Basics

The Basics

The Game

Blades in the Dark is a game about a group of daring characters building an enterprising crew. We play to find out if the fledgling crew can thrive amidst the teeming threats that surround it.

The Players

Each player creates a character and works with the other players to create the crew to which their characters belong. Each player strives to bring their character to life as an interesting, daring character who reaches boldly beyond their current safety and means.

The players work together with the Game Master to establish the tone and style of the game by making judgment calls about the mechanics, dice, and consequences of actions. The players take responsibility as co-authors of the game with the GM.

The Characters

The characters attempt to develop their crew by performing scores and contending with threats from their enemies.

The Crew

In addition to creating characters, you'll also create the crew by choosing which type of criminal enterprise you're interested in exploring.

The Game Master

The GM establishes the dynamic world around the characters. The GM plays all the non-player characters in the world by giving each one a concrete desire and preferred method of action.

The GM helps organize the conversation of the game so it's pointed toward the interesting elements of play. The GM isn't in charge of the story and doesn't have to plan events ahead of time. They present interesting opportunities to the players, then follow the chain of action and consequences wherever they lead.

Playing A Session

A session of Blades in the Dark is like an episode of a TV show. There are one or two main events, plus maybe some side-story elements, which all fit into an ongoing series. A session of play can last anywhere from two to six hours, depending on the preferences of the group.

During a session, the crew of scoundrels works together to choose a score to accomplish, then they make a few dice rolls to jump into the action of the score in progress. The PCs take actions, suffer consequences, and finish the operation (succeed or fail). Then the crew has downtime, during which they recover, pursue side-projects, and indulge their vices. After downtime, the players once again look for a new opportunity or create their own goals and pursuits, and we play to find out what happens next.

The Core System

Judgment calls

When you play, you'll make several key judgment calls. Everyone contributes, but either the players or the GM gets final say for each:

• Which actions are reasonable as a solution to a problem? Can this person be swayed? Must we get out the tools and tinker with this old rusty lock, or could it also be quietly finessed? The players have final say.
• How dangerous and how effective is a given action in this circumstance? How risky is this? Can this person be swayed very little or a whole lot? The GM has final say.
• Which consequences are inflicted to manifest the dangers in a given circumstance? Does this fall from the roof break your leg? Do the constables merely become suspicious or do they already have you trapped? The GM has final say.
• Does this situation call for a dice roll, and which one? Is your character in position to make an action roll or must they first make a resistance roll to gain initiative? The GM has final say.
• Which events in the story match the experience triggers for character and crew advancement? Did you express your character's beliefs, drives, heritage, or background? You tell us. The players have final say.

Rolling the Dice

Blades in the Dark uses six-sided dice. You roll several at once and read the single highest result.

• If the highest die is a 6, it's a full success—things go well. If you roll more than one 6, it's a critical success—you gain some additional advantage.
• If the highest die is a 4 or 5, that's a partial success—you do what you were trying to do, but there are consequences: trouble, harm, reduced effect, etc.
• If the highest die is 1-3, it's a bad outcome. Things go poorly. You probably don't achieve your goal and you suffer complications, too.

If you ever need to roll but you have zero (or negative) dice, roll two dice and take the single lowest result. You can't roll a critical when you have zero dice.

All the dice systems in the game are expressions of this basic format. When you're first learning the game, you can always "collapse" back down to a simple roll to judge how things go. Look up the exact rule later when you have time.

To create a dice pool for a roll, you'll use a trait (like your Finesse or your Prowess or your crew's Tier) and take dice equal to its rating. You'll usually end up with one to four dice. Even one die is pretty good in this game—a 50% chance of success. The most common traits you'll use are the action ratings of the player characters. A player might roll dice for their Skirmish action rating when they fight an enemy, for example.

There are four types of rolls that you'll use most often in the game:

• Action roll. When a PC attempts an action that's dangerous or troublesome, you make an action roll to find out how it goes. Action rolls and their effects and consequences drive most of the game.
• Downtime roll. When the PCs are at their leisure after a job, they can perform downtime activities in relative safety. You make downtime rolls to see how much they get done.
• Fortune roll. The GM can make a fortune roll to disclaim decision making and leave something up to chance. How loyal is an NPC? How much does the plague spread? How much evidence is burned before the constables kick in the door?
• Resistance roll. A player can make a resistance roll when their character suffers a consequence they don't like. The roll tells us how much stress their character suffers to reduce the severity of a consequence. When you resist that "Broken Leg" harm, you take some stress and now it's only a "Sprained Ankle" instead.

The Game Structure

Blades in the Dark has a structure to play, with four parts. By default, the game is in free play—characters talk to each other, they go places, they do things, they make rolls as needed.

When the group is ready, they choose a target for their next operation, then choose a type of plan to employ. This triggers the engagement roll (which establishes the situation as the operation starts) and then the game shifts into the score phase.

During the score, the PCs engage the target—they make rolls, overcome obstacles, call for flashbacks, and complete the operation (successfully or not). When the score is finished, the game shifts into the downtime phase.

During the downtime phase, the GM engages the systems for payoff, heat, and entanglements, to determine all the fallout from the score. Then the PCs each get their downtime activities, such as indulging their vice to remove stress or working on a long-term project. When all the downtime activities are complete, the game returns to free play and the cycle starts over again.

The phases are a conceptual model to help you organize the game. They're not meant to be rigid structures that restrict your options (this is why they're presented as amorphous blobs of ink without hard edges). Think of the phases as a menu of options to fit whatever it is you're trying to accomplish in play. Each phase suits a different goal.

Flashbacks

The rules don't distinguish between actions performed in the present moment and those performed in the past. When an operation is underway, you can invoke a flashback to roll for an action in the past that impacts your current situation. Maybe you convinced the district Watch sergeant to cancel the patrol tonight, so you make a Sway roll to see how that went.

The GM sets a stress cost when you activate a flashback action.

• 0 Stress: An ordinary action for which you had easy opportunity. The Cutter Consorted with her friend to agree to arrive at the dice game ahead of time, to suddenly spring out as a surprise ally.
• 1 Stress: A complex action or unlikely opportunity. The Hound Finessed his pistols into a hiding spot near the card table so he could retrieve them after the pat-down at the front door.
• 2 (or more) Stress: An elaborate action that involved special opportunities or contingencies. The Whisper has already Studied the history of the property and learned of a ghost that is known to haunt its ancient canal dock—a ghost that can be compelled to reveal the location of the hidden vault.

After the stress cost is paid, a flashback action is handled just like any other action. Sometimes it will entail an action roll, because there's some danger or trouble involved. Sometimes a flashback will entail a fortune roll, because we just need to find out how well (or how much, or how long, etc.). Sometimes a flashback won't call for a roll at all because you can just pay the stress and it's accomplished.

If a flashback involves a downtime activity, pay 1 coin or 1 rep for it, instead of stress.

One of the best uses for a flashback is when the engagement roll goes badly. After the GM describes the trouble you're in, you can call for a flashback to a special preparation you made, "just in case" something like this happened. This way, your "flashback planning" will be focused on the problems that _do _happen, not the problems that might happen.

Limits of flashbacks

A flashback isn't time travel. It can't "undo" something that just occurred in the present moment. For instance, if an Inspector confronts you about recent thefts of occult artifacts when you're at the Lady's party, you can't call for a flashback to assassinate the Inspector the night before. She's here now, questioning you—that's established in the fiction. You can call for a flashback to show that you intentionally tipped off the inspector so she would confront you at the party—so you could use that opportunity to impress the Lady with your aplomb and daring.

flashback examples

"I want to have a flashback to earlier that night, where I sneak into the stables and feed fireweed to all their goats so they'll go berserk and create a distraction for our infiltration."

"Ha! Nice. Okay, that's seems a bit tricky, dealing with ornery goats and all... 1 stress."

"Should I roll Prowl to sneak in and plant it?"

"Nah. Their goat stable security amounts to a stable boy who is usually asleep anyway. You can easily avoid their notice."

"So it just works?"

"Eh... not so fast. When you want the distraction to hit, let's make a fortune roll to see how crazy the Fireweed Goat Maneuver gets. Three dice."

&emdash;

"The engagement roll is... a 2. Looks like a desperate situation for you! Hmmm. Okay, so you're inside the gang's compound at the docks, slipping up through the shadows next to some huge metal storage tanks. But then all the electric lights come on. The big metal warehouse door rolls open, and you hear a heavy wagon coming in through the gate. Looks like they're getting a delivery right now, and a bunch of gang members are out to receive it. They're about to be on top of you. What do you do?"

"Hang on, I want to have a flashback."

"Okay, for what?"

"Uh. Something... helpful? Damn, I don't know what that would be. Anyone have ideas?"

"Oh, what if you Consorted with your docker friends yesterday and they blabbed about this delivery, so we rigged it with a bomb."

"Oh man, that's hilarious. But kind of nuts. I guess 2 stress for that?"

"Sounds good. But let's make that Consort roll and see if your docker friends made any demands or complicated anything for you. Then we need to find out how well this bomb works. Who was in charge of that?"

"I did it. I'll roll Tinker to set the fuse just right. Hopefully."

Actions & Attributes

Action Ratings

There are 12 actions in the game that the player characters use to overcome obstacles.

See Blades/Scum Action Lists for details on what each action covers.

Each action has a rating (from zero to 4) (zero to three in scum.) that tells you how many dice to roll when you perform that action. Action ratings don't just represent skill or training—you're free to describe how your character performs that action based on the type of person they are. Maybe your character is good at Command because they have a scary stillness to them, while another character barks orders and intimidates people with their military bearing.

You choose which action to perform to overcome an obstacle, by describing what your character does. Actions that are poorly suited to the situation may be less effective and may put the character in more danger, but they can still be attempted. Usually, when you perform an action, you'll make an action roll to see how it turns out.

Attribute Ratings

There are three attributes in the game system that the player characters use to resist bad consequences: Insight, Prowess, and Resolve. Each attribute has a rating (from zero to 4) that tells you how many dice to roll when you use that attribute.

The rating for each attribute is equal to the number of dots in the first column under that attribute (see the examples, at right). The more well-rounded your character is with a particular set of actions, the better their attribute rating.

Gathering Information

The flow of information from the GM to the players about the fictional world is very important in a roleplaying game. By default, the GM tells the players what their characters perceive, suspect, and intuit. But there's just too much going on to say everything—it would take forever and be boring, too. The players have a tool at their disposal to more fully investigate the fictional world.

When you want to know something specific about the fictional world, your character can gather information. The GM will ask you how your character gathers the info (or how they learned it in the past).

If it's common knowledge, the GM will simply answer your questions. If there's an obstacle to the discovery of the answer, an action roll is called for. If it's not common knowledge but there's no obstacle, a simple fortune roll determines the quality of the information you gather.

Each attempt to gather information takes time. If the situation allows, you can try again if you don't initially get all the info that you want. But often, the opportunity is fleeting, and you'll only get one chance to roll for that particular question.

Some example questions are on the bottom of the character sheet. The GM always answers honestly, but with a level of detail according to the level of effect.

The most common gather information actions are Surveying the situation to reveal or anticipate what's going on and Studying a person to understand what they intend to do or what they're really thinking.

Sometimes, you'll have to maneuver yourself into position before you can gather information. For example, you might have to Prowl to a good hiding place first and then Study the cultists when they perform their dark ritual.

Investigation

Some questions are too complex to answer immediately with a single gather information roll. For instance, you might want to discover the network of contraband smuggling routes in the city. In these cases, the GM will tell you to start a long-term project that you work on during downtime.

You track the investigation project using a progress clock. Once the clock is filled, you have the evidence you need to ask several questions about the subject of your investigation as if you had great effect.

Examples & Questions

• You might Attune to see echoes of recent spirit activity. Have any new ghosts been here? How can I find the spirit well that's calling to them? What should I be worried about?
• You might Command a local barkeep to tell you what he knows about the secret meetings held in his back room. What's really going on here? What's he really feeling about this? Is he part of this secret group?
• You might Consort with a well-connected friend to learn secrets about an enemy, rival, or potential ally. What do they intend to do? What might I suspect about their motives? How can I discover leverage to manipulate them?
• You might Hunt a courier across the city, to discover who's receiving satchels of coin from a master duelsit. Where does the package end up? How can I find out who signed for the package at City Hall?
• You might Study ancient and obscure books to discover an arcane secret. How can I disable the runes of warding? Will anyone sense if they're disabled?
• Or you might Study a person to read their intentions and feelings. What are they really feeling? How could I get them to trust me?
• You might Survey a manor house to case it for a heist. What's a good point of infiltration? What's the danger here?
• Or you might Survey a charged situation when you meet another gang. What's really going on here? Are they about to attack us?
• You might Sway a powerful lord at a party so he divulges his future plans. What does he intend to do? How can I get him to think I might be a good partner in this venture?
• Or you might Sway his bodyguard to confide in you about recent events. Where has he been lately? Who's he been meeting with?

@TODO table p33

Loadout

You have access to all of the items on your character sheet. For each operation, decide what your character's load will be. During the operation, you may say that your character has an item on hand by checking the box for the item you want to use—up to a number of items equal to your chosen load. Your load also determines your movement speed and conspicuousness:

• 1-3 load: Light. You're faster, less conspicuous; you blend in with citizens.
• 4/5 load: Normal. You look like a scoundrel, ready for trouble.
• 6 load: Heavy. You're slower. You look like an operative on a mission.
• 7-9 load: Encumbered. You're overburdened and can't do anything except move very slowly.

Some special abilities (like the Cutter's Mule ability or Assassin's Rigging) increase the load limits.

Some items count as two items for load (they have two connected boxes). Items in italics don't count toward your load.

You don't need to select specific items now. Review your personal items and the standard item descriptions.