Snow is falling across Doskvol (aka Duskwall if you’re an Akorosi who would rather forget the Skovlandic origins of your city, aka North Hook if you’re in Imperial service and this city is just another posting among many, aka The Dusk to the scoundrels who live, work and die here – sometimes all at once). Where it falls through the lightniing barriers whihch surround the city, it makes the electroplasm crackle and sprarkle in greens and blues. Where it lands in Barrowcleft, it coats the fields and farmland in a soft white blanket, and the farmers curse as they try to get their wagons through the smooth dirt roads now churned with slush. Where it lands in the Governer’s Palace in Whitecrown, or the broad clean avenues of Brightstone, and around the law cuourts of Charterhall, it is swiftly dusted away by the elite Bluecoat patrols whose job is to prevent the grate and the good of the city from suffering even the slightedst inconveninence. Where it falls among the factories of Coalridge, it lands black with soot or yellow with sulphur, stinging where in falls in the eye and fizzing when it lands on the tongue – a popular game among the local children, ignoring the warnings of their mothers “don’t come crying to me when it burns a hole right through!” - the same warning that their mothers gave to them, and theirs before that. Where it falls in the Docklands, it turns the vast steemships moored at anchor somehow even more majestic, hiding the grime and ichor from the leviathans they hunt underneath a pure white. Where it falls in Dunslough, it breifly makes the prisoners and chain gangs of Ironhook Gaol look up from their backbreaking labour, until the lash of the guaard reminds them to pay attention to closer things. Where it falls in Nightmarket, it glows in the riot of colours from the electric lights that illuminate some of the finest (read: exclusive) shops and private clubs the city has to offer. In Silkshore, it falls on the fleets of gondolas that carry the rich and curious through the district’s many canals, lit in the soft red glow of the lamps that shine from the placess many brothels. In Six Towers, it blows across deserted streets, piling up in drifts around the ancient and abandoned manor houses and melting in the campfires of the many squatters who now live there.
And of course, in Charhollow and here in Crow’s Foot, the districts which form the beating heart of The Dusk, cramped home to the huddled, teeming mases of workign poor who keep the rest of the city going, the snow barely lands at all: the tall, cramped houses lean in over tiny, winding streets, almost suhtting out the sky completely.
Blades in the Dark is a game about a group of daring scoundrels building a criminal enterprise on the haunted streets of an industrial-fantasy city. There are heists, chases, escapes, dangerous bargains, bloody skirmishes, deceptions, betrayals, victories, and deaths. We play to find out if your fledgling crew can thrive amidst the teeming threats of rival gangs, powerful noble families, vengeful ghosts, the Bluecoats of the City Watch, and the siren song of your scoundrels’ own vices.
The game takes place in the cold, foggy city of Doskvol (aka Duskwall or “the Dusk”). It’s industrial in its development. Imagine a world like ours during the second industrial revolution of the 1870s — there are trains, steam-boats, printing presses, simple electrical technology, carriages, and the black smog of chimney smoke everywhere. Doskvol is something like a mashup of Venice, London, and Prague. It’s crowded with row-houses, twisting streets, and criss-crossed with hundreds of little waterways and bridges. The city is also a fantasy. The world is in perpetual darkness and haunted by ghosts — a result of the cataclysm that shattered the sun and broke the Gates of Death a thousand years ago. The cities of the empire are each encircled by crackling lightning towers to keep out the vengeful spirits and twisted horrors of the deathlands. To power these massive barriers, the titanic metal ships of the leviathan hunters are sent out from Doskvol to extract electroplasmic blood from massive demonic terrors upon the ink-dark Void Sea.
You’re in a haunted Victorian-era city trapped inside a wall of lightning powered by demon blood.
Welcome to the discussion on BitD. I’m really looking forward to running this! I know some/most of you haven’t played it before so pleasea ask questions as we go along.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is a game where you play criminals and bad guys, or scoundresl as BitD calls them. That does NOT mean that you get to play Jack the Ripper type psychos. You work as part of a crew and you need to be team players. You’re not here to squick everyone out so please be careful about other peoples comfort levels.
Personly, I don’t squick out easily, I can handle mature themes but prefer them to be handled you know, maturely. As I’ve alreaday said to some of you, if you imagine what any girl-gamer has had to face in a tabletop game, and then don’t do that, we’re all good :)
Hello, I'm looking for 1 or 2 players to join my existing Mirkwood campaign (modified D&D 5E rules using the Crucible 7 system).
I started with five players, lost one before the game even started and am now down to 3:
Hobbit of the Anduin Vales Treasure Hunter
Dúnedain Warden
Barding Scholar (planning to multiclass to Warrior)
I would prefer characters tied to either the Woodmen or the Wood Elves just to make it easier to fit you in to the game. I'm willing to be flexible on this, for example the Dúnedain is tied in by parentage and the Barding by marriage. This reallly isn't the campaign to play someone from Rohan or Minas Tirith, though.
More details on the campaign setting:
When Bilbo Baggins went There and Back Again, the worst he had to contend with at home was the Sackville-Bagginses stealing his spoons. Frodo went to Mordor and returned to find the Shire wounded, but he still left a place of comfort and safety to travel far into danger. In the Mirkwood Campaign, you do not have the same luxury. Danger is not over the Misty Mountains and far away – it is right outside your door. What is threatened by the growing Shadow are your homes and your way of life.
The Mirkwood Campaign is the telling of a long defeat for the Free People of the North. By the time of the War of the Ring, Mirkwood is again a place of horror. The Woodmen are barely mentioned and may be scattered or destroyed, Beorn and Radagast are gone and the Woodland Realm is isolated. The Shadow returns to the forest, and Dol Guldur is restored to become the starting point for large-scale attacks against Lórien and the Woodland Realm.
The Mirkwood Campaign places you in the middle of that coming war, alongside those who fight the shadow that threatens to engulf the forest and subjugate all those who live near and inside it. Can you change what has been written? Will you succeed in weakening the power in Dol Guldur and protecting the folks that live in the forest? Even if the forest is lost, can you save your own families and friends from slavery and death? Can you preserve the treasures kept by the Woodmen? Can you salvage something from the ruin? Your characters may not live to see the downfall of the Enemy, but they can give hope to the future.
The emphasis of the Mirkwood Campaign is on personal tragedy. The campaign works best if your characters have a stake in Mirkwood. Ideally, most of your characters will come from the Free Folk who live in or around the forest – either Wood(wo)men, Beornings, perhaps even a Silvan Elf. Over the course of the campaign, you will be offered the chance to invest in your communities, to establish and tend to Holdings, to make friends and allies, possibly even to become leaders in your communities, marry and have children.
Thanks for your interest. I'm happy to answer questions you may have.
It began, as many adventures do, with a barrel. The Foresters are surrounded by trees and they make and use (and sell) a lot of barrels. This praticular barrel, however, was flawed. Either a sloppy apprentice or misfortune worked to make it split, spoiling its hold of salt as foul water crept in during the long winter storage (and in Mirkwood, foul water can carry worse than dirt). Salt is a vital part of preserving food, even though the Foresters are masters of smoking and drying, if you want food to stay eatalbe for any length of time you need salt. This barrel in question held the salt reserve for three separate Forester settlements. When the spoilage was discovered, the issue was raised in the Folk-Moot and it was agreed that more would be needed. These days, with trade being easy, the best and cheapest salt is found in Lake-Town. Foresters prefer not to journey too far from the woods, although they will at need. In this case, however, fate had provided the Foresters with outlander companions, who would be much more willing to take this journey.
The sound of the spring rain falling on cobbled streets is almost music to your ears after four hot, dusty weeks in Osirion. It washes away the dust and sand and memories of oprressive, unesccapable heat. The plan was to come back to this city with Professor Lorrimer, which you have done, and for him to submit his findings and introduce you to the sponsors of the expedition, which he has not done. Instead, with many apologies, he has told you that something has come to his attention back home (he does not say what) and that he needs to leave. He ensures that you have money to find lodgings, and gives you both a quick embrace, before looking each of you in the eye.
“Goodbye, for now. Stay out of trouble, both of you. I will see you both in a few months, once I have a handle on this other matter. Until then, fare you both well!”
And that sight, of Professor Lorrimer hurrying through the bustle until he was swallowed up by the crowd and by the pouring drizzle, was the last time you saw him alive.
Don’t RP this bit, I’m just establishing that you weren’t with him when he died
+++5 OCTOBER 4711+++ +++Magnimar+++
You should RP this bit :)
CATHY
Rap-rap-rap-rap. It’s not a gentle sort of tapping at your bedroom door. The staff at the Duke Hotel (the most expensive in Magnimar) make it a point to know their guests, and the porter or maid or whoever on the other side of the door clearly knows what’s required to wake you from your drunken sleep. Being awake hurts. Maybe you were counting on a few more hours slep before having to face the consequences of last night (or maybe it still is last night? It’s far too early to be woken up). You’re in no state to answer the door, even if you were dressed in something more than your pharasmin amulet. Breathing, being alive, and wishing you weren’t are about all you can manage right now. A quick glance ow-ow-ow-ow-ow shows that you are at least alone in the room, your clothes from last night (most of them at least) strewn across the floor.
Memories resurface: drinks in the hotel bar, flirting with strangers, some sort of card game, drinks, food, free food, expensive food, more drinks, gambling, winning, losing, flirting, drinking, flirting and then bed. Whoever they were, they’ve made themselves scarce.
Rap-rap-rap-rap. The staff at the Duke hotel are discrete but they know their jobs. If their job is to wake you up then they will do it. “Ma’am?” A man’s voice. “I have a letter for you, arrived urgently.” The staff at the Duke hotel are good at their jobs, and one of their jobs is to know their guests. The man’s voice allows a tactful pause. “I’ll put it under the door. You have a good day, ma’am.” A crisp parchment envelope – expensive – with a wax seal slides into your room.
The voice leaves, and you are left with your pain and your jumbled memories and the letter.
ALEXI
Your description didn’t give me a lot to work with in terms of your personality, likes, hobbies etc (although in fairness, it WAS shorter than Cathys’) so I’ve had to wing it here
Rap-rap-rap-rap. However early you normall wake, the call comes earlier. Much earlier. It is still dark so even though it’s now October that means it’s what, before 6 a.m.? At least you didn’t have that much to drink last night – you spent most of the evening nursing a quiet drink or two in the corner of the hotel bar (trust Cathy to insist on the most expensive hotel in the city) keeping a watchful eye on your younger sister until it became clear she was going to do what she was going to do. One advantage of the better hotels is that there’s a limit, more or less, of how much danger she can put herself in. You retired to your room with some reading and slept the sleep of the just.
Rap-rap-rap-rap. At least, until now. “Sir?” The staff at the Duke hotel are good at their jobs, and one of their jobs is to know their guests. If a guest wants to be addressed as Mr, then they will be addressed as Mr. Money is the great equaliser, in that regard. As long as you have it, of course.
The voice continues. “Sir, I have a leter for you, arrived urgently.”
Hey both, welcome to my game of Charnel Crown! I hope this discussion thread will help us all put the campaign together. I have some thoughts that I will set out as I find time to do it.
Mainly I am planning to use some Insanity rules. I don't like the ones presented in Horror Adventures, they take away plaeyer agency too much. I like the Shadow Corruption rules from the LOTR game Wastrel and I are playing so will addapt those as follows.
If you encounter something particularly distressing you have to make a Will save. If you fail, you can gain Insanity points (I'm convinced Wastrel and I will end up calling thme Shadow points but let's at least start with good intentions). You can also accumulate Insanity points voluntarily. Why would you do that? Well, I'm glad you asked. One of the only ways to learn about a Haunt that you encounter is to open yourself up to it, which allows you to make a knowledge roll to try and guess how to dispel it. The more you open yourself up to it, the more you learn about it - BUT the more you open up to it, the more Insanity points you get. ALSO, some of the more sentient Haunts will grow in strength if you open up to them, so you have to be careful.
If you have more Insanity points than half your Wisdom score (so 6 Insanity with Wis 10), you are Distracted. You get to decide what form this takes: depression, mania, delusion, whatever. You take a -2 penalty to ALL dice rolls, and this stacks with any other modifiers (shaken, sickened and so on).
If you have more Insanity points than your total Wisdom score you become an NPC under the GM's control* you become Erratic. Again you get to decide what this looks like. Penalties increase to -4, and for social skills you have to roll twice and take the lower restuls, because people tend to back away from the loony on the bus.
You lose Insanity points by taking a day of bed-rest. A successful Will save lets you remove d4 Insanity. If you fail, you remove half (minimum 1). If someone uses the Heal skill to administer long term care, you get to roll the d4 twice and take the better result.
More as and when I have time. Post questions and I will answer
(I have adapted this from the intro to the campaign setting)
When Bilbo Baggins went There and Back Again, the worst he had to contend with at home was the Sackville-Bagginses stealing his spoons. Frodo went to Mordor and returned to find the Shire wounded, but he still left a place of comfort and safety to travel far into danger. In the Mirkwood Campaign, you do not have the same luxury. Danger is not over the Misty Mountains and far away – it is right outside your door. What is threatened by the growing Shadow are your homes and your way of life.
The Mirkwood Campaign is the telling of a long defeat for the Free People of the North. By the time of the War of the Ring, Mirkwood is again a place of horror. The Woodmen are barely mentioned and may be scattered or destroyed, Beorn and Radagast are gone and the Woodland Realm is isolated. The Shadow returns to the forest, and Dol Guldur is restored to become the starting point for large-scale attacks against Lórien and the Woodland Realm.
The Mirkwood Campaign places you in the middle of that coming war, alongside those who fight the shadow that threatens to engulf the forest and subjugate all those who live near and inside it. Can you change what has been written? Will you succeed in weakening the power in Dol Guldur and protecting the folks that live in the forest? Even if the forest is lost, can you save your own families and friends from slavery and death? Can you preserve the treasures kept by the Woodmen? Can you salvage something from the ruin? Your characters may not live to see the downfall of the Enemy, but they can give hope to the future.
The emphasis of the Mirkwood Campaign is on personal tragedy. The campaign works best if your characters have a stake in Mirkwood. Ideally, most of your characters will come from the Free Folk who live in or around the forest – either Wood(wo)men, Beornings, perhaps even a Silvan Elf. Over the course of the campaign, you will be offered the chance to invest in your communities, to establish and tend to Holdings, to make friends and allies, possibly even to become leaders in your communities, marry and have children.
Then, with a kin and a hearth to defend, it will be easy for me to threaten all they stand for.
