The Score

Murder for hire, brutal extortion, dark rituals, illicit deals, smuggling runs, thievery in the shadows—the only chances left for those pushed to the margins and denied the privileges of the corrupt and predatory elite.

In Blades in the Dark, we play to find out if a fledgling crew of characters can prosper in the underworld—and that prosperity depends upon their criminal endeavors, which we call scores.

A score is a single operation with a particular goal: burgle a Lord's manor, assassinate the diplomat, smuggle a strange artifact into the city, etc. Usually, a score will fall into one of three categories:

A criminal activity, determined by your crew type. An assassination, burglary, illicit vice deal, etc.
Seizing a claim that you choose from your crew's claim map. Claims help your crew grow and develop.
A special mission or goal determined by the players (like getting a rare artifact to empower one of the Whisper's rituals).

A score can be long and involved or short and sweet. There might be lots of rolls and trouble, or just a few actions to resolve it. Play to find out what happens! A score doesn't need to fill one session of play every time. Let it be however long it is.

The PCs can set up a new score by choosing a target (from their claims or the faction list, for example), by approaching a potential client and asking for work, or by being contacted by an NPC who needs to hire a crew for a job.

A score consists of a few key elements, detailed in this chapter: planning & engagement, flashbacks, and teamwork.

Planning & engagement

Your crew spends time planning each score. They huddle around a flickering lantern in their lair, looking at scrawled maps, whispering plots and schemes, bickering about the best approach, lamenting the dangers ahead, and lusting after stacks of coin.

But you, the players, don't have to do the nitty-gritty planning. The characters take care of that, off-screen. All you have to do is choose what type of plan the characters have already made. There's no need to sweat all the little details and try to cover every eventuality ahead of time, because the engagement roll ultimately determines how much trouble you're in when the plan is put in motion. No plan is ever perfect. You can't account for everything. This system assumes that there's always some unknown factors and trouble—major or minor—in every operation; you just have to make the best of it.

There are six different plans, each with a missing detail you need to provide (see the list below). To "plan an operation," simply choose the plan and supply the detail. Then the GM will cut to the action as the first moments of the operation unfold.

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The Detail

When you choose a plan, you provide a missing detail, like the point of attack, social connection, etc. If you don't know the detail, you can gather information in some way to discover it.

Item Loadouts

After the plan and detail are in place, each player chooses their character's load. This indicates how much stuff they're carrying on the operation. They don't have to select individual items—just the maximum amount they'll have access to during the action.

Engagement Roll

Once the players choose a plan and provide its detail, the GM cuts to the action—describing the scene as the crew starts the operation and encounters their first obstacle. But how is this established? The way the GM describes the starting situation can have a huge impact on how simple or troublesome the operation turns out to be. Rather than expecting the GM to simply "get it right" each time, we use a dice roll instead. This is the engagement roll.

The engagement roll is a fortune roll, starting with 1d for sheer luck. Modify the dice pool for any major advantages or disadvantages that apply.

Major Advantages / Disadvantages

Is this operation particularly bold or daring? Take +1d. Is this operation overly complex or contingent on many factors? Take -1d.
Does the plan's detail expose a vulnerability of the target or hit them where they're weakest? Take +1d. Is the target strongest against this approach, or do they have particular defenses or special preparations? Take -1d.
Can any of your **friends or contacts **provide aid or insight for this operation? Take +1d. Are any enemies or rivals interfering in the operation? Take -1d.
Are there any other elements that you want to consider? Maybe a lower-Tier target will give you +1d. Maybe a higher-Tier target will give you -1d. Maybe there's a situation in the district that makes the operation more or less tricky.

The engagement roll assumes that the PCs are approaching the target as intelligently as they can, given the plan and detail they provided, so we don't need to play out tentative probing maneuvers, special precautions, or other ponderous non-action. The engagement roll covers all of that. The PCs are already in action, facing the first obstacle—up on the rooftop, picking the lock on the window; kicking down the door of the rival gang's lair; maneuvering to speak with a Lord at the masquerade party; etc.

Don't make the engagement roll and then describe the PCs approaching the target. It's the approach that the engagement roll resolves. Cut to the action that results because of that initial approach—to the first serious obstacle in their path.

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The first obstacles at the witches' house are their cunning locks and magical traps. The engagement roll puts us on the roof outside a window, as the PCs attempt to silently and carefully break into the attic.

The PCs have kicked down the door and swarmed into the front room of the gang's lair, weapons flashing, into the swirl of the melee with the first guards.

The PCs have socialized politely at the party, maneuvering into position to have a private word with a powerful Lord. As a group of young nobles leave his side, the PCs step up and engage him in conversation.

If the players want to include a special preparation or clever setup, they can do so with flashbacks during the score. This takes some getting used to. Players may balk at first, worried that you're skipping over important things that they want to do. But jumping straight into the action of the score is much more effective once you get used to it. When they see the situation they're in, their "planning" in flashbacks will be focused and useful, rather than merely speculations on circumstances and events that might not even happen.

Outcomes

The outcome of the engagement roll determines the position for the PCs' initial actions when we cut to the score in progress. A 1-3 means a desperate position. A 4/5 is a risky position. A 6 yields a controlled position. And a critical carries the action beyond the initial obstacle, deeper into the action of the score.

No matter how low-Tier or outmatched you are, a desperate position is the worst thing that can result from the plan + detail + engagement process. It's designed this way so the planning process matters, but it doesn't call for lots of optimization or nitpicking. Even if you're reckless and just dive in and take your chances, you can't get too badly burned. Plus, you might even want those desperate rolls to generate more xp for the PCs, which helps to bootstrap starting characters into advancement.

When you describe the situation after the roll, use the details of the target to paint a picture of the PCs' position. How might the strange, occult gang present a desperate position for burglars? How might the violent and ruthless butchers present a risky threat to assaulting thugs? How might the vain and pompous Lord present a controlled opportunity for a manipulative scoundrel? Use this opportunity to show how the PCs' enemies are dangerous and capable—don't characterize a bad engagement roll as a failure by the PCs, or they won't trust the technique in the future. Sure, things are starting out desperate here against the creepy occultists, but you're just the type of characters who are daring enough to take them on. Let's get to it.

How long does it last?

The engagement roll determines the starting position for the PCs' actions. How long does that hold? Does the situation stay desperate? No. Once the initial actions have been resolved, you follow the normal process for establishing position for the rest of the rolls during the score. The engagement roll is a quick short-hand to kick things off and get the action started—it doesn't have any impact after that.

Linked Plans

Sometimes an operation seems to call for a couple of plans linked together. A common scenario is a team that wants a two-pronged approach. "You create a diversion at the tavern, and when they send thugs over there, we'll break into their lair." There are two ways to handle this.

The diversion is a setup maneuver that a team member performs as part of the plan. A successful setup maneuver can improve position for teammates (possibly offsetting a bad engagement roll) or give increased effect. An unsuccessful setup maneuver might cause trouble for the second part of the plan—an easy consequence is to give the engagement roll -1d. If it makes sense, the team member who performed the setup can drift back into the main operation and join the team later so they don't have to sit out and wait.
The diversion is its own plan, engagement, and operation, whose outcome creates the opportunity for a future plan. Use this option when the first part of the plan is required for the next part to happen at all. For example, you might execute a stealth plan to steal an artifact from the Museum of the Ancients, then later use that artifact in an occult plan to consecrate a temple for your forgotten god. In this case, you go into downtime (and payoff, heat, etc.) after the first part of the plan, as normal.

Either approach is fine. It's usually a question of interest. Is the linked plan idea interesting enough on its own to play out moment by moment? Is it required for the second plan to make sense? If so, make it a separate operation. If not, just use a setup maneuver.

Giving up on a score

When you give up on a score, you go into downtime. Follow the phases for downtime presented in the next chapter. You'll usually have zero payoff, since you didn't accomplish anything. You'll still face heat and entanglements as usual.

Downtime

After the crew finishes a score (succeed or fail), they take time to recover, regroup, and prepare for the next operation. This phase of the game is called downtime.

Downtime fulfills two purposes in the game:

First, it's a break for the players. During the action of the score, the PCs are always under threat, charging from obstacle to obstacle in a high-energy sequence. Downtime gives them a reprieve so they can catch their breath and relax a bit—focus on lower-energy, quieter elements of the game, as well as explore personal aspects of their characters.
Second, the shift into a new phase of the game signals a shift in which mechanics are needed. There are special rules that are only used during the downtime phase, so they're kept "out of the way" during the other parts of play. When we shift into downtime, we take out a different toolbox and resolve downtime on its own terms, then shift back into the more action-focused phases of the game afterwards.

Downtime is divided into four parts, which are resolved in order:

Payoff. The crew receives their rewards from a successfully completed score.
Heat. The crew accumulates suspicion and attention from the law and the powers-that-be in the city as a result of their last score.
Entanglements. The crew faces trouble from the rival factions, the law, and the haunted city itself.
Downtime Activities. The PCs indulge their vices to remove stress, work on long-term projects, recover from injuries, etc.

After the downtime activities are resolved, the game returns to free play, and the group can move toward their next score.

Payoff

After a score, the PCs take stock of their income from the operation. A successful score generates both rep and coin.

The crew earns 2 rep per score by default. If the target of the score is higher Tier than you, take +1 rep per Tier higher. If the target of the score is lower Tier, you get -1 rep per Tier lower (minimum zero).

If your crew is Tier I and you pull off a successful score against a Tier III target, you earn 4 rep (2 rep, +2 rep for a target two tiers above you). If your crew is Tier III and you complete a score against a Tier I target, you earn 0 rep (2 rep, -2 rep for the lower Tier target).

If you keep the operation completely quiet so no one knows about it, you earn zero rep. Mark the rep on the rep tracker on the crew sheet.

The crew earns coin based on the nature of the operation and/or any loot they seized:

2 coin: A minor job; several full purses.
4 coin: A small job; a strongbox.
6 coin: A standard score; decent loot.
8 coin: A big score; serious loot.
10+ coin: A major score; impressive loot.

Record the coin on the crew sheet, or divvy it up among the crew members as you see fit.

Most districts have crime bosses that expect smaller crews to pay a tithe from their scores. Ask the GM if there's a boss that you should be paying. Subtract coin equal to your crew Tier +1 when you pay a tithe to a boss or larger organization. If you're supposed to be paying off a boss, but you don't, start a clock for that boss's patience running out. Tick it whenever you don't pay. Every time it fills up, lose 1 faction status with them.

You can set the scene and play out a meeting with a client or patron who's paying the crew if there's something interesting to explore there. If not, just gloss over it and move on to the next part of downtime.

GM, definitely don't screw around with the players when it comes to the payoff. Don't say that the client lied and there's no reward. Or that the meeting for the payment is actually a trap, or whatever. These types of things are staples of crime fiction, but in Blades, the PCs have enough problems coming at them from every direction already. When it comes to getting paid, just give them what they earned.

Heat

The city is full of prying eyes and informants. Anything you do might be witnessed, and there's always evidence left behind. To reflect this, your crew acquires heat as they commit crimes. After a score or conflict with an opponent, your crew takes heat according to the nature of the operation:

0 heat: Smooth & quiet; low exposure.
2 heat: Contained; standard exposure.
4 heat: Loud & chaotic; high exposure.
6 heat: Wild; devastating exposure.

Add +1 heat for a high-profile or well-connected target. Add +1 heat if the situation happened on hostile turf. Add +1 heat if you're at war with another faction. Add +2 heat if killing was involved (whether the crew did the killing or not—bodies draw attention).

You mark heat levels on the heat tracker on the crew sheet.

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When your heat level reaches 9, you gain a wanted level and clear your heat (any excess heat "rolls over," so if your heat was 7 and you took 4 heat, you'd reset with 2 heat marked).

The higher your wanted level, the more serious the response when law enforcement takes action against you (they'll send a force of higher quality and scale).

Also, your wanted level contributes to the severity of the entanglements that your crew faces after a score.

Incarceration

The only way to reduce your crew's wanted level is through incarceration. When one of your crew members, friends, contacts—or a framed enemy—is convicted and incarcerated for crimes associated with your crew, your wanted level is reduced by 1 and you clear your heat.

Incarceration may result from investigation and arrest by the officers, or because someone turns themselves in and takes the fall for the crew's crimes.

The severity of the prison sentence depends on your wanted level:

Wanted Level 4: Life or execution.
Wanted Level 3: A year or two.
Wanted Level 2: Several months.
Wanted Level 1: A month or two.
Wanted Level 0: A few weeks. Or, the constables give you a beating to teach you a lesson (suffer level 3 harm, no resistance roll allowed—they keep going until you're injured).

Incarceration is dehumanizing and brutal. The renown of your crew is your only real defense inside. When you serve your time, make an incarceration roll using your crew's Tier as the dice pool.

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Prison claims

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Allied claim

One of your allies on the inside arranges for their faction to grant you a boon. Take a claim for your crew from a different crew type. You can't take turf with this claim.

Cell block control

Your crew has a cell block under their total control—guards and all. You never take trauma from incarceration.

Guard payoff

You claim several prison guards on your payroll. Take +1d to your Tier roll when a member of your crew is incarcerated.

Hardcase

Your reputation as a tough inmate bolsters your crew's image. When your crew advances Tier, it costs 2 fewer coins than it normally would.

Parole influence

Political pressures of various sorts can be applied to the magistrates and warden who oversee sentences for crimes. With this claim, you're always able to arrange for a shorter prison stay—as if your wanted level was 1 lower. So, if your wanted level was 3 when you went in, you'd spend only several months behind bars (equivalent to level 2) instead of a full year.

Smuggling

You arrange smuggling channels inside. You have +2 load while incarcerated, (starting from zero as a prisoner). If you take this claim twice, you'll have 4 load while you're serving time in Ironhook. Also, you may choose to carry coin in place of load for purposes of bribes or acquiring assets while in prison. You may reset the items in your prison loadout whenever your crew has downtime.

Entanglements

Your crew didn't just spring into existence tonight. You have a complex history of favors, commitments, debts, and promises that got you where you are today. To reflect this, after each score, you roll dice to find out which entanglement comes calling. An entanglement might be a rival crew looking to throw their weight around (and demand some coin), an Investigator of the City Watch making a case against your crew (but ready for a bribe), or even the attention of a vengeful ghost.

After payoff and heat are determined, the GM generates an entanglement for the crew using the lists below. Find the column that matches the crew's current heat level. Then roll a number of dice equal to their wanted level, and use the result of the roll to select which sort of entanglement manifests. If wanted level is zero, roll two dice and keep the lowest result.

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Bring the entanglement into play immediately, or hold off until an appropriate moment. For example, if you get the Interrogation entanglement, you might wait until a PC indulges their vice, then say the costables picked them up when they were distracted by its pleasures.

Entanglements manifest fully before the PCs have a chance to avoid them. When an entanglement comes into play, describe the situation after the entanglement has manifested. The PCs deal with it from that point—they can't intercept it and defuse it before it happens. The purpose of the mechanic is to abstract a lot of the complex stuff happening in the backgrounds of the characters' lives in order to generate trouble for them. Entanglements are the cost of doing business in the underworld—a good crew learns to roll with the punches and pick their battles.

The entanglements are detailed below. Each has a list of potential ways for the PCs to be rid of it. If you want the entanglements to be a momentary problem for the crew, stick to the suggested methods to resolve them, and move on to the next part of downtime. If you want to dive in and explore the entanglement in detail, set the scene and play out the event in full, following the actions and consequences where they lead.

Arrest

An Inspector presents a case file of evidence to a magistrate, to begin prosecution of your crew. They send a detail to arrest you (a gang at least equal in scale to your wanted level). Pay them off with coin equal to your wanted level +3, hand someone over for arrest (this clears your heat), or try to evade capture.

A truncheon bangs on the shutters of the window. "Alright then! Come on out and let's go quietly now!" It sounds like the bald Sergeant. When you peek out, you see a detail of about twenty constables, all geared up for a fight. The Sergeant mumbles under his breath, so only you inside can hear: "Or perhaps I have the wrong address?" He clears his throat and waits for some coin to appear.

Cooperation

A +3 status faction asks you for a favor. Agree to do it, or forfeit 1 rep per Tier of the friendly faction, or lose 1 status with them. If you don't have a +3 faction status, you avoid entanglements right now.

Demonic notice

A demon approaches the crew with a dark offer. Accept their bargain, hide until it loses interest (forfeit 3 rep), or deal with it another way.

Flipped

One of the PCs' rivals arranges for one of your contacts, patrons, clients, or a group of your customers to switch allegiances due to the heat on you. They're loyal to another faction now.

Gang trouble

One of your gangs (or other cohorts) causes trouble due to their flaw(s). You can lose face (forfeit rep equal to your Tier +1), make an example of one of the gang members, or face reprisals from the wronged party.

Interrogation

The officers round up one of the PCs to question them about the crew's crimes. How did they manage to capture you? Either pay them off with 3 coin, or they beat you up (level 2 harm) and you tell them what they want to know (+3 heat). You can resist each of those consequences separately.

Some players really hate it when their character gets captured! Just tell them that this is completely normal for a scoundrel of the underworld. You spend time in and out of jail, getting questioned and harassed by the law. It's not the end of the world. But now that you're here in the interrogation room, what kind of person are you? Do you talk? Do you stand up to them? Do you make a deal?

Questioning

The cops grab an NPC member of your crew or one of the crew's contacts, to question them about your crimes. Who do they think is most vulnerable? Make a fortune roll to see how much they talk (1-3: +2 heat, 4/5: +1 heat), or pay the constables off with 2 coin.

Roll 2d for a normal person to see how well they keep quiet. If they're an experienced underworld type or some kind of tough, give them 3d or 4d instead. If they're soft or if they have some loyalty to the law, give them 1d or 0d.

Reprisals

An enemy faction makes a move against you (or a friend, contact, or vice purveyor). Pay them (1 rep and 1 coin) per Tier of the enemy as an apology, allow them to mess with you or yours, or fight back and show them who's boss.

Rivals

A neutral faction throws their weight around. They threaten you, a friend, a contact, or one of your vice purveyors. Forfeit (1 rep or 1 coin) per Tier of the rival, or stand up to them and lose** 1 status** with them.

Show of force

A faction with whom you have a negative status makes a play against your holdings. Give them 1 claim or go to war (drop to -3 status). If you have no claims, lose 1 hold instead.

Unquiet dead

A rogue spirit is drawn to you—perhaps it's a past victim? Acquire the services of an occultist to attempt to destroy or banish it, or deal with it yourself.

They can hire an NPC by using the acquire asset downtime activity. Roll the NPC's quality level as a fortune roll to see how well they deal with the spirit.

The usual suspects

The cops grab someone in the periphery of your crew. One player volunteers a friend or vice purveyor as the person most likely to be taken. Make a fortune roll to find out if they resist questioning (1-3: +2 ****heat****, 4/5: level 2 harm), or pay them off with 1 coin.