The Long Shadow (Inactive)

Game Master Kiradia

Hello everybody,

I've recently purchased a new ruleset going by the name of Blades in the Dark and I would like to to put together a crew of Scoundrels to try and rise to the top of the mean streets of Duskwall. I've already got 2 people who want to join so I'm looking for 3 more to join the crew and explore something a little different from the usual Pathfinder fare. Blades in the Dark tries to portray a crime drama in a world of supernatural horrors which I think is an excellent chance to tell interesting stories. John Harper, the author lists Dishonored and The Wire as influences and I like to include Penny Dreadful and Gangs of New York as part of the kind of story I'd like to try to tell. If a gritty game of Victorian-punk If any of that is of interest to you, please continue read.

As always, a few matters of administration:

I would like to keep up at least a once per day pace of posting (relaxed on weekends) as the game's mechanics do require more back and forth communication than Pathfinder does. This goes for me just as much as it does everyone else. If there is need to bot a character for awhile just please let us know so there isn't too much slow down.

I have provided a link below to the crunch of character creation and a synopsis about the world along with a folder containing the playbook sheets needed to make characters. Owning a copy of Blades in the Dark is not required for recruitment but would be very helpful if you can manage it as I can't point to an SRD or put a paid PDF up obviously.

I would like to dive into the game and really explores all of its mechanics which do have an element of time advancement as you, your fellow players, and your crew all work to advance up the ladder of scum and villainy that rules the Duskwall underworld. So, if you are the type who likes to have payoff for longer running plot threads that will definitely be of interest to me in your background.

Everything else can be found in the link below so I think that will wrap things up for now. If anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to ask and I look forward to your submissions.

Character Creation and World Overview

Crew Sheets

Dot.

Do you know what your existing two players will be using for playbooks? I'd obviously rather not submit something that one of them is already going to be using.

Thanks for your interesting!

My two existing players are still considering their options and I expect them to join in the conversation once its not late for them. The desire to all play different playbooks is one I definitely support since they are all so interesting but at the moment, I can say the field of playbooks is pretty open.

Yes, I'm one of the two. Unfortunately, I'm in the same boat as you, I usually wait until the others have picked something and try to fill the niche. As such, I've pretty much thought of a concept for every class. And what type of composition we'd want also depends entirely on the type of crew we settle on.

So for now, I'll say that my favorite concept is probably The Slide, but if we need more combat-centric people I can easily switch to a Hound or Cutter, and if more people want to be faces, I can switch to a Leech or Lurk.

Yeah, the different options seem pretty great. I'm currently looking at the Leech, Lurk, or Whisper.

Well..being as I had s tarted an interest thread for running a Blades game..I'd throw my hat in. I do have the book and would be interested in playing..practically any playbook. I simply want to get my hands into a game of this and see how it works. It reads so damn well!

I'd be most interested in a Lurk, Cutter, or Whisper. If a Lurk, I'd probably play as a melee type. For gangs, I'd be up for any of them. The setting and mechanics of Blades look so damn awesome.

What crew ideas, if any, where the other players considering? My preferences lean toward Shadows, but can go any which way.

What crew ideas, if any, where the other players considering? My preferences lean toward Shadows, but can go any which way.

I'm most interested in Shadows, Hawkers, or Smugglers.

I'm very excited about this idea. Just skimming over I'd be happy as a Hound working in an Assassins, Smugglers, or Shadows gang.

EDIT: Looking more into the char creation, I am more excited. Aside from the background Ive got:

Hunter from Tycheros with a military background. Action dots: study, finesse, prowl, skirmish. Scout special ability. Friend: Casta, Rival: Celene. Vice: Weird.

Personally, I like Hawkers the most, but I wouldn't mind Shadows, Smugglers, or Assassins for the crew as well.

I'll go ahead and put my money on Slide, cause I can see everyone is having the same problem I am, and the more decisive people we have, the better. So, The Slide:

He's a grifter (underworld) of Iruvian descent. His vice is Luxury, and his special ability is Ghost Talk.

He's friends with Nyryx, the prostitute, but hates Bryl, the drug dealer.

Action dots: Attune +1, Finesse +2, Survey +1

@Dreg the Barbarian: Thanks for posting and being decisive, I know how hard that can be. :)

@Aspissassin: Good start for a Hound!

Just as a reminder in general, I’d like a paragraph or two giving a physical description of your character and some expansion on your background choices. We don't need to spill the whole backstory of your characters, but some stuff to work with from the start is a nice springboard to explore the deeper aspects of the characters later.

Also, I realized today that I didn't put an end date for recruitment time, shows why you shouldn't make recruitment posts at 3AM. So, I do want to get this started fairly quickly so lets give it two week to submit characters.

Recruitment will definitely end on 25/2/2017. I may end it sooner if I feel that new submissions have dried up.

@DMRaven: I saw your interest check and I was considering putting my interest in there but I had already been working on this for a week so I decided to post. Please don't let me stop you from starting your own game if you want to. I would love to play Blades as much as run it, so I'd apply if you started one. :)

The Crew: I am glad to hear what people are interested in as far as crews. Once recruitment is over the first part of the discussion thread will be crew creation and how all the selected players got together in the first place. Very excited for that part.

Small update, a few errors in the Playbook PDFs have been pointed out to me. As cool as the PDFs look, I don't want to have any problems with character expectations because of bad PDFs. So I've put up the official PDFs instead, which are not form-fillable but at least give the correct information.

Name: Galland "Fog" Black

Description/Personality: With a ponytail of thickly braided black hair, the man known as Fog smirks as he moves through Duskwall's dark streets. He's dressed in simple clothing that was once black, but is more gray now with ash and patches covering them. Long stubble covers his jawline and his eyes are a dark brown. He glances up, and then around, leaping into the air and grabbing a sturdy roof edge with brown gloves pick pocketed from a Bluecoat.

Sturdy black leather boots strike against the rooftop and he pulls his dark, finely made cloak tightly around his shoulders and pulls out a pair of simple steel lockpicks. With a few clicks the window opens and he hops through, carefully closing the window behind himself.

Rivals As the window closes, the lock suddenly clicks shut. Fog stands up, eyes going wide in alarm as a lantern is lit. Across from him stands a frowning man with a wicked scar over one eye and an unsheathed sword in his hand. Red hair brushes his cheeks as he smiles cruelly and moves forward, swinging the blade without a word. Eric Langorn was an experienced hand with a weapon and had been waiting. Fog had stolen one of Langorn's prized drinking horns made from leviathan horn with a silver inlay and wasn't going to easily forget it.

The blade slashes across Fog's face as he stumbles back, lashing out with his elbow and breaking the window so he can tumble backwards out and through it. Blood drips down his face and, with a curse, he turns and flees across the rooftops. A loud thump behind him signals a crossbow bolt in flight and he rolls to the left, the bolt flashing through the air past him. Fog curses again as he feels he drops his lockpicks but continues on.

Friends: A bloodied and battered Fog leans against the dark stone wall and knocks firmly on the solid wooden door. After a few moments, a beautiful raven-haired woman opens the door and drags him inside. Ceres Rohavin scowled at him and moved to a cabinet, pulling out some bandages. The childhood friend, and fellow thief, knew her way around a wound. She came with needle and thread, helping to stitch up Fog's face.

After reading through DMRaven's interest post, I looked up a Let's Play of it and watched the first two weeks of the Roll4It group's game with John Harper being the DM and I have absolutely fallen in love with the system, the setting, everything. As soon as I have a little bit of spare cash, I am going to be purchasing this PDF and getting the moolah so I can print it out and have a physical copy.

If/when DMRaven puts up a recruitment post, I'll be applying for that one too. I'm definitely a dot for this, going to read through the game's crews and playbooks and see about what grabs my interest the most.

EDIT: So I gave a quick, cursory look through things...

For playbooks...I'm honestly looking to be a Cutter. I like the idea of being some scary, vicious, lover of violence. Someone who takes pleasure in getting a busted lip and feeling a man's jaw break against his knuckles.

As for the kind of crew, I'm most interested in Assassins, Bravos, and Shadows. I'm specifically interested in Bravos, I'm totally digging the whole "Gangs of New York" feeling.

I'll have a character up soon enough for it, need to do some errands first.

Dushyant Kalyan Chaudhari, or "Dusky" as he's more commonly referred to as, is a second-generation Doskvolian from an immigrant family. He has the deeply tan skin, brown eyes, and jet-black hair of his father, and the short stature and round face of his mother. He has perpetually long stubble and a handlebar mustache. He exchanged his Irruvian clothing, turban, and accent for posh Akorosian ones at a young age, but can effortlessly put it all back on if it's advantageous for him. Despite living in poverty, he has a wardrobe of expensive clothing and jewelry, and even though you can find holes in the fabric and hammer marks in the metal on close inspection, he wears it all with dignity and class.

He comes from a long line of wealthy Irruvian archivists. His grandparents, father, uncle, and aunt ran an expansive occult library in the Home Country before they fell under Imperial persecution and had to flee, leaving nearly everything behind in the process. Fleeing for Tycheros, but running out of money on the northern coast of Akoros, his grandparents tried to ply their trade, but found Duskwall to be more puritanical and superstitious than Irruvia, and had little success. Penniless, and with their family name in ruin, they were forced to find work in one of Duskwall's many eeleries. His father eventually met and married an Akorosian artist.

Dusky was given a traditional Irruvian birth, with arcane rites and ritual bloodletting. If you were to inspect his mouth with a bullseye lantern, you would see what looks like a series of intricate, demonic tattoos lining the bottom of his tongue, the roof of his mouth, and the back of his throat.

Raised by a discontented family, taught what occult practices they could remember by oral tradition, and hearing stories of the luxury his ancestors used to live in, Dusky became determined not to live a life of low-born labor. Instead of cowing to Imperial law, he decided to use his natural charisma and dexterity, as well as his given talent of speaking with spirits and demons, to lie, cheat, and steal his way to a life of luxury.

While he's found success as a small-time grifter, his incurable taste for expensive clothing and fine luxury items has ensured his place below the poverty line. He knows that he can't make it to the top on hustling and con jobs alone. He needs to take on bigger, more dangerous marks. And to do that, he needs to fall in with the right crowd -- one as skilled and foolishly ambitious as he is.

Figuring out a vice is mildly difficult. Anyone have any ideas aside from the incredibly obvious? Drinking, drugs, money, sex, clothing, gambling?

I was thinking maybe...painting?

So, one of the big things about the vices as I've watched John Harper play them is that there needs to be a possible consequence to them. Overindulging your vice is supposed to lead to bad consequences for your character. So if it was going to be painting (a Pleasure vice in my view) you'd need to think of how painting could get you into trouble. That might help focus your ideas a bit but the obvious vices are obvious because they are easy to create consequences for more than being a cliche.

@DMRaven although I'd say painting might be a little too healthy of a hobby to be considered a vice, you might want to think about how potentially irresponsible your paintings are.

If you spend most of your free time and money on painting, it could be Pleasure. If you're an artist as a side business, doing original works or forgeries, it could be Obligation. If you shut yourself away from the world and paint obsessively for stretches of time, it could be Stupor. Or, if you're feeling Weird, you could be like that guy in Ghostbusters 2 and restore creepy, haunted paintings of Forgotten Gods from the ruins under Doskval.

Here is my idea and submission for your consideration. Like I said, I'm going for the Cutter of the group.

Name: Abram "Guts" Orlov

Ethnicity: Skovlan

Appearance: Abram’s hair is a dark bown that is usually kept cut short and clean, as to avoid giving his enemies something to grab on and pull. His left ear looks like a cauliflower from years of fighting and learning to defend his off-hand side. Muscular without being overwhelming so, Guts is capable of doing incredible feats of strength and fury to intimidate even the most hard-pressed of men and women. His clothing is the self-maintained, patched together browns and blacks of the dock workers, with a boat captain’s longcoat laying over his shoulders. The leather is patchworked and rough, but it helps keep the rain out when it comes.

Abram moves with the swagger of a confident fighter, each step natural and graceful yet calculated. Even in his furies, he still seems to consider everything around him and how best to hurt his foe or make them suffer.

Personality: Abram earned the nickname “Guts” when he went toe to toe with one of the big hitters of the Van Dorf family. Without fear or hesitation, he struck the man right in the groin and brought him low fast and hard. Abram knows how dangerous he is and he knows that most other people are uncomfortable around a man who isn’t shy about breaking your arm or your neck. He is loyal though and smart enough to know that he doesn’t know everything. He knows violence doesn’t solve everything, he just prefers it.

Vice: Pleasure – Violence. Abram adores the thrill of a good fist fight, the cacophony of a bar brawl, and the simplicity of a back alley skirmish. When he needs to unwind, he’ll go down to the docks and fight in the pits. Win, lose, it really doesn’t matter to him, as long as he gets to beat someone’s face in and feel the pain himself.

Friends: Abram is friends with a physicker that goes by the name of Sawtooth. He met the man when bringing one of the henchmen of the Van Dorf family who was injured to him. Both of them being of Skovlan descent, the two hit it off famously and became a duo in the fighting pits; Guts fighting and Sawtooth patching him up. Guts has also helped keep pressure off of Sawtooth’s back, breaking the backs of those who refuse to pay up their debts and ensuring he wasn’t bothered by aggressive entrepreneurs.

Enemies: Abram still remembers the night he came across Mercy, the heartless killer who had given his mentor the poison that ended his life. He had expected her to be a simple kill, any coward who dropped such a wicked tactic couldn’t be that good in a fight. He was terribly surprised when she cut his throat, nearly slitting him open like a pig. He barely escaped from her retribution, fleeing to the docks where Sawtooth patched him up and saved his life. He hasn’t forgotten about her yet, his scar aching every day on his throat. He’ll kill her, one of these days, for Kris’s sake.

Action Dots Spent: Command +1, Prowl + 1, Consort + 1, Sway + 1

Special Ability: Not To Be Trifled With

@DMRaven although I'd say painting might be a little too healthy of a hobby to be considered a vice, you might want to think about how potentially irresponsible your paintings are.

If you spend most of your free time and money on painting, it could be Pleasure. If you're an artist as a side business, doing original works or forgeries, it could be Obligation. If you shut yourself away from the world and paint obsessively for stretches of time, it could be Stupor. Or, if you're feeling Weird, you could be like that guy in Ghostbusters 2 and restore creepy, haunted paintings of Forgotten Gods from the ruins under Doskval.

So, one of the big things about the vices as I've watched John Harper play them is that there needs to be a possible consequence to them. Overindulging your vice is supposed to lead to bad consequences for your character. So if it was going to be painting (a Pleasure vice in my view) you'd need to think of how painting could get you into trouble. That might help focus your ideas a bit but the obvious vices are obvious because they are easy to create consequences for more than being a cliche.

Thank you, both of you! Dreg, you really kick-started my imagination with those suggestions.

Fog is a painter and a drawer. His vice purveyor isn't the one who provides him with charcoal and paper..rather its the one who provides him with information. Fog doesn't just paint anything. He has a particular obsession, a peculiarity he calls it. Creepy, others call it. Fog loathes those who were born to success, born to privilege. He obsesses over their demise. He pays the assistant of a rich physicker to tell him when a noble, rich merchant, successful business owner, famous theatre performer, or really anyone of status perishes. Fog prefers violent or particularly bloody and accidental deaths, but he won't be picky if there aren't many options.

When he finds out about these situations, he immediately sneaks into the scene of the accident, murder, or even just the sick room where they passed away. He prefers to sketch while the corpse is still there, if possible. He will go to great lengths to make this happen, to an obsessive and disturbing level. The sprawled figure with a splash of blood on the ground. The shrunken, sickly body in a bed surrounded by flowers. The swinging body hanging from a rope. All of these are his artistic muse.

Once he has his sketch, he retreats to his painting room where the charcoal drawings gain color and, frequently, pictures of the dead person's ghost in the image.

He's gotten into trouble more than once for sneaking into someone's home and being found drawing the dead body. Bluecoats aren't fond of someone who may mess with the scene, and he's been questioned as a suspect on several murders and suicides as a result. Rich families don't take kindly to those who intrude on their grief for such sickening and revolting habits.

There...non-standard, definitely a bit strange.

@WarforgedMan Nice!

@DMRaven Yeah, I'll say. Great job!

I gotta say, I'm liking the diversity of everyone's suggestions so far. Everyone's been raising the bar more and more on their character descriptions, so I'll elaborate more on the bits I left out at some point. Currently, I'm debating whether to keep my action points where they are or spread them out more. On the one hand, having 2 points in finesse would be very useful to a grifter, or anyone trying to employ misdirection or manual dexterity. But on the other hand, by putting that second point up in one of the Insight skills, I'd have two dots of resistance in each category, and if I regularly lie and deceive people, I'm probably gonna be resisting Insight a lot. But on the oooother hand, I don't want to spread myself too thin.

I think I'm gonna go with +1 Hunt, +1 Survey, +1 Finesse, and +1 Attune after all.

Fluff-wise I described Fog as a lurk. However, depending on what the acceptance is/playbooks of everyone, his fluff/vice could have him move toward Whisper. I'll leave his skills open until knowing if he gets accepted into the game and depending on where other people's strengths/weaknesses are. A high Prowl would be good.

Where do you get information on the setting?

@Aspissassin Right now, the only place is really in the sourcebook. If there's something specific you'd like to know, feel free to ask, though!

Yeah, upon review, I did my math wrong. I'd have to give up +1 attune to have 2 dots in each category. +2 finesse it is!

Anyways, the missing details:

Enemy: Bryl, a drug dealer. A Tycherosi immigrant himself, Dusky met the criminal upstart when he was growing up in Charhollow, and quickly became friends and partners in crime. They initially shared a similar ambition to move up and out of poverty, but once they became less desperate, it became apparent that their ideas on how to get there were very different. Dusky wanted an accomplice for his confidence schemes, but Bryl wanted brains for his muscle. They had a falling out when Bryl settled on dealing drugs and extorting money from his impoverished addicts, while Dusky wanted to run real estate scams targeting more well-to-do marks. After the split, Bryl was hard-up for money, and sold out Dusky and his scheme to several landowners, whose property he was secretly operating on. With his enterprise ruined, Dusky, in turn, sold insider information of Bryl's operation to a rival drug lord, who cracked down and ruined Bryl. While Bryl has set up shop in another district of town, somewhere, they don't go out of their way to exact revenge upon one another, but their absolute hatred of one another continues to run deep.

Friend: Nyrix, a prostitute and fellow con artist. Nyrix caught Dusky's eye when she flagged him down on the street, mistaking him for a wealthy man, and told him there was a devil in her (rather generous) bosom gnawing at her chest and she needed money for medical treatment. He immediately spotted the bizarre con for what it was, and after patronizing her, realized that she was much more clever than she looked, and an aspiring actress, to boot. He asked her to be his accomplice in several different schemes, and the two have gotten along famously ever since. They both share the same taste in expensive fineries, and their rapport has developed to the point where they can finish each other's sentences and signal each other with the smallest and most subtle of gestures. Despite being a regular customer of hers, in addition to her partner, their relationship remains purely professional. Purely professional.

Purveyor of Vice: Mademoiselle Gladheart, owner of an upscale clothing boutique in Brightstone. Dusky made her acquaintance when she went discreetly (by her standards) looking for a Whisper to cleanse her shop of the devils that were plaguing it. Dusky gratefully stepped in with his knowledge of the old country, and warded off the evil spirits with his ancient Irruvian rituals. He agreed to do it, and return once a month to perform the arcane rites anew, for a hefty discount at her shop. She agreed, but only if he kept their arrangement a secret. And that he only come after hours, when none of her regular customers would see him. And that he not use any of the finer fabrics, nor her newer designs. And that he not tell anybody where he got his clothing from. Dusky found this arrangement perfectly acceptable, but only because her store wasn't actually haunted, nor does he actually know any ancient Irruvian rituals.

Okay, looking at the creation doc and the posts above it looks like most of us are interested in Smugglers or Shadows for crew type. Those wouldn't be too hard to blend, I don't think- a crew dedicated to getting in hard to reach places and sneaking contraband in or out. I haven't read all the way through the submitted bios, but do they fit that crew type?

We've got a Lurk, a Cutter, a Slide, and someone expressed interest in a Whisper or Leech. I was thinking Leech- the description of technology using the blood of unspeakable horrors from the depths of the black sea is fantastic- but I could probably do Spider.

Anybody read the Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch? I might be able to pull off a Locke Lamora (though he's probably more of a combo Slide/Spider) type character, but to support that kind of character we'd have to agree to being a group heavily focused on recon, planning, and preparation. Very Ocean's 11 or Inception-y. Does that sound fun to everybody?

If not, YR and I can divvy up the Whisper and Leech roles. Playing with magic or alchemy in this world sounds like a ton of fun, and I would be just as happy playing a mad scientist thief as being Danny Ocean.

All of those bios are pretty hard to follow.

Name: Tik "The Feather" Voth

Ehtnicity: Tycherosi

Appearance: A thin, dark grey cloth wraps tightly around The Feather's entire body revealing nothing but his inky black eyes. The cloth, hugging his lean frame, matches the ash covered dilapidated tower that was once a regal home in the Six Towers district. He mechanically unslings the long rifle that hung from his back and places it against the mostly intact wall next to him. Reaching toward his face, he unwraps his head covering to reveal a plume of feathers where his hair should be and shakes his head vigorously causing a few feathers to fall. After eyeing the feathers for a moment he bends down and selects the most unbent one. He begins to twirl the feather as he retrieves his rifle and approaches the hole where a window once was. Finding a comfortable spot, he waits...

Some steps can be heard walking on the ground below. CRACK!

As the loud sound recedes silence permeates the surroundings once more as Feather emerges from a building nearby.(Vice) Walking up to the now dead body, Feather kneels down and begins chanting and waving the selected feather in specific designs. After chanting he places the feather in the hole he created in the dead body's chest. (/Vice) He walks calmly back to retrieve the payment for his work, a small smile remaining unseen under the cloth.

Background: Tik Voth was born to Tycherosi parents though remembers little before being trained from any early age as a specific target assassin/sniper for the imperials. Tik Voth earned the name "The Feather" after he was done with training and was put into action in the Unity Wars. After each kill, Tik would do a ritual and leave a feather on the body, much to his superiors dismay. Though punished in as many facets as they could think, Tik continued and earned his name.

Friend: Among those that served with him, Casta became a trusted ally. Midway through the Unity Wars, Tik and Casta were paired up for a high priority target. Though tense at first, they soon learned that their skills were quite complimentary. Tik would slowly take the bodyguards out and herd the target straight within Casta reach. The mission went astonishingly smoothly despite the high priority level of the target. After the war Tik and Casta moved to Duskwall in search of work as bounty hunters. Now the two retain a decent friendship and great professional relationship.

Enemies: Though there were few failed missions during the war, Celene "The Iron" was Tik's worst failure. Celene was Tik's first target whose armor he could not pierce. Bedecked from head to toe in iron plated armor, Celene ignored Tik's shots and beat him within an inch of his life, finding it amusing to leave him to die slowly covered by a pile of bodies. Tik narrowly survived due to Casta finding him after he did not report back. Celene remains a smudge on Tik's record..a smudge he vows to fix.

Okay, looking at the creation doc and the posts above it looks like most of us are interested in Smugglers or Shadows for crew type. Those wouldn't be too hard to blend, I don't think- a crew dedicated to getting in hard to reach places and sneaking contraband in or out. I haven't read all the way through the submitted bios, but do they fit that crew type?

We've got a Lurk, a Cutter, a Slide, and someone expressed interest in a Whisper or Leech. I was thinking Leech- the description of technology using the blood of unspeakable horrors from the depths of the black sea is fantastic- but I could probably do Spider.

Anybody read the Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch? I might be able to pull off a Locke Lamora (though he's probably more of a combo Slide/Spider) type character, but to support that kind of character we'd have to agree to being a group heavily focused on recon, planning, and preparation. Very Ocean's 11 or Inception-y. Does that sound fun to everybody?

If not, YR and I can divvy up the Whisper and Leech roles. Playing with magic or alchemy in this world sounds like a ton of fun, and I would be just as happy playing a mad scientist thief as being Danny Ocean.

The game definitely allows for some level of planning; you're able to gather information and all that and make the best judgement call to get the ball rolling and choose a plan and a vector to attack your "score" with. Maybe you do an all-out assault? Maybe you use social connections? Maybe we do a strange ritual to summon the items to us. There is a slew of possibilities.

The game also uses a mechanic called "Flashbacks" which allow you to circumvent issues you come across during the game. You see a patrol of Bluecoats making your way while you're picking the lock and they spot you! The Spider then takes a bit of stress doing a flashback to show how they previously bribed the guards that were going to be on duty to "look the other way". Boom, problem taken care of and you all look like professionals.

It is to help cut back on all the planning that tends to happen in these types of games. I've had games of Shadowrun where the we did two to three sessions of planning for a job that only took half a session. Blades in the Dark tries to get passed that by having you deal with issues as they appear, rather than try to plan for every single possibility.

It is a neat system, I'm a -huge- fan of it.

The game also uses a mechanic called "Flashbacks" which allow you to circumvent issues you come across during the game. You see a patrol of Bluecoats making your way while you're picking the lock and they spot you! The Spider then takes a bit of stress doing a flashback to show how they previously bribed the guards that were going to be on duty to "look the other way". Boom, problem taken care of and you all look like professionals.

Bill & Ted'ing around problems that pop up sounds pretty cool. This looks like a really fun system.

Indeed. It isn't actual time travel, you can't say you had the guards take the night off when the guards are already there. You can only do things that can alter what can happen next.

It is a really cool, very cooperative system. I'm actually going to be doing character creation for my r/l tabletop group today, maybe start up a score if enough of them can make it.

@Aspissassin Nice idea for the vice, but vices are something your character does during downtime to unwind, unless killing people is your character's vice. I don't want to discourage you from playing who you want to play, but so far all we know about them is that they were raised from a young age to kill people, they're good at killing people, and they like killing people. Which is fine if we're assassins or bravos, but if the group decides to pick a different crew type, I don't want you to get bored or feel useless if you can't kill people. So like...I don't know, where does he live? What does he spend his blood money on? Why is he no longer associated with the Imperial military? What does he think of Skovlanders after the war? Does he like birds, or does he get offended if you ask him? What's with the bandages? Does he have some kind of medical condition?

I don't know, little details like that will help flesh him out a bit more.

@karlprosek As far as I know, you can spend time planning a score; rules-wise there's nothing stopping you, but the rulebook actively discourages you from doing so. I'm not super crazy about it, since I like thinking ahead and anticipating problems and feeling like a smart guy, but based on some of the horror stories I've heard from Shadowrun, I completely understand the decision.

@DregI misunderstood vices. I was trying to expound on the bizarre rituals in Weird and incorporate an idea that he is from Tycheros. I will attempt to expand the bizarre rituals some more.

I thought my background description would belay that I started with hunt and chose study and prowl for my action dots. I also chose Scout for my ability, all of which for usefulness with other crews. He doesn't just kill, he is a target locator as well.

As for fleshing him out as a whole, I am still researching the industrial fantasy setting. I don't know yet what all that entails.

where does he live? My thought was that he would live in a dilapidated building in six towers

what does he spend money on? Based my misunderstanding, he would likely spend money on survival things and rituals, with any excess being hidden away

why no longer military? He had fulfilled his usefulness with the military and decided to leave. (maybe had to secretly leave, dunno how things here work)

Skovlanders? He doesn't care one way or the other. Had to kill them for missions. Followed the missions.

birds? Is unsure. He knows that birds and himself have feathers but isn't sure why.

bandages? He wears and colors his body wraps for camouflage purposes (also to not drop feathers around). Body wraps easily conform to body, are easy to color, and can be tightened in places to prevent bleeding out when wounded.

All of these above I figured he'd be asked when joining a crew.

I am starting with a fairly plain character to begin with so that I can learn the new setting and system. It is what I did when I learned many other systems. I hope to give him more depth as I gain more understanding. Again I'll work on the vice some more.

The jumping right into it part is something I find exciting. Too often in IRL games I've seen players tied down trying to plan something. That ends up taking forever and bores the heck out of the players not actively engaged in the planning.

Having read through the crews and having started my own game earlier today, I am much more in favor with either Smugglers or Hawkers. Playing dealers and dealing with territory and all of that would be super interesting. Smugglers kind of has the same thing...that and having our own vehicle sounds really neat honestly.

It looks like everybody has Smugglers listed as one of the Crews they'd be interested in playing, so that should work. Reading the bios, this is what I see so far:

Feather- Tycherosi Military Hound
Dusky- Iruvian Underworld Slide
Guts- Skovlan Underworld Cutter
Fog- creepy Lurk

I think I'm going to do Leech. Let's see... Akorosi Trade Leech, from a long-standing Duskvol family of apothecaries, alchemists, and physickers. Dad's an apothecary, mom's a physicker, and he grew up learning about that stuff. Carries a hand-crossbow with little syringe darts full of fun substances. Maybe surprisingly for somebody with access to a lot of drugs, his Vice is Obligation- he has lots of family in Duskvol AND he's studying to be a physicker.

One of his cousins, Eckerd, is a corpse thief. He's worked with Eckerd a time or two. That can hook us into the world of smuggling- Eckerd knows how to move illegal things around the city and has access to vehicles. Eckerd also knows how to dispose of a body, if it comes to that.

I can see him having helped Guts get rid of a body or two and/or having sold some illicit substances out the back door of his dad's shop to Dusky. Eckerd runs in some pretty shady circles, so that's his hook into the underworld.

I'll do a full writeup asap. I'm listening to the Let's Plays you guys suggested to try to get a handle on the special abilities, though none of them is a Leech so it might not be that helpful.

Humm, interesting game Blades in the Dark. Reminds me of Thief: The Dark Project. Probably the whole setting is inspired by it. Indeed, using the Blades in the Dark System you could probably create an RPG based in the Thief universe considering they both have a lot in common.

@Darkfire Thief: the Dark Project, Dishonoured, Bloodborne, Fallen London, Snatch, Peaky Blinders... Yeah, the creators don't even try to be subtle about wearing their influences on their sleeve. I'm sure you could take the system and transplant it into any of the above pre-existing settings and it would work just fine.

I was having a lot of trouble making the Leech I had in mind work, which made me realise it was the wrong character for this. I'm rolling a Whisper instead. Should have them posted tonight or tomorrow.

Hey everyone! Just wanted to check back in and say that I've not been idle. I'm preparing ideas and possible story lines to give myself a feel for everyone's characters. No ones been picked yet and I am preparing some questions I hope to put up tomorrow. Everyone's submissions so far are great and I'm looking forward to seeing the kind of Whisper you come up with YorickRequiem.

Here's my Leech.

Sinjin "Saint" Blakely, Akorosi Trade Leech

Ethnicity: Akoros

Appearance: A young man with short, dark hair and dark eyes. Just above average height, with the slim build and pale skin of someone who spends too much time indoors. He dresses conservatively, in well made but not ostentatious clothes and no jewelry. The only notable thing about him is that he bears the marks of an alchemist- faded burns on his hands and forearms from chemical or apparatus accidents, yellowish discoloration on his fingertips and fingernails from the remains of ingredients too ground-in to wash out, and always a speck or smudge or stain on his clothes from a recent experiment.

Personality: He is not the typical distracted scholar with his mind focused on philosophy or history. His parents have taught him to have a very practical outlook on life. Curious and clever, Sinjin has learned to examine the world with a skeptical and analytical eye. He has a doctor's instinct to diagnose people as he meets them, and this extends to having a sharp eye for his surroundings.

A Duskvol native, he has the blase attitude of many long-time city residents when it comes to crime or supernatural surprises. While not a dyed in the wool resident of the city's Underworld, he knows when to keep to himself and when to act gregarious to allay suspicion, what territories to avoid and when an otherwise safe neighborhood might not be so safe.

Vice: Obligation. Sinjin has a large family spread out around Duskvol and is expected to attend family gatherings and help his cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and web of family friends. In addition to that, he is a current university student with all the work that entails. That said, he takes great comfort in being around his family and enjoys studying and the routine of lecture and testing.

Friends: Eckerd Blakely, his mortician/corpse thief cousin.

Enemies: Veldren Burress, a psychonaut. Veldren used to be Sinjin's friend, the son of an alchemist friend of his father's around the same age. Veldren went into alchemy and fell into the trap of becoming addicted to the substances he could create and sell. When Veldren's father cut him off from the family shop's supplies, Sinjin refused to let him steal from his shop. The two had a falling out and have been bitter enemies since.

Action Dots: Study 1, Survey 1, Consort 1, Wreck +1

Special Ability: Physicker It's flavorful but I'm not sure of the value of this ability. Would taking Alchemist be more useful?

@karlprosek The thing about the Leech is that they really shine during downtime. So, play-to-play, I'm sure it wouldn't make much of a difference.

But, if there's one thing that I've learned about this system it's that downtime actions are a precious commodity, and it feels like you barely have enough to do what you want. It's very Xcom-ey that way. So, if someone is badly injured and has to waste their precious downtime actions recovering from their wounds, and you make that process easier on everyone, we will all like you. This bonus also extends to you and doesn't cost you any extra actions yourself. Plus, there's an extra bonus to physicker that they don't really call attention to on the character sheet: someone with physicker can apply first aid in the field, and if successful, the recipient ignores the effects of an injury for about an hour. If there's someone with level three harm, that could potentially be life-saving.

So physicker is a fine choice, don't worry. You can still research and craft alchemicals like normal, and if you discover any recipes it'll give you a nice headstart for when you pick up the alchemist upgrade.

Gah, I'm super duper excited to see who gets in. Even if I don't, I will likely keep an eye on it so I can see how it looks and how it flows in Play by Post.

Definitely dotting for interest.

I generally just love the aesthetic of the game especially due to its Dishonored influence (2 of my most favorite games in recent years).

In terms of potential character I'm thinking Dagger Isles Whisper mainly due to their methods of dealing with spirits sans the use of lightning generators and being wanderers to add a more worldly and travelled weirdness on top of the inherent offness of a Whisper.

For Crew, I'm fine with whatever but personal preference would be Assassins, Shadows and Smugglers - which seems to be what everyone here more or less wants to run so thats neat!

Will try and get a write up done for the character asap pending inspiration of course >_>

Thanks for the input, Dreg. That field healing is a nice feature, too. I'll stick with Physicker.

I've been watching the Let's Plays and it looks like a really fun system. I really like the Devil's Bargain mechanic, and the flashback mechanic is a cool stand-in for IC pre-planning.

Yeah, I've been watching Rollplay: Blades that also has John Harper as the GM and while the system was a bit odd for me to get behind at the start, I'm really liking how it plays out.

hello everybody! Glad to see there's a bit more interest coming in. Looking forward to your submissions. For those who have already submitted characters. I have prepared some questions for you. Gonna put these in spoilers to keep the post tidy, but feel free to open them if you like. They aren't exclusive.

Who is Celes Rohavin to Fog?

Why would someone be so upset over a stupid drinking horn?

What is the point of Hatred?

Interested.

I own Blades in the Dark and would love to throw a character into the ring. I'll have a character write up this evening!

First draft of my Whisper is here!. There's a lot that I want to build on, but I think it's got enough to start getting some eyes on it.

Yay for character development questions! Here are my answers.

Still interested, but I'm running a game at a local con tonight, so all of my Doskvolian thought has gone that direction. I am getting together an application however, despite the current silence on here.