Hi all!
So it looks like I’m finally getting a chance to run Band of Blades. I know there is supposed to be an update coming soon, but can I print out the current version that is on drivethrurpg and be good for a while? (the 3 documents are labelled 1.0)
Cheers!
Hey bud! New version should be out shortly after the end of the month (we have to turn a thing in on the 29th, so I assume once we get thumbs up it’ll go out).
Most of the changes from the beta should be somewhat minor. A few things get some different names, a number of the heritage traits will swap around, there’s some tweaks to a couple powers. Nothing that should stop your campaign.
The biggest difference is the flow of the first mission (you pick roles after). Again I don’t think there will be a huge hiccup in printing out 1.0. But thanks for asking!
So traveler is a heritage trait?
Yep! It’s a Panyar heritage trait. Same mechanical benefit as Quick, but has more of a history behind it (there is a common practice among them to earn their third name to travel a year away from the forest on foot, they learn to pack tight and move fast).
So Quick panyar can become travelers and may choose the 3rd name Wind to reflect their deed. Not a massive change as you can see ^_~ Trickier is their Cold trait becoming Artisan (which allows for Level 4 Rig).
Great thanks! I’m looking forward to it. We’re playing our first session tomorrow. Doing the Alanna bridge-blowing mission. Will come back with a million questions… 
I’ll be here when you need to fire away. ^_^
Nice. Just started listening to the twitch stream and noticed that. Can’t wait to see the changes!
Hello Stras!
Our first game went really. We made characters quickly and easily but kinda glossed over the Quartmaster/Commander etc. roles.
(our Sniper used Crimson Shot, it was epic)
At the end of the “blowing the bridge” mission there are the rewards etc. but when the mission was over we couldn’t quite figure out the mechanics of the campaign phase. I’m typing all my questions and comments, hopefully it all makes sense!
Thanks again for your time, and this game. It’s great, looking forward to the full version.
Commander
We wrote 1 in the Pressure block. We coloured in 3 ticks on the clock before “Summer Ends”. Intel is 0.
After the successful mission:
-1 Time: does this mean we clear a tick on the clock on the Summer Ends clock? So there’s 2 ticks now instead of 3? You’re not “going back in time” but you’re “buying time”.
-1 Pressure: this is clear, Pressure is now 0.
Marshal
We coloured in 7 segments on the Morale counter
Our Marshal started filling in all the squad details
After the mission:
+1 Morale, total is now 8
3 rookies died (thanks to Crimson Shot), -3 Morale. Total is now 5
What does the text beneath the Morale counter mean? “After missions and time passes, gain 3-: none 4-7 One, 8-10 Two?”
In our case, we have 5 total Morale, do we gain 1 more? Or is this how many campaign actions we get for free? (and then spend supply one-for-one to do more?)
Before the mission, the Quartermaster equipped the squad with blackshot. So we’ve coloured in 1 circle of the first row of blackshot.
Are the Quartmaster’s campaign actions free, unless they spend Supply to boost the actions?
I’m not sure how Morale and the Marshal affect campaign actions? “after each mission, you may perform a number of campaign actions according to troop morale”
AFTER THE MISSION:
Time Passes: increase time by 1, so we make another tick on the clock. So now we’re on 3 again?
Increase Pressure: +1 , so now our Pressure is back to 1
Consume food. We have two rows of Food Stores and 1 Supply Cart. Does that mean one row is 6 blocks of food and the other is 3? We lose 1 dot of food as time passes?
Legion Advances:
We are by default advancing to the Western Front. We roll 1d because our Pressure is 1. We have the Horses row ticked. Can we reduce the number of dice we roll by filling in a dot in the Horses row? (I assume 0 pressure means roll 2 die and take the lowest?)
Depending on dice roll, you add ticks to the clock.
And reset Pressure to zero.
For the next game:
As the GM, I roll up 3 missions and the players choose to play 1, roll for 1, and fail the 3rd.
edit ah, I see you roll Mission Count, then Type, etc. and use tables to get deals.
next edit The Western Front says “mission availability Assault and Scout”, what happens if I roll one of the others?
last edit I promise Religious Reward table, 2: 2 morale + 10 pts (what is pts?)
Hey there, I’m not one of the authors, but I’ll give my two cents:
That’s my understanding, yes.
This is how many campaign actions the quartermaster is allowed to do. If you have 8 or higher, morale, the QM can perform two actions. If 4-7, they can only do one. If morale gets below 4, you can’t do any actions. You can perform additional actions by spending Supply, one for one. (Actually, I forgot about the supply rule, so thanks for making me look this up!)
No, the QM’s campaign actions depend on your morale and supply, as above. In addition, you can also spend Supply to boost the effectiveness of an action (those are two different uses).
The marshal tracks morale, so he’ll know how many actions you get.
Yup. But it could be worse. If you didn’t get that reward, you’d be at 4 
I interpreted supply carts as giving you an extra circle for each store per cart, but rereading the instructions I think your interpretation might be correct. You do spend one dot when time passes, and if you can’t you lose 2 morale instead.
Yes and yes.
From the mission generation section:
If you roll a mission type that’s not available
at the Legion’s current location, use the first correct type above it.
I interpret that as points that go towards your final score. See the Skydagger Keep handout (Final Scoring section) for details.
Hope that helps!
:Duan
That’s awesome, thanks!
We’re playing again tomorrow, so there might be more questions after that…
I’ve rolled on the table and got 3 missions, 1 is special. So I randomly generate 2 using the table, and pick one of the special ones from the Western Front page. The commander looks at the 3 missions and chooses one as primary, one as secondary, and then the last one…
When the Marshal rolls the engagement, it sets the position of the primary mission, the result of the secondary, and the 3rd mission we automatically fail. But at what “level” does the 3rd mission fail, the 4-5 or the 1-3, or are there no penalties for the 3rd mission?
The third mission automatically fails and you get the penalties associated with not doing it. You didn’t send any legionnaires on the mission, so it doesn’t really make sense to use the engagement roll results.
So for example, if the Commander chooses not to do a mission with a penalty of +Time, -1 food, then you just apply those penalties. You don’t make an engagement roll, and none of your legionnaires get harmed/killed/promoted.
Duan is much faster than I am on responses @whiskeyjack, and he’s mostly 100%. There’s one thing I want to clarify:
Carts add to each food square you get (that’s why some of the food bubbles are darker). In your case you get 2 sets of Food Stores, each has 4 bubbles. So you’d have 8 total. Each supply cart extends your food store by +1. Hope that makes sense (if you’re still confused, I can post a picture of a sheet).
10 points is for the endgame score. So you’ll find SOMETHING on the mission (it can be a clue, or something that strengthens the defenses of the Eastern Kingdoms, or a piece of culture they’ll treasure that’s saved). Give it some narrative weight.
It might be a part of a chosen that’s in the EK where by bringing it you stop the broken from having a way to influence them, or something that will empower them. Someone who’s important to a culture (like a general) who’s wounded, who might take a long time to heal but will be useful in the future etc. Be creative!
Cool, I wasn’t sure about this but when I rolled this I also gave a narrative thing (an artifact). I just extrapolated from the Special missions that give points, but I didn’t see it spelled out anywhere. Good to see I’m on the same page!
Awesome, thanks for all the feedback so far. Very helpful. I’ve been watching the latest Actual Play episodes and am very excited for the new version of the book.
The only question that came up after last nights game was regarding Pressure and advancing.
“pressure: When you advance, roll pressure minus horses spent and add
time below. (1-3: One. 4/5: Two. 6: Three. crit: Five) Then reset pressure to
0. Add pressure when time passes (after campaign actions), or when there is
a pressure penalty for a failed mission.”
It seems you want to roll LOW here to have less ticks on your time clock, right?
“(1-3: One. 4/5: Two. 6: Three. crit: Five)” the results of your Pressure roll add this amount of ticks to your time clocks?
Which just seems odd because every other roll in the game you want to roll HIGH. Any particular reason for this, or am I understanding it wrong?
Pressure is bad. It’s the pressure of the undead horde. It’s closest equivalent is the entanglements roll for BitD where you want few dice and the lower options on the chart.
So saying “congrats! You got added pressure!” is not good. Rolling then, all those pressure die should feel bad. hence the “you want to roll low.”
I appreciate the detailed feedback and context when asking about clarifications! hope your campaign progresses well!!