Dice The Crew (OOC)

[WlfSamurai]

Welcome to The Crew! A Blades in the Dark RP!

Hang tight. More to come shortly.

Teh Frixz Seraph Darkfire D. Rex dae mec

 

[WlfSamurai]

So, feel free to chat about what kind of crew you want to be or your characters. There’s some setup bits we’ll be doing here to make some choices and I’m still working out how we’ll work through those.

Also, I know there’s a lot on the playbook, but if we can swing you guys getting all that in a post in the CS thread for your characters, I think that’s going to be best. You should be able to work through the playbook yourself. It’s intended to be self-contained and there’s a step-by-step process in the player’s kit. If you have any questions or need help, please let me know.

The other thing I want to try and flesh out for you is a little intro to the lore and city and such. So, I’m working on that.

I’m really excited about this and so glad to have you guys here. Thanks for joining!

Teh Frixz Seraph Darkfire D. Rex dae mec

 

[WlfSamurai]

I did grab the first post in the CS thread. We’re going to use that for your crew sheet since that’s a special character sheet where you track your crew.

 

[dae mec]

Wonderful! Thanks WlfSamurai

So for crew, I think Shadows was mentioned in the other thread? I think that would be fun, but I'm down for anything!

As for character concepts... I was thinking either a history, literature or political science professor for my character. I was thinking that they would be very particular about their appearance, with a weakness for expensive luxuries and pleasure. Friendly and chatty, bordering on rambly, but charismatic regardless. They're the kind of professor who students like because they have interesting lectures and easy classwork... and the students know that it's very easy to get them off topic.

They're willing to engage in some questionable activities because their expensive tastes require more coin than their salary allows. At the same time, they are genuinely passionate about their area of expertise, and the chance to learn secrets is one they'll never turn down. After all, who doesn't like a bit of gossip?

 

[WlfSamurai]

Sorry for all the updates, but I’ve added a Lore page:

Dice - The Crew (Lore)

The City of Doskvol

www.rpnation.com

Link at the top with the rest. So far, I’ve just added the city map and districts.

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

The only problem I have is the heritage part.

For my character I was thinking less of a professor type and more of a researcher. Ever since he was young and saw the effect magic has on the world, he wanted to study and understand it. So he went into that field of study. But the kind of things he wanted to study were also the kind of things only the really powerful or rich possessed.

Those types of people keep all the benefit to themselves and don't share the information, so sometimes it is better to simply take it.

 

[WlfSamurai]

The only problem I have is the heritage part.

For my character I was thinking less of a professor type and more of a researcher. Ever since he was young and saw the effect magic has on the world, he wanted to study and understand it. So he went into that field of study. But the kind of things he wanted to study were also the kind of things only the really powerful or rich possessed.

Those types of people keep all the benefit to themselves and don't share the information, so sometimes it is better to simply take it.

For Heritage, I added the world map to the Lore page.

But this can help, too:

 

[Teh Frixz]

I’m currently on the hunt for any sort of face claim but I’m thinking an individual that has pushed the limits of what is academically allowed. Under the guise of study, she’s going to keep pushing the limits of what humanity can be and what the current biological environment can offer us.

I’m imagining she’s likely either on the edge of Academic expulsion or has already been expelled without tenure. Despite this, it’s difficult to accept giving up on her work, using criminal activity to supplement research.

Sort of a mad demon/ghost-biologist/geneticist analog that’s successfully gotten herself almost kicked out of any traditional venues in order to chase her dreams.

 

[D. Rex]

I’m currently on the hunt for any sort of face claim but I’m thinking an individual that has pushed the limits of what is academically allowed. Under the guise of study, she’s going to keep pushing the limits of what humanity can be and what the current biological environment can offer us.

I’m imagining she’s likely either on the edge of Academic expulsion or has already been expelled without tenure. Despite this, it’s difficult to accept giving up on her work, using criminal activity to supplement research.

Sort of a mad demon/ghost-biologist/geneticist analog that’s successfully gotten herself almost kicked out of any traditional venues in order to chase her dreams.

I gotchu fam. I'll see what I can find.


Anything she might look like? Or that you are looking for?

 

[D. Rex]

A few to start you off Teh Frixz

Spoiler: The pics!

 

[Teh Frixz]

Well, the trick is finding one as a normal person and Then finding one of her all hopped up on demon blood serum while siphoning ecto-plasmic energy from the environment to fuel her more then human body.

But I’d imagine her as a smaller, mousey sort of woman, lost in her research, poor health, bad vision, eating poorly, but strong in spirit and conviction with a disproportionatly loud lecture voice.

Proper Highborn Akoros stock though, no ragged and rough Skovlan or ramshackle dagger isle blood in her. If she’d been less inclined in her research and more towards societal concerns, she’d have likely made an excellent mother and prize wife.

Edit: how are you so quick!

 

[D. Rex]

A few more Teh Frixz

Spoiler: Pics

Well, the trick is finding one as a normal person and Then finding one of her all hopped up on demon blood serum while siphoning ecto-plasmic energy from the environment to fuel her more then human body.

But I’d imagine her as a smaller, mousey sort of woman, lost in her research, poor health, bad vision, eating poorly, but strong in spirit and conviction with a disproportionatly loud lecture voice.

Proper Highborn Akoros stock though, no ragged and rough Skovlan or ramshackle dagger isle blood in her. If she’d been less inclined in her research and more towards societal concerns, she’d have likely made an excellent mother and prize wife.

Edit: how are you so quick!

I see! I'll se what I can find then based on that. I might fall asleep but ill give my finding tomorrow if I do.


I try to be! I always got something in the library just waiting to be used!

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

Tycheros sounds great for me. Coming from a place steeped in magic to a place where magic is different? The need to understand understand make magic more accessible will drive my character.

Also found a good looking picture. For both his daily life and his alias.

The alias picture I'll post later when I have access to my computer.

 

[WlfSamurai]

This all sounds and looks awesome.

D. Rex , how do you find such great pics? I try to find decent stuff on Pinterest and usually come up short. What terms are you searching? You always find such great stuff.

 

[dae mec]

I think I'll have my character be half-Iruvian, though she disproportionately takes after her Iruvian mother. Her mother was the daughter of a very wealthy merchant who married for love and was used to a much higher standard of living than her (significantly poorer) merchant husband from Duskwall. My academic character got her expensive tastes from her mother. She probably plays up the foreign nature of her appearance for her personal benefit, though she was born/raised in Duskwall and is more familiar with Akrosos.

I was thinking I'd use this image as my face claim:

Spoiler: image/face claim

Source

 

[WlfSamurai]

Tycheros sounds great for me. Coming from a place steeped in magic to a place where magic is different? The need to understand understand make magic more accessible will drive my character.

Also found a good looking picture. For both his daily life and his alias.

The alias picture I'll post later when I have access to my computer.

Like the sound of that a ton. Like the idea that we get to explore more of the magic of this world and why things have happened. Hell, maybe you'll even research/discover why/how the Cataclysm happened.

 

[WlfSamurai]

I think I'll have my character be half-Iruvian, though she disproportionately takes after her Iruvian mother. Her mother was the daughter of a very wealthy merchant who married for love and was used to a much higher standard of living than her (significantly poorer) merchant husband from Duskwall. My academic character got her expensive tastes from her mother. She probably plays up the foreign nature of her appearance for her personal benefit, though she was born/raised in Duskwall and is more familiar with Akrosos.

I was thinking I'd use this image as my face claim:

Spoiler: image/face claim

View attachment 898383

Source

Love it. The pic is awesome, too. I have a feeling these are going to be really special characters.


So, I’m having trouble figuring how to structure play and I’m hoping you guys can help me. I’ve run conversational games before here (Apocalypse World), but they were easier to structure because:

1. Writing the game in a conversational way actually played into the “feel” of the fiction and worked well.
2. The back-and-forth of play was simple. Because the moves in the game were tight with pre-defined outcomes, the player could call them into a post without GM input, really.

Blades is different. Special because it’s different, but could be a challenge. Not unworkable, but I want your opinions of what you think might work best. I’m also pretty sure I‘m over-thinking it, as I usually do.

In Blades, the player decides what action they want to roll for a given situation. You can see the actions and what they do in the player kit. This entire process—by the way—is intended that we all should come to a consensus or agree. Once you the player/we decide WHAT should be rolled, then I—the GM—give you what I think the position and effect are:

• Positions for rolls are controlled (as in well within your control), risky (as in you’re taking a significant risk in doing this), and desperate (as in this is really bad, super dangerous, or you’re really over-reaching).
• Effect is what effect your roll will have on the outcome. Effects are great (you achieve more than usual), standard (you achieve what was expected or “normal”), and limited (you achieve weak or partial effect).

So, at the risk of making this post too long and impossible to understand——a typical roll goes like this:

• GM: Joe-NPC pulls a knife and rushes you, trying to stab you. What do you do?
• Player: I pull my knife and try to stab him first. I want to try and keep away from his knife, but kill this bastard.
• GM: Sounds awesome. What are you going to roll to do that?
• Player: I’m going to skirmish with him! I have a decent rating in that action.
• GM: Yeah, makes sense. Thing is, this guy is a trained killer, so if you miss or time it wrong, you’re dead. So, your position is desperate and your effect is standard.
• Player: Okay, yeah. I get that. Rolling…

So, that conversation could have—and maybe should have—included all the players to agree. It doesn’t always have to, but there will be rolls that do.

Now, what do you guys think is the best way to capture that conversation? This is the part I can’t decide. Do we:

1. Write in-character only stuff in the Main thread, keeping it very in-fiction. The entire conversation for mechanics will happen in the OOC thread.
2. Write the in-character stuff in the Main thread with the mechanics conversation separated within the in-character post?
3. Write the entire in-character post very conversationally, mixing both in-character and mechanical conversation together?

Sorry for the long post. Hopefully, it makes SOME sense.

Teh Frixz Seraph Darkfire D. Rex dae mec

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

I'm partial to either the first or third option. I can see either being done quite well.

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

Posted my character. Went for the infiltrator ability but the pdf button messed up so I just highlighted the word.

Continued from my earlier thing. If we do the third one, you can use key phrases to describe certain scenarios to not break immersion. We'd do the same in response.

The first option though might make it easier to get through scenarios. You write out the scenario, we discuss in the ooc "You have to do this" "I roll to do this" "You succeed or fail in this way" then we make our post with that information.

 

[D. Rex]

This all sounds and looks awesome.

D. Rex , how do you find such great pics? I try to find decent stuff on Pinterest and usually come up short. What terms are you searching? You always find such great stuff.

Pinterest is where I go. I guess I got good luck? But it is mostly just tenacity. Normally got to sift through a bunch of meh.

I tend to keep my searches simple. Keeping it to just a couple keywords

"Fantasy female art" or "fantasy male art". These are common searches for me. After which I scroll through, if I find that kinda is what I'm looking for I click on it and scroll through whats below that which is usually similar to that picture. I'll go forward and backward depending on where the branches lead me.

If I want to search for specific things, I still try to keep it simple. "Fantasy female Empress japanese" or "fantasy male steampunk scholar"

Fantasy is a great tag that almost always shows art when looking for things that normally show a lot of photos or historical art.

Fantasy and art helps double down on that if you need it.

Specifying male and female is normally useful if you are looking for something specific. But you'll notice quick that different stylistic genres are easier or harder depending on gender.

Keeping the search somewhat broad, such as searching for "fantasy male knight art" can sometimes give you better results than if you searched for "male brown haired knight with grestsword and gold armor", you won't always find your specific picture you want. So keeping a broad search keeps your mind broad, and you can find something that you can make work.


Also! If you come across a picture you like, pin it. Make a whole library of pictures you will tell yourself you use later but never do. If possible. Sort them into albums. "Fantasy male" "modern male" "concept scenery" "future male", so you can reference them later if you need a specific genre.


I got a large library, and I can always go through them and look through branches of things I am looking for something similar of.

As well! Pinning good pictures will make similar pictures show up in your home feed as recommendations. So thats another way to train pinterest to give you the good stuff.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Pinterest is where I go. I guess I got good luck? But it is mostly just tenacity. Normally got to sift through a bunch of meh.

I tend to keep my searches simple. Keeping it to just a couple keywords

"Fantasy female art" or "fantasy male art". These are common searches for me. After which I scroll through, if I find that kinda is what I'm looking for I click on it and scroll through whats below that which is usually similar to that picture. I'll go forward and backward depending on where the branches lead me.

If I want to search for specific things, I still try to keep it simple. "Fantasy female Empress japanese" or "fantasy male steampunk scholar"

Fantasy is a great tag that almost always shows art when looking for things that normally show a lot of photos or historical art.

Fantasy and art helps double down on that if you need it.

Specifying male and female is normally useful if you are looking for something specific. But you'll notice quick that different stylistic genres are easier or harder depending on gender.

Keeping the search somewhat broad, such as searching for "fantasy male knight art" can sometimes give you better results than if you searched for "male brown haired knight with grestsword and gold armor", you won't always find your specific picture you want. So keeping a broad search keeps your mind broad, and you can find something that you can make work.


Also! If you come across a picture you like, pin it. Make a whole library of pictures you will tell yourself you use later but never do. If possible. Sort them into albums. "Fantasy male" "modern male" "concept scenery" "future male", so you can reference them later if you need a specific genre.


I got a large library, and I can always go through them and look through branches of things I am looking for something similar of.

As well! Pinning good pictures will make similar pictures show up in your home feed as recommendations. So thats another way to train pinterest to give you the good stuff.

Good call on all that. Thanks for the tips! I’ll try that out. And I guess I’ll start pinning stuff. Better than saving it to my machines and such.

Posted my character. Went for the infiltrator ability but the pdf button messed up so I just highlighted the word.

Continued from my earlier thing. If we do the third one, you can use key phrases to describe certain scenarios to not break immersion. We'd do the same in response.

The first option though might make it easier to get through scenarios. You write out the scenario, we discuss in the ooc "You have to do this" "I roll to do this" "You succeed or fail in this way" then we make our post with that information.

Yes, I agree. The third option is what I’ve usually done with games like this and it’s what I’m leaning toward as I think more about it.

Also, nice form-fillable playbook. I didn’t realize someone made those. Let me see if I can find them and the rest of you guys can just post the form filled out.

 

[Teh Frixz]

I actually tried that, pinning photos to sort of narrow things down. I used quite a few of the images above and kinda have one now! So thank you very much Rexly D!

 

[dae mec]

I also like the first and third options! I've used the first before and it worked well, but I think the third option would probably be faster. I'll look through the mechanics again and toss the CS up today probably.

 

[D. Rex]

Love it. The pic is awesome, too. I have a feeling these are going to be really special characters.


So, I’m having trouble figuring how to structure play and I’m hoping you guys can help me. I’ve run conversational games before here (Apocalypse World), but they were easier to structure because:

1. Writing the game in a conversational way actually played into the “feel” of the fiction and worked well.
2. The back-and-forth of play was simple. Because the moves in the game were tight with pre-defined outcomes, the player could call them into a post without GM input, really.

Blades is different. Special because it’s different, but could be a challenge. Not unworkable, but I want your opinions of what you think might work best. I’m also pretty sure I‘m over-thinking it, as I usually do.

In Blades, the player decides what action they want to roll for a given situation. You can see the actions and what they do in the player kit. This entire process—by the way—is intended that we all should come to a consensus or agree. Once you the player/we decide WHAT should be rolled, then I—the GM—give you what I think the position and effect are:

• Positions for rolls are controlled (as in well within your control), risky (as in you’re taking a significant risk in doing this), and desperate (as in this is really bad, super dangerous, or you’re really over-reaching).
• Effect is what effect your roll will have on the outcome. Effects are great (you achieve more than usual), standard (you achieve what was expected or “normal”), and limited (you achieve weak or partial effect).

So, at the risk of making this post too long and impossible to understand——a typical roll goes like this:

• GM: Joe-NPC pulls a knife and rushes you, trying to stab you. What do you do?
• Player: I pull my knife and try to stab him first. I want to try and keep away from his knife, but kill this bastard.
• GM: Sounds awesome. What are you going to roll to do that?
• Player: I’m going to skirmish with him! I have a decent rating in that action.
• GM: Yeah, makes sense. Thing is, this guy is a trained killer, so if you miss or time it wrong, you’re dead. So, your position is desperate and your effect is standard.
• Player: Okay, yeah. I get that. Rolling…

So, that conversation could have—and maybe should have—included all the players to agree. It doesn’t always have to, but there will be rolls that do.

Now, what do you guys think is the best way to capture that conversation? This is the part I can’t decide. Do we:

1. Write in-character only stuff in the Main thread, keeping it very in-fiction. The entire conversation for mechanics will happen in the OOC thread.
2. Write the in-character stuff in the Main thread with the mechanics conversation separated within the in-character post?
3. Write the entire in-character post very conversationally, mixing both in-character and mechanical conversation together?

Sorry for the long post. Hopefully, it makes SOME sense.

Teh Frixz Seraph Darkfire D. Rex dae mec

I'm good with either options 1 or 3.


Normally what I have always done was make a post. Then in that post put a spoiler with the mechanics within. Like what roll im going make and relevant abilities.

I don't see a problem with whatever we do, we can always adjust it on the fly if one method doesn't satisfy us.




I dont have much of an idea of how the system works yet, so can't really give much valuable input.




Also! Everything I do is on mobile device. I dont have a computer. So I can not edit a pdf card like the others. So I'll have to make up a post with the information in it.

 

[dae mec]

I've put my character sheet up! Let me know if I should make any changes or if you would like any more details: I can type up a full background if you like WlfSamurai

Also! Everything I do is on mobile device. I dont have a computer. So I can not edit a pdf card like the others. So I'll have to make up a post with the information in it.

If you would like, I can edit the PDF after you add the information, so that way you have a document to reference too! (Totally understand if you prefer not.)