Lady Blackbird (6/26/2024)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Shannon Brueckner, Eric Fattig
System: Lady Blackbird

Yay, introducing people to RPGs. Yay, Lady Blackbird. Our neighbor Shannon said she was interested in trying an RPG so we asked a little bit about what kind of stories she likes:

• Heist Moves
• Star Wars
• Angsty emotions

We wanted a game that was quick to start (i.e. no character creation or worldbuilding needed) and hit (or at least most) of those genres…and Lady Blackbird was the one to do it!

Shannon played the Lady, Karen played Cyrus Vance, and Eric played Snargle. Lets the antics begin!

Gameplay

Blackbird is such a good good game. It is full of delightful characters and starting situation that is so easy to jump into.

Snargle and Vance played “Goblin Molting” which is special goblin variant of “Get Help” to lure in the guards and knock them out. When things didn’t go quite right though, a lighting bolt came out of thin air. Oh wow, yes that is Lady Blackbird, Master Sorcerer!

The breakout wasn’t without it’s struggles. The docking clamps needed to be released, they had to get to the Owl, and the needed to do it all before Captain Hollis or his crew on the Hand of Sorrow could determine who Vance really ways (which would have made things bad) or who the Lady was (which would have been even worse).

Snargle shapeshifted enough to gather intel. Vance conned his way into unlocking the clamps, but when things started to go sideways and Lt. Hazel Cross figured out what was going on, it came down the Lady to tell Captain Hollis who she was and that she was on a very important mission.

It was so close to working, but the captain was going to escort her to the Owl personally, where he found Vance, his former soldier, exiled for dereliction of duty. The locked eyes and fought. Lady Blackbird distracted the marines, and Snargle flew them out of there, only dinging up the ship a bit on the way.

Just as the hatch door was closing, guns drawn and sabers locked, Captain Hollis and Cyrus Vance killed each other in mortal combat (presumably).

What Rocked

Lady Blackbird has such a good premise, so many cool opportunities and challenges from the start. In particular I really like the list of Building the World questions that you can ask throughout the game, as well as the Obstacles and Difficulty examples to not only give a sense of how hard things should be and some possible challenges to throw in their way.

Shannon jumped in the game and was great as Lady Blackbird. She also asked a lot of great questions like “why are we rolling dice now” and “why can’t we just say what happens next”.

Excited to play another game and see how the Owl fares when chased by the Hand of Sorrow!