Blades in the Dark Overview
Blades in the Dark is a steampunk fantasy TTRPG set in the city of Doskvol, a Victorian, Gothic, and London-esque city filled with crime, intrigue, and political machinations. The setting of Blades in the Dark is deeply reminiscent of the Dishonored games, and play focuses on a crew of players carefully navigating the underworld of the city. The crew completes scores, then have a period of downtime, where they plan future scores, rest and recover, or indulge in the fineries of the undercity.
Dice in Blades in the Dark
Blades in the Dark is a d6 system that measures success on a spectrum. Only by rolling a 6 do you succeed without complications. On a 4 or a 5, you succeed, but a complication is introduced to the situation. On a 3 or lower, you outright fail, but failure doesn’t necessarily mean the situation doesn’t change. The GM is likely going to introduce more complications. Because there’s a 50% chance of failure on any roll, failure is an important means by which the story progresses. Just because you fail doesn’t mean the situation is hopeless, and you’ll definitely have further opportunities to turn the situation back to your favor.
What We Love
Something we love about Blades in the Dark is the Flashback mechanic. Because the rules don’t distinguish between past and present actions, sometimes you’ll encounter a problem during a job that your current cunning just can’t solve. Now, it’s time for a Flashback. You’ll describe the “just in case” thing your character did to prepare for this very event, and the GM will set a stress cost based on the complexity of those actions. This rule allows you to jump right into the action of a job, and helps to reduce your GMs prep time.
