SESSION 16C: THE BLACK CENTURIONS

January 19th, 2008
The 6th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Congratulations rained down on Dominic. Agnarr pounded him on the back with his blood-slicked hand. (Prompting Dominic to give him something of an uncertain look.)

With jubilance still in the air, Tee went back to work on the door. She quickly had it unlocked and Agnarr stepped forward to swing it open.

Beyond the door there was, as they had suspected, a short hallway that emptied out into the room with the pool. (The glowgems from that large chamber were casting their eery silvery light down the length of the hall.) But there were also four other hallways heading off in perpendicular directions.

They proceeded cautiously: Heading to the first intersection, Tee looked both left and right. She discovered two antechambers similar to those in which they had found the black cords and broken machinery… only these were occupied.

In each of the small rooms, a humanoid construct of pitch black metal was suspended from an elaborate half-cocoon of complicated machinery that hung from the wall. Each construct was utterly featureless – their faces flat black planes. And, Tee realized, the constructs were actually hovering inside their cocoons – the only connection a slack black cord that plugged into the back of their necks.

Ranthir had never seen anything like them. In fact, even the metal from which they were crafted defied his ken. He moved into the room on the left to take a closer look. Tee and Agnarr positioned themselves in the room across the hall, keeping a nervous eye on the construct there. Elestra and Tor stayed back in the torture chamber, but Dominic came down and stood in the hall between the two rooms – looking towards each in turn.

Unfortunately, no one went to check on the next set of hallways. There had been a cursory discussion, but the decision was made that they should make sure that these first two chambers were secure before attempting to advance. But the next hallway was only ten feet away, and so there was little or no warning when one of the black centurions suddenly raced around the corner with seemingly preternatural and silent speed.

Dominic caught the flash of movement from the corner of his eye and whirled in time to see the centurion’s arm transforming – literally melding itself into a long, pointed spear. He stumbled back and opened his mouth to cry out, but then the creature was upon him. The spear flashed out towards his abdomen, and Dominic only barely managed to turn aside so that the blow ripped into his flesh instead of disemboweling him completely.

Dominic retreated. The centurion pursued, its arm transforming again – this time into a sword that hacked down mercilessly towards Dominic’s head. Dominic cringed before the blow— Read more »

(click here for PDF)

Blades in the Dark is a really cool little game with three major claims to fame:

• A detailed system for running and developing a criminal crew.
• An innovative system for running heist scenarios using a combination of flashbacks and an “engagement roll”.
• A very unique approach to framing action resolution through a combination of setting position and level of effect.

As with my other cheat sheets, this cheat sheet is designed to summarize all of the rules for running the game — from Action Roll resolutions to Downtime activities. It is not, however, designed to be a quick start packet: If you want to learn how to play Blades in the Dark, you’ll want to read through the core rulebook. These cheat sheets are a long-term resource for both GMs and players, and can serve as a great tool for experienced players teaching newcomers, but it’s a cheat sheet, not a textbook.

These cheat sheets also do not include what I refer to as “character option chunks” (for reasons discussed here). You won’t find the rules for character creation, the character playbooks, or the crew sheets here. (Although you can find many of those resources at bladesinthedark.com.)

VERSION 3

My normal procedure for creating these cheat sheets is to (a) write them up, (b) use them in actual play for several sessions, (c) iteratively revise them as necessary, and only then (d) share them here on the Alexandrian. For Blades in the Dark, however, I posted a picture to Twitter of my table set-up for the game:

The sexy map (printed by ABC Sign & Graphic) drew a lot of attention, and the prominent positioning of the cheat sheets unexpectedly created a lot of demand for them. This sort of short-circuited my normal process and, after using them in only a single session, I rushed them up onto the site.

Since that time, however, I’ve used the sheets in almost a dozen more sessions and it became clear that there were not only a number of errors, but also some significant shortcomings with them. These new versions of the sheets, therefore, have reorganized the existing material to configure it more usefully, but also added several significant new chunks of information:

• Duskvol District Modifiers: Getting these in front of the players has a really tangible effect on how they organize their affairs and run their scores.
• Glossary of Strange Forces: I found that our group was getting a little too “fantasy generic” in my handling of the setting, so I wanted to refocus myself on the very specific “demonic steampunk ghost apocalypse” vibe of the game.
• Action Ratings – Expanded Reference: I’d originally decided not to include this material and went with my normal “list of attributes/skills” method for cheat sheets. But the clear definition of what each action rating is for and, even more importantly, where those action ratings weakly overlap is actually really crucial to running Blades in the Dark correctly. During play we were constantly reaching for the rulebook to look this stuff up, which is exactly the material you want in the cheat sheet.

If you still want the original versions of these cheat sheets, they can still be found here.

HOW I USE THEM

I usually keep a copy of my system cheat sheets behind my GM screen for quick reference and I also place a half dozen copies in the center of the table for the players to grab as needed. The information included is meant to be as comprehensive as possible; although rulebooks are also available, my goal is to minimize the amount of time people spend referencing the rulebook: Finding something in the 8 pages of the cheat sheet is a much faster process than paging through the full rulebook. And, once you’ve found it, processing the streamlined information on the cheat sheet will (hopefully) also be quicker.

The organization of information onto each page of the cheat sheet should, hopefully, be fairly intuitive.

Page 1-2: Core Resolution. This includes all of the core rules for action resolution, including action rolls, resistance rolls, fortune rolls, consequences, harms, stress, and progress clocks (plus additional resources related to those topics).

Page 3-4: Scores & Crews & Factions. Re-sequencing this material made the cheat sheet more intuitive to navigate. I’ve also dropped Incarceration rules onto page 4.

Page 5-6: Downtime. And once your score is done, everything you need for downtime activities (including vices).

Page 7: Miscellanea. Collecting together rules for Coins, Rituals, and Crafting.

Page 8: Deep Reference. The new references for Duskvol District Modifiers, Glossary of Strange Forces, and the Expanded Reference for Action Ratings. (Obviously you’d want to swap out the Duskvol modifiers if you’re running with a different setting, such as U’Duasha from the special edition of the game.)

Page 9: Principles. This page includes the game’s “core loop”, the standards for who controls which types of decisions (Judgment Calls), and the best practices/goals for players and GMs alike.

MAKING A GM SCREEN

These cheat sheets can also be used in conjunction with a modular, landscape-oriented GM screen (like the ones you can buy here or here).

I usually use a four-panel screen and use reverse-duplex printing in order to create sheets that I can tape together and “flip up” to reveal additional information behind them. After some experimentation, this is the set-up I’m currently using for Blades in the Dark:

• Panel 1: Action / Effect (with Deep References behind it)
• Panel 2: Consequences / Progress Clocks / Magnitude
• Panel 3: Scores (with Crews and Principles behind it)
• Panel 4: Downtime (with Downtime Activities and Miscellanea behind it)

This allows you to reference roll results, consequences, and the magnitude table with a single glance to your left. You can intuitively flip up the Action Rating page to find the expanded Action Rating material behind it. To your right you’ll be able to flip through the material for Scores  & Downtime on the final two panels (with miscellaneous details tucked behind each).

Something else I experimented with was leaving a panel open and sliding in the one-page reference for the current District. But as the action in my campaign seems to frequently shift betweeen districts, this ended up being more finicky than valuable.

It’s likely that these sheets will continue to evolve through play. Recently, for example, I’ve realized that I really want a reference for the different hours of the day (Blades in the Dark, p. 240) so that I can set the time of night more accurately. (This is perhaps particularly notable because the setting’s eternal night disrupts my normal time descriptors.) You might jot those down on the currently blank sheet on Panel 1. Maybe it would be useful to pair that with a map of Doskvol you could flip up to reference quickly?

FURTHER READING
Advanced Starting Situations
Alternative Starting Situations
Progress Clocks
The Vultures

Check out L’Art du Rythme, Des Descriptions Évocatrices, and La préparation intelligente, the French translations of The Art of Pacing, Random GM Tips: Evocative Descriptions, and Smart Prep, respectively.

… que faites-vous? has also started translations of the GM Don’t List, under its English title. (For reasons I’m curious to understand.) English versions of the GM Don’t List can be found here.

Since I’ve been making some efforts to learn French this year, I’ve quite enjoyed my fairly inept efforts to read my own prose as rendered in a foreign language.

I’m actually a fair bit behind on sharing these international efforts, so if you’ve sent me an e-mail letting me know about a translation you’ve completed and it hasn’t been highlighted either here or on my Twitter account, I’ll be getting to it ASAP.

On that note, if you’re interested in writing translations of articles here on the Alexandrian, please contact me from the About page. I’m generally pretty easy going about giving permission unless there’s some specific reason why an article can’t be translated, and I appreciate knowing when the translations are available so that I can share them with other people.

Go to Part 1 – Go to Special Interest Rules

Carousing: Includes drinking, gambling, lusting, entertainment, drugs, fine dining, and all manner of merriment. A good carousing can last the better part of a week. Characters with high Constitution scores can keep going longer than their comrades. When rolling for the community’s carousing GP limit, add a bonus to the die roll based on the character’s Constitution (13-15: +1, 16-17: +2, 18: +4).

Complication: Carousing requires a save vs. poison. On a failure, roll a complication.

Carnavale: The money expended here goes towards enjoying gladiator duels, races (chariot, griffon, etc.), masques, festivals, parades, triumphs, jousting tournaments, and similar spectacles. Those spending significant amounts of money in this Special Interest are actually sponsoring games and other events (which will, in the grand tradition of bread and circuses, most likely make them quite popular with the populace).

Philanthropy: The creation or support of private initiatives for the public good. Orphanages, libraries, public hospitals, children’s charities, education programs, almshouses, establishing public infrastructure, the Continual Light Streetlight Foundation, the Spectral Society, the Circle for the Succor of Bereft Familiars, or any number of other possibilities exist.

Religion: Generally tithing or, depending on the faith in question, the purchase of actual sacrifices to be offered to the gods (fatted calfs and so forth).

For purely monetary tithing, the normal community GP limit does not apply. (The church will happily take all the money you choose to give to it.) However, unusually large donations risk attracting the attention of the gods. (And not always the god you were looking to appease!) Roll an additional complication check for each multiple of the community GP limit donated. (For example, if the GP limit is 100 GP and you donate 350 GP, you would roll four complication checks – the normal one, but one additional check for exceeding 100, 200, and 300 GPs.)

Song/Fame: Expenditures in this Special Interest represent a character’s efforts to increase their fame or notoriety. Sponsoring bards to compose and perform songs of their deeds, publishing personal memoirs, and so forth.

In addition to the normal community GP limit, expenditures in this category are limited to 100 GP per delve/adventure the character has participated in. (The bards can only do so much with limited material.)

Training: Wealth spent in this Special Interest simply represents paying for expert training and/or training equipment. In order to train most effectively, a character must have access to a sufficiently skilled trainer. (Any character with a higher level in the same class is considered such automatically, but at the GM’s discretion some teachers may be capable of effectively training those better than themselves.) If such a trainer is not available, expenditures in this Special Interest only generate half the normal amount of XP.

Hoarding: When hoarding gold pieces, you simply stash them away. If your hoard is ever lost, stolen, or you’re forced to spend your stash, however, it creates an XP deficit equal to the XP gained from hoarding the gold in the first place. This won’t cause the character to lose levels, but they’ll need to pay off the XP deficit before accruing more.

• Complication: 1 in 20 chance per quiescence that something threatens the hoard.

Hobbies: The Hobby category covers a wide variety of different activities. Most characters will generally focus on one or two hobbies, however, and players should give some thought to what they are. GPs spent in Hobbies can be used for hobby equipment (as long as that equipment does not have an adventuring application), but is more likely to be spent contributing to the completion of projects.

• Sample Hobbies: Creature Husbandry (Growth, Breeding, Control, Increasing Intelligence, Magical Alterations, Frankensteinian Experiments), Robotic Tinkering, Device Creation/Improvement, Languages, Brewing, Hunting, Art, Spell Research, Item Creation
• Defining Projects: When a character proposes a project (breeding a hydra with more heads, creating a series of commemorative sculptures dedicated to dead heroes, writing and printing several hundred copies of a political manifesto) the GM defines that project in terms of a progress clock (a circle divided in 4, 6, or 8 segments, with larger numbers of segments representing more difficult projects), a GP cost per segment, and an appropriate ability score that can be used to work on the project.
• Completing Projects: Once per quiescence, the character can spend GPs equal to the cost of one or more project segments and attempt to advance the project by making an ability score check. Each additional segment they are attempting to complete past the first applies a -1 penalty to this check. If the check is successful, they can fill in the number of segments they were working on. If the check fails, no segments are filled in. In either case, they spend the GPs and gain XP accordingly. If all of the segments in the project’s progress clock are filled in, the project has been completed.
• Special Materials: At the GM’s discretion, some projects (or project segments) may require specific special materials which can only be acquired through questing in order to complete them.
• Arcane Projects: See below.
• Complication: 1 in 6 when attempting to complete a project.

RACIAL SPECIAL INTERESTS

Human – Generalist: Roll 1d8 to determine a second random Special Interest. (If you roll the same result, re-roll until you get a different result.) This Special Interest is also rated at 100%.

Dwarven Clan Hoards: Each dwarven clan maintains a hoard. The size of a clan’s hoard determines its prestige, political power, mining rights, bearding patents, and other cultural cachet. A dwarf can donate money to their clan hoard as a Special Interest. There are no withdrawals from a clan hoard(unless the clan is in a truly precarious state), so any money so donated is “lost” to the character.

• There is no limit to the amount of money that can be donated to the clan hoard, but it must be sent to the hoard via caravan.
• Roll 2d6+3 x 10% to determine the dwarf’s rating in this Special Interest.

Elven Tree Offerings: Throughout their long lives, elves will craft small spirit totems. (Roughly the size of your hand.) Many will carve simple wooden figures, but those who can afford to do so will create elaborate totems made from rare metals, precious gems, unusual alchemicals, and the like. Each of these totems is left at the foot of a tree, and elves believe that these trees will guide them to the afterlife. Some believe that dryads are born from these spirit totems; gestalt spirits formed from the eldritch patchwork of the myriad elven soul shards left within the totems.

• The amount of money which can be spent on an individual spirit totem is limited by the community’s GP limit, but gemstones (and other appropriate substances subject to the GM’s approval) can be “spent” above this limit by incorporating them into the totem’s design. (This money can be spent on a single spirit totem or split across multiple, more modest spirit totems.)
• Elves automatically have a 100% rating in this Special Interest. However, if they place their spirit totem at the base of a particularly sacred or powerful tree (usually requiring a pilgrimage to distant lands or a quest of some sort) the GM can award a bonus of +10% to +50% depending on the potency or significance of the tree in question.
• Elves can only meaningfully place one spirit totem per tree.

Hobbit Gifting: Hobbits build community through gift-giving. They throw gifting parties at which they give away gifts to all of the invited guests. Traditionally each gift must be hand labeled, with the papers and inks selected having various ceremonial and coded meanings.

• Once per year, hobbits can throw a gifting party on their birthday. (Determine the date randomly.) On this special occasion, they gain twice the normal amount of XP per GP spent on gifts.
• 20% of the total value of gifts given at a gifting party can be given to other PCs. (Additional gifts can be given in excess of this, but their cost will not grant XP.)
• Hobbits determine their rating in this Special Interest normally (2d6 x 10%).

ARCANE PROJECTS

XP for Arcane Projects: Generally speaking, any project which actually creates an item (spell egg, magic sword, etc.) will not grant XP. (It’s just like money spent to purchase any other adventuring equipment.) Creating plans, researching spells, and even building workshops, on the other hand, all grant XP.

Prime Requisite Tests: Arcane projects generally use the caster’s prime requisite score.

Spell Formula: These plans allow one to both make spell eggs and copy out derivative rites into a personal spellbook (thus learning how to cast the spell).

• Deciphering Amulets: Amulets are ancient technomantic artifacts and they serve as the template on which most modern magic is based. Studying an amulet with the appropriate effect makes it considerably easier to derive the spell formula. This project uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to ½ the spell level (round up) and costs 100 gp per segment.
• Original Spell Research: The precise nature and level of an original spell must be approved by the GM. Performing the research uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to the spell level and costs 1,000 x the spell level per segment.

Bespoke Spell Eggs: If you have the appropriate spell formula, you can create one-off, handmade spell eggs as a project. Use a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to the spell level. Each segment costs 100 GP.

Workshops: Workshops are automated facilities which can produce spell eggs. They are imperfect copies of the sophisticated Laboratories of the Ancients. Each workshop is capable of producing one specific type of spell egg.

• Creating Workshop Plans: It is necessary to possess or create plans for a workshop before one can be built. If one has access to an appropriate Laboratory, reverse engineering its mechanisms in order to create workshop plans for one type of spell egg uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to 5 + the spell level and costs 100 GP x the spell level per segment. Creating completely original workshop plans can be incredibly difficult, requiring a number of segments equal to 5 + the spell level squared.
• Building a Workshop: Once you have appropriate plans, building a workshop uses a special progress clock with a number of segments equal to 5 + the spell level squared and costs 1,000 GP x the spell level per segment.

Workshop/Laboratory Spell Eggs: A workshop or laboratory will produce one spell egg per week, as long as it is supplied with raw materials equal to 100 GP x the spell level. The machines of the ancients are more efficient, and laboratories only require 80 GP x the spell level to produce a spell egg.

Other Magic Item Plans: In order to create a magic item, one must first either possess or create the plans for it. (A technical manual is sufficient for this purpose.) The difficulty and expense of creating these plans is defined by the GM, as is the difficulty and expense of creating the item itself. Some magic items may require special materials. (For example, capturing a demon’s soul to place within an amulet.)

STRONGHOLDS

Specific rules for establishing and managing strongholds are beyond this present document, but 100% of GP spent on strongholds grant XP. If strongholds are located within the community, 50% of these expenses are also considered community investment.

THINGS THAT WOULD BE NICE TO ADD TO THIS SYSTEM

• A random table for determining Caravan mishaps.
• A more fully-developed Caravan game structure. If players become invested in the caravan process at an open table, you could easily have one section of the campaign become entirely devoted to characters running/guarding caravans.
• A system for managing population growth. As investment in the local community swells, new people will be attracted to the settlement.
• A system for damaging a community’s GP limit (sacking a town, natural disaster, etc.).
• Earning profits from your investments when other PCs spend money on those Special Interests.
• Detailed complication tables for each Special Interest. For Carousing you can check out Jeff Rients’ Party Like It’s 999, Colin Chapman’s Drunken Debauchery!, and Claytonian JP’s DCC Montage Rules.

Next: Blackmoor Village Map