Crumbs of Improvisation
This Carnival was a tough nut for me, mostly because I can talk about it only partially. I've never been much into immersion and my table never really did any warmups. But I can talk about improvisation, actually all four elements mentioned in the post https://chaoticanwriter.com/july-2025s-rpg-blog-carnival-improv-roleplay-and-warmups/. The other problem is that even though I actually DO those improvisation things I don't really know how to talk about them. Or write. So yeah, let's go.
Low-to-No Prep
Blades in the Dark makes it as easy as possible to allow and encourage low prep. Characters are in a largely closed city, so you don't have to worry about them leaving. You have loosely prepared factions and conflicts so you can peek and pull as you go. And mechanics are very dynamic, when I say very I mean VERY. One roll can turn the situation 180 degrees and put it sideways or turn inside out.
What I tended to do in order to "prep" for running was to write a few sentences. I knew PCs were probably going to break in somewhere and do stuff (as they did almost always) and what I needed was obstacles on the way or potential consequences of failed rolls. So I wrote things like "twitchy neighbour with a rifle", "very loud dogs", "ghost of previous curator with rusted sailor sword", "cursed vase" and "Darkfish Gang tries to do the same score". This is my actual prep for their heist in a museum to find something, I can't even recall what. Does the museum layout matter? Nope, I just tell them in which room they find themselves in. Do they know where to look? No, they just run around and hope to find big glass case with the MacGuffin. And even if they did I would just tell them where they need to go next. Don't need to prep, just imagine what can be in a museum.
Random Encounters
Are they really 'random'? I recently talked on Mastodon about 1dX lists of random things and how they don't really work when you get them from the internet. Similar thing happens to me with random encounter tables unless the table is specifically curated by me for this campaign and adventure. And I don't even adhere to the roll. The matching numbers on the die and the list are just a suggestion, because both for the flow at the table and verisimilitude in general it is better if I choose better suited result than break over backwards to explain how the real roll would play out.
I started leaning towards less specific, more abstract random encounter tables. Why should I have specific things put there when I can have situation embedded inside? Instead "1d4 scouts foraging food" or "a wolf and a moose locked in combat" I might use:
- Two creatures in a conflict
- Enemy agent tracking you
- Friendly local witch sells her wares (wink)<>
- Tracks of a famous local beast
- Environmental danger
- Wandering horror trapped in place
Avoid additional rolls. Say "a group" instead of "1d4+2" - you can roll exact numbers later, when players ask or interact. It is still random what happens, entries have very different consequences but you're not stuck with specific creature or faction and can pull someone relevant. One thing I always struggled with when it comes to random encounters was how to connect them. Which is not a problem when you play high power or gonzo fantasy that anyone can be anywhere because you can always jump into portal through hell to get somewhere or whatever. On one hand I get that the surprise of "why are they here" is quite what makes the world alive and "objective" in a sense, on the other I always felt it made the game very random. Like how would local peasants not mention at any point that everywhere nearby are traces of a monster? Why was there caravan of merchants driving around when next three encounters were with brigands and groups of deserters-turned-brigands? I cannot always explain stuff with "oh yeah, they have magical ace in their sleeve".
Yes Ending The Scene
Actually Blades in the Dark is basically "Yes and..." engine. Also "Yes but...". Mostly "Yes but...", rolling 4/5 is very common. I cannot say I have any advice besides "keep tight, it's gonna be a ride". What I can recall though was the scene where the gang broke into a warehouse in docks without getting caught, two people slid from the roof on the ropes to get inside and sharpshooter was left on the roof to look out for danger. Guys down there got seen, guards rang bells of alarm, suddenly it all looks terribly. And sharpshooter player declares "Flashback! When we were agreeing on the score with Darkfish Family I convinced them to help us distract guard if needed". I agree, we establish stakes, player marks stress, rolls dice... critical success. Scene continues: bells ring, guards look for burglars when sharpshooter takes a shot in the dark. Padlock on the fence breaks. Suddenly fifty members of Darkfish Family (basically Innsmouth people I put in Doskvol) break into docks and starts destroying everything, full blown riot, clubs, bricks and axes, molotov cocktails, everything. Guys secure three barrels of Void Sea fish (and octopuses) while sharpshooter provides support and crowd control from the roof.
Yeah, our scores usually ended up with breaking things and blowing them up. Tons of Heat, Bluecoats beat someone up every second score.
Saved From The Brink
It happened when I ran Cold City. My players are always on the edge in such systems, when it comes to trust someone they'd rather burn themselves and die than offer another character a sliver of trust. And so we had this very tense investigation in city park where people got torn and eaten, I lead the campaign to large scale conflict within agency and each player received an offer - "you can call for backup at any point of the investigation and our people will help handling the situation". I think I downplayed how much their supervisors wanted potential invisibility technology.
So at some point when it became known that there are three invisible Eindringlinge (visitors, outsiders form other dimensions) that live in the roots of a willow tree and are very hard to catch or even detect. And so the Soviet character decided "yeah, I'm gonna call my guys to help with the thing". Okay, so now a car drives into the park and four Russians with AK-47s walk out and start scouting the area. One of them gets attacked the rest start shooting in the air, general massacre, authorities will soon come because SOMEONE IS HAVING GUN FIGHT IN A CITY PARK! Three agents watch it from afar and American guy slowly turns his rifle on the Soviet saying "you called your guys to kill us and take the creatures?" and start shooting. They get into their own separate gunfight while other Soviets get destroyed by monsters in the background.
Characters then are in open conflict, campaign seems to go to shit and then player of French guy decides to call his reinforcements. Police and occupation forces lock whole area, Soviet reinforcements are in pieces, French agent organises his forces to take over, they manage to take monsters away, and before the three Agents get questioned he says to them "I still haven't found my cousin and I need the Agency for it so if any of you doesn't want to collaborate I'm going to do to you things worse than death". They get in line and claim they never fought each other and don't know what happened and stuff. In the meantime Frenchman tries to get more occult tech in order to get rid of the thing that shares his body.
This single act helped us keep the campaign in line. Not long after it fell apart from different reasons unfortunately.
That's all folks
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