How to Get Started With the ‘Blades in the Dark’ RPG
Blades in the Dark is one of the best RPGs out there. It’s fast, fun, and rewarding. Here’s how you can get started with Blades in the Dark.
Blades in the Dark and its various “Forged-in-the-Dark” spinoffs are some of the most ingenious RPGs out there. The original, especially, offers up such a satisfying experience.
Get a game going of BitD, and you’ll open the door to action, intrigue, and adventure like few other games manage. It’s one of the more dynamic systems I’ve ever played. But Blades plays a bit differently from the usual crowd, if you’re used to D&D of any edition, there are some old habits you’ll have to shake off.
But it’s absolutely worth it to dive right in. Playing Blades has a way of expanding what you might think a typical RPG session can do like. And a big part of that is getting to see how much an RPG can come to life in its framing.
Blades in the Dark sets you up in the dark, expansive city of Doskvol. It’s like Dishonored and Thief, in its gaslit fantasy city. And right away you’re pulled into its world.
But outside of the delicious flavor of BitD, the rules are exciting. And they’re insidiously good at teaching you how to adapt your game to your table. Its core actions are set up with examples of how they could be used. Take a look at one action you might use in a game:
This is for the Skirmish action. Which is one option for fighting. As you can see right in the entry, the game explains that you might do more than just Skirmish while in the middle of a fight. Or you might use Skirmish to get away from a fight.
The game gives you tools and encourages you to use them creatively.
How to Get Started With Blades in the Dark – The Core Rulebook
To begin with, you’ll need a copy of the Core Rulebook. There are plenty of places where you can find it online. And it will typically run you $20-30, which is a good five or six times cheaper than buying three core rulebooks for another system might be. So your initial investment is much lower.
Inside the core rulebook, you’ll find all the rules you need to play the game. But, Blades in the Dark has been out since 2017. And the community has come up with plenty more resources for learning how to play the game.
Playsheets, Kits, & More
There’s a three-page set of “playsheets” that are incredible rules references for learning the game. You can find the Blades in the Dark playsheets here.
Or if you prefer, you can find a 32-page player kit, that includes a very simple rules overview, as well as a guided character creation section right here.
In fact, you can find most of what you need online at the Blades in the Dark website.
One of the best ways to get started, once you have the book, is to just start playing. While you wait though, there are plenty of ways to watch the game being played, if that’s how you learn.
Friends at the Table puts the Blades in the Dark ruleset through its paces with their Marielda Arc, which is one of the best “time of high fantasy” stories you’ll hear. That mini-season starts with Episode 1, right here. And this AMV is a truly amazing leap into it.
And the Haunted City is a great way to jump into a Blades in the Dark game that runs like a long campaign:
Things to Keep in Mind With Blades in the Dark
If you’re jumping in from a D&D or a Pathfinder type of situation, the landscape is a little different. Here are some important things to keep in mind.
For one, characters are designed to take damage that lingers beyond the encounter. It’s a part of heist fiction — a character takes an injury and it flares up, interfering with the heist at a crucial moment. And the story becomes how they deal with the situation in spite of or working around that obstacle.
It was one of the hardest lessons I learned playing these games because I never wanted anything bad to happen to my characters. Blades can be a little unforgiving if you have a GM who isn’t careful. But there are plenty of more “modern” rulesets that use Blades mechanics that can help you play in a style you prefer. We’ve listed several at the end of this article.
Another big thing to keep in mind is that the players are the ones who decide what they’re going to roll. You might be used to the GM telling you to make a Perception check. But in a game of Blades in the Dark? The Scoundrels decide they want to Sway an enemy by reminding them that they did a favor, even in the middle of a fight. The GM gets to decide both positionings (is this controlled, risky, or desperate), and how effective it is (great, standard, or limited).
That and getting used to the idea that foes don’t have individual hit points, but rather that you’re dealing with enemies as a narrative obstacle — sure, you could kill them outright. But even just inconveniencing them enough that you can get away is a win. Everything in Blades in the Dark is a clock, and there are multiple ways to fill ticks on those clocks, whether you’re a player or a GM.
Once you wrap your head around that, your games of any kind will expand. I found that playing BitD made me a better DM.
Try Another Forged in the Dark Game
If Blades isn’t your cup of tea, or you want to look at how other settings use the same ruleset, which I highly recommend, check out these Forged in the Dark titles that use the Blades rules to do wildly different things:
Alone in the Dark
A solo ruleset for Blades in the Dark, this is a great way to learn the game before running it for your friends.
Band of Blades
It’s like Blades in the Dark by way of Glenn Cook’s Chronicles of the Black Company. You play mercenaries on a mission throughout a vast, war-torn land.
Scum and Villainy
One of many sci-fi hacks of Blades in the Dark, this ruleset is a lot more cinematic. It’s worth picking up for great alternate rulesets you can use. And because sci-fi rules, who doesn’t want lasers and spaceships?
Beam Saber
This one is all about mechs. If you want a game that’s really good at capturing people caught up in a war, and dealing with big feelings and rivalries, Beam Saber is worth grabbing.
All in all, Blades in the Dark is a great game to pick up if you’re looking for a break from the usual D&D fantasy experience. It can take a little getting used to, but the payoff is rich.
Good luck, scoundrels!
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