So you want to run a Blades One Shot…

There’s a lot to like about Blades in the Dark (John Harper’s award winning game from last year). It’s got a dynamic fiction-influenced set of rolls which take into account how the players approach things, flashback mechanics that eliminate the need for extensive prep, and a rad steam-flavored spooky victoriana aesthetic. However it’s also a long term game that shines brightest when you can devote time to it’s many subsystems and intricate set of mechanics involving rising through the tiers of influence and power, and growing your crew to become one of the largest in the ghost-haunted city setting of the game. This is a process however, that takes many sessions of play.

The question many people are asking is how to get a punchy one-shot of the game to the table. Game nights and/or convention slots (about 4 hours) are common events many people play (or these days stream). There are several major stumbling blocks to running a one shot inside these constraints. Character and crew creation takes up a chunk of the time. The setting takes time to introduce (including the many rival gangs and organizations getting in the players way).

I’ve run a fair number of one-shots and convention slots of the game, and I’ve come up with a number of tools that I use to streamline the experience and keep things punchy and flowing. For those of you looking to show someone exactly how the game is played (including the crew and character creation) there’s no need to stray from the starting position and blades details. But if what you’re looking to do is run a great one-shot with low overhead and fast on-boarding then read on. And of course (as always) feel free to mix and match what works for you and discard what doesn’t. These are just things that work for me.

The One-Shot Crew

The crew is an integral part of blades. John Harper often says (and I agree) that the game is not about an individual character but about the crew. The whole game revolves around increasing the power and influence of your Crew. It also adds a ton of overhead to starting the game, and managing your time. Here’s a few tips I’ve used to streamline this.

1. Get rid of it. No, seriously. The Crew is the unit of play in a campaign. In a one-shot the unit of play is the individual characters, and the 5–6 members of their gang that may have thrown in their lot with them (who may or may not be involved in any specific job, including the first one you’re running). For a one shot the game runs just fine without it.

The above will probably help streamline your play significantly. You’re looking at 10–15 minutes at creation, and at the end of the session (during xp). However, if you want to add a bit of the flavor here are a few tips.

1. Preselect the Crew. Selecting which type of game you’re playing uses up decision making energy, and slows things down. Let people know what crew they’ll be playing. If you want some player agency …
2. Create a Starting Situation. The starting position in Blades is great (two gangs at war, you’re caught in the middle) but it’s starting job (wrangling a strong gang — the Red Sashes) doesn’t mesh really well with every crew type. Smugglers might be better used to get something through enemy turf for example. If you create a starting situation (trouble in a district) figure out who the big players are in terms of Factions and be ready to suggest those as allies, job offers, or enemies for the game. Which then means…
3. Situate the Crew. Find what opportunities exist for the crews you plan to offer (who are the Assassins hired to off and by whom for example). This gives you a chance to prep, and set up the jobs for a quick start.
4. Streamline Powers. In my experience arguing over what upgrades and powers to take takes the longest. And many powers are useful in the long run but terrible for a one shot (paying less to advance is never going to come up in game one). I frequently just delete or gray out powers on the sheets, and present ones with 2–3 solid first session powers (usually a free action dot, better resists and active powers like the Assassins ability to not alert folks when they murder). Similarly you can pre-select upgrades (or highlight good picks that will come up on the job).
5. Remove Turf. Even if the job is to gain turf, the effect of it won’t be felt in the first session. It’s great as a concept, it’s not necessary as a mechanic.
6. Skip Crew XP. Unless you pull off 2 jobs in one session your crew will likely not level up. As it is you’re engaging a mechanic that won’t have payoff. You can just cut this step. If you want you can offer the crew an upgrade during downtime just so they can get some new toys to play with, but going through it step by step is not necessary.

If you’ve done all of the above you should have a pretty strong idea of what opportunities will exist for your gang of ne’er-do-wells. Next there’s a piece of homework…

Handouts

Do you have up to five gangs vying for power? Does the district have some key figures like a factory boss, a mayor, and the local gang leader? Put those on a small sheet and steal a district picture from the book. If you’re a backer I suggest stealing the fancy fonts from blades and making it semi-official looking. Print out five copies for your players and you. Reference sheets help players refresh their memory, and not have to remember names all the time. Some GMs prefer uncluttered tables—most players prefer knowing what’s going on and being engaged.

Characters & Character Sheets

Character creation takes quite a bit of time. The sheets are fortunately one sided. Here’s a few things I put on the back to speed things up.

1. Build Summaries. There are some of these under each of the characters. So instead of making a ‘Cutter’ you can make a Ghost Fighter (which picks your starting dots and ability for you). If you list 4 such builds people can make choices and decide what their role on the crew is, but don’t have to read through and agonize over what each action does, or try to weigh the benefits of one special ability over another. Bonus points — you can skip right over backgrounds and heritage, skipping another set of choices that may not influence your session.
2. Portraits or Name List. Print the name list next to those build summaries. Folks agonizing over names takes a while. I tend to just pick names and do little black and white portraits (game art, or pics from the internet with a black and white and cutout filter do wonders). So you can pick from one of four builds. So I might have Mercy Thorn the Severan Devil Hunter (Ghost Fighter. Attune +2, Hunt +1, Study +1) or Orlan Black the scariest terror of the streets (Savage. Prowl +2, Wreck +2)

Between the character changes, and crew changes, you can usually hit game inside the first 15 minutes or less of your slot, even with a group of players that haven’t played before.

Running the Game

Ok! So we’ve streamlined that start and end. We’ve optimized the amount of time to actually play. So what do you do in the game?

I tend to start in-media rez. Jump to the point of the job where things can start to go wrong. put the players on the spot and run as you would normally. Most of my tricks for the first session divide up into 3 things.

1. Give them a few choices and ask. Players often aren’t sure of all their options. You as the GM probably have run or played the game before (or hopefully read it closely). If a player is stuck, give them 2–3 things they could try, and see if they’re interested in any of them, or something else. Keeping the game moving forward and the pace snappy is important when you have limited time, and this helps them make meaningful choices without getting too hung up or freezing.
2. Introduce Flashbacks Early. Present the players with a situation early on that flashbacks can be applicable. Confront the players with a door that has an incredibly complex lock and they have no time, then ask if anyone would have thought to snag the key earlier.
3. Introduce Resistance Rolls Early. This is an unusual blades mechanic that tough to grasp. Most games with GMs have a fiat style, and many players are used to the fact that when a GM says a thing (you’re stabbed!) you have no choice but to mark how much damage you’ve taken. Watch for an opportunity early on to teach this mechanic, and ask (when appropriate) if folks would like to resist.

In general I often break up the first job into two parts. The first should be short and snappy, something goes wrong, the target isn’t who they expected, the loot is in a different place, and we test out the mechanics with a short escape sequence or chase.

In the middle I give them downtime actions (I’ll elaborate below), and then run a second short job to handle whatever fallout there was from the first job.

Generally while we have downtime I tell everyone who had a desperate action roll (1xp marked in an action category) to gain one action in that category, and everyone to get one new ability to play around with. This shows a bit of advancement, and lets people have a few more points to play with to see what it feels and looks like.

We wrap up with some character xp (the xp is not super important, having players remind each other of cool things the characters did, is really the purpose). As a GM remember that it’s the players job to select how much xp they gained, but you can showcase good behavior by being a fan of the player and reminding everyone of cool stuff they did in each category (“hey remember when you … that was really cool”). It generally leaves the folks feeling pumped, and excited with the session.

One Shot Downtime

Downtime (like crew advances) has a bunch of options not terribly relevant during a one shot. Long term projects won’t be finished. Reducing Heat won’t make a huge difference. I tend to run with an abridged version of downtime actions usually in the middle of the session.

Generally I use Recovery (auto-fills the clock), Acquire Asset (I let them roll for quality, but give them the thing), Vice (I run this straight), Train (give them one action dot). Keeps it quick, simple and focused. I put these on the handouts I give out at the start so folks have a handy list.

That’s it! That’s all my tips. For those of you interested you can find me @strasa. Let me know what you think! Let me know if you have questions about one shots in blades, or suggestions for what I should write about next.