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4.54 AVERAGE
4.54 AVERAGE
adventurous
Awesome rules that borrows some structure from the Powered by the Apocalypse RPG books. The presentation is clear, the art is not that great but the graphical layout helps set the mood for the dark and twisted city of Doskvol. The rules are simple and fast and the game is aimed at a long term campaign.
John Harper nailed with Blades in the Dark.
John Harper nailed with Blades in the Dark.
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this book. There are a lot of cool mechanics and world building. Also very weird to gain insights into one of my favorite Actual Play Podcasts, The Magpies.
This book wasn't always the easiest to follow. It is a very different system from any other RPG that I've played, and playing is generally the best way to learn for me. So hopefully some day I will get to play this so I can get it all figured out.
This book wasn't always the easiest to follow. It is a very different system from any other RPG that I've played, and playing is generally the best way to learn for me. So hopefully some day I will get to play this so I can get it all figured out.
While I gave this 5 stars initially, after actually playing the game for a few months I feel forced to bump it to down to 3.5. The setting is excellent and the rules in some places facilitate the game, but in important places are left so vague as to make the game frustrating. For instance, players get XP when they "challenge" a core skill but no attempt is made to explain what a "challenge" might be, leaving some players to end up with far more XP than others if their interpretation differs; some players can learn "rituals", but no attempt is made to define what a ritual might be or why these players would find them so useful as to commit significant resources to them; and the "ghost field" is supposedly an integral part of the world that all characters are supposed to "attune" to, but its uses are only partially enumerated without actually describing what its underlying capabilities are. As a minor nit, the organization of the book is lacking as well, where major parts of the game like downtime require flipping across hundreds of pages to cover all of the components.
There are some good things, though: the stress system makes it easy to help the team; the skill system makes it fast to actually perform actions; and the world itself is fascinating. With a little bit more structure and organization, this could become an excellent game. As it stands, the vagueness that is intended to be liberating is actually restrictive.
There are some good things, though: the stress system makes it easy to help the team; the skill system makes it fast to actually perform actions; and the world itself is fascinating. With a little bit more structure and organization, this could become an excellent game. As it stands, the vagueness that is intended to be liberating is actually restrictive.
dark
informative
medium-paced
The book is very well laid-out and contains such useful information about the game and setting that you can run a session with virtually no preparation (other than having read the book and, ideally, at least played before).
My only real criticism is that the setting seems to consist of all of the author's interests mashed together. I'd have preferred a more straight-forward crime-fiction setting rather than including the steampunk and ghosts and horrors outside the cities and so forth. When running the game myself I tend to de-emphasise the supernatural elements, but I'd have preferred they not be part of it at all. It's an issue I have with a lot of RPG settings, where I love the core concept but find myself less and less interested the more elements are added on top of it.
My only real criticism is that the setting seems to consist of all of the author's interests mashed together. I'd have preferred a more straight-forward crime-fiction setting rather than including the steampunk and ghosts and horrors outside the cities and so forth. When running the game myself I tend to de-emphasise the supernatural elements, but I'd have preferred they not be part of it at all. It's an issue I have with a lot of RPG settings, where I love the core concept but find myself less and less interested the more elements are added on top of it.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Very cool tabletop system. Very easy to read, understand, very good formatting and love all the summary tables!
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Very thematic, very interesting system, cant wait to play it.
I feel that the factions and crew mechanics will be extremely overwhelming especially to newer players.
I will maybe get back to this review when I get to play the system. But the world is great and I felt 0 need to implement my own world (I usually dont care about a system's world, but this time I will go head in to Doskvol)
I feel that the factions and crew mechanics will be extremely overwhelming especially to newer players.
I will maybe get back to this review when I get to play the system. But the world is great and I felt 0 need to implement my own world (I usually dont care about a system's world, but this time I will go head in to Doskvol)
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced