I love Blades in the Dark’s mechanics and I feel like also trying out BoB some time in the near future. However, I have only just come to grips with BitD and haven’t played it much yet. I’m wondering if I should really bother to plow through the roughly 400 pages of BoB so soon after figuring out BitD.
How similar are BoB’s rules to BitD? What’s the same and what’s different?
How long does it take to figure out BoB if you’re already familiar with BitD?
I’d be very grateful for some insight. Thanks, guys!
Well, since nobody has answered yet, I will do it shortly:
The base mechnics is the same, and since the base mechanics is important in these games, then of course understanding BitD will help you play BoB. The presentation is the same too (playbooks etc), but that’s obvious.
But all the rest is different. You can’t expect to GM the game without having thoroughly read and understood the book, and if the players arrive at BoB with the same expectations ad BitD, they will be much, much surrprised. Importantly, the lethality is much higher, in my view.
And that’s a compliment: BoB is its own game, not just a reskin or a basic hack.
I agree with @A_B , but that doesn’t mean you will need to read the entire 400 pages. The actual mission / score structure will feel very comfortable if you have played / GMd BitD. It is the Downtime / Campaign structure that is different mechanically. Of course, the setting, tone, brutality, etc. are very different.