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Blades in the Dark $20.00
Average Rating:4.8 / 5
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Blades in the Dark
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Lee S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/31/2022 12:55:09

I have always been hesistant to run a TTRPG before, because most systems seem like 3 to 4 giant tomes are needed to even have enough footing to begin. So, when I started reading Blades In The Dark, I was delighted by how smoothly the system felt designed to let me jump right in! I love the emphasis on rewarding actions with both mechanical and narrative results, rather than just numerical changes. Asking your players for rolls and what sort of roll they're trying to make, and using that to gauge how effective this tactic would be and setting the staes up with that took a little practice, but after a few sessions, it was so simple. It helps weigh out which approaches would be most and least likely to succeed, but leaves plenty of room for clever tricks to be rewarded/ I enjoy how it let my players relax into using more skills that they weren't super highly trained in, rather than just try to hammer the problem with the same answer over and over again. Very fun, kept things feeling fresh as we went along through various scores. For the setting side of things - Even a complete beginner like me has plenty of room to find a narrative spot or a fun few story idea threads and expand on them. The setting is sketched out in such crispness, and then when you dive in deeper, you can find an excellent amount of room to grown your own details onto the framework. I was confident about being able to make things up on the fly without worrying that it would contradict something else already established, it let my get the players excited about providing details about their characters' home countries and the city they were currently living in. And the clocks! A fantastic way to track as many (or few) things going on in the game as you might need. Public clocks to help keep the team's goals in mind, secret clocks to help track and problems they might accidentally be spawning; I felt so much more confident about being able to manage so many story elements at once, whenever the players' focus meandered around the city. I love this system so much. Huge fan, will absolutely be purchasing more Forged in the Dark games in the future.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Michael W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/23/2022 20:43:13

I like this game but I think our group found it hard not to overplan instead of use the mechanics of telling why we succeeded. It is a little challenging to shift your brain sometimes. In fact my group still over thinks instead of allows everything to be a story. I'd like to try it again though



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Robert S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/17/2021 15:49:18

Hands down, my favourite RPG to run as a GM. I am in love with the system. The way Stress is baked in across the board as this replenishable resource with a fictional recourse, to flashbacks being oh so smooth a fix for the hours of planning I've previously experienced in heist related games.

If you like narrative games I cannot recommend this enough.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Thomas H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/25/2021 12:08:54

Blades in the Dark not only presents a unique take on roleplaying games in general, but it give us a setting with plenty of detail to get you started (while leaving plenty of blank space to invent your own games in). For groups moving from the more traditional wargame with story elements attached like Dungeons & Dragons, Blade's fiction-first take on things can take some getting used to, but it's well worth a bit of growing pains for the payoff. OUr group has been roleplaying together since the 1990s across dozens of systems, and Blades in the Dark has quickly grown become our favorite game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Marco F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/17/2021 05:20:40

Quite simply the best RPG system I ever played, we have been playing for two years and keep loving it. The position\effect system allows players great control of how much is at stake at every move, while staying deeply rooted in a fiction-first system. The playbooks are incredibly fun and varied, and the mechanics are just great for the team-of-criminals concept. Overall, simply incredibly fun.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Ivan H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/08/2021 16:30:43

One of the best book by reviews. The creators are stars as well! It reminds me of Dishonored a lot, and frankly I intend to play it with that extra flavor too. Me and my friends love that world to bits!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Michel V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/13/2019 05:49:03

Excellent system and well layed out rules for both the players and the GM. Overall great game. I still struggle with understanding crafting but I am not sure if that is my lack of understanding or if the instructons are not obvious .



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Alexander F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/01/2018 15:01:27

An extremely different and interesting approach to RPGs. I really enjoyed the flashback system, clocks, character improvement system, character load and gear, and the game's overall philosophy of jumping directly into the action.

Sadly, we had a hard time actually playing it, but that came down to my GM difficulties with improvising fast enough, insufficient worldbuilding, vague guidelines for consequences, and not developing interesting non-player characters. Most of that was a problem due to a lack of my own preparation, because I had thought the worldbuilding was more concrete, rather than a guideline. I may run another game someday, but I'll have a lot more preparation then. Just be warned that GMs will probably still need a lot of prep work.

That said, this is the gold standard for criminal heists, and has dramatically changed what I want in my RPGs.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Jared R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/10/2018 21:13:28

Full review can be found on my blog, here:

http://knighterrantjr.blogspot.com/2017/07/after-hearing-about-bladesin-dark-for.html



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by RPG C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/04/2018 12:08:40

Basically one of the best and most fun games I've ever played. Brilliantly written and designed.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by michael w. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/11/2017 05:59:17

yesterday I finished my blades in the dark campaign, and it was one of the best ones I ever ran.

the system took a little while for us to get used to, but once everyone knew the all the options and all the rules it was both smooth and consistently fun: my players loved dreading every single roll, and I loved coming up with consequences, offering hard bargins, mounting ever-increasing odds against them, and watching them plan (retroactively) elaborate ways of beating them, while improvising upon unforseen events.

at the beginning of the game the characters were weary and careful, but knowing every single roll can succeed let them take crazy risks non, by the end of the game most rolls succeed, but because of that they took MORE risks, so whenever they failed the consequences were dire. it worked beautifully so there was always pressure, always risks, always crazy stunts and always huge problems to plan around.

this is a wonderful game, and I personally rank it as one of the best game systems I've ever played. I could write a book on the things BITD does right.

the game world is very cool and interesting, but the system would easily lend itself to other worlds, and while I enjoyed it, I probably had enogh of this world in this one campaign.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Adam B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/13/2017 17:44:18

A beautiful game design wrapped in a beautiful package. Blades is an evolution of the PbtA formula that adds a little complexity and a lot of flavor and feel. The extra mechanical crunch never feels wasted, and often feels like it adds an exponential amount of options and realness to play. I look forward to playing this game (and the many inevitable hacks) for years to come.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Benjamin C. I. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/16/2017 16:11:37

The PDF is excellent quality, just what I expected from this site.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by D J. B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/10/2017 14:04:07

A fantastically atmospheric, gorgeous and engaging game attatched to a great system.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Blades in the Dark
Publisher: One Seven
by Nawaf M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/23/2017 16:05:00

If I could I'd give it 4,5 stars. On first glance, the premise is simple, perhaps even simplistic. Don't let that fool you. If I hadn't had a chance to page through this for free, I wouldn't have given it another glance. I am glad I did get that chance, and I'd strongly suggest the author consider releasing a demo version that showcases more of the mechanics and setting than the current preview available here, which is simply not enough to convey the elegance of this game.

I usually prefer systems that have a far stronger focus on mechanics, but I can appreciate a system that is light on them without feeling like it's trying to keep them to a minimum at every turn. The rules are very good at encouraging and empowering players, which I very much like. The world feels like a familiar fantasy world that hasn't been stuck in a medieval age forever but rather advanced technologically and culturally, without becoming a bland version of our real world industrial age. If you're familiar with the Thief series or Dishonored, that's the vibe I got from the game. I was surprised I liked it, let alone how much and you might be as well.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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