Blades in the Dark post-session thoughts: Delayed Pay-off
This is the 3rd post-session report for my online group’s Blades in the Dark game (it’s technically the 10th session in the season). You can find the other reports here and here.
The Situation
The crew has one more score before triggering a war with their rivals, the Wraiths, so they plan on making the biggest splash by raiding a stashed war chest. This war chest has a bit of a history this season. It first showed up as one of the two “starter” scores I offered at the first session (they took the other option). It has stayed on the map since then and was the target of an score that went horribly wrong. Since then they have kept their distance but gathered information on an eventual score.
The Score
The Leech created a device to pump sewage into the building which went well and forced an evacuation of most of the guards. They went with deception and showed up as the municipal sewage employees. The Cutter took the back window approach and after a series of 6s (and double 6s), neutralized most of the remaining guards.
They navigated the traps The Wraiths had laid out and dealt with the violent ghost of the previous tenant. Then it all culminated in getting to the chest and blowing a hole through the floor into the sewers for egress. They had the guards and even Spirit Wardens after them at this point and so the roll was the “big one”. If we were in person, this would be the time to break out the dramatic dice tower. And after holding our breaths (including me because I knew what was coming!) the Leech rolls a 6 and 4 as his shaped charge blows through multiple levels exactly to where the blueprint said the sewers would be and they made their escape.
In the process, the Cutter was traumatized trying to resist the ghost and fled, the Leech overindulged during downtime and has caused a further complication with the ghost but the Slide came out in decent shape even with only a single downtime activity due to the war.
Aftermath and Takeaway
Up front, I have two regrets.
- Most of the rolls involving the rival gang should have started as limited effect against the higher tier gang. This was the right opportunity to show (not just tell) how the difference in quality affects gameplay. Not all rolls would have been impacted, but I failed to highlight that the crew was really punching above their weight on this one and what that means.
- The pumped sewage impacted the engagement roll but then took a back seat for the rest of the score. Mechanically, I think they should have filled in level 1 harm (retching) from the smell (bumping up previous wounds to level 2 harm for some scoundrels). Of course, the crew could have started with some sort of gas mask nullifying the harm, but losing/damaging the gas mask would have been a great complication for any of their violent rolls.
Overall, I think it was a great session if maybe a little easy but I’m ok with that based on how much prep they put into it over the last ten sessions. War has now started so they are seeing how painful this is and will hopefully seek to end the conflict (and the season) quickly.
I have fleshed out the planned finale a bit and shared some details with the players. If they are going to go after the coin in the casino The Wraiths are using as their bank, they’re going to have to negotiate four impossible obstacles (security, surveillance, the vault, and transport of the loot). I’ve told the players that as it stands now, the obstacles start at “No Effect” and they will need to bring advantages to the score to even the odds. They don’t have forever to prepare as the Wraiths are ticking their clocks forward, and once fulfilled, trigger their final assault on the crew’s lair. Hopefully, this helps guide their scores for the next few sessions and keeps the tension.