(A) Inspirations for FitD hacks and patches
This is archival material from previous blog
I really like FitD games. I really do. I’m not very immersive player – in character interactions and dialogs come very awkward because without non-verbal comunication we rarely know what each other wants. But I am a problem solver. I love thinking what equipment, contact or ability can help me solve the problem. FitD plays really well with it. And from the first time I read Blades in the Dark I had already tons of ideas how and what I want to play on this engine. I should call this blog “Struggles of Eternal Homebrewer” or something.
First thing I wish I’d be able to play – maybe even to build – is this East Asia style of wuxia or Hong Kong gunplay movies. Something in line with Jadepunk on Fate. I played few sessions in Jadepunk and it felt… technological. I haven’t found any mystic or magic in it – it felt like jade was just an excuse to have weird science. I would also like to see more mundane and mystical matrial arts when we’re here kind of like Tiaxia. Also I loved short Lucas Arts take from Fate. Magic of divine ancestral spirits and people connected to them. I mean, my Blades in the Nephrite would become my hearbreaker letter to Fate. I played it few times but it never hooked. So this thing would be my reversed Doskvol situation – mainly focused on Vigilantes and other “good” gangs fighting corrupt governments and mafia. Also spirits, magical materials and martial arts with Hadouken! in the end.
Another big thing on the back of my head. Band of Blades meets DnD 3.5 setting – Midnight. Play as a group of elves from the north, coming back from the lost war against the almost-Sauron and their army of greenskins, dragons, undead and whatever else. It would be very climactic, Midnight also had this fatalistic, “it’s lost and we’re just delaying inevitable” vibe. You’d be going through the forest, fleeing from enemy army burning woods to the ground behind them. This has so much potential.
Next system I’d like to emulate is kind of mix between Blades in the Dark and Scum and Villainy. The Akira, retro cyberpunk motorcycle gangs in future Japanese city. Rare ESPers, cults of Akira, laser weapons and nuclear bombs. I mean, I’d really like to play it but not necessarily GM it. Also it is not something high up on my list since I’ve heard other FitD system did something similar. Maybe I’d just need to come up with motorcycle addition?
The last thing I want to mention is… Sword and Sorcery, Science Fantasy, mix of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth and lore of Heroes of Might and Magic III. This more OSR dungeon adventure type. And here I’d need to have a lot of modules, maybe campaign specific. Like, if players want City of Thieves with blasters and Sorcerer-Kings kind of game then do it on Blades. If they want Pirates of Caribbean in giant Tank on desolate lands then Scum and Villainy. War party securing fort from enemy horde? Band of Blades. Finally, classical dungeon delvers in ruins of old technology? Into the Dark. A lot of stuff.
These are my inspirations. I think I’ll start simple – Wuxia inspired Doskvol, more like patch similar to Blades of New Crobuzon instead standalone game. Then maybe Dark Star in the Villainy or Band of Elves. And when Band of Blades continuation comes out I’d try it less as continuation of elven story and more of Dwarven Defense. I don’t have enough life to work on everything here! Wonderful!