Band of Blades is a low magic, dark military fantasy campaign with gobs of undead and other horrors, alchemy, black powder, and a general tech level around the late European Renaissance. The party are all members of the elite mercenary force known as The Legion. Having just suffered a catastrophic defeat, The Legion must now survive the long retreat to safety and reinforcements at Skydagger Keep.
The BoB rules are based off the same system as Blades in the Dark. Blades in the Dark SRD This is a narrative based system that uses a simple d6 dice pool to determine successes, complications, and failures.
In addition to the regular playbook characters, players will also take on the downtime roles of Legion Commander, Quartermaster, Spymaster, Lorekeeper or Marshall. We will likely make a few modifications to some of these roles to better fit the PbP format or to make the bookkeeping aspect a little bit less time consuming.
Character injury and death is quite possible. However, having a character laid up by injury isn't a game ending event for the player, it just means they pick up a new Recruit or Soldier playbook. While the game rules allow for 'character sharing' among the player group, in order to accommodate the PbP format and need for aliases, once a player establishes a character, that player will generally be the one to post/play as that PC from that point forward.
Looking for a general posting rate of once a day which I try to keep to as well.
Download copies of the playbooks and role sheets.
I can post a bit more on setting as well as the Chosen and Taken if there is further interest.
Could be interested. I'll need to take a look at the links you have posted first as I have not had any experience with the system(s) in question.
Very interested. I'll definitely be taking a look at the rules when I get a chance.
I would very much like to hear more about the setting. I already have some ideas floating around, but having something for them to latch onto would be great.
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General Setting Description: "When humanity is in true peril and affairs of the supernatural plague the world, the gods create one or more Chosen. These powerful champions are imbued with aspects of the deity in question. They ride forth to vanquish mythic beasts, mend rifts in the world, and seal away curses. When the Cinder King rose in the West, an unheard-of nine Chosen arose. When they faced the Cinder King, five were Broken and turned to fight at his side. A desperate army was assembled by the remaining Chosen and led to fight a final decisive battle on the plains of Ettenmark.
Humanity lost. They did not expect the horrors the Broken brought to bear.
Now in retreat, a famous band of mercenaries seeks to stem the tide of the Cinder King, hoping to buy time for the Eastern Kingdoms to mount some wild hope, some wild plan, to keep humanity alive."
That's straight from the book. Much like most FitD games, more detailed setting info is left to the players and GM to create as the game flows along.
Some other potentially useful points to build from:
* The game begins in the nation of Aldermark. Aldermark is a large nation, dwarfing many others in size. It has multiple biomes and varied landscapes and is known for its abundance of natural resources. The weather is cold and snowy in winter, and rainy in spring and autumn. Until the recent disaster, it had held back the forces of the Cinder King for the last several years.
* Aldermark was glad to lose the yoke of the Old Empire and looks down on those that still venerate its remains. They are somewhat xenophobic and they value their own culture and twin gods above others. In general, they’re olive-skinned people with brown and black hair. Though ravaged by the undead, they take it as a point of pride that they have not yet fallen to the Cinder King. They’re known for their powerful cavalry from the plains and their great hunters of the northern woods. They’ve invested the money they earn via trade into Orite inventions, having black powder technology and good roads.
* The former capital of Aldermark lies just to the west and you can still see the glow of the fires burning from its recent fall.
* Generally the world is not populated by standard fantasy races like elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. Same goes for monsters like dragons and giants. Large creatures may exist, including something that could be called a dragon, but these are either a Great Beast, or some 'twisted' or corrupted aspect of nature, or a lost denizen of an ancient past.
* Alchemy and magic are present, but alchemy is much more prevalent and available to PC's whereas magic is more limited to the Chosen or Taken or some obscure holy rituals or cults and can often lead to Corruption or Blight.
* Black powder weapons are used and available as long as the Legion has supplies.
There are four basic heritages:
* Bartans are close-knit and devout. Many wear jewelry made of tokens
granted to them by family and people they have forged strong friendships
with. Their culture is agrarian and ruled by a council.
* Orites are cosmopolitan and influential. Their country is known for
its technology. Their advances in clockwork and alchemy are almost as
defining as their obsession with nobility and lineage.
* Panyar come from the deep forest, which was touched by an ancient god. Everyone that spends enough time in the forest eventually gains an animal trait, such as cat-like eyes or noticeable fangs. Their culture focuses on great deeds and Panyar must earn the third part of their name.
* Zemyati are mountain-dwelling clans, and their culture is a complex
arrangement of oaths between various clans, between a clan and its
members, and between a Zemyati and the world.
Some other characteristics:
* This is an old world. There are ruins of the past, remnants of past
Chosen, Great Beasts, and wounds on the land from troubles that came
and went. Most of it was forgotten until the Old Empire discovered alchemy and codified writing. But the ruins of the past litter the world. Explanations for some things are just forgotten.
* There are no wizards. Magic (as it exists in most fantasy settings) is not a thing in Band of Blades. The only source of miracles are the Chosen, and people tied to the gods (like Mercies). Their power is localized—they cannot will things to happen on the other side of the world, and they cannot perform large-scale acts.
* Alchemy is science. There are properties of the world that are not thesame as ours, but they can be studied and understood. Alchemists are not performing miracles so much as they are using scientific principles that work in this world.
* Prayer does nothing. You’d think in a world with gods that embody and
walk the land, prayer would be a thing that could change the world. It doesn’t. The gods do what they want for reasons that are largely incomprehensible, and they don’t spend a lot of time explaining themselves. People still interpret, build religions, and fight over their beliefs.
* Strength and courage solve problems. With big enough armies even Chosen may die (as the Godswar proved). Chosen need troops as much as the troops rely on them. Strength, training, and steel make more of a difference than superstition, supernatural power, or hope.
* There is no prophecy. Nothing is written. Nothing is preordained.
There are no words carved into stones that say what will be. There is no
fate. You make your own destiny. There is no special hero protected by plot. Anyone can die. This also does not stop people from believing otherwise.
For the Chosen I think I'd like to try The Horned One and for Taken we'll use Blighter and Breaker.
I'm interested, because Tareth is running. Thought I had created a character before, but I was wrong. Completely new to this.
I've reviewed the playbooks and could play any of them besides one, so I'm easy. The roles look like work, so I need to think about those harder.
I'll post a character this weekend picking a playbook someone hasn't chosen.
Cheers
On the Legion Roles, I've a few ideas that will hopefully cut down on the player work involved for those.
For the tracking of all the things like Pressure, Time, Morale, Supply, etc. That can all just go on the Campaign Tab or into a simple shared Google sheet that any of us can update. Same would be true of Quartermaster projects and material. I think PbP could be helpful with all of this because its already all captured in writing and there's plenty of time to update things verses the limited hours when everyone can be gathered around a table.
I also wouldn't expect the Marshall to keep track of or create all the various NPC squads. I expect I'll likely be a driver of good portion of that NPC creation along with others. Again, the same google sheet or some info stored on the campaign tab can help sort all that. Same goes for the Spy Master and the spy network NPC's.
And of course we can RP and dive in on some of the downtime/campaign roles or we can hand wave or keep the narrative shorter depending on what you all want to focus on. For instance the Loremaster doesn't have to write up a long storybook tale back at camp. (Certainly can if the player wants to.) An alternative would be a brief post describing the gist or moral of the tale told and your Loremasters general actions or mood or something could be enough for others to use in flashbacks or recovery or actions.
It might take a little trial and error to find a good balance, but I think (hope) it's doable. Of course, I could be totally wrong. :D
OK I'm going to stake out a Zemyati Heavy. Need to build and think about the role.
cheers
Here's Jubal's Heavy Zemyati
Could be interested. I'll need to take a look at the links you have posted first as I have not had any experience with the system(s) in question.
Looked the system over, think I'm going to forgo making a character for this one.
As always, Tareth, thanks for offering to run the game.
Those of you playing, have a great game.
Planning on grabbing the rules even if I don't wind up playing this round. What I've seen hinted at has me intrigued.
Would have to pay in 20 dinero for it. Might have to wait out for a bit.
I’ve been reading up on the system and am interested if you decide to run it.
Thank you all. It seems like we've got enough interest for this to move forward. However, I've had some situations come up at work the last couple of days that are going to take a bit of time over the next few weeks.
So I am going to park this for a month or so to make sure I have enough time to run it well.
In the meantime, if any of you are looking to check the rules out PM me and I can share a copy to preview before you decide to purchase.
Still interested. Actually have a full physical copy, so that isn't a problem on my end.