BitD Rules FAQ / Clarification Reference Doc

Blades in the Dark
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Reducing heat is done with a fortune roll that uses an action rating for its dice pool. Position and effect don’t apply–you just reduce the heat more or less based on the result.

In practice, a player is usually rolling a “social” action like COMMAND or CONSORT (as is shown in the rulebook) or SWAY and saying how they spread disinformation or placate the authorities, but any action can be used if it can be justified in the narrative.

For example, I’ve seen HUNT used to track down and silence a gossiper, and a PROWL to sneak into a bedroom at night and leave an ominous message (like the Godfather’s severed horse head scene). Another example in the book has a player WRECK shops so the locals know to keep their mouths shut. I can imagine ways someone could STUDY legal loopholes or ATTUNE with supernatural beings who exert secret influence over the city.

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22

Thank you!

23

Can crew upgrades and special abilities be gained outside of XP advances?

Yes, these may be obtained through scores or long-term projects. Acquiring these can be great drivers for story and gameplay, whether chosen by the players or offered by the GM.

Hi! This very question arose during our first session (a player wanted to start a long-term project aimed at having a Cohort).

Might I inquire about the “source” of this answer? Ie, is it “official”, or a possible interpretation by the author, or did it emerge as the community consensus.

During the game, as a GM, I was inclined to ban acquiring crew upgrades via long-term project, as I feared that this would make crew upgrades way less meaningful.

That’s also because, while I agree that allowing players to use a Score to acquire upgrades is very cool and appropriate because it drives the game forward, create opportunities etc, it seems to me that Long-Term Projects do not have the same potential and should be treated differently.
Scores are few, require time and the involvement of every character; and they generate Consequences and deal Stress.
On the other hand, LTPs do not require much play time, each player can perform many Downtime Actions (as long as they have Coins), and LTPs do not generate Consequences nor deal Stress. Most of all, Downtime activities are not nearly as “fun” as playing a Score (even though I love the Downtime system, I guess it’s meant to be a side aspect, not the main game).

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Page 154: “If you want to acquire an asset permanently, you can either gain it as a crew upgrade (using the rules for advancement, see page 48) or work on it as a long-term project to set up a permanent acquisition.”

Think about LTPs like this: LTPs require a Clock, yes? Well what is the Crew XP Track if nothing more than a 10 Segment Clock filled in via fictional actions?

The same applies to LTPs. You can use them to- more or less- “break the game.”

I mean, with enough time and resources, I could Craft a Railgun. That’s a thing.

With enough time and resources, I could study and prepare a Ritual that can collapse the Sanctorum of the High Church.

And honestly, while I say “break the game,” it really doesn’t. Blades is a remarkably hard game to “break.”

In addition, it doesn’t make Crew Advancement any less worthwhile. To get all those extra Downtime Actions, you need Coin and/or Rep and that means you need to run Jobs and that means you’ll inevitably advance your Crew anyway.

On top of that, there can be costs for LTPs, it just varies.

  • First off, doing an LTP takes time and resources. It’s gonna soak up your DTAs. Where do you get your DTAs from? Jobs. If you wanna do a fancy LTP, you’re gonna have to earn it through the Rep and Coin for a Job. This becomes even more costly if the LTP is a series of linked clocks! Not to mention that allowing them to get these things outside of ordinary advancement is really just giving them more toys to get themselves into trouble!
  • LTPs compete with other DTAs, such as Indulge Vice, Reduce Heat, and Recovery. This loops right back to the aforementioned costs.
  • LTPs can be Action Rolls if we’re thinking Fiction First. Remember that Fiction First means we analyze the fiction first to determine: A) If a mechanic is needed, B) Which specific mechanic is needed, and C) How that mechanic transitions us back into the Fiction. If the PC does something with a high degree of Risk for a LTP, that approach in the fiction implies the correct mechanic to use is an Action Roll. Note: this doesn’t happen often! The nature of LTPs being something done during Downtime, which implies it takes time and resources, usually means that this offsets most risky approaches that would ordinarily require Action Rolls. The take home message here is that they can be used.

Also, while this varies from group to group, Downtime Activities can often take center stage of play. Sometimes it is fun to just “get them out of the way.” Other times setting an entire scene around the DTA provides a lot of fun, and is often excellent material for End of Session XP for Beliefs, Drives, Heritage, and Background.

I know for my tables, even if I don’t make a DTA a long drawn out affair- at the very least for a LTP, I ensure that we all know what progress actually looks like in the fiction. Remember, if we have to “end in the fiction,” stopping after “you get 2 ticks on the Clock” doesn’t sound fictional, does it? Talk it out with the players and let that help paint the path forward for further progression of that LTP.

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I know the “Fiction First” principle and I think (hope) I understand it.
Still, it’s just a principle: then there is a whole book around it, full of specific rules and suggestions. If that principle was enough to answer all questions, we’d not need Blades in the Dark at all, and I’d just play Primetime Adventures or any other simpler game :slight_smile:

Some of your points seems like an oversimplification to me:

<< Think about LTPs like this: LTPs require a Clock, yes? Well what is the Crew XP Track if nothing more than a 10 Segment Clock filled in via fictional actions? The same applies to LTPs >>

That’s obviously correct, both are “clock-like mechanisms”, but what really makes a difference is how fast a they fill.
The Crew XP Track fills at most 4 steps per each Score (let’s say “about 3 per score on average”)
A LTP Clock, on the other hand, will fill up to 5 steps for each DTA, let’s say “about 3 per DTA on average”. We have 3 players, even if they don’t go overboard with paying coins for extra DTAs, they can easily use 1 DTA each, every time, for a LTP that matters to them. That means “about 9 steps per score” on average. If they really put their mind to it, they can do double that, perhaps even triple.

Therefore, it seems to me that LTP Clocks and Crew XP Tracks are on a different “scale”.

In addition, it doesn’t make Crew Advancement any less worthwhile.
To get all those extra Downtime Actions, you need Coin and/or Rep and that means you need to run Jobs and that means you’ll inevitably advance your Crew anyway.

Again, that’s an oversimplification since 1 DTA and 1 Score are on a different scale, even more so than 1 LTP Clock and 1 Crew XP track.

Each DTA cost only 1 Coin or 1 Rep, while a single Score will provide on average about 9 Coins/Reps (6 Coins is defined as the “average” score, and 3 rep is just 1 more than the “base” rep award for a score). So a single Score can “create” almost TEN extra DTAs.

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IMHO Blades in the Dark is not one of those purely story games where “everything costs the same” and “everything gives +1” and it’s misleading to treat it as such.

I fully agree that, in principle, there is nothing wrong with a LTP clock creating a Crew Upgrade. I guess the question becomes: shouldn’t it be a GROTESQUELY HUGE Clock then?
I don’t want to tell my players
“Sure, you can recruit a gang as a LTP, you’ll just need to fill this huge Clock with 72 segments”, that would sound like an oblique way or saying “No”.
But I feel that if I allow them to acquire a Cohort with just an “ordinary” LTP, this will make Crew Advancement immensely less meaningful.

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Well I guess it comes down to “you do you.”

Another area to consider: In Scum and Villainy, you can just straight up buy Crew Upgrades! It’s 6 Cred (Coin) per “Upgrade Box” for Non-Ship System Upgrades and 3 Cred per Ship System Quality for Ship System Module Upgrades. Say, for instance, if a PC in Blades spends 2 of their Free DTAs to indulge vice and they spend Coin to do LTPs, most LTP Clocks should at least be 6 Segments which means- even with a Crit- it’ll take at least 2 Coin, 2 Rep, or one of each to fill that Clock. Depending on the Upgrade in question, that’ll either be enough or, more likely, may link to another Clock requiring even further resource expenditure that would roughly equate to that S&V “benchmark.”

I have had no issues with LTPs for Crew Upgrade Advancement, getting Special Abilities, etc. It has never once made Crew Advancement any less meaningful to the players. If anything, it always got them more excited to do something else other than Training for DTAs.

Clock lengths vary. I’ve done just straight up 6 Clocks, sometimes a 12 Clock, sometimes a 6 that leads to an 8 or an 8 that leads to a 6- it all depends on the “complexity” or the Upgrade or Ability in question and the context surrounding said project. There really isn’t a “right” or “wrong” answer and Blades is one of those games that has its fair share of “right” and “wrong” way to do things and some things that are 100% judgement calls best based upon the Judgement Calls of Players and GMs as guided by Goals, Principles, and Best Practices.

All I can say is: The book says you can get permanent access to things that would ordinarily be temporary with Acquire Asset. You could get Cohorts and other such services (maybe temporary access to Quality Weapons, for instance?), therefore you may also perform LTPs to permanently acquire them. So if the PCs want to do LTPs for Upgrades and the like, it seems to be 100% kosher and has never once caused a single problem during play. That has been my experience in every game I have been in, both as a Player and as a GM. I suppose, YMMV.

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Thanks a lot! I’ll try and use the rules as written for at least a few sessions before considering any “house rule”.

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Personnally, I think that you’re right. Sully is, like, 99% right most of the time :upside_down_face:, but i think his citation of page 154 is not valid in this case: "“If you want to acquire an asset permanently, you can either gain it as a crew upgrade (using the rules for advancement, see page 48) or work on it as a long-term project to set up a permanent acquisition.” Since a special ability is not an asset, it does not apply as an answer to your question.

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So, in your opinion the following statement is debatable, or at least, it’s NOT supported by the rules as written?

Yes, [crew upgrades and special abilities] may be obtained through scores or long-term projects.
Acquiring these can be great drivers for story and gameplay, whether chosen by the players or offered by the GM.

I am not trying to be a rules-lawyer here, I am just trying to get right the “spirit” of the game, particularly in this area (downtime activities, crew upgrades etc.) which seems to be quite heavy on mechanics and specific rules (so I hope that the final answer does not end up to be some generic platitude like “Do what’s best for your group” ^^ )

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Yeah, what I agree to is that special items or such can be obtained through scores or LTP (but it would have to be less powerful than crafting). Getting crew upgrades and special abilities this way is OK for people who want it that way, but it’s not in the rules.

Also, I personally don’t like house rules for Harm. There is already a very easy way to heal anything, it’s getting Lost in the vice. I like the fact that healing is otherwise hard to do. So if people want some house rules, very good for them, but not in my games. If Harm feels like it should be temporary, don’t put it in the Harm boxes and treat it like a Complication.

In fact I think Blades in the Dark is one of the very few games where I don’t feel the need for any house rule, even if I forget to apply some of the rules sometimes.

However if I did a FitD hack, apart from the game-specific rules I would probably change the Group action rule. I haven’t felt the need to eliminate it because I have done mostly one shots or short campaigns, but it’s a very powerful manoeuvre and I see how it would get problematic imo.

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@MKUDN Thank you very much! This is very useful.
I have another question that can be useful.
Can a player ask a Devil’s Bargain for +1d, refuse it, and push yourself?
Normally you can not take a Bargain and Push for +1d at the same time, but asking a Bargain is not taking.

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That’s perfectly fine, unless they actually make the bargain it’s just brainstorming things that could happen.

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Sure. The rules (pg. 21) says:

The Devil’s Bargain is always a free choice. If you don’t like one, just reject it (or
suggest how to alter it so you might consider taking it). You can always just push
yourself for that bonus die instead.