Thread by @meghanlynnFTW

A bit overdue but it’s time for another System Thread! Get ready to break out the black clothing, sharpen your knives, and take a trip to Doskvol - because it’s time to talk about Blades in the Dark.

Blades in the Dark is a game written by John Harper and published by Evil Hat. It is a game about subterfuge, heists, and an ongoing turf battle between rival criminal crews in the weird (and definitely haunted) city of Doskvol.

BitD is a game that has *a lot* of moving pieces to it, and because of that I’m not going to attempt to cover everything in this thread, because it would be way too long. So I’m going to cover the basic mechanics as well as some main features that I enjoy.

Despite having a lot of moving parts this game is not difficult to pick up. It is brilliantly designed and the mechanics work seamlessly with one another, coming together to make you feel like you are in a high stakes crime thriller.

Each piece of this game serves to make the city feel like a living, breathing, fully realized thing - full of people (and rival crews) who continue to act in the background (for either the benefit or detriment to the party) while the crew operates.

The players make up a crew of criminals looking to create a legacy for themselves and their crew in Doskvol’s history. From the onset it’s made clear that you are NOT the good guys. There may be worse crews roaming Doskvol, but you have the potential to be just as bad.

BitD does an amazing job setting the tone and feel of the game and its setting right from the jump, and that is carried through crew and character creation. Playbooks are full of criminal archetypes with abilities to help each player reach their full potential as master criminal.

BitD is a d6 system, known as the “Forged in the Dark” system that some other games utilize. Actions are made by rolling from a pool of dice, determined by the skills of the PC rolling. The highest value rolled is counted: 1-3 is a fail, 4-5 is a partial success, 6 is a success.

An added mechanic in BitD action rolls is the position and effect. These are determined by the GM prior to every action roll and serve to reflect the situation (controlled, risky, or desperate) and the effect the move can have (limited, standard, great).

For example, the consequences for failing or succeeding in a desperate situation will differ vastly from a controlled situation in the same way a limited effect move will do less than a great effect move.

Mechanics drawing from and reflecting the narrative? *chef’s kiss*

BitD is a game about committing crimes and all crimes begin with a plan. But what Blades does that other games don’t, is it lets you skip the “spending too long making a plan that is inevitably going to fall apart” phase so often found in TTRPGs where planning is involved.

What Blades does instead is it only requires the crew to choose the type of plan and fill in a single missing detail before proceeding to the action. For example, if the crew wants to do a stealth approach, they only need to tell the GM the point of infiltration before starting.

This leads to possibly my favorite mechanic in BitD - flashbacks. Because the plan was not fully formed when it began, the players have the opportunity to determine what was already done. If the crew is infiltrating a party and find themselves without invitations -

- a player could activate a flashback where they talked to a forger contact they have and procured fake invitations. Now back in the present, the party has fake invitations to the party that they can present and can continue in their plan.

This is not only fun from a narrative standpoint, but it saves *so* much time by not planning up front. Players don’t need to account for every possible outcome that may never occur, only react to events as they happen and tell the GM what preparation was already made.

Another mechanic that is very integral to BitD is the use of progress clocks. These clocks can represent ongoing effort against an obstacle as well as impending trouble drawing near. Clocks are segmented circles, the amount of segments determined by the complexity of the problem.

Clocks can be used for any number of things - from an approaching patrol, to preparing to assault a rival crew’s base. They show the players progress made towards a goal, but also serve as a warning for what’s to come. When all clock segments have been ticked, the event happens.

One last thing I want to talk about (because this is already SO long) is the overall structure of the game and how it helps make planning sessions and arcs much easier than a lot of TTRPGs. The game is divided into 3 main parts - Free Play, Score, and Downtime.

Free play is time for character scenes, gathering information and the actions and consequences related to them. This is usually when the crew learns about the score and begins making preparations for the next job. It’s also when the type of plan is chosen leading into the score.

Score is the meat of the job, where most of the action is. This is the crew in their element, doing what criminals do best. This is also where any flashbacks would occur that can help them accomplish their goals. The bulk of action rolls and their consequences will happen here.

Downtime is the aftermath. Getting payoff for the job, accounting for any heat put on the crew, and entangling with rival crews all happen here. This is the time when PCs can engage in downtime activities to clear any stress accrued during the previous phases.

After downtime, free play begins again. Having the game in phases makes planning to run BitD a much less daunting task. Blades is very much a character driven game, so a lot of hard and fast preparation isn’t required by the GM.

If this thread has piqued your interest, pick up BitD and give it a read. The book is an incredible resource, filled not only with the game rules, but tons of reference material about Doskvol - including maps of the city and information about its factions and history.

There is SO much more this game has to offer by way of incredible setting material and mechanics, but this is already too long so I’m going to wrap it up.

TL:DR If you are looking for a brilliantly designed game where you can do crime in a weird haunted city, BitD is for you.