[RollPlay: Blades Q&A] Episode 13: The Dockers Are Burning

[TheDesec]

John, you said this more than once: "She" is not amused about Carriless getting in the way of the foghounds revenge.

Recap (mild spoilers if you are not caught up): Rune and Marget killed some member/officer of the foghounds. Marget tried to take the reign (or even took it for a while). Truth came out, and now Bear is angry they killed his friend and points swords. Marget hides. Rune is with the Last Word. Foghounds hire dockers to help. Right? Hope so!

So their first assault went against Miss Cattaby and against Carriless and Aldo somewhere else, right?

Does "She" care about directly exerted revenge? Or is she about making them suffer by hurting peers? Because they only hurt peers. And if "She" likes to see revenge done directly, by killing who did you wrong, then going after peers of the wrong-doers is not on "Her" radar, and Carriless should not be scolded when ingulging his vice at all. On the contrary, they did him wrong by going after him, and not the ones who did them wrong. He (as well as Aldo and Cattaby) is entitled to revenge from this point of view.

I know that "She" also likes random killings, so not sure if I communicate my train of thoughts coherent enough.... I'm tired.

Just curious

[OneSevenDesign]

She Who Slays in Darkness is a said by humans to be a goddess of justice or vengeance, depending on your point of view.

Her preferences and desires are not those of a human being, and cannot be easily understood or categorized into simple little boxes. She doesn't have to be consistent or explicable. She isn't a person. What is she, really? No one knows.

Her followers can only hope to do their best and try to stay in her good graces. As with all religions, there is much disagreement about what that means. Because of his bond with the goddess, Carriless has a bit of an advantage, and can sense when she is displeased.

Bear was taking revenge on Margette and Rune for the murder of his friend. Carriless had several chances to stay out of the way of that vengeance and allow Rune and Margette to be killed, but instead he chose to defend his friend.

(The Foghounds didn't hire the Dockers. The two factions are loyal allies.)

[Vukith]

@OneSevenDesign I was wondering if an issue some people are having with the game (in this thread and the feedback one from a few weeks ago) is whether some people watching don't realize the stakes of the players actions. I know when people pull a crit out of their arse the effect it can have on the game. Some of the watchers don't seem to see that link which is fine because they haven't watched over 50 hours of blades games.

I know it might be a bit clunky for the players and your Gm style but would it be worth trying to lay out the stakes of rolls to the new audience for at least the first 2 or 3 sessions? So people can really see the impact and risks of the players actions and rolls?

It might screw up the game flow for the players (which would obviously suck) but it might get more people on board with the Game they are watching? This is all purely from a show point of view and not the game side of things as the players have a handle on whats happening.

[OneSevenDesign]

Seems like most people follow along just fine. Some people will always be confused about something, but that doesn't mean its common. I'm not seeing any overwhelming confusion, just a few scattered comments from people who couldn't figure things out on their own.

During the live chat, I see the vast majority of people reacting along with each roll and critical, easily following along with the stakes of the action.

Having said that, I will continue to fight to not be interrupted with a dice roll while I'm still explaining what the roll is for. That's definitely an occasional issue.

[Vukith]

Ok cool maybe I was just looking for the negative in the feedback thread from before.

[Wezo91]

Rune has come very close to death or serious harm a fair few times, when she tapped into the power grid during the assualt on the Leviathan Hunter Ship and also when she went one on one against the Ghost at Lord Sukurs Mansion, if Rune hadn't rolled a 6 on her attune for the power grid or a 6 on her resist rolls against the ghost and had instead taken alot of stress, she could have gotten trauma then and there, been out of the fight and the ghost could have possessed her or who knows what else.

We saw during episode 12 that Aldo went against some Fog Hounds armed with firearms and they could have inflicted a fatal wound on him, @OneSevenDesign explained very clearly before Zeke rolled that the Fog Hounds were taking aim at him, I knew then that anything less than a 6 was going to result in something nasty for Aldo.

I do think an argument could be made that the Resist mechanic seems abit too strong but to be honest the cast has gotten extremely lucky with their rolls, I like the characters alot and as such I am happy that they've gotten out of these potentially deadly situations, but I am well aware that these rolls should not be taken for granted and at some point someone is most likely going to take a Trauma mid fight and either they themselves are going to be seriously screwed or the cast members still up are going to have a very tough time when they're down a member.

[OneSevenDesign]

Yep. And let's not forget Miss Cattaby, who was trauma'd out by the Fog Hounds in a fight. She wasn't their true target, so she was merely left for dead. If that had been Rune... well, it would have been very bad.

[Wezo91]

Oh yes of course, surprised what happened to Miss Cattaby slipped my mind.

I believe getting a level three harm also takes you out of the fight? if so, is that treated the same as getting trauma'd out? are you unable to put up a fight anymore and the enemy is able to freely act against you if you're undefended by a third party or can you try to desperately escape?

[OneSevenDesign]

Level 3 harm is incapacitated. You can take action by pushing yourself, or if a teammate assists you.

[Wezo91]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

The potential stress influx from a crew member getting a level three harm is brutal, both for the person affected by the harm and for the others trying to assist, if a crew are in the middle of a particularly deadly encounter I'm sure there's a high chance for a domino effect to occur that could easily result in more than one crew memeber getting trauma'd out. Needing to assist an incapapcitated crew member plus a few bad resist rolls and wham, Crew wipe. How exciting .

[Jewbobicus]

Having said that, I will continue to fight to not be interrupted with a dice roll while I'm still explaining what the roll is for. That's definitely an occasional issue.

All it will take is one time for that to happen and it kills them. Once that happens, not only will it be funny to watch, but it will probably reduce or eliminate it completely.

[TheDesec]

Watched some older Doctor Who (10th Doc) just now. "Timey-Wimey" reminded me of @iNcontroLTV's explanation of the "demoney" stuff. Can we please call it "Demoney-Weamoney", when someone asks again and the explanation gets too complicated?