Berttheduck

No that’s about right. My initial pre campaign prep was read the book and understand the factions, session zero to see what themes my players wanted to explore and what factions they were interested in interacting with.

Between sessions I only needed about 10 minutes to think about the next game, who was the job against, who’s upset or happy with the crew currently, what factions plans are the players ignoring so are progressing unopposed and what does that look like. Was there any fallout from their last job. The way the city is set up every time your crew gets ahead it will please someone and upset someone else I found that made prepping super easy. Then all I needed was a list of random names for NPC’s and I was happy making stuff up on the fly for the most part.

Some of them bigger things needed more thinking and prep like when they broke into the ghost hunters headquarters (I can’t remember the name, guys follow the death crows and wear masks), that needed a little more time. Or when they accidentally summoned a demon I needed to work out what it wanted and how it worked. Side note demons are excellent fun and should be terrifying forces of nature in blades.

My longest running campaign was Blades (once weekly for over a year). It’s still my favourite system.

The core mechanics are really easy, GM sets the narrative scene and the player says how they respond then builds a dice pool and adjust for difficult actions or ineffective approach (position and effect - how good it will be if you succeed and how bad it will be if you fail).

The game is built to play on the fly with very minimal prep, the scenario in the book is a totally fine place to start and lead into my game. If you run through all the steps of the meta game (updating faction relations and you’ll have a good idea which group now has beef with the players crew and as such likely happenings for your next session.

Get used to skipping the boring bits, blades works best when the PCs are doing crazy stuff and using the flashback mechanics to get into or out of trouble. Do any essential prep the crew wants to do for a job but then skip to the engagement roll and just get started, don’t let them spend ages planning all the little details.

Don’t be scared to throw really challenging scenarios at them (especially after they level up a bit), the PCs have loads of ways to get out of trouble and trauma is beneficial to them initially as it lets them gain more xp. Also death is always a narrative choice so don’t worry about killing them by accident.

The setting is amazing, haunted steampunk Victorian Venice so you can lean into the spooky as much as you want. Remember it’s always dark and life is pretty terrible for everyone who isn’t super rich.

I’m happy to answer questions or bounce ideas with you.

Hope your game goes well.

It’s definitely very hard.

The best option I’ve found so far is to live with or near your players. Currently we live next door to the people we game with which is excellent. Regular weekly game, allowing for life stuff.

The other best option I’ve found is to agree to a schedule, like every week and provided more than x people turn up the game runs.

Scheduling is the biggest killer of games though by far.

Knowing how far you can push someone and it still be a good time.

Blades is far and away my favourite game system so far.

It does a bit of everything you mentioned.

So the set up included in the book is good, basically:

Here’s a few factions and you are on a job for one of them to steal something from the other (change based on your players crew, ie kill someone or purchase drugs). After they finish the job you do a couple steps for:

Heat - how much fallout they get from the law. Has consequences like allies getting locked up or interrogated. Or the popo kicking down the door to your hideout.

Downtime - where players pursue goals and recover. Leads to crazy projects like making flamethrowers or summoning demons.

Faction - decide as GM which factions are affected and adjust relations with the crew appropriately. Leads to reactions from factions, favours and retribution. Job offers or threats.

As every action the players take is working against at least 1 faction and likely benefits at least 1 more the game really easily writes itself. With like 5-15 minutes of thinking pre session about likely next steps and a few random names I could improv everything I needed.

The GM advice included is great and the world building is fab, the steampunk haunted setting is awesome.

I’ve also said far too much without mentioning the flashback mechanic - you skip the whole prep stage of jobs and go straight into the opening scene, then at any point the players can spend stress to flashback and set up a cool move: hide some useful gear, arrange the servant to leave the window open, Etc. The possibilities are endless and it keeps the game moving really well.

Check out Blades in the Dark and Spire the City must fall.

I’m blades you pay an upcoming gang of criminals in a haunted Victorian steampunk city where every inch is owned/claimed by another gang so everything you do either pleases or upsets somebody. Definitely has the struggle to survive in a hostile world feel. Blades is one of my favourite game systems to run. It’s soo easy for the GM I basically never needed to prep.

In Spire you play a group of rebel or terrorist dark elves fighting against the oppressive high elf regimen. The world building is really detailed maybe a bit too much in some places. I really enjoyed running it though.

Wildsea is great, the setting is wonderful and I’m really enjoying the mechanics so far. We’re 4 sessions in and have played through the introductory adventure. It’s a very solar punk hopeful setting (at least how I’m running it) which we all need more of at the minute I think.

I’m looking forward to getting the books for slugblaster, I’ve had a read of the PDF and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Is there anything you’re particularly interested in from the bundle?

If I didn’t already have most of the games I want from this bundle I’d have got it in a second. It’s got some really excellent systems there.

Playing Wildsea at the minute and totally loving it.

Just finished a Spire campaign. Good system fascinating setting.

Nights black agents it’s pretty cool and has a co-op series for it.

Slugblaster sounds like great fun and is probably my next game after Wildsea, I’m waiting for my books to arrive in print.

Vassen has some excellent art and lore but I’ve not run it.

Masks has an excellent reputation and has been on my list to get for a long time.

Some really strong game systems in there.

Seconded, I’ve run the introductory module another bug hunt and loved the system and the module.

I use a tablet or two as GM my players are all paper exclusive though. I’d have no problems with people using electronics at the table though provided they were paying attention and not being disruptive.

Counter question, does it matter? If they have fun by knowing what’s coming and being able to prepare for it does that make the experience worse for other players or yourself? If not then who cares let them have at it.

If yes then you need to address it somehow, the usual answer to these sorts of things is to just have an adult conversation with the players about expectations.

If you know your players and that won’t work then you have some choices to make, again do you care enough to put in more work on top of already running the game?

If it’s going to be an issue and they will abuse access to the module even after you’ve asked them not to, do you really want to play with them?

If the answer is still yes then I suggest altering things slightly so them having pre knowledge doesn’t help, locations of key stuff, attitudes of NPCs, stat blocks/ monsters and enemy placement could all be changed pretty easily with fairly little work, I’d definitely rework the monsters at least, I wouldn’t go as far as traps designed to catch them out though that’s punishing the party for a player.

A good article about making sure all the players actions are resolved in a sensible order. By hearing what everyone plans to do before starting to resolve things you can avoid lots of potential problems.

I must admit that this isn’t something I tend to do, I tend to run games without a defined initiative system so just ask my players what they are doing and everyone gets a chance as we go around, this could potentially lead to situations where someone was planning a set up action but another player got there first but my group are pretty happy to say hang on a second it makes more sense for me to do the thing first then you go after so we’ve never really had a problem with it.

I can see it helping if you had a less familiar gaming group or players who were less happy speaking up when it’s not “their turn”.

Could be, it was like 10 years ago. I remember the side screaming out of the sky and looting the corpse to get something which launches you miles up with no damage reduction. Maybe I’m confusing for the boots of blinding speed which were also brilliant.

Ahha Morrowind, such good times. I definitely killed myself with those boots at least a few times.

I love a horror game.

First having a system designed for horror will really help you to build tension. As someone else said D&D etc are bad for horror because you’re supposed to be powerful, it can work but takes more effort.

Next you need player buy in, everyone needs to want to be a little scared or uncomfortable. You’re also very unlikely to get horror movie levels of scared and trigger that fight or flight response as you’re all sat round a table playing games together.

Having a good session zero for horror is especially important, to make sure you do it safely, have your lines and veils or your X card available and discuss your boundaries. Some people will be fine with body horror but can’t manage anything with children or whatever.

Pacing is key to horror, leave the monster in the dark as long as possible, let the players imagine it and what is going on before you show them with a description. Give them downtime to decompress after a particularly tense moment. Let them make jokes but don’t join in during the tense bits, join in during the chill out section.

If your looking for recommendations: Trail of Cthulhu (gumshoe) was great. I ran a SCP style game, just picked a monster and had the PCs try and work out what was happening.

Delta Green is a really easy system to intro new people to, it’s d100 roll under and you’re playing X-files so people have a strong base to work from. Has some great modules to get you started.

Mothership is wonderful and my current obsession. It’s also d100 roll under and it’s basically Alien/s in terms of the setting but you could easily fit in whatever you wanted sci-fi wise. The modules that come with the box set are brilliant.

It’s easy to inject horror into most settings, my party were really light hearted and jokey in Blades in the dark but I had a few sessions where an automaton was hunting them which they found genuinely scary.

Honourable mention the Fate horror toolkit mostly for the GM advice.

Happy to give thoughts on anything horror related if you’ve got more questions.

Of those included it’s designed to be the first module you play and it’s definitely the easiest to just pick up and play.

I’d love to hear how your game goes.

Ooo blades is my favourite game system. It was my longest running campaign and we actually finished it. They ended up accidentally summoning a demon which burned half the city before containing it and using that to threaten the government into giving the poor more rights.

I’ve got a few waiting in the wings to play at some point. The main one I want to try is the Wildsea. I’ve got to finish Spire and possibly Heart before moving into a new system first though. Depending on how many demons my players end up summoning the spire game could end quite quickly.

The box set is great. I’m currently running another bug hunt and absolutely loving it. The mechanics are brilliant, everything runs super smoothly with the mechanics giving enough threat and stress to keep it interesting but otherwise getting out of the way and allowing lots of role play. It’s a real easy one to teach as well because everything is so simple and intuitive. Plus the companion app seems quite usable (though we have done everything on paper).

I’ve played in one microscope session. Could be a good one to keep in the back pocket if you have some sickness one session as you need no prep.

Whatever you and your group are interested in or whatever the GM has most experience with.

Personally I’d go with Blades in the Dark. It’s great for teaching people good roleplaying habits and has advice like: drive your PC like a stolen car. The system is built to run on minimal prep with every pc action pleasing or upsetting another faction in the city everyone is locked in so you just need a few minutes to think before each session to work out what’s happening next. It’s very player driven and good for practicing improvisation. Plus the setting is instantly interesting (haunted Victorian London meets Venice) and I love flashbacks and clocks.

Other than that I’d recommend running a pre written module or two rather than making your own setting as it’s too easy to fall into railroading players to tell your story.

I love introducing new people to RPGs. It’s one of my favourite things. I’ve even run a how to GM session for an RPG club and helped a new GM run their first few games. That was a fun experience.

I’d definitely recommend not starting with Anima for a first game system now though.