@artemis Finally, it may be worth checking out Grimwild. That’s #FitD rather than #PbtA but on an initial read it does seem to do something very D&D like. I think there is a PWYW version on DTRPG if you want to look (and they’re currently running a second crowdfunding to expand the print run).
#fitd
Very excited for my Songs for the Dusk players to have to clean up the aftermath of a simulated Trophy Dark session tomorrow!
I started with eight NPCs, and ended up with one dead in ring 1, one dead in ring 3, one dead in ring 4, two dead in ring 5, two incurably corrupted in ring 5, and one survivor, along with who betrayed who and when. It was fun!
I think there is a pretty big sandbox campaign structure in Scum and Villainy, with the clocks, factions, heat, and entanglements. But I might need more actual experience with the game to really grasp its full extend and potential.
While thinking about how to set up a custom world for #ScumAndVillainy, it occured to me that the game is inherently designed for sandbox campaigns.
You're just not exploring hexes on a map, but instead interacting with and navigating the factions. Which is why the Procyon Sector has 36 of them. With every job, you can improve your standing with one faction while decreasing it with another faction. You can't step anywhere without stirring up the system of relationships.
While I love making my own settings for #ttrpg campaigns, I find the Procyon Sector from the #ScumAndVillainy rulebook quite impressive.
It's only 47 pages in a giant font (I'd say 10-12 pages in a D&D book). It has 12 planets, that come to one paragraph worth of description each. And 36 factions! That each get three or four sentences of description each.
And somehow this works! I feel I understand this world and its complex power dynamics, and could run a great game with just this.
Scum and Villainy is so hard to learn...
Some insight into FitD Action Roll difficulty
https://spriggans-den.com/2025/04/20/some-insight-into-fitd-action-roll-difficulty/
@blackcoat And of course, you can always trade position for effect. That might actually be a much more important mechanic than I thought.
A quick Flashback can easily get you Increased Effect, which you can trade to change the Position to Risky or even Controlled.
If your action has a Controlled Position, you can't really screw it up. You always have the choice to just try something else when you fail.
It's just becoming clear to me that any circumstantial advantages or disadvantages in Blades in the Dark and Scum and Villainy only impact the Effect level of a successful action roll, but not the chance of getting a success.
Success chance is only increased by Pushing Yourself, using a Gambit, or getting Assistance from another character.
It will take some time to wrap my head around how to apply that in practice.
#ScumAndVillainy is a great #ttrpg system that covers about anything you could need in one book.
But are there perhaps any kind of resources for GMs for the game anyway? Not necessarily more game material, but also perhaps just enlightening commentaries on things easily missed or overlooked.
Even though I had learned the Blades in the Dark rules once and read the Scum and Villainy rulebook three years ago, reading it again now really isn't a trivial task.
The rules are actually fairly simple, but like all PbtA games I've read, the organization makes it quite tough to follow. Important concepts can be mentioned to explain something in three or four different chapters before they are actually explained themselves.
Sitting down and carefully reading the Scum and Villainy rulebook again without flipping over things I think I still remember how they work really does make the excitement come back I had for the game when I first read it three years ago.
The mechanics themselves are not exciting. But the kind of escalating, fast-paced action they allow is. It's completely different from the chess with extra steps approach of most games, where you mostly track numbers going down.
City Of Red Waters
Tonight's game of Blades in the Dark will see The Ferrymen head out into the Void Sea.
They are smuggling Milos "The Hammer Miller - leader of the Rail Jacks - from Duskvol to Whitehollow as there are threats on his life
The Ferrymen as a group don't got much experience on the Void Sea so we'll see how they manage.
When your Blades crew goes into the Void Sea you have to go outside the book for inspiration!
#BitD #FitD #ironsworn #starforged #SunderedIsles #ttrpg #bladesinthedark
Some pictures from the very first in-person and online #playtest of my Three Kingdoms-inspired #fitd #ttrpg
Running my first session of Songs for the Dusk in T-1 hour! This'll also be my very first time running, or even playing, a Forged in the Dark game!
After this I definitely wanna try a Trophy game too haha
Anyone got any good resources on running a Forged in the Dark game for someone who ran a lot of Dungeon World and a bit of Apocalypse World back in '15 and '16, but has never played a Forged in the Dark game before?
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