Blades in the Dark (GM Sarah)

Game Master Sarah 'queen' B.

I think ghostly allies, dressed in Skovlandic gear, would help enormously. After all, when they wake up they aren't going to want to admit to having been defeated by one person.

So, I'm assuming that is another Attune roll to help Fin?

Attune: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 2) = 7

That's a sucsess, but ghosts don't like being told what to do even if what theyre being told to do is something they enjoy doing (scaring the hell out of people). They'll remember Jonah bossing them around and one or more of them will come for payback when it's least convenient.

Okay, makes sense. I'm not going to bother trying to resist. If that's an option.

Resistig is always an option! I jsut someties forget to mention it. My bad.

On the plus side, you're doing a setup action, not just saying "I assist" and paying a point of Stress.

IOW, you eat that consequence, but I think you don't spend that Stress point.

I'm not sure where we are at this point. Are we ready to move to an actual resolution of all this set up?

Sorry, slow-down is on me: I wrote a "To Be Continued" and then didn't, it's been a much busier week than I anticipated. I'll finish the post tomorrow so Sarah can move the scene on.

I'm not sure where we are at this point. Are we ready to move to an actual resolution of all this set up?

There were to be 4 pre-heist actions -- everybody does one, and everybody assists on one. 2 of the 4 are complete, and Finraeth is about to write #3. So #4 (which is yours) is about to begin.

1) Min with Finraeth assist: alerting Silver Nails to the Grinder "danger". Done.

2) Casia with Min assist: framing Nails for assassination attempt on Grinder leader. Done.

3) Finraeth with Jonah assist -- in progress.

4) Jonah with Casia assist -- still to do (but you could probably start on it).

Actually, I already did mine. The whole scene with Skint and sending him off to fire up the Grinders with a double 6 using the knife that Casia left for them. I wasn't sure of the actual final effect, so was leaving that up to the GM.

Actually, I already did mine. The whole scene with Skint and sending him off to fire up the Grinders with a double 6 using the knife that Casia left for them. I wasn't sure of the actual final effect, so was leaving that up to the GM.

And Casia assisted!

Well, she commented.

Okay, she complained.

She was there, okay?!

Done. I've added the 2 stress for pushing to get greater Effect. Between that, Jonah's setup action and the Not To Be Trifled With ability, it should be enough to get a good result even against a much higher-Tier opponent.

Actually, I already did mine. The whole scene with Skint and sending him off to fire up the Grinders with a double 6 using the knife that Casia left for them. I wasn't sure of the actual final effect, so was leaving that up to the GM.

And she complelty missed that becasuse she was focusing on Fin and his unfinished story! Blame the dysxlexia, I don't always pay attention as I should. I will re-read what you wrote and the dice roll - a crit, obviously - and decide how it goes.

(Casia, whose idea it was but who wisely left the execution thereof to another, went entirely unpunished; another litany in the book of sibling injustices).

hehehehe :)

Okay, so... we've completed the pre-heist activities? Fantastic!

What now?

Okay, so I guess the next step would be the actual heist. I think the standard setup is, we discuss it in general terms, then we decide on an approach, pick load, and then make the engagement roll. Of course, the GM can add to or amend that in all sorts of ways.

The general outline was, there are these two factions that we sharply dislike, so let's set them at each other's throats -- although (if I understand correctly) our priority is crushing the Grinders. Fair summary?

Hello all - I've had some good RL changes to my life recently including beter job and even sometihgn that might be called a relationship, but you can probly see where this is going. I've realy enjoyed gaming with you on these boards and I'm very grateful to WW in particular for inviting me in teh first place and to all of you for making me feel welcome and included. But it's time for me to move on, I jsut don't have the time for this anymore and it's not fair to keep putting everyone on hold.

WW has talked to me about posibly taking this game over if you want to keep going but I will leave that with him to post about.

I wish you all a ver fond farewell - to coin a phrase - and all teh best for the future. PM me if you want my email but yuo should know I am very bad at replying and staying in touch.

Congratulations on the good RL changes - that's always nice to read about.

Thanks for running the game, I've enjoyed the characters and the story. Good luck in your future endeavors. :)

Hi all, as Sarah said I'm happy to take over running this game (I'd probably just retire Finraeth to NPC status where he can continue to make pithy observations from the sidelines); assuming there's interest in continuing it?

I'm willing to give it a try! But if we do, I would really like to pick up the pace.

I'm really torn.

I still don't really have a grasp on this system, but in most ways that's not really relevant. I'd really like to continue these characters' story, but if Finraeth fades into the background as an NPC then a huge amount of Casia's story won't get told. They're twins and to be telling Cas's story without Fin directly involved just seems ... wrong.

I'll agree with Doug above, though, that if we continue, an elevated pace would be nice.

Agree on the improvement in pace, that was partly just Sarah's RL stuff getting in the way.

I still don't really have a grasp on this system, but in most ways that's not really relevant. I'd really like to continue these characters' story, but if Finraeth fades into the background as an NPC then a huge amount of Casia's story won't get told. They're twins and to be telling Cas's story without Fin directly involved just seems ... wrong.

I hear this, for sure. I certainly wouldn't be killing Finraeth off! There won't be as many dice rolls in his future, but that doesn't mean he disappears.

Fin: I can go either way. If you feel up to taking it on, then that's cool by me, I can continue. But if not, then I'm just as good with closing it down and shifting my energy toward some other games I'm prepping to start.

Sarah: Congrats on the positive RL happenings. It is actually kind of nice to hear about someone needing to step back because things are going really well for them. Thanks for the good gaming memories. Wish you all the best.

I'm enjoying the game (a lot) so I'm willing to give it a go. If it turns out not to work, I suspect we'll find out pretty quickly and we can all move on. Sound reasonable?

I'm not doing a clock for "let's cure Fin" or "what's wrong with Fin" as his injury is going to resolve at the speed of plot. We'll say that it's not fatal but he isn't going to be doing very much of anything for a good long while. I would imagine Jonah has seen similar from previous experience and would be able to prevent the worst from happening.

(EDIT: It occurs to me that Min, too, is probably no stranger to poison.)

Ouch! Well that resolves that little side-bar. AFAICT, we've now resolved everyone's sub-plots and the Grinders and Silver Nails are currently each convinced that the other has it in for them.

What's the final move here and who wants to get the ball rolling?

If I remember correctly, the plan was to use the growing conflict between the Grinders and Silver Nails in order to provide us an opening (and a potential patsy) to take out Hutton. With his death the main reason and force behind their war on us would be eliminated and thus we could make peace with whoever takes over.

As for the general setup, I'm guessing we are waiting for an opportune moment to take out Hutton using the SN disguises acquired by Fin. Would this be a straight up Assault? Deception? Not sure. I think we should avoid Occult for now. :)

It might depend on the Engagement roll or the final approach, but it seems like it would be good for Min or Casia to kick things off since a good chunk of the focus has been on Jonah recently.

Min likes Deception, Stealth, and Social approaches. Occult would normally be fine but, yeah, maybe not just now. Assault is not his thing, though he can fight if cornered.

Do any of us have contacts or other resources that could potentially be leveraged for an extra die on the Engagement roll? I have the Bluecoat archivist that I can chat with...

I don't think my contacts would be of much help. But my Deck of Obscurement might be useful if we try to use Stealth. We also have our gang's maps and underground passkeys and well as the Second Story trait if this could count as a 'clandestine infiltration.' Second story gives a straight +1d to the engagement roll.

Posted.

Giving everyone a chance to contribute if they'd like before I move it farther forward.

Busy with work today. Will try to get something posted over the weekend.

Okay, so it looks like we've gone with Stealth as our approach. We have the standard 1 die, +1 for Second Story. Should we get (or lose) any dice beyond that?

Sorry, crazy week! Catching up with everything now.

Factors for the engagement roll

- is it bold/daring? Yes, you're taking on not one but 2 gangs higher Tier than you are +1d
- is it overly complex/contingent on many factors? Hm, there's a lot going on in terms of the setup actions you've taken to get here but the final 'thrust' has a sort of elegant simplicity. I'm going to say no.
- are you exposing a vulnerability of the target? No
- are they strongest against this approach or do they have special defences or preparations? Hm, again. The Grinders are at war with you and they have some idea of what the Dusk Mites are capable of. I'm going to say yes, so -1d
- are you up against a higher Tier gang? Absolutely. -1d

With the 2d that Doug mentioned, you are down to 1d after that is considered.

engagement: 1d6 ⇒ 2

OK, that's not great, you're going to start at a Desperate position.

There is however one more factor:

- can any of your friends or contacts provide aid for this score? I don't know, can they?

If they can, I'll give you another 1d6 to the roll. Otherwise, the above result stands.

Very busy day today, so no time to post. Jonah has his friend Nyryx, a prostitute who was a friend of Naty's and willing to help him out on occasion. Could be she was able to get herself invited into the Grinder hideout on a 'professional' visit. Once inside she's able to slip away for just long enough to leave a key door ajar or perhaps provide a distraction to one of the guards. If this seems plausible, then I can try to write a bit up tomorrow, if not, totally fine. After all, what's a little desperation...

Casia's got a similar friend in Cinna, but she's not an ally, mechanically. So Jonah's friend would probably work better. :)

My friend is a Bluecoat archivist. Not sure I see an obvious way to use him. Research of some sort? How might that help here?

Very busy day today, so no time to post. Jonah has his friend Nyryx, a prostitute who was a friend of Naty's and willing to help him out on occasion. Could be she was able to get herself invited into the Grinder hideout on a 'professional' visit. Once inside she's able to slip away for just long enough to leave a key door ajar or perhaps provide a distraction to one of the guards. If this seems plausible, then I can try to write a bit up tomorrow, if not, totally fine. After all, what's a little desperation...

Let's go with that, it sounds like the most plausible of the options.

extra engagement die: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Nope, you're still in trouble. I'll write us up later on.

[braces for Stress and Harm]

Team, remember Min has Foresight -- twice / heist, can assist a teammate without paying Stress. Hey, it's an extra die.

One of the toughest things for me to learn in GMing this game was to let go and not tell the players what to do ("roll to hit vs AC 22" or "Make a Will Save"); and instead to present the problem and step back.

With that said, I don't want to go too far the other way and be overly cryptic about what is going on, so to clarify: you're not in a fight (yet) but neither are you able simply to sneak past unseen.

When in doubt, go through the Action list.

Insight: it doesn't seem like there's time to Study or Survey the situation -- although if we can, more information would be good to have. I suppose the failure mode there would be "while you're standing there studying the creature, bad stuff happens". DM, what do you think?

Meanwhile Hunt and Tinker aren't obviously relevant (though goodness knows, clever players can always come up with something).

Prowess: Skirmish is the obvious one here, although Wreck is up there too -- just commit mayhem and figure out what next afterwards. We're spotted, that's fixed, so it doesn't seem like we can Prowl our way out. Finesse... eh?

Resolve: Okay, Attune leaps to mind as the way to deal with this obviously magical situation. Jonah is the tank here; Min could throw an assist and/or use Foresight. However, if someone has two dice in Command, barking orders at the cultists seems possible (maybe combining it with an Assist action to impersonate, I don't know, a rival spirit or something?)

Consort is another one that probably takes too long. But Sway -- maybe a fast-talk to convince the cultists that we're reinforcements / here to help / whatever?

Team, what think you?

Seems like the cultists are in trouble. Might be a quick Sway to convince them not to attack and that we could help would buy us a bit of time. Follow that with an Attune to bottle or deal with the ghost could net us some allies either in the near term or later on down the line.

I'm thinking while Casia or Min chat them up, that gives Jonah a bit of time to Survey the situation to try and have a better idea of what they are trying to do or what they've conjured up and maybe how to deal with it.

Any or all of those ideas could potentially work! The only thing I would add is that the result of the engagement roll means you start in a near-worst-case scenario (this is BitD, things can always get worse); you won't get the benefit of any doubt.

Well, I like Jonah's proposed "Sway cultists, then Attune ghost" idea.

I'm ready to drop one of my Foresight assists on one of these rolls. If we're going with that, give me a quick heads-up and I'll write into it.

Works for me. Since Jonah is just observing at this stage, I'll make my Survey roll.

Survey: 1d6 ⇒ 5

So not bad. Will get a quick post up and leave the complication to our GM.

Success with complications! My favourite.

I'm reading your Survey action as the Whisper's attempt to see what's going on, and try to spot possible advantages. That is successful, so I will give you a free +1d on your next roll if what you're doing makes sense in the context of what you observe (in PbtA terms, you take +1 forward if you act on the information).

The consequence: the act of observing changes the observed. In practical terms, you lose time and the ghost breaks free!

In-game post incoming.

There's a wonderful passage in the late Terry Pratchett's book Feet of Clay where the alchemist ruefully notes - after the fact - that many of the standard treatises on the art set out the required steps in detail, but fail to add comments such as "... from a safe distance" or "say fare-thee-well to thine eyebrows."

That's sort of the effect I'm going for here.

Success with complications! My favourite.

I'm reading your Survey action as the Whisper's attempt to see what's going on, and try to spot possible advantages. That is successful, so I will give you a free +1d on your the next action roll if what you're doing makes sense in the context of what you Jonah observes (in PbtA terms, you take +1 forward if you act on the information).

I'm changing this slightly to make it clearer that Jonah's success gives +1d to the next action roll, regardless of who makes it (provided they act on the info). Trying to let everyone in on the action.

Okay then, forget swaying these dopey cultists. I think Attuning the ghost is the way to roll here, and I think Jonah is the guy to do it.

Jonah gets 2 dice, +1 for the Survey, and +1 for Min's Foresight. That's four dice, which should get us /some/ sort of result. (I assume this is probably a Desperate roll, yes? Those are the ones I want to invest Foresight in.)

Yes, the situation is still Desperate, what with the rampaging ghost and everything.

Okay, here we go. Desperate Attune roll to hold off or divert the ghost to allow us to pass unharmed.

Attune: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 1, 1) = 10

Huh...well, thank goodness for that first die. Question before I post, are we on a clock here or is it just a one roll and done situation?