maybe you guys forgot to add the playbook specific stats? when I played blades, I made that mistake at first
you can see the 3 stat points marked on the playbook pages
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The 3 dots were from the assasins crew ability “Deadly”. Which gives you an option of Hunt, Prowl, or Skirmish as a free action dot. This bypasses the rule that starting characters only have 2 dots in any one action. So a number of the crew put this action dot into an ability they already had at 2.
At least that was my impression, but now thinking about it the Spider has 3 in Consort… so I"m not 100% anymore. Maybe @OneSevenDesign can clear that up.
XP triggers in Blades can be either quite loose, or quite stringent, depending on the group. Most I’ve seen go fairly loose, so if for instance the player “addresses a tough challenge by []” is remotely addressed (or attempted) they could probably get 1 xp from that line. Did they mention something about their past?, go to a contact they’d known in their previous life? Explain why Akorosi people are weird to them? Boom, Background or Heritage Xp tick. Similarly, beliefs/drives are just things that the character wants to see done in play. If that happens, or is attempted. Generally some XP can be given there.
The Vice and Trauma stuff can be a bit tricky to get a handle on, especially in the beginning when they don’t have trauma yet.
Hope you are enjoying the Blades group you’ve got going in any case, I know I’ve been enjoying playing in a game of it as well- and I’m thoroughly intrigued in watching more of this show in the future!
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I know I’m a little late. Firstly, such a great show. The intro scenes Might be my favourite experience from any RPG stream. Awesome job all.
Secondly, is there any chance of getting copies of the artwork John? I definitely want to run BitD and those few images I saw so far are awesome (BTW great system also and thanks for introducing me to Steven Brust)
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John, as usual the assets you use and create are RIDICULOUSLY good, are the macros and character sheets you’re using going to be implemented into roll 20 / released in any form?
Also this crew is fantastic and obviously you can’t pick a favorite, but what character surprised you the most once it hit actual role playing time?
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John, as usual the assets you use and create are RIDICULOUSLY good, are the macros and character sheets you’re using going to be implemented into roll 20 / released in any form?
The character sheet was fan created and released on the Blades G+ community. You can get it here.
The creator is really good about updating and tweaking it. I’ve seen a lot of fixes just since I started using it last August.
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Episode 1 Roll Results
[details=Aldo “studies the room”]
- Fortune 2d6
- 3, 6
- success (6)[/details]
[details=Vana “sets up the plan”]
- Consort 3d6
- risky
- standard
- 4, 5, 2
- partial success (5)[/details]
[details=Carriless “rolls the engagement”]
- Fortune 3d6
- 2, 1, 2
- bad (2)[/details]
[details=Vana “lies about the sword”]
- Sway 1d6 +1 for team assist and +2 stress = 4d6
- declined bargin “remember her face”
- risky
- standard
- 1, 2, 2, 2
- bad (2)[/details]
[details=Vana “deals with the consequence”]
- Resolve 2d6
- 1, 2
- (2)
- suffer 6 - 2 = 4 stress[/details]
[details=Rune “attunes to the ghost Myth”]
- Fortune 2d6
- 4, 6
- success (6)[/details]
[details=Vana “asks for legal advice”]
- Sway 1d6 +1 for bargin = 2d6
- accepted bargin “get physical”
- risky
- standard
- 5, 1
- partial success (5)[/details]
[details=Vana “dissembles Shatner-esquely”]
- Consort 3d6 +1 for help and +1 (takes 2 stress)
- rejected bargin “can’t avoid getting physical”
- rejected bargin “guards notice the Magistrate is missing”
- desperate (roll incorrectly says risky)
- standard
- 2, 2, 2, 3, 5 (accidentally rolled an extra die, 1 ignored)
- partial success (5)[/details]
[details=Roathe “duels Dunvil”]
- Fortune 5d6
- 5, 2, 2, 6, 5
- success (6)[/details]
[details=Summary of rolls (crit/succes/partial/bad)]
- Geoff/Carriless - (0/0/0/1)
- Zeke/Aldo - (0/1/0/0)
- Anne/Rune - (0/1/0/0)
- Wheat/Vana - (0/0/3/1)[/details]
Notes:
Wheat’s “Shatner-esque” roll wasn’t rolled correctly. I guessed the inputs based on later play (i.e. no consequences for the bargins). Also let me know if I made any mistakes, especially those who watch the Twitch vods or youtube.
Edit:
- added partial success for rolls with 4/5 as the highest result
- added crit stat (none in ep1), updated summary, updates from me learning the system
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Awesome show, awesome cast, awesome DM. Can’t wait for more and to delve deeper into the world and the characters! 
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Is their crew sheet available anywhere? Curious about their relationships to the various factions so far.
Hey John, the system seems designed from the outset if a player understands it can give him/herself multiple ways to keep trying to get what they want by narratively pushing at a conflict from different directions.
How many times does the system reasonably support ‘tries’ at getting what you want?
Without a hard stop on re-tries it seems that the system overall favors particular personality types and doesn’t lend it self to player personalities with less ‘drive’ or ‘engagement’ levels.
No big input here, just another voice in the “This was all great, can’t wait until the next session” crowd. And Zeke, sorry that this was an Aldo-lite session, you handled having relatively little spotlight time light a friggen boss, man. Can’t wait to see what happens when the mission involves letting you loose.
And I do think that the fact that such long chunks of the game could be basically left to putting the players in the driver’s seat and rules-steering as necessary highlights just what a great system Blades can be, and what it can do in the hands of great players and characters. Thank you to all involved.
Things change every time you “try”. When you fail, things get worse. So, sure, you can keep trying to bang your head against that wall every time, because things will evolve. It’s not roll until you succeed, every roll is a different situation. You basically never make the same roll twice, because the consequences and situation surrounding it are always different.
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Sythmaster explained it… they took Deadly for their Assassin’s special ability, which gives a bonus action dot in Hunt, Prowl, or Skirmish (and can raise a starting action to 3). Wheat was a big cheater and added a third dot in Consort and I didn’t notice. 
Starting PCs have 7 total action dots. 3 free dots on their sheet + 4 extra dots during chargen. The RollPlay PCs have 1 extra, from Deadly, for a total of 8 dots.
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Definitely Geoff’s character. I knew he would be creepy and strange, but his sort of “fake(?) niceness” performance was a surprise. I liked it a lot. It’s almost like he’s translating everything from his native Tycherosi into Akorosian speech/customs and it comes across as bizarre. So good.
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One of the consequences that the GM can select on a 4/5 or 1-3 is “you lose this opportunity.” This means that you can’t try again using the same method of action. You’ll have to give up or find a new way to get what you want.
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So GOOOOOOD, this was incredible. First hour was definitely the best first hour of any RollPlay show. Everyone did such an incredible job. Pat yourselves on the back everyone.
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Anyone interested in Blades should check out the google + community. It’s been growing along with the game since the kickstarter and has some amazing people and content.
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DJweat character translated to my language would mean Old Cattaby 
Yea I would say his character being so out there really makes it work.
Quick thing i noticed watching the VOD on youtube. Some of the PC’s have a rating of 3 in some Traits. I thought the most you could start with on a Trait was 2.
Here ya go Primarch:
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