Best Practices
Player Best Practices
Embrace the Scoundrel's Life
The scoundrel’s lot is a tough one, to be sure. The world in which they are trapped is deeply, cruelly unfair—created by the powerful to maintain their power and punish anyone who dares to resist. Some of the systems of the game are built to bring these injustices into play. No matter how cool or how capable the PCs are, the heat will pile on, entanglements will blindside them, the powers-that-be will try to kick them down with no regard.Go Into Danger, Fall in Love With Trouble
You’re a daring scoundrel on the mean streets of a haunted city. You’re not a risk-averse, ordinary citizen. If you were, you’d indenture yourself to a workhouse and scrape out a meager living inside the status quo. You are daring, bold, ambitious, and ready to take big chances to live a bigger life.Don’t shoot down risky ideas. If something sounds fun and dangerous, well, that’s great! The game system is designed to make risky actions very achievable for the PCs. Objections like “they might catch you,” or “you could mess it up” are meaningless. There will always be risk in everything you do.
Consequences aren’t failures. Most actions will result in consequences—harm, stress, heat, new enemies, etc. But, in turn, most actions will succeed. Even with just two dice, you have a 75% chance of success. Success with complications, sure, but success nonetheless.
Don't Be a Weasel
As a player, you have the privilege of choosing which action to roll. But with this privilege comes a responsibility—choose the action that matches what your character is doing—not simply the dice pool you would like to roll.Take Responsibility
You are a co-author of the game. If you want shortcomings and flaws to be part of the ongoing story, show your own character’s failure to make good decisions. If you want the world of Doskvol to be deadly, accept deadly harm when it’s time for your character to die.In Blades, every participant is responsible for the tone, style, and themes of the game—not just the GM. As a player, you have an expressive role to play at the table, not just a tactical one. Think about what you have to say as a co-author of the ongoing fiction and then use your character to say it
Use Your Stress
The ability to take stress is what separates your scoundrel from all the other people in the Dusk. Stress represents a pool of potential that can make you and your crew much more effective if you’re willing to use it.Take 2 stress to push yourself and get an assist from a teammate (they take 1 stress) and your odds of success greatly increase. The game is balanced so things are pretty tough for characters by default—that’s the nature of Doskvol, after all. But by burning your stress, you can “break the rules” and perform beyond what you normally could achieve. If you hoard your stress, you might find that things are very tough for you.
Don't Talk Yourself Out of Fun
When it’s time to choose a type of plan, pick the one that sounds fun to you. Sure, your characters might try to play it smart and come up with a “good” idea and everything, but don’t forget that you’re playing this game so you can have exciting scenes of underworld action that appeal to you. Advocate for the plan type that will be most interesting and exciting—not always the one that seems like the clever thing to do. Your characters are daring, right? You can be, too. Go with what sounds like fun. The game will take care of the rest.Build Your Character Through Play
In Blades, your character begins as a simple sketch. You only have a few sparse details. You’re a scoundrel! Maybe you used to be a noble or a laborer. You’re from Iruvia. You tend to Skirmish and Command people to get what you want. That’s about it. We don’t know—and we don’t yet need to know—who you “really” are.In Blades, “character creation” lasts for the whole series of play. Your character’s beliefs, drives, ambitions, and persona will emerge over time. We play to find out who you are at first, then who you become, and how you change (or don’t), and it will come out of the process of play—the choices you make, the lines you cross, the things you’re willing to sacrifice, when you give up, and when you don’t.
Act Now, Plan Later
In roleplay gaming, spending a bunch of time planning can be really boring and pointless. You have a long talk about a dozen “what if ” scenarios that never come to pass in play. All the points and counter-points about hypothetical situations turn out to be wasted time. Instead, move on to the action—and then “plan” using flashbacks or downtime actions instead.Plan with a flashback when the engagement roll goes wrong. You’re about to break into the museum of antiquities but the engagement roll comes up 2—your crew is suddenly accosted by the patrol of moonlighting Bluecoats who are working as security. Oh no! We should have planned for this! Nah, just call for a flashback.
GM Best Practices
Earn the Trust of the Group
By being a supportive and fair advocate of the integrity of the fiction. It’s your job to portray a fictional world with integrity, not one that’s contrived and “set up” for particular outcomes. When you advocate for something, the players know that you do so on behalf of this integrity, not to get your way or to arrange situations to your liking.Lean and Interesting Conversation
The game is a conversation between you and the players, the goal of which is to answer the question “What happens now?” in the most engaging way possible. The most interesting conversations are those that are curious—asking questions and prompting ideas—rather than dogmatic or one-sided. Be curious about what the other players have to say.Create an Atmosphere of Inquiry at the Table
This means you play to find out what happens, not to make sure something specific happens. Will they go to war with the Fog Hounds? Is Nyla badass enough to take out the thugs by herself? Can they avoid or predict Casta’s betrayal? Play to find out. Don’t decide outcomes ahead of time and manipulate play to bring them about.Help the Players Use the Game System
To pursue the goals of the characters. Don’t let them flounder. When they have a goal, ask them about any opportunities they have to pursue it. Present two possible approaches from that opportunity and ask if they want to choose one or invent a third way.Don't Block
It’s not your job to say, “You can’t do that.” You’re not the sole authority on what the characters can and cannot do. Instead, ask them, “You need to create an opportunity to attempt that, right?” Ask them how they might create an opportunity they need. Don’t block. Show them that there’s a path to their goal, even if it might be a long or dangerous one.Keep the Meta Channel Open
When you portray an NPC, tell the players things that are going unsaid. Invite them to ask their gather information questions to dig deeper. The characters have a broad spectrum of senses and intuitions to bring to bear in the fiction; the players have only the narrow channel of your few words. Help them out by sharing what they might suspect, intuit, feel, and predict.Be a Curious Explorer of the Game in Play
Ask the players questions to feed your own interest in the ongoing fiction in which the PCs are the protagonists. Your game series is a cool TV show and you’re its biggest fan. When you’re curious about something that a PC says or does, ask them about it! “I’m curious, though,when you tell him you’d do anything to help, do you really mean that? Anything? Are you that kind of person? Or are you just manipulating him?” These questions will often lead to goals, approaches, and rolls.Advocate for the Interests and Capabilities of the NPCs
Your job is to convey the fictional world accurately, remember? Believable NPCs with interests and capabilities make for a more compelling fictional world. Don’t be a pushover. When the PCs take action against an NPC, remind the players of their interests and capabilities. “But Quellyn won’t just go along with all this, right? They’re awitch, wanted by the Spirit Wardens. How are you going to contend with that?” When the PCs act in alignment with the interests of NPCs, remind the players of their support and friendship.Play Goal-Forward
Poll the group about what goal they’re pursuing, either in the bigger picture of the game (best used at the beginning of a session) or in this microcosm of the present moment (best used when things are underway and the situation is snowballing). Once you know the goal, have a conversation about opportunities, actions, and effects. The pursuit of opportunities and positions to enable certain approaches, the acquisition of information and resources, and the nested conflicts that result will drive the action of the game. “What are you tryingto accomplish?” “Do you have an opportunity to do that?” “How do you want togo about it?” Follow this chain of events as actions and consequences play out. Ask the players to lead where the game goes next.Cut to the Action
Solicit a goal and plan, then cut to the action and use dice rolls to move the situation forward. Don’t be afraid to resolve something! They want to eliminate Ulf Ironborn and then they go and do it, despite the odds and dangers? It’s done. He’s gone. Don’t string things out artificially. The dice and mechanics will determine how simple or troublesome something turns out to be.Be Aware of Potential Fiction vs. Established Fiction
Potential fiction is everything in your head that you haven’t put into play yet. It’s a “cloud” of possible things, organized according to the current situation.Zoom the Action In and Out
We resolve uncertain and challenging situations with the roll of the dice. But what should the scope of these rolls be? Do we resolve the whole fight in one roll, or do we zoom in to each exchange of blows? By design, the game is fairly flexible on this point. Sometimes you’ll want to resolve a lot of action with one roll and sometimes you’ll want to get down to very small moments of action. Think of it like a dial that the group can turn during play to zoom the focus in and out from the broad to the specific.To make this choice of scope explicit, the game uses effect levels and progress clocks. If a circumstance calls for several exchanges, multiple risk-taking actions, or a grind of effort against a tough obstacle, make a clock and tick it according to the effect system to progress through the situation. Each action roll is likely to produce consequences for the PCs, so the greater the effect they can muster, the more they’ll minimize trouble, and vice versa.
If you think the circumstance doesn’t call for it, though, feel free to zoom out and resolve a bigger chunk of action with one roll. “You spent all day Hunting for the routes that Flint’s couriers are using, let’s see how it went.
Let the level of interest at the table be your guide for zooming in and out. If interest is high, zoom in. If interest is lower, zoom out and move on to something else.
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