Review: Blades in the Dark's Deep Cuts - Setting

Welcome back to my review of Deep Cuts by John Harper - for my overview and introduction, click here. We’ll be going over the first third of the book here, the Setting.

The book goes through three broad sections to expand on the setting - though in the way that Blades is, some of these expansions are also woven into the other sections.

They fall into three categories; innovations (new technology), factions (expanding the old and introducing some new), and a catalyst; a world-changing event.

Innovations

There’s not a lot to discuss with the innovations; I like them. I like the art, I like that they’re pretty clear with what they do whilst leaving room to be used in different ways, and for the rarer items, I like that there’s some indication of who’s got them and where they are, just in case a group wants to ‘acquire’ them. The addition of a new “Unity Era” calendar is great; it adds some new lore about all the other countries with an Imperial slant, but I feel like it could have gone further with the Imperial propaganda angle. I’m not sure I’d ever use either calendar for anything other than the occasional handout anyway, so this is much of a muchness.

Factions

The factions are a mixed bag. The majority of them expand factions from the core book, and they’re generally great; they add interesting stories into the mix via evocative situations - standouts are Ironhook Prison and the Foundation, both of which are things that will materially impact the players if those factions are in play, regardless of how much the players want to dive into the faction nitty-gritty; which is fantastic - they remind me of the Sparkwright’s situation in the corebook; they evoke a story all on their own without imposing it.

Some of the new factions, however, are a bit hit or miss. I like the airship Covenant - I could definitely see myself introducing this Fallout 4’s Brotherhood of Steel’s Prydwen style. If anything; it’s too much, I can’t see this situation not becoming all-encompassing if the players are interested in it, or totally background otherwise; there’s no obvious way that this affects the average person of Doskvol and therefore the fabric of the game. The same is true for the Railjacks; both feel like like something that would be on the news, but unless the players are a) explicitly seeking them out, or b) have been sought out explicitly by involved persons, there’s not really a way that they interact with the day to day, at least as written.

I like the Sparkrunners and Ragskulla; the former is a group of high-tech parkourists and the latter is a sport. They’re both things that I can see woven into the streets of Duskwall; they’re organic. I especially like that the Sparkrunners have their own associated gear; I think more factions need that! I especially especially like that it’s pretty convoluted and expensive to get, meaning that the only ways you’re going to get it is by either being very friendly with the Sparkrunners, or by ‘acquiring it’ and likely pissing them off. As for Ragskulla, I don’t have enough nice things to say about it; I love it, it’s evocative, I can visualise it, and just like so much of the core book’s City Guide, it feels real - like something you’d just stumble into a game of. It’s a shame that it doesn’t explicitly open up a vice purveyor, but I’ll certainly be offering it as one myself.

Two of the factions also offer alternate character options; the Strangers and the Unchained; the former offering a new heritage and the latter offering a different way to play a hull. The latter is really interesting; but only in abstract; I’ve never had anyone play a hull in my games, nor have I seen or personally held any interest in playing a hull, and these new options don’t really change that decision for me. The Unchained faction is interesting, and I could see myself using it as a way of giving players who are interested in the whole question of autonomy/class rights (something that Blades does quite frequently, in my experience!), a new take on the matter. I’ll talk about the Strangers with the Catalyst; they’re intertwined in such a way that I’d just be repeating myself.

The other standout part of the faction section is the Underworld Turf map, which gives us an idea of where selected factions are situated geographically. I love it; it really gives a sense of what’s where - in the past I’ve manually done this when working out which factions are near my crew’s starting location to give them options to choose their starting reputations, and so it’s great to see it done officially.

The Catalyst

The Catalyst is, to me, interesting in concept and structure, but the substance is not something I’ll use. Catalysts, as I understand it as a general concept, are world-changing events that specifically offer an additional metanarrative to the game; they’re a campaign in their own right. The catalyst given in the book - The Other Living World - offers up new technology, new factions, new events, new NPCs, and new Opportunities, broken down by crew. To be brief, this catalyst is not something I’ll be using; the vibes don’t reflect the sorts of games I want to run, and it doesn’t promote the sorts of stories I want to tell. The Strangers specifically seem a bit too sci-fi for the gritty occult crime games I normally run. They remind me of the time traveller playbook in Old Dog Games’ upcoming Blades in ‘68. In fact, this whole Catalyst would work (at least for me) a lot better in that more modern Duskwall.

Instead, I want to talk a little bit about the structural things that I do like, with the view that this is one of many possible Catalysts - I might even be working on one of my own based on my recent home game... 

The new factions are well integrated; the Strangers, as mentioned, come with their own new heritage, allowing players to play as them, House Rowan provides a conspiratorial angle (that I think is mostly duplicating Lord Scurlock’s vibe, but is certainly more specific to the Catalyst), Covenant provides a great inciting incident, and scattered through various factions situations are references or responses to the Catalyst. There’s also a list describing how the Catalyst affects a number of factions that the players might interact with with clear and evocative questions.

Along with the faction inciting incident v/v Covenant, there are also a list of NPC hooks that a GM could use, though I think they’re maybe a bit too ‘authority’ heavy; I’d like to have seen some hooks from NPCs the crew are more likely to interact with in the criminal underworld. 

The real meat of the Catalyst is the Opportunities. Each crew gets one (and while I understand why, it’s a shame that the Mandate and Imperative crews from Flame without Shadow aren’t included; I think they’d be a great fit for this). Each opportunity sets out a background, a relevant NPC or group, suggestions for different types of scores (though this is a bit lacking with some of them), and really interesting fallout from the score; though some of them assume that the score will go a particular preset direction (though that’s a limitation of the medium). They also have a list of the threats and clocks the GM might include - and that’s great; I like it when Olin Kirkland does it, I like it when I do it, I like it when Harper does it; it’s a great way, not only of presenting the information, but also showing newer GM’s the sorts of things that they should be prepping. I think I would have liked to have seen a table of smaller, yet still flavorful scores similar to the core book’s opportunities, but there is enough here for me to move forward with.

Notably the Catalyst doesn’t have a resolution. I’m in two minds about that. In the context of a campaign; I’d like to have some sort of climax event; maybe some background clocks that play out, some greater narrative I can seed throughout the various scores and scenes the players go through. Of course, I can and do that myself anyway, but if I’ve gone to the trouble of using a Catalyst instead of prepping my own campaign, I think I’d like some more guidance. On the other hand, my criticism of the Opportunities comes back to bite me; how would you write a resolution that’s not overly constrained? I’m not sure what the answer is; my gut tells me that The Other Living World could have done with a bit more guidance here, but I’m not sure to what extent. 

What did you think about these new additions? Which ones have you used already? Which are you planning to use? Do you have a Catalyst in mind for your next game?

Tune in next week to discuss the real meat of the book; modifications to a wide range of systems - or click here if it’s already out!