A few months back, after playing far too much (or not enough?) Stewpot, I sketched out a hack of Blades’s downtime system that seemed to resonate with people on the Discord. I just finished cleaning it up slightly and throwing it on itch, and now I share it with you here!
https://stone-arch-bridge-troll.itch.io/doskvol-breathes
Basically the hack adds a slate of vignettes (minigames, Stewpot or Firebrands style) to the available downtime actions with the intent of encouraging more intimate, personal moments during downtime. I write more about this in the hack pdf, but I think one of Blades’s bigger problems is that it’s such a well-oiled machine that it can be hard during gameplay to slow down, stop the constant pressure cooker of action, and take stock of the characters in the world. I’d love to see more people thinking about that while forging in the dark.
If you check this out, or if you’ve been experimenting with hacking downtime in your own Blades / fitd game, I’d love to hear from you.