Blades for OSR? - RPG Blog Carnival
I wondered for a long time about this topic. It is heavy and it is tough. In the end I didn't come up with much in terms of conceptual stuff. I'm not deep enough in theory of RPGs to actually have my own point. For me story games and adventure games are rather close to each other in terms of gameplay but ask me to explain it or elaborate and I'll stutter. So my contribution to the ideas that OSR might get from storygames is equipment, XP and blades.
Load, Sloots and Encumbrance
Blades in the Dark has a fun system. Each piece takes a slot, larger things take two, armor can be more bulky. And you're light, quick, quiet and inconspicuous until you mark more than three slots. Then you get two more slots for medium load and being less everything I mentioned. And then one slot for being heavy, loud, slow and totally conspicuous. And then three more for being sluggish encumbered hauler. It is similar to many slot based encumbrance systems but I think it is too granular, it works for mobsters in crowded city but not necessarily for merry adventurers traveling the wilds and delving into dungeons.
What might be more in style is Band of Blades. In this game you don't choose granular slots but wide categories. So just Light, Medium or Heavy. Each playbook has it's own items of course. Sniper might get a long range rifle as Light load, and Gun Maintenance Kit as Medium. This is the clue. You don't just mark every napkin in your pocket but large parts of your equipment. Like Soldier's Kit (blanket, soap, knife and stuff) or Traveling Kit, Climbing Gear, whatever else. Just mark on your sheet a set of stuffs you take and consider how it affects your movement. Take a weapon (not long one) and some small valuables for free. You're Light. Then mark additional stuff. It is realistic that a person with a bag full of stuff or a whole backpack is less agile, slower and conspicuous. Imagine climbing a rope. Then imagine you have armour, shield and a backpack full of loose shit like nails, candles and stakes. Good luck with that.
And that is basically essence of why we actually need to count encumbrance. To assess which stuff you can do, how fast you are, how does it affect your dungeon and wilderness activities. Who gives a fuck if you have five or six torches? Mark Lantern+Oil in your equipment and go. Does it take a hand to hold it? Yeah. Is it big and unwieldy? Of course. And oil doesn't come in ergonomic plastic bottle, nope, it's probably some ceramic jar or something that weights you down when you wade through the underwater lake and hope the bottom doesn't take a huge dive where your next step will be.
XP Triggers
I like that adventure games usually have this one specific way of granting XP. You have to venture to the wilderness and reclaim old treasures from older ruins. The more you get the more you advance. But I don't think we have to stop here.
Blades in the Dark gives each playbook XP for a specific for this archetype behaviour. Cutters get it for resolving things with violence, Lurks when they do it stealthily and Whispers when they address adversity with supernatural powers. Cool stuff. I do think OSR could easily borrow XP triggers for specific classes or even twisting and adding something to regular idea.
If your setting is like Ironsworn and human settlements are far away from each other maybe aside of gold raiding you could give XP for exploration. You found new settlement? Bonus. You found a resource? Bonus. You were tracked to the town by a Basilisk? Yeah, no XP until you get rid of it, save the town and maybe raid the lair it left. Yeah.
Whole Blades in the Dark?
I mean, if you switch some mechanics or tweak the ones presented in the book to be less storygamey and more traditional/OSRized you can run the game straight as city wide sandbox for your goobers to explore. Like one to one.
Closing Thoughts
This is my humble contribution to Over the Garden Wall: March RPG Blog Carnival hosted by Illusory Sensorium at https://illusorysensorium.com/over-the-garden-wall/