its been long enough since we played blades in the dark that i cant really remember any of it so
it
seems about time to construct a batshit retroclone of blades of the
dark in the style of this style of blogging which i can also barely
remember.
so the main problem with blades of the dark is it
doesnt fit all in your head, which blades solves by having sheets where
you write lots of numbers on like THE GUTTER BOYS: -2
blades in the dark is represented by bits of paper at the table by
1 a map
2 a list of kinds of guys you like or dont like
3 a bunch of apocalypse world style classes/character sheets on one page each
4 a page that describes your gang, and all the stuff they have
so thats already at least 3 pages plus one page for each player, lets try to do it on fewer pages?
mind
you i played blades in the dark as a player so the other thing that
blades in the dark is this series of acturial tables that tells you when
to move a number on these pages up or down by one, and a TERRIBLE
CONSEQUENCE for each one of these adjustments, but i didnt play as the
darkkeeper so i cannot tell you what exactly it is on those tables but
its like... adjust the thing by one and something bad happens
but its more than this, its a setting and a vibe and whatever. the vibe is like STRETCHY but DARKBAD with GHOST stuff
its always night time in blades of the dark but this DOENST MATTER REALLY
i
think it doesnt have enough knife fights in it but thats actually my
review of Knives Out, blades in the dark you can put as many knife
fights in it as you want. but you wont, because
-the knife fighting rules are thin on the ground
-while the game wants you to do risky stuff, every dice roll is a crapshoot so you avoid dice rolls and become risk averse
-the healing is too much paperwork
so
you can ignore these rules and fight knives all the time but that would
be against the thesis of EVIL BABBONS, where we use all the mechanics
we are given, to a fault, and pretend to be bamboozled by all the parts
of a rpg that arent represented exacly as mechanics
so in this
new blades in the dark retroclone there needs to be RULE 1: EXHAUSTIVE
KNIFE FIGHTING RULE (TBD, INSERT YOUR FAV KNIFE FIGHTING RULE HERE)
i
wont spell this one out here but i should specify: i think the game
should have five or fewer rules so the knife fighting is probably the
way that most conflicts are resolved, its the core mechanic, which
replaces the action roll system in old-school blades. if you need a
lockpicking or a whatever we'll call that a special case of knife
fighting
okay so that covers blades, what about the dark?
i
have tried to understand and care about the cover/vision/concealment
system in d&d 5e and i cannot. there are three levels of darkness
and five levels of cover and im so bored already. darkvision lets you
see halfdarkness as though it were lightness and actual darkness as
though it were halfdarkness (ie with disadvantage on active checks and
-5 to your passive check) but only within a radius, outside that radius
you can see nothing. but darkvision is the default so i should write
that backwards. if you have badvision you cannot see with disadvantage
like normal, instead you cannot see at all. thats what the rule actually
says but nobody use this rule, instead they ignore the whole system...
lets not get into stealth and surprise in 5e but lets agree that noone
uses that as written either
so for the blades clone were writing
we should try at first to do no harm. some darkness system is essential
because the game is IN THE DARK, but the darkmaster should be allowed to
forget this and not break anything. so let the basic rule be for in the
dark and lets have BEING IN THE LIGHT be a exceptional case.
there
needs to be a stealth system here, this will be an advantage over
traditional blades in the dark which if i recall correclt does not have a
stealth system
ok so lets do the stealth system using clocks.
blades in the dark is clocks for everything. lets say each player has a
clock that represents how lit up they are, and check it every time they
do something loud or whatever, an when the clock fills up SOMETHING BAD
HAPPENS.... if you dont like this what rule do you like for this area of
the game. like/comment/subscribe me about it
so thats the second
rule. we are quickly running out of rules so we have to cover all the
other shit you can do in blades before we get to the fifth rule which
will end the retroclone and seal this oath.
because its blades in
the dark we need to have a rule for HEISTS, a rule for ghosts GEISTS,
and a rule for STRETCHING CREDULITY BY GOING BACK IN TIME AND CHANGING
SHIT and thats it weve run out. those are all of the things that there
are.
if we make a rule for each of these case we will have made
blades actually better and we will have made some good houserules that
can make your blades game better but might also stand alone as a new
better game because blades in the dark is actually not much more than
this and doesnt really spell any of this shit out even though its core
to its identity, this is what makes it feel all stretchy because it
doesnt not telly you what it means by shit, so we can make a better
blades in the dark by making these rules, only, this i posit
i will endure and try to come back and follow up this post with the completed retroclone but meanwhile you think about it
