You nail it at 7:45. One of the things John Harper stresses throughout Blades, is the fact to try not to say "No" too often and only when it is necessary. He has created a setting which effectively tells GMs "Yes" when it comes to the cannon. Want to have a sinister operation that is trapping spirits and creating hulls? Yeah, sure. How about a crazy cult that are in service to a vampire, or want to become vampires themselves? Go for it. The depth he manages to create is astounding. Each crew type feels unique and from a narrative and mechanics perspective. It is definitely a game which benefits from having a GM and players that are open to thinking outside the box and not getting too het up on the specifics. Just a quick aside: I've been adding mechanics I've found in a solo game known as Lichdom to my Blades playthrough. That uses a deck of cards (similar to the index card's John Harper mentions) and associates the different colours (red and black) with a different element - in Lichdom it is mundane/arcane. Well, Blades lends itself to using a similar system but with industrial/supernatural. So, lets say that 'aces' are NPCs; the ace of hearts or diamonds would be an NPC that might be "supernatural", whilst the ace of spades or clubs might represent an "industrial" NPC. Blades advises creating lists of NPCs, Opportunities, Locations, etc, etc. I was planning on using a deck of cards to randomise these elements.
The design philosophy behind this book is pure genius. I hope they use it to expand into different genres. Or perhaps the whole "Inform and inspire without overwhelming" design philosophy catches on and becomes more common in RPGs.
This level of detail to inspire GMs reminds me of Stars Without Numbers. Literally the game has a thing called Single Roll NPCs/Planets/Factions/Adventures. It has helped me so much.
Yeees! I bounced off Blades when trying to read the book, but I definitely see the vision. Would love to see more BITD content from you, you're REALLY good at explaining why you like things
I will GM my first game of BitD this year. The system ist exactly what we want. But I think I will have to brighten up the setting a little bit. More like Blades in the Dusk or Blades in the Dawn so to say :D
Bought a copy during July just out of curiosity and this video is helping me to understand things I missed on my first read. Super excited to find a chance to play it now!
Great review, I'd just say that (for me) one of the beautiful parts of the "just enough" descriptions is that you , as GM don't even have to go beyond that. You have a Player who has chosen an Iruvian Heritage? ok, let them define what that means, and make it a part of the world... with all of the players able to contribute to the "expansion" beyond the templates, you get HUGE levels of Buy-in.
One of my favorite Game books ever written I love everything in it. The game gives you a lot of theme and impact and mechanics but it lets you figure out the Nitty Gritty of the details for yourself. What example is ghost how do you bind a ghost? The game gives you some tools to carry around ghost like Spirit bottles, and it gives you a lightning hook, but it never tells you that you pull goes into the bottle with the lightning hook. When my player was asking me is it possible to form a binding agreement with a ghost we came up with a small little ritual. In which both the ghosts and the whisper both make a agreement that is only binding if both are telling the truth. And you might be like wild why does that matter, are very vengeful and always going just that little bit more insane. So as a whisper if you make a ghost promise that he will leave you and your friends alone as well as do you a favor you will let him out of this Spirit bottle. And as long as the ghost is not too far gone to actually agree to leave you alone and your honest about letting the ghost go the Binding is complete the ghost will never come back and harm you even though he's going insane inventful because the idea of doing so is physically harmful to the ghost. This actually let me play with the fun couple of things number one there's a ghost out there now that if the player tries to harm or stopping anyway they will then take you know harm from trying to stop them. And it gives Whispers a reason to track honestly with ghosts just for their own self-protection
And if you like Star Wars, they have a version of Blades in the Dark called "Scum and Villainy" Its not a licensed game, so their setting is a Star Wars clone, but its Star Wars. You can pull criminal jobs, but you can also be Rebels trying to pull missions against the evil government.
One of the cool systems of the game is the progress clock. It's an incredibly easy way to inform yourself and your players about how close a faction, player, or NPC is to achieving their long-term goal. All you as the DM have to do is determine how many segments are in the clock (4, 6, 8, are typical, but you can do anything you like), and then make a dice roll or two each time the plot moves forward or a major event happens. Maybe you have two factions trying to fight for control of a district in the background of your campaign, so you make a clock for each involved faction. If they finish their clock first, they win the war!
First time watching you. Good video. At first I thought you were going to do some kind of character the entire time but you got into talking about the game itself quickly enough for me. I would suggest that you don't get too carried away with your "character," but maybe just mix it in here or there, like how you did in the beginning here.
An advice to consider guys...if you want to make a tabletop role playing game without setting up rules do not write a more than 300 page book about it....😂😂
1:25 Honestly this is my biggest gripe about the game. I like the system but de tangling it from the setting is a nightmare. While I love the setting, I also want to play an ocean's eleven in the mass effect setting (the citadel), or cyberpunk (night city), or in the eberron setting (shar), faerun (water deep or baldur's gate), and so on... The mechanics and game flow are fantastic. But having to put in so much effort to change the scenery is a major pain in the ass. To me the mechanics should stand on their own and be able to be lifted and moved from one place to another effortlessly without me having to buy half a dozen source books that have their mechanics tied to the setting.
There's quite a wide variety of Forged In The Dark games written by other authors for other settings, and all of them are stand-alone books. I don't think there's a way around the fact that the stuff that makes the system work so well is the same reason that it isn't plug-and-play with custom or homebrewed settings. Every FitD game is a standalone book because, well, it takes a whole book of work to tailor all of the pieces to fit together properly. It doesn't aspire to the flexibility of FATE or GURPS, or even 5e/d20.
@@Zarathinius I guess agree to disagree. I completely acknowledge that the creator may not have set out to create a plug and play system and wanted to increase immersion by making the system tied to the lore. But as someone that likes variety, and I have a table of people that expect variety in terms of settings I see it as a strength in a system to be easily lifted and reskinned with minimal effort. ICRPG and EZD6 do this, so it can be done. But yeah, my players want to do a mass effect game that takes place five or so years before the events of the first game. And I'm not made out of money so I can't afford nor do I want to have to go out and buy SCUM or whatever just to have a FitD game in a sci fi setting.
You nail it at 7:45. One of the things John Harper stresses throughout Blades, is the fact to try not to say "No" too often and only when it is necessary. He has created a setting which effectively tells GMs "Yes" when it comes to the cannon. Want to have a sinister operation that is trapping spirits and creating hulls? Yeah, sure. How about a crazy cult that are in service to a vampire, or want to become vampires themselves? Go for it.
The depth he manages to create is astounding. Each crew type feels unique and from a narrative and mechanics perspective. It is definitely a game which benefits from having a GM and players that are open to thinking outside the box and not getting too het up on the specifics.
Just a quick aside: I've been adding mechanics I've found in a solo game known as Lichdom to my Blades playthrough. That uses a deck of cards (similar to the index card's John Harper mentions) and associates the different colours (red and black) with a different element - in Lichdom it is mundane/arcane. Well, Blades lends itself to using a similar system but with industrial/supernatural. So, lets say that 'aces' are NPCs; the ace of hearts or diamonds would be an NPC that might be "supernatural", whilst the ace of spades or clubs might represent an "industrial" NPC. Blades advises creating lists of NPCs, Opportunities, Locations, etc, etc. I was planning on using a deck of cards to randomise these elements.
The design philosophy behind this book is pure genius. I hope they use it to expand into different genres. Or perhaps the whole "Inform and inspire without overwhelming" design philosophy catches on and becomes more common in RPGs.
It really is phenomenal design. Immensely usable
Good news for you, there's about a trillion forged in the dark games that go into different genres
@4saken404 search for "Forged in the Dark" games, you are in for a treat!
This level of detail to inspire GMs reminds me of Stars Without Numbers. Literally the game has a thing called Single Roll NPCs/Planets/Factions/Adventures. It has helped me so much.
SWN is so good I use things from it in almost every other game.
I find it endearing how enthusiastic you get at 13:26. I'll never not enjoy seeing people get carried away while discussing their interests
Yay, Blades in the Dark! I got the book recently and it's awesome to get concise videos like yours to share with my group to get them interested!
Happy to be of service
Yeees! I bounced off Blades when trying to read the book, but I definitely see the vision. Would love to see more BITD content from you, you're REALLY good at explaining why you like things
Glad to hear it! Yeah there's definitely more Blades content on the horizon
The book took me 2,5 half reads, and a short campaign to finally grog it.
I will GM my first game of BitD this year. The system ist exactly what we want. But I think I will have to brighten up the setting a little bit. More like Blades in the Dusk or Blades in the Dawn so to say :D
Bought a copy during July just out of curiosity and this video is helping me to understand things I missed on my first read. Super excited to find a chance to play it now!
Glad it was helpful!
I read A LOT of rules and i found the book hard to grog. And I keep seeing people having this feeling about the book.
YES! My favorite part of any fantasy thing is the world building. Being able to unravel the mystery is the best
Keep it up and you'll make me buy BitD
We out here proselytizing fr fr
Love this game, been DMing it for over a year and it’s a hell of a setting
How do you find the long term appeal?
Great review, I'd just say that (for me) one of the beautiful parts of the "just enough" descriptions is that you , as GM don't even have to go beyond that. You have a Player who has chosen an Iruvian Heritage? ok, let them define what that means, and make it a part of the world... with all of the players able to contribute to the "expansion" beyond the templates, you get HUGE levels of Buy-in.
100% agree, this system is ideal for collaborative worldbuilding
One of my favorite Game books ever written I love everything in it. The game gives you a lot of theme and impact and mechanics but it lets you figure out the Nitty Gritty of the details for yourself. What example is ghost how do you bind a ghost? The game gives you some tools to carry around ghost like Spirit bottles, and it gives you a lightning hook, but it never tells you that you pull goes into the bottle with the lightning hook. When my player was asking me is it possible to form a binding agreement with a ghost we came up with a small little ritual. In which both the ghosts and the whisper both make a agreement that is only binding if both are telling the truth. And you might be like wild why does that matter, are very vengeful and always going just that little bit more insane. So as a whisper if you make a ghost promise that he will leave you and your friends alone as well as do you a favor you will let him out of this Spirit bottle. And as long as the ghost is not too far gone to actually agree to leave you alone and your honest about letting the ghost go the Binding is complete the ghost will never come back and harm you even though he's going insane inventful because the idea of doing so is physically harmful to the ghost.
This actually let me play with the fun couple of things number one there's a ghost out there now that if the player tries to harm or stopping anyway they will then take you know harm from trying to stop them. And it gives Whispers a reason to track honestly with ghosts just for their own self-protection
And if you like Star Wars, they have a version of Blades in the Dark called "Scum and Villainy" Its not a licensed game, so their setting is a Star Wars clone, but its Star Wars. You can pull criminal jobs, but you can also be Rebels trying to pull missions against the evil government.
Many thanks for the suggestion, I have purchased this game but have yet to read it, but I will most likely run it in the future
I can't remeber when exactly i subbed but love the content and would love more blades in the dark related things :)
Thanks for the feedback! I definitely plan to make more
One of the cool systems of the game is the progress clock. It's an incredibly easy way to inform yourself and your players about how close a faction, player, or NPC is to achieving their long-term goal. All you as the DM have to do is determine how many segments are in the clock (4, 6, 8, are typical, but you can do anything you like), and then make a dice roll or two each time the plot moves forward or a major event happens. Maybe you have two factions trying to fight for control of a district in the background of your campaign, so you make a clock for each involved faction. If they finish their clock first, they win the war!
The game I really would like to play is Copperhead County but can't seem to retain anything I read anymore so haven't been able to learn it.
It's like a coloring book. It gives you the outlines, and you color it how you like.
Color it with more grey... Grey and flowing red
Also I'd like to see more BitD
How about Cy_Borg review? It Has quite fun advancement system
First time watching you. Good video. At first I thought you were going to do some kind of character the entire time but you got into talking about the game itself quickly enough for me. I would suggest that you don't get too carried away with your "character," but maybe just mix it in here or there, like how you did in the beginning here.
I enjoyed this.
The lack of views on this video is criminal
I enjoy this
"The opposite of subtle"
... Conspicuous? Brazen? Flashy? Egregious?
My tithe to the forgotten gods ._.)/
how the hell do you have fewer than a thousand subscribers
Bump
An advice to consider guys...if you want to make a tabletop role playing game without setting up rules do not write a more than 300 page book about it....😂😂
1:25 Honestly this is my biggest gripe about the game. I like the system but de tangling it from the setting is a nightmare. While I love the setting, I also want to play an ocean's eleven in the mass effect setting (the citadel), or cyberpunk (night city), or in the eberron setting (shar), faerun (water deep or baldur's gate), and so on... The mechanics and game flow are fantastic. But having to put in so much effort to change the scenery is a major pain in the ass. To me the mechanics should stand on their own and be able to be lifted and moved from one place to another effortlessly without me having to buy half a dozen source books that have their mechanics tied to the setting.
There's quite a wide variety of Forged In The Dark games written by other authors for other settings, and all of them are stand-alone books. I don't think there's a way around the fact that the stuff that makes the system work so well is the same reason that it isn't plug-and-play with custom or homebrewed settings. Every FitD game is a standalone book because, well, it takes a whole book of work to tailor all of the pieces to fit together properly. It doesn't aspire to the flexibility of FATE or GURPS, or even 5e/d20.
@@Zarathinius I guess agree to disagree. I completely acknowledge that the creator may not have set out to create a plug and play system and wanted to increase immersion by making the system tied to the lore.
But as someone that likes variety, and I have a table of people that expect variety in terms of settings I see it as a strength in a system to be easily lifted and reskinned with minimal effort. ICRPG and EZD6 do this, so it can be done. But yeah, my players want to do a mass effect game that takes place five or so years before the events of the first game. And I'm not made out of money so I can't afford nor do I want to have to go out and buy SCUM or whatever just to have a FitD game in a sci fi setting.
Algorithm comment 🎉
Blades in the Dark is a worse version of the Mistborn Adventure Game, with just enough changed as to not get sued.
Care to elaborate? I haven't played Mistborn.