a quick Blades in the Dark tip - informed consequences
i recently started up a Blades in the Dark campaign, and iâve run into the classic BitD problem of struggling to invent interesting consequences when the PCs fail a roll. the #1 thing thatâs helped me, personally, is to announce the specific consequences for failure & complications before dice are rolled. if i canât think of any consequences, then i probably shouldnât be calling for a roll. and if the PCs succeed with a consequence or fail their roll, the task of deciding an interesting outcome has already been completed.
if youâre like me, you didnât realize that this advice was in the book. if you were already aware of it, then sorry for wasting your time! here is a rendition of Carol of the Bells on the hammered dulcimer to make it up to you.
on page 192 of my copy of Blades in the Dark, under the section âTell Them the Consequences and Askâ:
âYeah, you can run the whole way but you might be exhausted when you arrive. Want to roll for it and take the risk, or go slower?â
iâm not sure if itâs just me, or if most people miss this detail. the games iâve played in before havenât employed it, and a lot of the actual plays iâve seen havenât either (including the ones where John Harper is the GM).
When a player sets out a task for his character and states his intent, it is the GMâs job to inform him of the consequences of failure before dice are rolled.
âIf you fail thisâŚâ should often be heard at the table. Let the players know the consequences of their actions. ⌠Once that is said, everyone knows whatâs at stake and play can continue smoothly no matter what the result of the roll is.
egg on my face for not reading the BitD rulebook thoroughly enough.
regardless, doing this for nearly every action roll has made a big difference in my experience with the game. i was a player in a short-lived BitD campaign a few years ago, and my big criticism of the sytem at the time was that, due to the fuzzy nature of the position/effect mechanic, there can often be a mismatch between what the player thinks theyâre rolling for and what the GM thinks theyâre rolling for. i would often sink Stress and items into boosting rolls which ended up being less impactful than i had anticipated. and the inverse was often true as well: if my definition of what failure looks like on this risky roll is âi get stuck between two guards, but not discoveredâ, and the GMâs definition is âthree guards start wailing on you with cudgelsâ, thereâs going to be friction.
tl;dr: tell the players exactly what will happen if they succeed, fail, or succeed with a consequence. it will make your job, and their lives, easier.