Hello Everyone! Now that I've scared off the vast majority of
applicants with that post title lets get to it. I'm looking to fill out
the rest of the roster for an upcoming Blades in the Dark campaign that
I've been planning. Lets see if I can raise some interest. Not
so long ago I came across a new game system being developed by John
Harper, Blades in the Dark. At the time I was tempted to run a Shadowrun
5E campaign, but something about that rule set just didn't feel right
to me. The more I read Shadowrun's rules, the more uninterested I
became. The setting and the themes of Shadowrun absolutely FASCINATED
me, but the rules to actually play the game felt off. Only once I read
the rules for Blades in the Dark did I realize what kept me from having a
crack at the Cyberpunk classic. Shadowrun is bogged down in way too
much pre-planning, character optimization and rules minutia. I want to
tell a story, develop characters and give players a world to get lost
in, and NOT having to consult positioning tables when a
grenade is thrown to figure out exactly how many meters from the target
and in what direction the explosion goes off since that actually
changes its damage potential. Harper does away with all of that
"minutia" and moves the damage of the grenade away from its actual
position and into the narrativization of the scene, and that is awesome!
There are countless example of gameplay elements of this style, but the
main point to take away here is that Blades in the Dark is a game about
telling a story and in my game players are empowered more than ever to
have an affect on the world around them. I encourage you to have a look at the official Blades in the Dark website. <a href="https://bladesinthedark.com/" rel="nofollow">https://bladesinthedark.com/</a> Below is how John Harper describes his game and setting, I was immediately hooked and started to plan a campaign. The Game "Blades in the Dark is a game about a group of daring
scoundrels building a criminal enterprise on the haunted streets of an
industrial-fantasy city. There are heists, chases, escapes, dangerous
bargains, bloody skirmishes, deceptions, betrayals, victories, and
deaths. We play to find out if the fledgling crew can thrive amidst the
teeming threats of rival gangs, powerful noble families, vengeful
ghosts, the Bluecoats of the City Watch, and the siren song of the
scoundrels’ own vices." - John Harper The Setting "The game takes place
in the cold, foggy city of Doskvol (aka Duskwall or “the Dusk”). It’s
industrial in its development. Imagine a world like ours during the
second industrial revolution of the 1870s—there are trains, steam-boats,
printing presses, simple electrical technology, carriages, and the
black smog of chimney smoke everywhere. Doskvol is something like a
mashup of Venice, London, and Prague. It’s crowded with row-houses,
twisting streets, and criss-crossed with hundreds of little waterways
and bridges.The city is also a fantasy. The world is in perpetual
darkness and haunted by ghosts—a result of the cataclysm that shattered
the sun and broke the Gates of Death a thousand years ago. The cities of
the empire are each encircled by crackling lightning towers to keep out
the vengeful spirits and twisted horrors of the deathlands. To power
these massive barriers, the titanic metal ships of the leviathan hunters
are sent out from Doskvol to extract electroplasmic blood from massive
demonic terrors upon the ink-dark Void Sea.You’re in a haunted
Victorian-era city trapped inside a wall of lightning powered by demon
blood. The point of all this is to create a pressure-cooker
environment for our criminal escapades. Traveling outside the lightning
barrier is a very bad idea, so it’s impractical to “leave town and wait
for the heat to die down” after you pull off a score. Everything the
players choose to do has consequences for their characters and shifts
the balance of power around in the city—driving the action for a sandbox
style of roleplaying game." - John Harper. A Living Breathing World I
personally don't enjoy game worlds that only seem to be alive in the
presence of PCs in it. Worlds that are time capsules, frozen in time and
space, waiting for players to reanimate them with their presence.
Blades in the Dark already does a better job than many with the emphasis
it puts on Factions and Tier, however for me it was still not enough.
My game will have house rules, the one I'll mention here is the addition
of a system I've wholesale stolen borrowed from another great game, Stars Without Number. That system is called the Faction Turn
and its designed to make the factions of the world actually pursue
goals in a way that feels more realistic. It blends perfectly with
Blades, since we can take the pre-established factions and marry them
with a stats and dice based system of the Faction Turn
and make them go after their goals in a much more dynamic way, by
rolling for it. My City of Doskvol will be a very politically complex
battleground as factions collide with one another in pursuit of
conflicting goals or unite with those they share common interest. Most
importantly however, is that factions normally act during the Faction Turn ,
a mini-session I will hold by myself, which will happen after every
session. During it each faction will roll to see how well their plans go
and the world will shift with the outcomes. Given how many factions
there are, each week players will come back to a different Doskvol. Its a
world that doesn't wait for the players to interact with it, a world
that is driven by the "central conflict" of Consumption .
Players must be careful, what they do will matter. If they interfere
with a faction that was the main road block of another achieving its
goals, they might come back one day to a city that feels different.
Blink and the power balance is shifted. Recruitment Process I'm
a strong believer that good chemistry
between players and the GM is a key component for long term games. For
this reason I will be hosting tryouts, a series of one-shots for people
who apply to this thread and some of the already chosen members designed
to test for inter personality chemistry. The one-shots will be held at
the exact same time window as the actual campaign. I'll be messaging
discord invites and the free starter guide to people as I coordinate
one-shots. We will try to give every serious applicant at least one go,
but no promises. One-shots will be using vanilla rules so all you will
need is in the free starter guide. Please reply with a post that
tells me a little about you and why you are interested in playing. Game Time Lets see if you can make it to the game. Below is a
timezone converter tool that I've plugged the current planned session
time into. Chuck in your city/timezone into the blue box and see if it
that works for you. Session time is 3-4 Hours, Weekly with a long term
campaign in mind. <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.h" rel="nofollow">https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.h</a>...
Ideally I'd prefer people who can attend without any real life
consequences, here's an example of what I mean. I had several people
tell me stuff like they'll wake up at 2 AM their time, play the game and
go to work at 7AM. There is no way doing that once a week has no
negative consequence. I for one would be a vegetable for the rest of the
day if I got up at 2AM played a game and then went to work. Things to Keep in Mind To avoid arguments and confusion I'm going to bring up what players can expect if they get into the game proper. You need to be able to handle everything below, otherwise, everyone is welcome! - Decent/Good Voice Capability.
Game will be played via roll20 with voice being handled by Discord. Please do not have a potato mic as I
really don't want to be undercutting dramatic moments by asking people
to repeat themselves every 2nd sentence. - 18+ Minimum, Ideally 20s and up . I'm 26. R18+ Game world, violence, drugs, sex, cruelty and torture, etc not to mention I swear... a lot. - Adult themes .
My game will be swarming with adult themes, almost exclusively. If you
expect a lighthearted Robert Downey Jr "Sherlock" style Victorian
London, you're gonna have a bad time. - Classist NPCs.
City of Doskvol can be a classist place, not only narratively
but also mechanically. The tier system the game is built upon literally
puts tiers on groups which governs how capable they are. You need to
understand that the setting is a piece of historical fiction, nobility tended to be classist. City of
Doskvol doesn't care much about political correctness the way we interpret it today. - Racist NPCs .
Saddens me that I even have to put this disclaimer in, can't be too
careful in the current political climate though, a sensitivity that has
even crept into gaming circles. The game begins after a war has
concluded, there are refugees and casualties on both sides. Both
sides are present in the City of Doskvol. Combining the post war
tensions of two races together with the general attitudes of the time
period this game is set in, means there might be racist NPCs, a very small minority. You need to be able to
differentiate a collaborative piece of fiction
we're all consuming for entertainment, from me making some political
statement about the real world at large when an NPC says something in poor taste. - Long Term Campaign .
Once the cast is established, I plan to run the game weekly until the
game comes to a natural conclusion, one that is powered by the Faction Turn
largely. I'm expecting around 1 year but it will depend on the game as
it goes, since the win conditions of Factions can and will change
throughout play. I'd prefer people who are interested to see the whole
thing through. - Lets Have Fun! Disclaimers aside, I
just want to get a bunch of people together who want to delve head
first into the magnificent world John Harper crafted and see where it
goes. The game is a sandbox, I'm curious to see where the players take
it. I'm looking forward to reading the replies!
