I am making a video for the brief history. I have to know who/what is Cinder King for some small details. I was looking through the forum, you have mentioned that the answer is here. Can’t find it. I’m running YT channel Warsztat RPG you can just comment the answer on a random video which I will delete after reading it. Also, let me know if you want to see the first 25 seconds of the video I can send it to you so you can give me some criticism or advice 
The most important exchanges are here: https://community.bladesinthedark.com/t/band-of-blades-ama/60/13 and here: https://community.bladesinthedark.com/t/band-of-blades-ama/60/71
Dar had a god, although their god was different from other gods. When Zora broke Dar, something bad happened to that god. That god has now Chosen the Cinder King and sent him on a mission of vengeance against the living.
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I remember seeing an alpha playtest document several years ago for a Forged in the Dark game by the title “Band of Blades,” but this one was about running a mercenary company out of (IIRC) Roman-occupied Jerusalem. I don’t remember any of the names on that project. Was that an early version of your game, and if so do you have any stories about how and why you changed directions?
No, this wasn’t us. The name is a reference to Hentry the 5th (shakespeare play). You can look it up:
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,”
It’s what popularized the phrase “band of brothers” and we chose “Band of Blades” using the term Blade to indicate a soldier with a melee weapon as both a) a non-gendered term since we want to encourage folks to play ladies in the military, and b) as an homage to Blades (aka Blades in the Dark).
Name didn’t come up in a google search so we figured we were good. Whosever playtest that was I don’t know, never seen it I’m afraid.
Does the Legion have an insignia or symbol, the same way the squads do?
You know I came up with one, but it wasn’t final (we didn’t get an artist or designer to encode it, which leaves room for them to change it up a little if necessary before it becomes “official”).
It’s supposed to be a circle (like an eclipsed sun) with 10 points directing outward (think of it like that circle is atop some sort of compass with 10 points instead of the usual 8 or 4) on a black flag.
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Interesting, another 10 point insignia. I would have expected it to be a Lion or Sword or something.
Edit: Or something incorporating the number 7.
Interesting, another 10 point insignia. I would have expected it to be a Lion or Sword or something.
Edit: Or something incorporating the number 7.
Yeah this scans. Tantalus (being the 7th emperor hence 7) founded the legion to fight under his personal banner (lions and swords being common sigils of monarchies in our world).
Note though that the 10-pointed crown of fire is the symbol of the royalty of Dar. And the image top-down could be interpreted as that. Or directions the reach of the empire is spreading (or how far it goes).
The exact details on all the meanings I assume we’ll have to leave to our Lorekeepers that talk about the founding of the Legion ^_~
Now I’m tempted to combine 7 and 10 somehow for extra biblical points.
Well, it’s been a little while, so I’ll bump. Anything to be said about the next installment?
Don’t want to nudge, it’s just a great game that leaves the gamers wanting more.
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Wait, let me add a few more questions.
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Based on the play and playthroughs that you’ve seen so far, are there any rules or anything else (creatures, background, whatever) that you wish you had added? I’m not talking stuff that was left on the cutting room floor (though that’s interesting too), but rather stuff that you saw players or GMs do, months or years later, and thought “oh yeah that should totally be part of the ruleset / canon”. Is there anything like that?
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More generally – you’ve probably seen more BoB than most people. So, what are the coolest / most surprising moments that you’ve seen in actual play?
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Well, it’s been a little while, so I’ll bump. Anything to be said about the next installment?
Don’t want to nudge, it’s just a great game that leaves the gamers wanting more.
This is more of a sales question. We actually talked to EH recently about this and it turns out Scum & Villainy is just doing better, so they wanted us to work on a thing for that instead. We’re still planning on doing this (even if it’s digital only) but it really depends on time.
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This is actually an interesting set of questions…
- Based on the play and playthroughs that you’ve seen so far, are there any rules or anything else (creatures, background, whatever) that you wish you had added? I’m not talking stuff that was left on the cutting room floor (though that’s interesting too), but rather stuff that you saw players or GMs do, months or years later, and thought “oh yeah that should totally be part of the ruleset / canon”. Is there anything like that?
Not really. Most people play the game straight. The few that have done some homebrewing usually do so with setting … which there isn’t much to talk about or add to the core books.
The one other thing I heard about was someone trying to write a wizard class for a player who only played wizards and … well there’s good reasons for why we don’t have wizards in the game.
There was a small sort of hack idea a friend of mine had an idea—to show what some of the Chosen would look like Broken, and that might be something we try our hand at down the road.
- More generally – you’ve probably seen more BoB than most people. So, what are the coolest / most surprising moments that you’ve seen in actual play?
Oh wow, this happens all the time actually so it’s tough to pick just a few. Sometimes it’s how GMs interpret the broken and their powers.
Often it’s players just winging something that blows my mind. I recall the group deciding they weren’t going to use horses for the siege of calisco, and I was like… “ok but how are you going to even try then”. And they had some interesting answers, and they pulled it off.
Just wild ideas people try when they’re desperate or have no choice are too many and too cool to list.
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Are the First Broken and the far western lands planned to feature in future campaigns (as and when those happen)?
Or are the western lands possibly destined for some other game using the world setting, if such a thing ever happens?
Hello! I really enjoy playing BoB and find the whole concept really interesting. Here are my questions:
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How long ago was Dar broken? Did this happen during the Godswar? Which leads me to my next question
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What was the Godswar about? Why did the gods fight amongst themselves?
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Why was Dar broken? You have said previously that the god of Dar may have discovered something that the Living god of the Zemyati discovered long ago… This leads me to a bit of a fan theory: If the Zemyati god is the god of Blood or ‘life force’, did he discover how to take that power, even from other gods? Did the god of Dar learn this as well but, unlike the god of the Zemyati, was he more power hungry and decided to try to use that knowledge to empower himself, thus leading the other gods to take action against him?
Anyhow. Great game. Thanks in advance for the reply.