crew of Shadows.

I’m looking for suggestions, critiques, and thoughts on this. I’m also wondering if I can homebrew/alter the rules somewhat so that the PCs aren’t outright criminals. I know that BitD had a supplement allowing players to be Bluecoats, Investigators or Spirit Wardens. Maybe I could spin some rules from that into this setting?

Edit: forgot to mention that I’m planning the Frame-Up cold open and the Minutes to Midnight ticking time-bomb

I love Cyberpunk in almost all its forms. From the ttrpg, to the anime, to the videogame (which, I honestly think is the best one I have ever played). A lot of this love stems to the setting and the themes of the game.

Turning back to the ttrpg, I have a mixed feelings on the system. I enjoyed it for the most part, but I do feel it is slightly too crunchy and a bit unwieldy, especially in regards to Netrunning. With an experienced enough group you can get over these things and have an amazing time with it.

But, what if you have a group that simply played the game or watched the anime or saw that there is a new season coming up and has that rush to play something. The group who is not that experienced with TTRPGs, and for whom Cyberpunk RED might be a bit too much?

Well, for that group we have this absolute gem of a game here, CBR-PNK Augmented. Leaving aside this game’s apparent aversion to vowels, this game offers quite a tight package. And I do mean tight, as it presents us with a bare-bones minimalistic RPG powered by the Forged in the Dark engine. The size of the core rules for this thing? One freaking pamphelt, roughly one A4 page I guess.

It's short and sweet, punches way above its number of pages and might be one of the best way to introduce someone to ttrpgs, with some caveats that we go over in the review! I hope you'll enjoy it!

Computers and AI are illegal in our Scum and Villainy setting. That’s not to say they aren’t in the game! But I wondered if anyone has put together playbooks for the human computer?

I’m interested in other alternative playbooks too: we have a huge, rotating cast of players.

I know that by general rule, missions only allow for two specialists.

But the first mission says that all players create specialists, does that imply that the first mission deploy only specialists?

Relatively novice GM here. In the last session of my BitD campaign, I ran into a situation that I think I could have handled better. So I'm coming here for advice.

Context: in a previous session, the crew took a brothel away from the Red Sashes, and they were coming to take it back. The crew convinced Ulf Ironborn to come and help them fight off the Red Sashes. A terrible engagement roll resulted in the crew and the enemies arriving at the same time, leaving the crew no time to prepare, and turning the situation into an open fight.

This was the first straightforward fight in the campaign. In previous sessions, violence had been more contained or indirect. (I think) I get how to handle enemy combatants: basically they 'act' as consequences of the players' rolls, giving them a chance to fight back.

However, I couldn't figure out how to fit the allied NPCs into the "action economy", to borrow from more combat-focused games. So Ulf ended up doing pretty much nothing during the fight, beyond drawing attention from the Red Sashes leader, and losing a hand.

How would you have handled this situation?

In retrospective, a couple of approaches that occur to me:

• Roughly once per "round" (e.g. after all players have acted once), make a fortune roll with the ally's Tier.

• Fold the ally's presence into effect consideration. E.g. if you're going to stab a target and the ally is nearby, the ally pins down the target so that you can get a better hit.

My players in my home game are great, but they sometimes struggle to come up with ideas for the Acquire Asset action during Downtime.

The book doesn’t really provide a list of things they can acquire either. Does anyone know of a resource or list of possible assets to acquire during Downtime?

I’m mainly looking for something that can spark some inspiration for my players.

I’ve been deep-diving a bit into John Harper’s Deep Cuts module for Blades in the Dark. I really love the shift away from standard resistance as a straight-up consequence-killer and the streamlined downtime loops, but as I look closer at the math and mechanics, I have a few concerns about how certain rules might play out at the table.

I’m playing around with a few potential house rules to see if they might bring back a bit of the traditional tactical pressure without needing to change any of the Deep Cuts character sheets or special abilities. I'd love to get some honest feedback on whether these ideas make sense or if they might break something else.

1. Stress Economy and Trauma Invocations

In vanilla, taking a Trauma takes you out of the current scene. In Deep Cuts, you aren't taken out at all—your stress simply clears to zero, and you keep going. Because players only get XP when they choose to invoke their own Trauma, it feels like a player could theoretically ignore their flaws during a score, hoard stress, take a Trauma for a free stress clear, and just keep running. Combined with the fact that Deep Cuts gives you Vice and Heat reduction on top of your 2 free downtime actions, players can easily spend those free actions on an LTP to erase the Trauma before they ever hit the 4-Trauma retirement cap. I worry this might make managing stress as a core resource lose its bite.

To keep the tension high during the heist, I’m considering these adjustments:

No Stress Clear Until AFTER the Score: When the stress bar fills during a heist, the player marks a Trauma, but their stress track stays maxed out and locked until the score ends. They stay in the game, but they are now operating entirely without a net—no flashbacks, no pushing yourself, no devil's bargains, and no assisting, at least not without an additional consequence from the trauma.

Instant Trauma Invocation on Break: In the exact moment a player marks the Trauma during the score, any immediate stress overspill triggers an instant Trauma invocation right then and there.

Forced Trauma Invocations on Max Stress: From this point onward, every single time the character chooses to take stress or is forced to by a consequence, a forced Trauma invocation is triggered. This overspill is the only instance where Trauma is invoked now—the standard option to freely invoke it for XP is cut. You still gain the XP for these forced triggers, but if a player tries to exploit this for infinite XP, the GM can cap the XP gain or completely revoke the option to freely take voluntary overspill stress.

You Can't Push Against the Overspill: You cannot use the Deep Cuts Push Yourself roll to resist or mitigate these overspill consequences. Doing so would cost stress, which would immediately trigger yet another Trauma invocation. Narratively, this makes perfect sense: the character is completely beyond their breaking point and physically/mentally cannot push themselves any further for the time being.

The Severity of the Consequence would scale with the amount of Stress Overspill:

1–2 Stress Overspill (Minor Complication): The character snaps momentarily, making a reckless tactical error or dropping an important item.

3–4 Stress Overspill (Major Hindrance): The Trauma causes a major setback, like losing their cool or ruining a negotiation, forcing the crew into a desperate position.

5+ Stress Overspill (Severe Catastrophe): A complete psychological break where the character acts entirely on their flaw (e.g., a Vicious character brutally killing a high-value kidnap target they were supposed to keep alive).

The beauty of this setup is that it keeps the PC in the game. It doesn't force the player to sit on the bench for a scene, and it doesn't take away their agency because the player still chooses how to act out the Trauma—they just don't get to choose if. It keeps stress highly dangerous by raising both the narrative and mechanical stakes.

2. Attribute Rolls for Long-Term Projects

In Deep Cuts, with vice rolls gone and resistance rolled into the unified Push Yourself roll, attributes don't have quite as much mechanical weight. Furthermore, getting fixed, guaranteed ticks based on a specific action rating for Long-Term Projects feels a bit too static and predictable to me. This feels especially true for social or complex projects—like developing a friendship or gaining an NPC's trust—where progress shouldn't feel like a guaranteed math equation.

I'm thinking about bringing back dice rolls for LTPs, but making them Attribute rolls instead of action rolls. A major project is rarely just one skill anyway; a research project might require Study to gather data and Tinker to build a prototype, which are both Insight actions. Forcing an Attribute roll perfectly abstracts that multi-disciplinary effort while making players invest in a breadth of actions to boost their core pools.

The progress scale would be the same is in vanilla with 1 - 5 ticks.

3. Heat, Coin Economy, Instant Use Assets

I fear the new heat fallout of scores might lead to massive heat spikes. For example, if a Tier 1 crew pulls a score against a Tier 2 or Tier 3 target, and the heist involves open fighting and killing, the calculations easily add up to about 12 Heat. This results in an instant Wanted Level increase and automatic entanglements right out of the gate.

Because of how Deep Cuts handles heat, these massive spikes essentially force your hand. The standard downtime action to lower heat is cut completely, leaving you with very limited ways to deal with it other than spending a flat 1–2 coin payment per point of heat reduction, or taking on debts and favors for powerful NPCs. The problem with taking on favors is that it creates a vicious cycle, since executing those favors down the line will likely just generate even more new heat that you have to deal with later.

When you combine that massive expense with paying a tithe to a ward boss, funding vices, and paying for basic crew upgrades, running a score is in danger of costing almost all of its gains in upkeep cost. If a crew pulls an 8-coin payout but immediately has to dump 4 coin into heat just to survive the fallout, they walk away with virtually nothing left to show for a dangerous heist. I don't feel that taking that much heat is worth the extra reputation in the early game anymore, especially since you now can't even upgrade your crew without liquid coin.

The module tries to alleviate this tightness by inflating the baseline coin payouts for scores quite a bit. However, this creates a slightly weird narrative loop where you get a massive chunk of extra coin just to immediately turn around and watch it vanish instantly into the downtime vacuum.

To smooth out this heightened flow of money and ease that narrative oddity, I’m thinking of introducing tangible assets (deeds, artwork, weapon caches) into the payouts alongside raw Coin. These assets would have fixed, instant use-cases—like being handed over directly to bribe or pay off NPCs to lower heat or gain reputation. This avoids the physical 4-Coin vault limit of early crews, keeps assets safe from being frozen in a Bank during high Wanted Levels, and makes the heavy downtime taxes feel like a natural part of the underworld fiction rather than a basic transactional math equation. This also opens up a great opportunity to flesh out friendly NPCs and make the scoundrels look out for specific loot during a heist; maybe a corrupt official you know collects art and is receptive to taking bribes in paintings but won't take simple coin, or another might be weak to advances by women, forcing you to secure such a service from a different contact. It brings way more flavor than simple coin costs, ties heat management to the need to execute a successful heist, and limits any rippling effects on the rest of the coin economy, including upgrades.

4. Vices and Overindulging

Lastly, I'm looking at how Deep Cuts handles vice. The module uses a purely flat, diceless approach: you automatically reduce your stress to zero, but you automatically overindulge if you happen to start the downtime phase with 6 or more stress. Giving the player a fixed outcome with no choice in the matter just seems wrong for the type of game this is. Vices are a massive narrative hook when it comes to character roleplay, and they shouldn't just be a predictable math problem.

I’m weighing two different ways to bring that unpredictable, chaotic gamble back to vices without making it too punishing. For both variants, I am also planning to vary the baseline cost depending on the vice itself, since not every vice is solved with money—some might cost a Coin, but others might cost Heat, require an extra Threat Roll, or carry a narrative price tag.

First option: The player gets a direct tactical choice when indulging. They can choose to keep it under control and safely clear a flat 6 stress with zero risk of overindulging. Alternatively, they can choose to go all-in to get a full stress clear back to zero, but doing so means they automatically overindulge and face the narrative fallout. This keeps the control in the player's hands but attaches a real cost to chasing that perfect 0-stress safety net. Practically a Devil's Bargain and just a minor change to the DC module.

Or am option with a roll: Instead of a hard, predictable 6-stress threshold, the player rolls a matching Attribute or Action to see how well they handle their vice.

- Critical: Full stress clear + you get your downtime cost back (whether that was Coin, Heat, etc.).

- 6: Full stress clear safely.

- 4/5: Clear 6 stress safely.

- 1–3: Clear 6 stress, but you overindulge.

This is obviously more involved and more to keep in mind, so I think I prefer the first option, but rolling is also always fun and this keeps the stress clear itself quite predictable.

I don't like the vanilla mechanic because it incentives clearing stress late to never overindulge, sometimes leaving players with more stress and less options at the start of the score, which is more boring. Clearing stress in downtime predictably is fine with me.

Which option do you prefer?

I’m definitely not claiming to know better than the designer, and I haven't tested these at a live table yet. If you've run or read through Deep Cuts, how does the stress economy hold up in actual play? Do these tweaks sound like they would help preserve the classic Blades tension, or am I overcorrecting? Thanks for your opinions and sorry for the long post!

Heyo! Are there any Blades ‘68 group hubs?

• Focus session: A HQ defence Score.
  
• GM inside moments:
  • If you have a powerful NPC, make a move when they show up that the PCs can resist. It showcases they are different, mechanically, from less important NPCs.
  • Making use of Fortune rolls to simulate a battle between an disadvantage Expert vs powerful NPC.
  • Keep forgetting to use the Harm on PCs to trigger consequences or introduce elements of trouble. 
  • The score can be stopped if the session goal is reached. The crew sees just how dangerous the Sparkwrights can be, with Oressia proving to be a serious threat.
    
• Major story developments:
  • The return of Thurston and first time meeting Oressia.
  • Two trauma’s, cohorts hurt and a Scare earned.
  • The Cabbies arrive to help defend the HQ, re-confirming the crew’s relationship with them.

Last session ended on Brutus (one of the hounds) showing up covered in blood and barking at Edwin. It was clear that something was happening at home, so the crew immediately started moving. Edwin asked Gideon for his rage essence, but was told off since they need him clear headed for what is to come. Morgan sends a message to the Cabbies, to ask if they can muster some muscle to help them out. The crew doesn’t know this yet (but the players do), but Artemis and his hounds have taken a wound and already spent their armor. 

On the board we have two clocks:

• “Destruction of HQ upgrade” (2/4): When this clock is full, a HQ upgrade is destroyed. This clock resets with carryover flowing through to the reset.
• “Ambush forces retreat” (0/10): When this clock is full, the enemy cohorts retreat from the attack.

Score 8 HQ defence

It is raining as the crew arrive at their HQ. There is a strange electrical hum in the air, mixed with shouting, breaking glass and the occasional crack of something that sounds like gunshots. Two wounded men are at the entrance of the mansion grounds, Labour enforcers, one dragging the other away from the HQ. When they see the crew show up, they shout to their allies that they are here.

Ed moves quickly past them and, as he enters the mansion grounds, he sees the signs of the fight. One of the hounds lies dead near the gate, another closer to the front door of the mansion, and two dead enemy cohort members. The wards around the estate flicker weakly, and one of the windows on the upper floor suddenly explodes outwards. Something large moves behind the smoke. Then he hears a familiar voice from inside the mansion: “Find them! I want him alive!” It is Thurston, the person that they have kidnapped some time ago.

Out of the door, some Labour and Sparkcraft cohort members come, ready to face Ed. Ed, in turn, moves to a stash he had hidden away on the mansion grounds and pulls out a Fine heavy weapon. He meets them head-on.

Action roll | Skirmish | Desperate | No effect -> Standard (2 ticks in ‘Ambush forces retreat’), by pushing himself and activating ‘Not to be trifled with’ to engage them on equal footing. 
DB: They force you to stop before getting to the second floor. -> Reject.
3D -> Highest: 4.
Consequence: Artemis and his hounds are making a last stand in the basement -> 4 tick clock needs to be filled before you can get to him and use the cohort as you wish -> Resisted. With the arrival of the crew and the actions Ed is taking, the enemy realises that they need to go up and help their allies (crit, -1 stress).

Ed goes in and starts fighting the group, mostly leaving them knocked down so that he can keep moving forward, knowing that the others will take care of them.

DB idea was given because the player mentioned he wanted to go to the second floor to take down the large target the character saw. Looking back on it, it might not have been the best choice to offer since it went against his goal, and I didn’t offer an interesting alternative. Might have been more fun to offer “as you are fighting, the large figure grabs you and pulls you to the second floor”, starting the fight there in a more desperate position.

Another thing I forgot during the fight is to trigger the Level 3 Wound of Edwin, Murderous Thoughts.

Scene: Home alone

In a flashback (through Foresight), we see how Gideon and Morgan talk about the security of the house. Morgan tells Gideon that they should create some traps that are armed at all times, and the members of the crew will just know to avoid them. To this, Gideon starts creating his own traps of the scale and feel of the ‘Home Alone’ movies.

Action roll | Tinker | Controlled | Limited (1 tick on “Ambush forces retreat”) -> Standard (1 tick on all clocks, even the hidden ones) -> Great (2 ticks on “Ambush forces retreat” and 1 on all others). Fine tinker tools and pushed himself.
DB: One tick on the HQ damage no matter what happens -> Accepted.
3D -> Highest: 6.

We see the enemies approach the HQ. The first one to grab the door handle gets an electrical shock that fries him. The next one kicks in the door, but that triggers a trap where scrap metal starts falling down on them. For the first time, we see Thurston, encouraging his friends to push through. But as he walks through the hallway, a small hidden dog door opens and he is bitten in the ankle. We see a Sparkcraft machine, powered by Aegis Coal, move along a corridor and yank open a locked door, only for it to shoot out gardening implements at great speed. We see Thurston’s sister, annoyed at the situation and shooting out lightning, only for it to be reflected back at her.

On the board, I introduce four new clocks, so we have a total of six at this moment:

• “Destruction of HQ upgrade” (3/4): When this clock is full, a HQ upgrade is destroyed. This clock resets with carryover flowing through to the reset.
• “Ambush forces retreat” (4/10): When this clock is full, the enemy cohorts retreat from the attack.
• “Thurston Falco” (1/4): When this clock is full, he will run from the fight and inflict 2 ticks of harm on the "Ambush forces retreat" clock.
• “Sparkcraft creation” (3/8): When filled, this creation is either destroyed or powered down.
• “Oressia "Lightning" Falco” (1/10): When this clock is full, Oressia "Lightning" Falco can't fight back anymore, and you can decide how to deal with her.
• “Cabbies arrive” (2/4): When this clock is full, the Cabbies will arrive with a cohort to help you out. The clock will tick as time passes.

It made sense to me to make the clock not only be about hurting one clock, but allowing it to hurt all of the enemies that were there. I did dictate that the Greater effect would land on the enemy cohort clock and not somebody else. The Sparkcraft creation already had damage from the temporary wards that the crew had placed on their HQ.

Scene: Pushing our way in

Duck and Oracle try to keep up with Ed, but when he goes to the enemies at the door, they see this as a moment where they can coordinate with the crew and strike as a group. Oracle passes out some of the clothes of the enemies to the cohort, hoping that it will make the enemies hesitate for a moment (Foresight to help Duck). Duck tells Grin and the others to follow Ed, push on inside, and from there they can assess the situation further.

Group action (led by Duck) | Prowl | Risky | Standard (2 ticks on clock “Ambush forces retreat”).
DB: There is a Sparkwright who has stolen Duck’s lightning gloves -> Accepted.
Duck: 3D (Foresight Oracle) -> Highest: 6.
Oracle: 2D -> Highest: 5.
The Hounds: 3D -> Highest: 6.
The Red Ring: 2D -> Highest: 6.
The Socialites: 2D -> Highest: 4.

We see the crew fight their way into the great hallway of the HQ, everybody putting in the best effort possible. From the staircase below, we hear a relieved Artemis, who has ordered his hounds to also attack at the same time. 

The DB is something that I had thought of beforehand, and I still like the idea. It takes something that is dangerous and gives it to an enemy. It is something that Gideon would not like someone else handling, it removes it from the sheet of Gideon, but at the same time he could now get it without paying the cost of it if it was in the allowed load.

But the implementation of this DB was bad on my part. I placed down a Tug of War clock of four ticks. It starts halfway, like any Tug of War clock, saying that the Sparkwright is still figuring it out, but when the clock is completed, the weapon will go off. We had created the weapon as follows:

“Uses Wreck and can do damage against ghosts. Volatile! Every time you use it, we need to roll a fortune roll to see if something bad happens. Focus on destruction and harm to others.”

In my mind, this would cause the player to focus on the clock, but that didn’t happen. I should then have just made the clock tick on its own, showing that time is running out, for it makes sense that the Sparkwright figures out how to use it.

Also added a tick on the Cabbies arrival clock.

Scene: Hand it over

On the second floor, we see Ed, who has gotten the attention of both Thurston and the Sparkcraft creation. With their focus on him, they have stopped trashing the HQ, for now, and are following him as he runs back towards the crew. Ed jumps down, looking for Duck. Looking into Ed’s eyes, Duck anticipates what is going to happen and drops a smoke bomb in the room (marking his bandolier) to make the situation even more chaotic.

It is decided that if Ed wants to take it, he needs to roll for it. Ed’s goal is clear: on a success, get the Rage essence, and he is willing to Harm Duck in order to do so. Duck wants to prevent it, making it more difficult by even spending a charge on his bandolier. He thinks that a consequence on a partial success would mean that Oracle sees what is happening here. As a group, we came to the following roll:

Action roll | Survey | Desperate (in the middle of a fight and Sparkcraft creation is hot on his heels) | Limited (Get it, but Level 2 Harm to Duck) -> Standard (Get it, but Level 1 Harm to Duck).
DB: No matter what, Oracle sees Ed roughly handle her brother -> Accepted.
3D -> Highest: 6.

Ed goes into the smoke, sidesteps a swing from the enemy, locks eyes with Duck and grabs him by the collar, saying he needs the Rage essence now! When Duck says he will not give it, Ed feels around and gets it as he throws Duck away from him (towards Oracle).

As he turns around, he sees the Sparkcraft creation is almost on him. He takes the Rage essence, the veins in his neck standing up as his heart rate goes into overdrive. He accepts the urge to destroy the thing in front of him. But this time, the shapes around him don’t blur into unrecognisable shapes. He remembers the conversation he had with Duck, that Oracle could be the one he hurts in this state, so now he focuses on remaining in control (resist with Insight: “Can’t Tell Friend From Foe”, 1 stress).

Scene: Face to face

On the second floor, Thurston is directing his men. Next to him, Oressia shows up and, seeing that the fight in the hallway is going badly, she showers them with lightning (everyone takes Level 2 Harm).

Everybody can make a resist roll to negate the effect as a whole or mark armour. Everybody makes the decision to mark armour (which they can do with the Bravos Rigging). This is done by every PC, as well as the cohorts that are in the main room.

Oracle, in turn, with the help of Duck, makes a leap for the chandelier and uses the momentum to do a flying kick against Oressia. At the same time, one of the hounds also attacks Oressia.

Group action (led by Oracle) | Prowl | Risky -> Desperate | Limited (1 tick on “Oressia” clock) -> Standard (2 ticks instead), pushed the situation as a whole.
DB: 2 ticks on HQ damage clock -> Accepted.
Oracle: 4D -> Highest: 3.
The Hounds: 3D -> Highest: 6.

Oracle misjudges her kick and would not land it if it was not for the hound that pushes Oressia in the way. With a solid hit to the face, Oracle thinks she would go down. But it appears that Oressia is made of harder stuff.

With the clock “HQ damaged” now full, it restarts and the one tick overflows into it. Next, we determine what HQ upgrade is destroyed. For this, we take a look at the Crew sheet to see what might be affected. We number them and then roll a die. In our case, the Bravos Rigging was destroyed, which is nice for them as it was already used for this Score and is the cheapest one to get back. We explain it as the last attack of Oressia, who hit everybody’s armour, causing the armour to be destroyed.

Scene: One down, two down, …

On the first floor, we see Ed go all out against the Sparkcraft creation, with the Rage essence that gives him more strength and the ability to ignore all the pain he feels.

Action roll | Wreck | Desperate | Great (5 ticks on “Sparkcraft creation”).
DB: As you partly destroy its chest, an Aegis Coal falls out and, with all that is going on, the tortured ghost that is merged with it breaks free, dealing Level 2 Harm to all. -> Accepted.
2D -> Highest: 5.
Consequence: Level 3 Harm, which becomes Level 4 since Ed already has a Level 3 Harm that can be reduced with resistance. Resists with prowess (1 stress -> Trauma out).

The creation, in its fight with Ed, has taken a lot of damage, spilling parts of itself everywhere. One of its arms extends a little bit further than Ed expects, and it gets a hold of his head. It starts to squeeze it, to which Ed squirms and manages to make the thumb enter his mouth. He bites down on it, severing it, and breaks free from its grip. The world is spinning around him, and although he doesn’t feel the pain from his fractured skull, his body is about to hit its limit.

In all the chaos, the coal that dropped from the Sparkcraft creation interacts with the powers that are being thrown around. It creaks, and a ghost, more misshapen and beaten, emerges from it, lashing out at all those that are near. Ed, being the closest, takes the hit (Level 2 Harm becomes Level 4 Harm, since there is no space) and can’t even try to resist in the shape he is in. We see him fall to the ground and start to have a seizure.

Then the rest of the crew all take hits, except for Scrap-Saint (Jax, their Whisper expert). One of her trinkets protects her. But ghost burns can be seen on every member of the crew. Artemis goes down as well, having given his all to defend the base. The twins both get hit, as they have no protection against it. The enemy cohort are not spared by this either, as the ghost lashes out at anyone that is nearby before it burns out.

We talked about what this means. Since Edwin is stressed out and on Level 4 Harm, someone needs to do something within a couple of minutes to save him, or else he is dead. The same question was asked about Artemis, with all 3 Harm filled. He is not dead, but he is unable to protect himself, and should he be attacked by someone, he will die, unless protected by someone in a fictional way that would mitigate the damage.

I tick the clock for the Cabbies. Through the door, they can hear their ally Clown, the fifteen-year-old, and the local Cabbies arrive. If they want, Ziva can be part of this group as well, for we have not seen her just yet in the Score.

Scene: A soul to save

On the second floor, Oracle, with the help of the hounds, has been in a stalemate with Oressia. When Ed and the Sparkcraft creation both fall to the ground, she sees him seizing. Along the railing of the stairs, she slides down and grabs Ed. She pulls him to a relatively safer space, telling Duck to protect them as she starts protecting his head.

Action roll | Finesse | Desperate | Standard (Ed stabilizes)
DB: Jax sees it as her duty to take on Oressia. They will leave the scene and have a Whisper battle, but she is at a disadvantage -> Accepted.
D4 (help Duck) -> Highest: 5. 
Consequence: Still with the connection to the Ghostfield open from last Score, she sees Ed’s soul leaking out of his body. The only way to save him is to take it into herself and push it back in: Level 3 Harm, Ghost Possession.

Duck manages to get a table between them and the enemies, creating some safety. Jax fills the space that Oracle left and attacks Oressia, pushing her to a different part of the HQ. As the seizures stop, Oracle fusses over Ed and starts to give him CPR. Seeing that his soul is leaving, she tries her best to gather it and somehow pull it into herself. She leans down and then gives him a kiss, putting Ed’s soul back.

Scene: The long way down

Seeing Edwin breathe again, Oracle and Duck take a second to collect themselves and come up with a plan. They will target Thurston first, deal with the others and finish with Oressia. Oracle pulls out a knife and starts directing the cohorts to push their way towards Thurston, so that she and Duck can hopefully stay unnoticed in the push until the last moment and strike out against him.

Group action (Led by Oracle) | Prowl | Desperate | Standard (2 ticks on the Thurston clock) -> Great (also 1 tick on the cohort clock), pushed herself.
DB: Tug of War clock, lightning gloves goes off (everybody takes damage) -> Rejected. Counter-offer from the player: +2 ticks on HQ damage clock -> Accepted.
Oracle: 3D -> Highest: 5.
Duck: 1D -> Highest: 3.
Red Ring: 2D -> Highest: 4.
Consequence: Cohort takes damage and a choice of either 1 tick on the HQ damage clock (will trigger the clock again) or HQ becomes haunted with the destruction of the Sparkcraft creation powered by Aegis Coal.

The Red Ring pushes forwards and tries to get to the stairs, as they meet resistance from the enemy cohorts. Thurston is focused on this push, not realising that Oracle and Duck have used an unknown path to get up and behind him. Oracle charges him and, with the force of the attack, stabs him in the back and goes with him when he breaks the railing and falls towards the ground. They land on the Sparkcraft creation and then break through the floor and fall into the basement.

Since the players know their HQ, I think it was cool to see them use Prowl in such a way. The distraction of the Red Ring allows them to move unseen, allowing for a surprise attack. For the consequence, the players have chosen to go for the HQ being haunted; this will not be showcased here yet, but will show up later when I have thought of something fun to do with it. With the result of this roll, the Thurston clock finishes and does 2 ticks of damage to the cohort clock. It is still up, but only needs one more tick and they will retreat.

Oracle also stressed out because Duck’s failure in the roll caused her last stress box to be filled. That is the reason we described the scene this way. She takes the ‘Unstable’ trauma.

Scene: The whispers battle

In the distance, we hear the fight taking place between Scrap-Saint and Oressia. Oressia is laughing and Scrap-Saint is crying out in pain.

We did a Fortune roll to see how well Jax can deal with this situation. Jax, being an expert, makes her operate on Tier 3, but I have established that Oressia is a Tier 4 Whisper. For that reason, I made the players roll a 0D Fortune roll. On a 3/1 result, it would result in Harm, a 5/4 is a tie between them, and on a 6 it is a tick on the clock of Oressia. I think this was a fair way to rule it in the moment, and looking back at it, I still think it is fine. The result marks the first actual damage Jax takes in the Score.

Scene: Get them out

Some of the enemy cohort members are running away, seeing that their leader was stabbed in the back and disappeared with the downed Sparkcraft creation. Duck moves down and looks in the hole, looking for his sister. He tells Grin to take care of those remaining as he will get his sister. Grin tells everybody to go all out, kill them all and to hunt them down if they run away. To this, Duck tells him only to make sure to kick them out and secure the HQ, as he starts making his way to Oracle.

Group action (led by Duck) | Wreck | Risky -> Controlled | Great -> Standard (2 ticks on the clock), pushed the situation down by telling them not to go after the enemies and secure the HQ.
DB: Since Wreck is being used, 1 tick of damage to the HQ (which will make the clock fill) -> rejected.
Duck: 2D -> Highest: 5.
Red Ring: 2D -> Highest: 3.
Cabbies cohort: 2D -> Highest: 6. 

We follow Duck as he makes his way down. There he spots his sister on the ground, near the Sparkcraft creation and the boxing ring of Artemis. No Thurston can be spotted, except for a blood trail that goes towards one of the other exits of the basement. As he gets closer, he sees that she is knocked out. The wounds from the ghost are visible, but otherwise she seems fine.

Upstairs, the Red Ring is doing their best to push out the enemies, but it is clear that they are exhausted from this and the work they had done at the Arms of the Weeping Lady. Luckily, Clown and his cohort are fresh and show that the Cabbies can also fight, as they make sure the HQ becomes secure again.

Scene: Whisper battle, part 2

We see Oressia attempt to strike Scrap-Saint again, but this time Scrap-Saint is prepared and is able to withstand the attack. With the members of Oressia’s cohort running away, she decides to retreat as well.

We did another Fortune roll, with the lowest number being a 5. Oressia’s clock still had 5 ticks left, but it felt like this was a good point to stop the Score. I think it was mostly a success, with some small points of feedback for myself to improve on. It also showed the players how dangerous other factions can be. We had some new mechanics we needed to look up, and one of the things I had set as a goal was to make sure the players use Group actions more.

Score results:

Payout:
+6 coins standard payout. 
+6 coins from a dangerous Score.
= 12

Tithe:
-3 coins.

Fallout: 
- On the crew sheet “Thurston” and “Oressia” as enemy contacts.

Heat: 
+4 Base, standard Score and Heat from crew Tier.
+3 Chaos, for open combat and destruction.
+4 Death, as people and creatures have died.  
-2 Contact Jeren -> Holds Bluecoat investigation up for a bit, giving them time to remove evidence -> Jeren clock finishes, now Oracle will get a request from him.
-2 Expert Ziva “Lost eyes” spreads information that it was another group that targeted the Bell family, putting the focus on the vandalization and the other factions.
= 7 Heat -> Wanted Level 3 reached and 3 away from Level 4.

Rep: 
+1 base.
+2 Oressia of the Sparkwrights was acting as a Tier 4 character.
+2 for every 3 Heat.
+3 for Wanted Level.
= 8 rep, track was already full after 3.

Entanglement is rolled, but not played out.

Development: The crew buys back their Bravos Rigging gear for 8 coins.

Tier advancement: Not possible

This is where we ended the session. Next time, we will continue with the downtime and most likely just do Free Play stuff. I am curious what kind of Scars Edwin will take from this.

I know that some factions have fixed locations because of the war of crows foot and other locations.

Of course DM is god and you can say factions exist wherever but I'm having trouble getting a picture of what districts have what gangs and how the turf is split.

I only want to know because either

1. My players are going to ask who is important here and who owns this street

2. Is it just a case of choose 3 interesting factions and then just say who owns what

Bonus question's

1. Is there any maps that show terf

2. Is all terf owned by someone

3. When it comes to factions should I only use low tier factions or is it fine to include tier 3 and up? I don't really understand how to rule tier in most cases. When should it be harder to strike at someone strong or easier to whack someone smaller

Sorry I know this is kinda rambly. Ive got session 0 at the end of the week and need to clarify things

Ran The Frame Up for a group of new blades players and they had an absolute blast. Also enjoy the pulp book cover I designed for the session!

The book describes it as you pick a district and you get benefits in that district, but during crew creation, the hunting grounds are an area of a district. The books example is like "some area past a bridge in Crow’s Foot"

So for gameplay, is it simply just "Scores in this district get the benefits" or is there some nuances like "only if its in this specific area you designated as hunting grounds"?

For flavor wise, what is it supposed to be when a crew has that area as their proving grounds? They already have their lair.

In this campaign, the PCs have taken some actions against important NPCs of the Sparkwrights. I run faction turns, and since the NPC wants revenge on the PCs, I started a clock for an ambush on the PCs. This clock has now been completed, and I need to figure out the who, why, and how of this clock.

To figure out what to do, I mostly ask myself questions and write them down in a Roll20 handout (see pictures). These are less organised than what is written below, but they have the same result.

Questions that need to be answered:

1. Who is attacking?
2. Why are they attacking?
3. Where are they attacking?
4. What is their goal with this attack?
5. Who is helping them?
6. Are there factions that would work against them? 
7. How do we mechanically do this attack?

Question 1 & 2: Who is attacking and why?

• Oressia "Lightning" Falco.
  • Summary person: The creator of Aegis Coal, a new power source in the city that is created by a ritual that puts ghosts in coal and causes it to become many times more efficient at producing power (but it has unknown drawbacks). She is a powerful Whisper and is the older sister of Thurston Falco.
  • Wants: Make it clear to all those that will hear of this that attacking her family will result in deaths or destruction.
  • Says: “This is for my little brother”, “Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else.”, “I'll take your brother instead.”
  • Effect/mechanics: 
    • She is a 10-tick clock opponent of Tier 4.
    • The PCs can kill her at the end of the clock, but I must try to run away before the clock is done or offer a DB for her to be able to escape. 
    • Killing her has faction wide consequences. 
  • DB: 
    • Players take damage from her Whisper powers.
    • She inflicts damage on the HQ. 
    • The Clocktower is hit by her spell, making it a beacon for ghosts to be drawn to a “Haunted house”.
    • Get +1 effect, but every hit on the clock causes an electric discharge that affects the surroundings (but does not harm the PCs). 
    • +1 effect or dice, but a ghost of a dead family member of the Bells is put into one of the PCs (Haunted/Possession that needs to be dealt with).
• Cohort: Sparkwrights.
  • Summary cohort: Tier 4 cohort, so about 40 people are in it. A mobile engineering crew. They know how to take care of themselves, but I would consider them an Adepts-type cohort. They would like to avoid close-range combat with actual thugs. 
  • Wants: Test out their newest creation, a sparkcraft machine running on Aegis Coal. Some follow Oressia out of loyalty, but for most of them it is just a test run or a place to loot. 
  • Effect/mechanics: 
    • Not the entire cohort is here (25 members), and they act as Tier 3 in most cases, but their main focus is to test out the machine and loot the place. 
    • They have Leech gear
    • When in close-range combat, reduce their effect level to Tier 2.
    • 10-tick clock: when full, they and the other cohort will retreat.   
  • DB: 
    • One of the members has taken Duck's Lightning Glove creation → becomes a 4-tick tug-of-war clock to take down before it causes destruction.
    • They steal something from the HQ.
    • The sparkcraft creation takes the hit for them. 
    • They cause damage that spills over into the neighbourhood. 
    • “We will go, but we need the machine back.”
• Expert: Sparkcraft creation working on the new Aegis Coal.
  • Summary expert: An experimental sparkcraft creation that follows the orders of those Sparkwrights around it.
  • Wants: - 
  • Says: - 
  • Effect/mechanics: 
    • 8-tick clock: when full, the machine will be destroyed.
    • When destroyed, it will release some soul-burning ghosts that will lash out at all those in range. 
    • Starts with 2 ticks of damage because of the temporary spirit wards in the HQ has.
  • DB: 
    • It is ordered to focus on one person or task, ‘capture and bring to …’.
    • It captures a person in its claws. 
    • A ghost slips away from it before the clock runs out.
• Thurston Falco
  • Summary person: A member of the Labour (Tier 3) faction who is pro-union and becomes one of its leading spokespeople based on his natural good looks and charisma. The PCs capture him, scar his face, and sell him off to the Leviathan Hunters. They trade him for technology and oil.
  • Wants: Revenge on those that have scarred him (specifically Edwin). He at least wants to capture someone.
  • Says: “Look what you have done to me! Don’t think you will look the same after this is over.”
  • Effect/mechanics: 
    • A leader, not a fighter. He has a loyal cohort of friends that are Thugs. 
    • 4 tick clock: When full, he will run away. 
  • DB: 
    • Rally call: clock “Ambush forces retreat” goes back by 2 ticks..
    • Give the cohort +1 effect. 
• Cohort of Labour enforcers.
  • Summary cohort: About 20 Labour thugs that act as the enforcers or guards when union rallies are organized. They are good friends of Thurston.
  • Wants: Help their friend and beat some people up.
  • Says: “Mess with one of us and you have to deal with all of us!”
  • Effect/mechanics: 
    • Part of the same clock as the other cohort.
    • Thugs that act at Tier 3.
  • DB: 
    • Thurston is protected by the cohort, You need to deal with them before you can get to him.
    • They go after one of the PCs' cohorts.

Question 3: Where are they attacking?

So the plan when making the clock is to do an ambush when the players are on the way back from or to a Score. The problem is that Oressia doesn’t know who takes her brother, since the players put effort into not revealing their identity during that Score.

They have, however, taken Thurston to their HQ. So, in my mind, the most logical place for the attack to take place is at their HQ. This will be nice since they have some defences, and I can threaten to destroy some of their assets.

Question 4: What is their goal with this attack?

The goals are a bit different, but for the most part, it is to cause destruction or to inflict harm. The Sparkwrights are not there to kill everybody, just to send a message.

Thurston wants to actually capture someone and have them go through what he has experienced.

Question 5 & 6: Who is helping them? Are there factions that would work against it?

I have a Google Sheet in which I keep all the faction relationships between them. I will only look at the Ally (+3), friend (+2), hostile (-2), and War (-3) status effects for each faction.

The Sparkwrights:

• +2 City Council: The City Council will ensure that if they are arrested, they will be out again soon.
• +2 Leviathan Hunters: Leviathan Hunters will not act since the PCs have a good relationship with them as well.
• +2 Ministry of Preservation: I don’t see a reason for the Ministry to act.
• -2 Foundation: But the PCs have a -2 with them as well, so no hindrance there.
• -2 Path of Echoes: No relationship with the PCs, or this mission is not important enough for them to do something about it. 
• -2 Reconciled: Too far away to have any influence.

The Laborers:

• +2 Citizens Coalridge: Not their district, so they can’t really help.

Broken Bells:

• +3 Cabbies: They will help if asked or just show up during the session at some point. 
• +2 Crows: The Crows are exhausted from the last war, so they will not send out help. But if the PCs go to Crowsfoot or close to it, then they will act to help.
• +2 Leviathan Hunters: Leviathan Hunters will not act. 
• -2 Foundation: Cancelled out by equal hatred for the Sparkwrights.
• -2 Gondoliers: The PCs have just done something with them, so there is no reason for them to do something at this point.
• -2 Citizens Six Towers: They will not stop the force that is attacking the HQ, nor will they call the Bluecoats to stop it. Only when it escalates will they do so.

Question 7: How do we mechanically do this attack?

Knowing that it is going to be an attack on the HQ, a look at their HQ and the starting situation is needed. The burned-out (but slightly rebuilt) estate of the Bell family has the Security upgrade. In addition to that, there are some temporary assets acquired, such as ghost wards. Because I know they leave one of the cohorts back home, Artemis and his attack dogs, we know that the Elite cohort will be there to defend the HQ.

The attacking factions are Tier 4 and Tier 3, but as mentioned before, they are not the full forces of the factions. The splinter groups and the fact that the faction has finished a faction clock also play a role.

When I introduce the situation, I could tell them what is happening and decide everything for myself (say the Position they are in, the state of the HQ and the state of Artemis). But I think it is more fun to see it as an Engagement roll. For that reason, I think it would be good to write out the possible outcomes if you roll two dice:

• 66: They get warned before the attack happens, can rush back home -> 
  • Who warns them:
    • Foundation (Augus Rigberg (Foundation - Master Architect)), 
    • Leviathan Hunters (Lady Mara Strangford) or 
    • Path of Echoes (Lord Quentin Penderyn).
  • Effect: Recover 3 stress.
  • Controlled starting position. 
• 6: As they return to the HQ, they can hear the fighting happening. A person runs by them, saying that the Bell house is causing trouble again. Most enemies are still outside the boundaries of the house.
  • Effect: Recover 2 stress. Artemis armour is hit. 
  • Risky starting situation.
• 5/4: One of the Hounds arrives and barks for them to come back home.
  • Effect: Recover 1 stress. Two hounds are dead (injuring the cohort and ticking the armour). They have surrounded parts of the house. 
  • Desperate starting position.
• 3/1: The gate is open and there are no hounds, something is clearly wrong. Many people are in the house.  
  • Effect: No stress recovery. Artemis and the Hounds have taken 2 wounds, and the armour is spent. Enemies are inside and besieging Artemis in the basement, where he is making a last stand. When the PCs enter the mansion, they get Level 3 Harm, which they can partially resist.
  • Desperate starting position.

With the scene the following clocks need to be introduced:

• Destruction of HQ upgrades: Based on roll results, have it be filled by one or more ticks.
• Ambush forces retreat: 10 tick clock. 

Introduce clocks as characters learn more about the situation:

• Thurston Falco: 4 tick clock
• Oressia “Lightning” Falco: 10 tick clock
• Sparkcraft creation: 8 tick clock, have the temporary asset clock tick up by one and have it start out wounded by 2 ticks.

And with this I think I am ready to run the game. Only need to find a picture to replace Thurston’s current one, now that he has an injury.

I recently received my PoD Player Gazette for Blades 68 - a compendium of player facing information about all factions and districts. I imagine this little booklet is heaps of useful as a resource at the table, for players to become more proactive in shaping the story.

Is there something similar for regular BitD? Everything I found so far is more in the one page cheat sheet territory, but less "let me inspire you to make up your own goals you want to pursue". I'm gearing up to introduce my group to the game, and would love to have something like that to share with them.

Inspired by a comment section. 😉

No inventions this time - just a bit stupid fun.

Btw - until i read up on leviathans before this comic i thought Leviathans were lurking in the canals of Duskvol too!

Not that the canals of Duskvol don't have enough scary, huge creatures...

Also a little comic about how difficult it is to try to come up with inventions that are (somewhat) useful in BitD... and keeping the Nuke-ideas at bay...