Blades in the Dark GMT+2 [3-4 players] [Houseruled]

Looking for Group
1

Hello everyone!

As a GM who has read his fair share of ttrpg systems, BitD became my favourite once I got to properly know it and experience how fast, open, and story-focused it is. Sadly, I am struggling to put together a playgroup amongs my friends, for one reason or another, they don’t seem to like the setting, or are put off by having to understand another ruleset.

So I was hoping some of you guys might be interested in playing a game with me as the GM on Roll20 on a weekday suitable for everyone involved. I am GMT +2 but I am hoping one or two timezones won’t make a difference. I happily welcome new and experienced players alike, the only requirement I would put forward is that you are 18+, and you are able to respect your fellow players in and out of game no matter their gender, religion, political views and ethnicity.

I for myself am a 27 years old guy from Hungary and this would be my first time GMing in English, so I would ask you to be understanding and patient on that front. :slight_smile:

For details about the game, there are two things you should know. One, the story starts with the players transitioning from Whitehollow to Doskvol on a train, after their gang in the neighbouring city got demolished. The only reason you escaped is that you got a job from a mysterious benefactor, who put you on a railcar heading out of the city. The only thing he asks of you is to steal something for him in return…

Second: Houserules! Blades is good, but one thing it does not handle well is situational modifiers. You have Hunt 3 and shooting someone with a rusty old pistol in the rain and heavy wind from the other end of the street? Same pool as if you were using your fine long rifle in clear weather from 5 steps away. You will encounter rule changes in the core mechanics and in many other places, so much so that even the character sheets will look a bit different. I am happy to receive your feedback on these, but I would ask you to be prepared that this blades is a bit more 9.0 than 8.3. My dream is that one day I will get to design the real 9.0 with John Harper, which I know is silly, but a man can hope.

If you are interested, get in touch with me here, or on discord at mostlikelykilled#2566

Have a good day everyone

2

While posting here is a good idea, you may have better luck posting in the Discord channel. Here’s an invite that expires in 7 days: https://discord.gg/y3kc3w8R

Second: Houserules! Blades is good, but one thing it does not handle well is situational modifiers. You have Hunt 3 and shooting someone with a rusty old pistol in the rain and heavy wind from the other end of the street? Same pool as if you were using your fine long rifle in clear weather from 5 steps away. You will encounter rule changes in the core mechanics and in many other places, so much so that even the character sheets will look a bit different. I am happy to receive your feedback on these, but I would ask you to be prepared that this blades is a bit more 9.0 than 8.3. My dream is that one day I will get to design the real 9.0 with John Harper, which I know is silly, but a man can hope.

I’ve seen this kind of houserule played with before, and, in my opinion, it adds one more step to the action resolution process, the length of which is an often criticized part of BitD. Further, I’m not sure it adds anything, because effect should be increased or decreased based on context, which includes situational modifiers. In other words, if you’d normally be pretty good at something, but the context in which you’re doing it would make you less or more effective, that is decreased or increased effect.

In conversations I’ve had about this rule, it’s often objected that increased effect does not increase the likelihood of success, but it does! One of the options for a partial success is decreased effect, so if you have a particular goal that would be standard effect, then you increase the effect to great due to the circumstances, and then only get a partial success, you can count that as standard effect. For example, if you’re trying to jump a two meter gap (or whatever standard effect would need to jump across), but have boots of jumping that give increased effect for jumping, you can make the roll with great effect. And then, even if you roll a 4, you could decrease the effect to standard, and still make the jump without any other consequences.

If anything should be houseruled, I recommend making the ruleset simpler, which is the trend in some other FitD games like Wicked. I actually do this by simply ignoring parts of the BitD rules when think they won’t add to the fun at my table, but leave them formally in the rules so that I can use them when they would add to the fun.

1 Like
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Hi, are you still looking for players?

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I would love to join your game as long as our schedules work together. When are you going to meet?