Blades in the Dark – One Seven Design (Early access currently)
I’ve heard talk the completed book should be available before the year is out (at least in PDF) but you can take a peek at the early access work in progress right now.
From One Seven Design:
THE CONCEPT
The streets of Duskwall are haunted. By vengeful ghosts and cruel demons. By the masked spirit wardens and their lightning-hooks. By sharp-eyed inspectors and their gossiping crows. By the alluring hawkers of vice and pleasure. By thieves and killers and scoundrels like you — the Blades in the Dark.
The noble elite grow ever richer from the profits of their leviathan-hunting fleets and electroplasm refineries. The Bluecoats of the constabulary crack skulls and line their pockets with graft. The powerful crime syndicates leech coin from every business, brothel, drug den, and gambling house. And then there’s your crew of scoundrels: all the way down at the bottom rung. Can you make it to the top? What are you willing to do to get there? There’s only one way to find out…
THE GAME
Blades in the Dark is a tabletop role-playing game about a gang of criminals seeking their fortunes on the haunted streets of Duskwall. There are heists, chases, occult mysteries, dangerous bargains, bloody skirmishes, and, above all, riches to be had if you’re bold enough.
Gameplay focuses on criminal endeavors called scores. A session of play usually consists of 1 or 2 scores, each followed by recovery, downtime projects, and advancement for the scoundrels and the crew.
In Blades in the Dark, your crew gets its own “character sheet” (chosen from different crew classes, like Cult, Thieves, or Smugglers), earns XP, and levels up alongside the characters. As you advance the crew, you unlock new options and abilities for the scoundrels and climb up the ladder of factions within the city.
The game features a robust core resolution mechanic which asks the group to characterize actions as desperate, risky, or dominant. Each choice provides a range of multiple outcomes, beyond simple success or failure. To highlight the roguish nature of the characters, players can accept a devil’s bargain (a bonus die with strings attached) to bolster their chances.
A good teamwork system is critical to making a game about a crew of scoundrels work. Blades in the Dark features a fun and intuitive teamwork mechanic that shifts the spotlight from one character to another as they go “on point” with their teammates backing them up.
Many RPG sessions grind to a halt when planning is required. The group ends up discussing options for hours — talking about the game rather than playing the game. Blades in the Darkcuts through all that with a lightning-fast planning technique that takes less than one minute. You make a few simple decisions and you’re off and running. In addition, the players can use flashback scenes to roll for a setup actions their characters performed in the past.
2 Comments
Hi Jeff, a couple of months ago I released a new sci-fi RPG which was successfully kickstarted earlier this year – Starguild: Space Opera Noir. About 190 backers have copies, and I’ve had great feedback from them, but as a single person outfit with his first publication, I’ve not been able to get that much exposure for it.
I’ve included a link to the Drive Thru Rpg page for it in the ‘website’ link in this comment, although if you think it would be interesting enough to have a look at in more detail, I’d happily send you a complimentary pdf.
Other information about it is on the starguildrpg.com website too.
I hope you don’t mind me posting this, but you did ask if there were other lesser known RPGs which might benefit from some love 🙂
Cheers
Hi Alex,
By all means, shoot me an email to [email protected] and I’d be happy to peek at Star Guild.