Blades in the Dark intro
Jul. 30th, 2017 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calissaIt has been a busy time for gaming in this household. Within the last eight days, I've started two new campaigns and run a one-shot.
A hardcover copy of John Harper's Blades in the Dark arrived a couple of weeks ago. He calls it industrial fantasy, which to me is just another term for gritty steampunk. Characters are thieves, assassins, drug dealers, alchemists, witches, cultists and smugglers. The idea is to build up your gang's reputation and territory without falling afoul of local law enforcement, a rival gang or an eldritch power.
It's set in a world that's never explicitly stated as ours, but which has nevertheless undergone some kind of apocalypse a century or several ago. The characters live in Doskvol, a city walled in by fences of lightning. These fences (and pretty much everything else) are powered by the blood of giant demons called Leviathans that are hunted like whales (although, unlike whales, the Leviathan hunters don't try to kill their prey--mostly because they're giant, underwater demons). Ghosts abound. If an afterlife ever existed, it doesn't anymore. The city's law enforcement makes sure souls are separated from bodies on death and both soul and body destroyed to guard against the creation of ghosts. Every time a death occurs in the city, a bell tolls and the spirit crows fly out to mark the location of the body for the spirit wardens.
I was surprised by how excited to play I was, even before reading the rules. I think the setting drew me in. It has vibes of The Lies of Locke Lamora, a book I would have loved to pieces if the author wasn't so rubbish with his female characters. Sahaquiel was also super excited to play, so we talked one of our regulars into starting a second gaming group. The other player is relatively new to roleplaying, but takes it much more seriously than our other regulars and really commits to his roleplaying. Being just the two of us, we'll be able to get more experimental with our roleplaying and try some new approaches.
Our gang type is Shadows. That means we'll be concentrating on heists and spying, with the occasional con job. Other gang types focus on assassination, smuggling and general thuggery, among other things.
My character is Henrietta Kinclaith, aka Echo, a bored socialite who has turned to burglary to entertain herself. She's the seventh daughter of a noble family; an ambitious, petty adrenaline junkie. She's young and a bit naive.
Her associate is Natalya Vale, aka The Madame, a former spy from another nation who stayed in the city when her nation was conquered. An older woman, she's more of the devious mastermind, with contacts across the city.
Our first session was all character creation, so I'm looking forward to seeing how these two interact. We're calling the gang The Sirens. They have a base that currently consists of the space under one of the canals that the city is riddled with. There's a secret entrance from the basement of a ruined mansion belonging to Henri's family.
Our next session is on Friday.
A hardcover copy of John Harper's Blades in the Dark arrived a couple of weeks ago. He calls it industrial fantasy, which to me is just another term for gritty steampunk. Characters are thieves, assassins, drug dealers, alchemists, witches, cultists and smugglers. The idea is to build up your gang's reputation and territory without falling afoul of local law enforcement, a rival gang or an eldritch power.
It's set in a world that's never explicitly stated as ours, but which has nevertheless undergone some kind of apocalypse a century or several ago. The characters live in Doskvol, a city walled in by fences of lightning. These fences (and pretty much everything else) are powered by the blood of giant demons called Leviathans that are hunted like whales (although, unlike whales, the Leviathan hunters don't try to kill their prey--mostly because they're giant, underwater demons). Ghosts abound. If an afterlife ever existed, it doesn't anymore. The city's law enforcement makes sure souls are separated from bodies on death and both soul and body destroyed to guard against the creation of ghosts. Every time a death occurs in the city, a bell tolls and the spirit crows fly out to mark the location of the body for the spirit wardens.
I was surprised by how excited to play I was, even before reading the rules. I think the setting drew me in. It has vibes of The Lies of Locke Lamora, a book I would have loved to pieces if the author wasn't so rubbish with his female characters. Sahaquiel was also super excited to play, so we talked one of our regulars into starting a second gaming group. The other player is relatively new to roleplaying, but takes it much more seriously than our other regulars and really commits to his roleplaying. Being just the two of us, we'll be able to get more experimental with our roleplaying and try some new approaches.
Our gang type is Shadows. That means we'll be concentrating on heists and spying, with the occasional con job. Other gang types focus on assassination, smuggling and general thuggery, among other things.
My character is Henrietta Kinclaith, aka Echo, a bored socialite who has turned to burglary to entertain herself. She's the seventh daughter of a noble family; an ambitious, petty adrenaline junkie. She's young and a bit naive.
Her associate is Natalya Vale, aka The Madame, a former spy from another nation who stayed in the city when her nation was conquered. An older woman, she's more of the devious mastermind, with contacts across the city.
Our first session was all character creation, so I'm looking forward to seeing how these two interact. We're calling the gang The Sirens. They have a base that currently consists of the space under one of the canals that the city is riddled with. There's a secret entrance from the basement of a ruined mansion belonging to Henri's family.
Our next session is on Friday.
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Date: 2017-07-30 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-30 09:35 pm (UTC)