Episode Description
Transcripts available at diceexploder.com
In Blades in the Dark, you play as criminals in Doskvol a haunted city where the ghosts are such a problem that they built giant lightning barriers around the whole city to keep them out. That sentence alone already makes me want to get the game to the table, and we haven’t even gotten to the rules of Blades in the Dark yet.
That’s the conversation I wanted to take a crack at today: rules are important, they can radically shape play, but the fiction a game brings is just as important. Doskvol’s lightning barriers mean you can’t just run away into the wilderness after you’ve committed some crimes, and that’s just as important for ratcheting up the tension and consequences of your campaign as the mechanic of devil’s bargains...
Further Reading
Blades in the Dark by John Harper
Mythic Bastionland by Chris McDowall
Apocalypse World 3e/Burned Over by Meguey & Vincent Baker
Wanderhome by Jay Dragon
Vincent Baker on How Apocalypse World Is Structured (like an onion)
In Praise of Legwork by Sam Sorensen
1d20 Diegetic Rules, 1d20 Hypo-Diegetic Rules by Sam Sorensen
The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games by Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola
Socials
Nova on Bluesky. Nova’s blog, Playful Void.
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Credits
Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey.
This episode was edited by Em Acosta.