Monday, July 13, 2020

Band of Blades

Mercenaries in a Grim-Dark World
I am an eclectic when it comes to games (and most other things in life), so I occasionally dabble with systems outside the White Box and the OSR. When I post about such games here, I do so in part because this blog intends to go "Beyond" as the title implies. While my first and principal love remains strong for the world's first role-playing game, which I fondly refer to as the "White Box" version, I do enjoy reading and playing other types of tabletop RPGs. One recent acquisition that rises to the level of intrigue is a story game based on the Forged in the Dark system called Band of Blades. 
The Forged in the Dark system, also used in Blades in the Dark and Scum and Villainy, is mechanically related to games Powered by the Apocalypse. Both systems use a dice mechanic that gives degrees of or partial success - success with complications - in addition to failure and absolute success results. In Band of Blades a pool of six-siders are rolled. A six result on any die is considered a "success". If the highest die score rolled is a 4-5 then it's considered a "partial success" and the GM may assign a negative consequence or condition in addition to the character succeeding. If the highest number rolled in the dice pool is a 1-3, then a failure is declared. 
Band of Blades (BoB for short) is inspired by Glen Cook's novels of The Black Company. BoB's mercenary Legion is the central theme of the game and parallels Glen Cook's Company in many ways. For example, the principle characters, Commander, (the Captain), the Quartermaster, the Marshal, the Lorekeeper, etc. suggest to me similar characters found in The Black Company who are also referred to by their position or title. Like The Black Company, Band of Blades is packed with flavorful language and atmosphere. Names like the Blight, the Cinder King, the Broken and the Chosen grab and excite me. The game's dark military tone is reflected in its mechanics including stress, trauma and corruption in a way suggesting an overall horror theme. The Forged in the Dark system makes extensive use of progress clocks and this puts pressure on players and dials up the tension. 
The default setting for BoB is the western part of a civilized area - the Aldermark - which is being overrun by an army of undead (the similarity to another popular book series is probably intentional as BoB lists The Game of Thrones as among its sources of inspiration). The game's backstory is that the Legion recently took part in a devastating battle, referred to as the Battle of the Ettenmark Fields, in which the forces of "good" (this is a relative term in a grim-dark setting) lost and the Legion is now retreating eastward trying to keep ahead of the advancing inhuman horde. The game consists of a number of "missions" the players will undertake (while role-playing their cast of characters) as the Legion makes its way to Skydagger Keep where they presume that sanctuary awaits.
There are game elements in all the Forged in the Dark products which don't exactly set well with me and they have so far kept me from fully embracing any of the three FitD games that I am familiar with (although each has its own appeal). The Flashbacks mechanic which allows players to narrate a retcon (plot shift) of events thereby altering the lead-up story of what has already happened as a way to deal with unforeseen challenges which can upset their plans seems very "weak" to me (and it tends to hinder verisimilitude). The "success with complications" or "yes, but" inherent in the degrees of success as found in the core mechanic places a lot of work on the GM to come up with relevant content on the fly. (It seems a lot of GM work to stay on top of a degrees of success system and not get into a rut.) I am also not a fan of the "playbook" character concept which the Forged in the Dark system borrows from Powered by the Apocalypse. At least in Band of Blades the players are not out-right criminals as they are in previous FitD games.
The setting and mission based adventuring concept are what draws me most to Band of Blades. Will I use this book, my guess is yes. Will I run (or play) Band of Blades as written, probably not. I am inspired by many of the ideas contained in this 450 page book and I will likely use some of the ideas I borrow from BoB in something else I run using different system mechanics. For anyone who enjoys the fiction of Glen Cook, Joe Abercrombie or Steven Erikson, there is going to be something to like in Band of Blades.

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