In the last game they killed the head of the Order of the Black Oak, General Mihkin via sniper ambush. Adult life intervened and two months went by without a session. If we didn’t have the structure to lean on, I don’t think we would’ve picked the game back up but BoB’s structure made it easier.
We got through the various between mission book-keeping and had framed some small scenes between characters who were more affected by the deaths that bought the squad the time that allowed the general to get caught in the ambush.
I rolled a few missions and decided to link both of them to the Black Oak Knights being without a leader.
Operation Election Reform was chosen as the Secondary Mission. The Black Oak Knights had taken an abandoned keep whose walls were breached early in the wall so that they could elect a new leader. The squad was to go in there and break that up.
Operation Cowboy Up was about getting horses in the plains north of Eastwatch and stopping the Black Oak Knights from getting their own steeds. This was the primary mission.
I need to re-read the book, especially threat levels and mission creation. I has been a while and playing Blades in the Dark has muddled the differences between the two games for me. Also, I always forget corruption as a possible Devil’s Bargain and almost always opt for either something really strange (your rookie is possessed by the ancient general’s ghost) or positional (you can try but you’ll be caught behind enemy lines and have to escape once you’re done). Corruption hasn’t been an issue yet and they’re at Eastwatch already.
With the mission itself, I found myself relying on 4 count clocks for the players’ goals and 6 count clocks for the enemy’s interference. I think I set things up that way three times. Almost all of the conflicts were Risky/Standard; were they all Risky/Standard or was I just fatigued? Having trouble with a week-night game? I’m not sure, just thinking out loud.
In Operation: Cowboy Up I mentioned Cowboy Forts dotting the plains and would’ve liked to have imbued that with more of a western fibe but didn’t.
It was a decent session but I felt off my game and I’m not sure why.
Onward to Fort Calisco…