GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Andi C, Wilhelm Fitzpatrick, Bill Lee, Dylan “Exobyte” Mayo
System: Blades in 68′
I was quite pleased when I posted Blades in 68 on the GoPlay schedule and it filled up quickly. I thought, heck, I might even run it again (hahahahaha, see the next few posts).
Blades in 68′ is a game set in Doskvol, 100 years after Blades in the Dark. The game is being internally playtested now but I can share a few teasers here. I’m playtesting the starting situation The Alluvium Affair which opens:
It’s a beautiful day, with a bright blue sky above. You’re in a yellow autopod soaring through the air over Candle Bridge, Crowfoot. Behind you is a psychedelic bloom of colors. An anomaly eruption, an explosive tear in reality.
Which of you is in the backseat? You’re holding a heavy canister filled with a glowing, pulsating, viscous liquid. Pure alluvium, the very substance of the resonance field; quantum instability in physical form. Rare, unstable, valuable.
Which of you is driving? You have the location for the client handoff pinned to the dashboard, scrawled on a piece of paper. The handwriting disappears before your very eyes, and from your memory at the same time. Anomaly eruptions are a hell of a thing.
None of you remember the first half of the score. Reality has been altered. The client no longer exists, and neither does the handoff.
After reading that (and Wilhelm electing to be the driver and Bill picking to be in the back seat) we took turns reading the setting description and then making scoundrels, including:
- Reginald Goodespirit, PHD (Paranormalist from Iruvia)
- Dessa (Radical set off by inequality)
- Roderick Fearnot (Swinger who goes by “Champers”)
- Wayland Dorst (Hound whose family runs a bet shop that’s going under)
After their characters were made, they answered some questions about what else in their past was lost by the anomaly, and what possible futures might exist for them.
- Dessa had forgotten her good friend Vuko, the union rep and in her future saw herself clean cut, wearing a suit.
- Wayland forgot his young sibling, the shop accountant and saw a future version of himself hard worn, but content
- Champers saw himself drinking, of all things, beer (he was nicknamed Champers for exclusively drinking champagne)
Your autopod slams back to earth and hurtles towards the end of the bridge. Two autocycles appear, one on each side, the riders pulling pistols. Up ahead is a roadblock manned by thugs in jumpsuits. You hear the wail of sirens; three autopods giving chase behind you.
And just because I can’t resist, here were the props I got for the game.
I didn’t mean it Marlowe
Champers was fending off the cyclist firing on his a autopod from the backseat, meanwhile Dessa was driving (despite this being Champer’s autopod, who knows why they switched) and saw Marlow, an artist from the Tomorrow Program, pull up beside them on a matching autocycle. He seemed desperate and incensed. He shouted over the road noise “Give me back the Alluvium”! Dessa and Marlow had history. They respected each other, but cruel words were said.
Up ahead, they saw Chago, head of the SCORPION Syndicate, the big time drug dealers that were pushing out bet shops like Wayland’s family…specifically Wayland’s family. He looked confident and unconcerned, but surprised to see the crew.
Dessa gunned the autopod through the blockade, leaving Chago bemused but still confident. He’d get that Alluvium eventually (or so he thought). Marlowe however, followed right after, and so did Sergeant Vran and the other Bluecoats.
On the other side Wayland regrouped with Dessa and Champers to decide what to do next. With Marlowe upon them, they agreed to bring him along and Dessa admitted that despite the insults about his work she said earlier he was a good artist. He rode with her to the meet, at this point still determined to get back his property, but listening.
Putting the job back together
Meanwhile, in the New Horizon Blue Baths, Goodespirit agreed to a meet with Karstas, head of Mirror House to try and line him up as a new buyer. Karstas was interested (Mirror House is all about getting that Alluvium) but reluctant to buy Alluvium stolen from The Tomorrow Project as he didn’t want to hurt their good relations. Goodespirit convinced him it was all going to be fine (not knowing that Dessa was actually working on turning Marlowe to their side).
Some other fun bits that happened on their way to the meet:
- The canisters of Alluvium cracked and as dripped over Champers hands they began to look like film negatives, inverted and colorless.
- Dessa got Marlowe to spill the whole story about the Catalyst Engine and convinced him to turn on the Tomorrow Project and help her instead.
- The chase turned to a footrace when they encountered a student protest in Crowfoot. Wayland drew attention to himself so Champers could make off with the Alluvium, and when Vanden, a bluecoat that had history with Wayland caught up with him, Wayland pretended to go along with being arrested just long enough for Champers to get clear, and then turned the tables on Vanden, returning all the brutality he had experienced, and then some!
- Dessa read poetry to change the hearts and minds of others.
Cut to when you’re all pointing guns at each other
As the evening was wearing on and it was getting dark out (and lighting was tough) I took a look at the clocks, and looked at the situation and figured, there’s no way that the Tomorrow Project (Marlowe or no Marlowe) and/or Bluecoats weren’t going to interrupt the drop.
I asked the group “I don’t think this will go smoothly. I think we should cut to when you’re all pointing guns at each other” and then all agreed. We made a final group action (Prowl, duck and roll!) to grab the stacks and get out. Mission accomplished.
Thoughts
- This was my first time running Blades in 68′ and it was a blast! This group of players was so wonderful. They all embraced the game and played so generously with me and with each other!
- Folks seemed to dig Keys, and at least once the explicitly drove one of their decisions.
- Gaining XP for rolling 0D actions was a good incentive to try things out. When given the chance (after character creation) to have the person with Finesse driving the car both players elected to keep things as they were.
- Using the the factions (Tomorrow and SCORPION) was much more meaningful when they were connected to the characters (Chago putting the Dorst family out of business, Marlowe respecting Dessa’s poetry, etc). As I ran more sessions of the game, I started swapping in characters from contact lists instead of the NPCs I had planned and that worked even better.
Take a look at these scoundresl
