GM: Judd Karlman
Players: Jason Bowell, Pete Cornell, and Sean Nittner
System: Blades in the Dark
Crew: The Wobbegong Crew
Taken from Judd Karlman’s writeup:
In which the gang lets off steam, trains in the Pig Pit, studies a demon-goddess’ altar, gets some artifact trinkets back from the Billhooks, and made contact with a barrister representing mercantile interests (and stole his watch).
The Wobbegong Crew
Muad, the gang’s Whisper joined the group; Charming knew her from the Unity War; they fought together on Barghast Beach, one of the bloodiest engagements of the war. I’ve known Sean for years and I’m excited to finally be able to game with him.
Skannon’s nickname is The Crow and that is what we called him for most of the game.
Charming hasn’t met a problem that a proper assault wouldn’t solve.
Willoughby was out indulging in her vice (as Rob couldn’t make it due to work responsibilities).
Doskvol Notables
I was surprised at how many places and people we generated through downtime.
- Bug – Billhook, saved by Wobeggong Crew from prison barge who keister’d one of the Goat-Matron’s idol children
- The Goat Matron, Saint of Witches, and her 13 Young – altar/engine, connected to an ancient demon-goddess and her brood
- Grine – pub-owner being tortured by Coran after having stolen from the Billhooks
- House of 11 Pleasures – brothel and tea-house owned by The Hive
- The Pig Pit – a fighting pit run by the Billhooks where Charming works out
- Phin Rowan, Barrister with Rowan, Dunvil and Welker – property and acquisitions lawyer
- Queen Bee’s Nest – pub in Nightmarket where the gang dropped off a message to The Hive.
Clocks
Clocks are hitting the table and I’m also looking at the clocks in the book that go with each faction, particularly clocks for The Hive, the Bluecoats and the Billhooks but also thinking about the coming gang-war between the Red Sashes and the Lampblacks as fun background noise.
Blue Coats Hunt Down Shannon, 0 of 4
Learn the True Nature of the Artifacts, 8 of 8
Maude completed the clock, letting her know all about the Goat-Matron’s altar and the names of the Saint of Witches’ children.
Three 6’s on the attune role when learning about the blood altar to a goat-headed witch-saint. LOVE IT.
Maud Becomes High Priestess of the Goat Matron, 1 of 6
The Hive Seeks Recompense from Charming, 3 of 4
This last one is like throwing a grenade into the game after the fuse is just about gone. Charming got his time-piece by menacing the mercantile conglomerate’s barrister but he’ll have to pay the price for it eventually. See below for more on this interaction.
Mechanics
Jay had asked that we spend more time in-character this game and get to know our characters a bit. I welcomed that suggestion and tried to step sideways to the mechanics and encourage free play as much as possible. This meant that Downtime took a while and we didn’t get to the Job but that is okay. I feel like we fleshed out the gang and breathed some life into our Duskwall.
Sean joined us and he knows this game backwards and forwards. We would’ve done fine with downtime on our own but he helped us realize the importance of teamwork, even during downtime along with a thousand other details he informed us of quickly, rather us looking it up.
Sean gave us good pointers. I think we used a bit more teamwork than we would have in our downtime.
I’m going to read up on Stress & Trauma and Consequences & Harm. I feel like I’m not comfortable with the link between those mechanics and Action Rolls. I need to refresh.
I’ d like to look at one scene in particular:
[I’ll have the youtube video set to this scene later]
Charming wanted the barrister’s time-piece. Crow wanted Charming to chill so that the gang could secure The Hive as a source of lucrative jobs. It was a tense moment. Sean jumped in as a rules moderator, letting us know our options. Jay and Pete checked in one with another throughout. It was good stuff and a clock was created out of it. I liked how they both stayed respectful towards each other’s characters; there was affection between Charming and Crow even as they disagreed that was nice.
Those moments are tricky. I don’t want a fractured gang messed up by infighting but some friction is fun.
Streaming
It is an odd thing to have a video record of a game. It was surprisingly fun having a dozen or so folks (mostly friends and online friendly acquaintances) in chat, cheering the game on. Thank you to everyone who watched, thanks to the Actual Play Team for hosting our game and thanks to Sean for walking us through this process.
