Blades of the Nephrite retrospective
There was a time when I had bigger dreams and less wisdom. And a ton of short-lived enthusiasm.
September RPG Blog Carnival: https://www.wobblerocket.com/2025/09/01/september-rpg-blog-carnival-magic-rocks/
Blades of New Crobuzon
https://calumgrace.tumblr.com/post/160279454861/blades-of-new-crobuzon-an-unofficial-fan-driven
When I went through my phase of digging through FitD environment for more and more stuff I bumped into Blades of New Crobuzon - it is 30 page document designed to reflavour Blades in the Dark into a game set in the setting from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station made by a fan Calum Grace. I haven't actually read any China Mieville's prose but the document seems solid, with the ideas and what to change.
The idea is that you ran Blades mechanically mostly unchanged. It helps that world of Bas-Lag seems to be very similar in terms of technology or that New Crobuzon is large city with internal tensions. Most elements mentioned in the reflavour are connected to spiritual and occult elements of both Crews and Characters. You get new heritages, new districts, new factions. I think it works because it is based on known media. If I encountered it in the wild I wouldn't know what vibe it is evoking (though I might guess).
Jadepunk: Tales from Kausao City
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/127543/jadepunk-tales-from-kausao-city
Jadepunk is a game set on Fate something between Fate Core and Fate Accelerated I think. I don't remember it that well now. The most important element is here. The city encircled by tall mountains from one side and an ocean from the other. The place with precious material that grew exponentially and is basically the center of the world. Full of business and crime, just like Doskvol from Blades. Jadepunk is focused on playing heroes, vigilantes, those that fight crime. Which feats neatly with with additional Vigilantes playbook for Blades.
Kausao City is a place where huge amounts of mystical material - jade - was found in all varieties and even the rarest and most precious black jade. This material has various properties. Green jade can be made into the hardest known material, perfect for blades, armours but also buildings, and it can make potions of strength and stability. White jade can be turned into material lighter than air which allows for creation of flying airships. Red jade is fiery and dangerous and makes firearms, other weapons, heaters and hot water bottles (why would it be called like that?). Blue jade is connected with water so it makes good ships, refridgerators and also nootropics. Details are vague.
And four biggest coloniser nations gathered in Kausao City to exploit the ore. People from all over the world are trying to get there in order to find a way to get rich, companies and rich folk exploit them and crime gangs screw them over. Jade-extraction and jade-processing cause pollution in the city, poor people are treated as objects and have to endure immense hardships and you're wuxia fighter or western gunslinger to help them. The technology is developing rapidly, people fight with swords and guns on equal footing and... wait, what?
This game is basically made to mix with Blades. Take crew type Vigilantes, change all the occult and technological elements of Blades into Jadepunk type stuff and let's go!
Blades of the Nephrite
Yeah, so I wanted to twist it and got nowhere. My first thing was to remove six-shooter revolvers and use one-shot pistols as is in Blades. I think revolver will always win versus sword. But one-shot pistols create a situation with solid tension - do you shoot, risk missing and losing your weapon? Or do you hold, hoping enemy is afraid of potential shot long enough for you to do whatever?
Another thing I wanted to change was the jade. I don't have anything against the material but I felt it was used in Jadepunk in very well-worn way - red is fire, blue is water, some have very specific and strict ways of use, others are terribly vague. Why does white jade is lighter than air, green is hardest material ever and blue... is used on ships and in refridgeration? Why some are very specific and "sciencey" and others are bullshit? I know, symbolism, elements and shit but it feels weak to me. I wanted to use real colours of the nephrite to have the properties. Like white would be lighter than air, okay. Green would be very elastic or something, maybe the most elastic and resistible material. Green like the colour of water (as it was sometimes mentioned in pre-modern times, I think). Covering for ships, whips and peeps. Yellow would be the hardest material in the world. Also, as we get to real world culture yellow was the colour of emperors in China. And since the setting is focused on Hong Kong type city it makes a lot of sense so I think there could be a lot of laws in regards to using and wearing equipment made with yellow nephrite? Maybe only city guards can wear Feels very fun. Also there is very rare violet nephrite which could be somewhat destructive, I like to call it violent nephrite. And I would also add some twist like artificial nephrite. Blue or red or something. To indicate potentially sinister group like alchemical red crystals used in red lightsabers by Sith in old Star Wars.
The nations. I kinda like we have Britain-like country, it is about the imperialists and colonisers, it feels very adequate. There is also China-equivalent which also feels okay. And Japan, yeah, I have heard of what they did in Korea and China, and inside Japan, so I agree. But then the fourth nation is like this weird Beduin/Arab state that feel is put there only to provide an excuse to throw in the equivalent of Damascus steel. That's it. I would, on the other hand, push there equivalent of Russia as just another European colonising power. I also considered France. Or both.
And then comes the spiritualist/occult/magic. Here is where I really fell. I could really do Blades of New Crobuzon type document, hoping that my poor writing can set the stage for Jadepunk-like setting. I could do with districts, heritages, factions. I could even push for some extra rules in regards to the mystical material of Nephrite. What I couldn't pin down was the magic. Do I keep the ghosts? Do I dig in cultural references to push for some type of spirits? Is there a ghost field? Does it relate to Feng Shui? At some point I even wanted to port a bit from Tianxia: Blood, Silk and Jade another game in Fate Core.
And then I realised I don't have enough knowledge to do it. BoNC was a fan work made by a fan of certain setting established in series of books. I also potentially wouldn't find an audience for it. And even so this idea is simple enough one could easily hack it themselves.
The Future of it
I actually don't know. I really like what I came up with the magical nephrite but it doesn't seem my players are interested in such setting and I am on the curb of playing three simultaneous campaigns of three separate FitD systems - Court of Blades, Mountain Home and Band of Blades. Do we really need more half baked ideas when there are so many well made systems already? Probably yes, but you'd have to convince me to do it.