Fistful of Lead Reloaded: Reading Review

I've read through the rules for Fistful of Lead--Reloaded in preparation for the Wild West Miniatures session I want to do. (See Recent Dr. Skull's Workshop Entries).   Here are my impressions:


Initiative/Activation:
Just like Savage Worlds, except no Joker, Aces are wild.   Special Bonuses for certain cards (e.g., if you get a Queen of Heats you can heal one wound).    Should be smooth.


Turn:
Each figure can do 2 things, e.g.  Move and Move,  Move and Shoot, Shoot and Shoot, Aim and Shoot,  get off Horse and Shoot.     Also smooth.


Shooting:
Roll d10,  5 or better to hit, close range, 8 or better to hit, long range.   A handful of modifiers nothing hard.   Roll a "1" when shooting means you ran out of bullets.


Wounding:
Hits can result in PIN, WOUND, or DEAD:   Pin works similar to SHAKEN in Savage Worlds.   Wound gives -1 penalty and knocks you down.  3 wounds or a  dead result means dead.   If roll a "1" when trying to get up from PIN or WOUND means you run off in terror.


There are some extra rules for TNT and Gatling Guns and for some minor unit customization and campaign play.    It is free of in-game record keeping and should be fast and fun.   It was a good choice I think

How To Tie a Perfect Man Bun

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Blades in the Dark - Second Session Discussion

Last night's BitD game went well. I'm still experimenting with combat, and last night's episode ended on a huge one. Specifically what I'm unsure about is how the "spotlight" travels. I came up with the "thingus" that everyone could pass around to take their action, but there is no actual set "initiative order" in the ruleset of BitD. As a matter of fact, the bad guys specifically don't get to do *anything*. Instead, the rules say that they just do stuff and that the PCs are then welcome to come up with ways to either mitigate the damage or create narrative to counter it.

On the plus side, I believe that the group combat went well. The River Rats vs. the Red Sash cadre fight seemed "right" to me now that I'm getting more of a hang with the "effect" rules. Essentially the factors for effect include "quality/tier", "potency", and "scale", and the fact that there were more Red Sashes than PCs allowed them to gain effect because of scale. By adding the River Rats and basically commanding them as a turn you were more easily able to match their scale.

BTW, the River Rats were pretty cut up by the end. They will need a score rest, and another score before they are at full strength. Luckily, you have the cole slaw gang to "rely" on.

One last comment on HEAT. I believe I'm playing it wrong. If you get 8 heat as a group, you guys get a WANTED level, and your HEAT goes down, not unlike losing all your STRESS after taking TRAUMA. Speaking of which, I am also going to tweak some of the ENTANGLEMENTS to reflect the fact that the FSA is at war with the Red Sashes next game.

What were your favorite moments? Is this game fun? Does it make sense? What do you think about doing more "downtime scenes" where you indulge in your vice and deal with the fallout of the gang war you are a part of?

Blades in the Dark - First Session Discussion

I had a great time playing Blades in the Dark (BitD) last night! Here in no particular order are a few of my early thoughts about how I might make it better, and challenges that we might need to face as we continue the campaign.

• BitD is a storytelling game, so there are few solid combat mechanics. Instead, players say what they want to achieve, the GM with the help of the players all decide what the stakes of failure are, and there is a roll. That ends combats really fast, and can make completely combat-oriented characters kinda dull.
• Consequentially, there is no need for figures or barely even a map. Players may decide where they want to "enter the scene", so there were quite a few "scores" (thief jobs such as burglary) where one or more of the characters never even made it "on stage".
• Another reason why characters seldom made it "on stage" was because of the "flashback" mechanic. Every "score" starts play with the job already in motion. There is a discussion of a general plan, but then there is a roll to see whether things are going smoothly or whether the excrement has really hit the fan and roleplaying starts immediately. Instead of careful planning before play, there is a "flashback" mechanic where a player may tell a story about what their character did in the past to be ready for the score. For example, when Tim's Lurk character ran into a locked door, Jason's Leech character went back in flashback to burn through most of the lock with acid. Tim's guy then just bumped it free and entered.
• I'll make a "scores" deck so that we can easily "dig up" jobs for the crew to do between building their territory. That way, they can be traded and shared as well.
• I must admit that I love the structure of it all. Once we had characters made, we did a score and then had some downtime. Then it was just wash, rinse, and repeat. It also lends itself to our play style because players may play new characters (players are encouraged to even swap characters between them) at any time, but only play one character per "score".
• I probably was a little too generous with intel, but the world of Duskval is way crazy. When playing in a world with a blotted-out sun, wandering ghosts, ink-black water and whale-sized demonic monsters roaming the seas it can get a little "out there". Until we all get a feel for Duskval and where it is I'll probably not make any assumptions.

Want to know more about BitD? Find the Google Plus Community here, and some videos of the creator playing the game here.

Next Session

Any interest in taking a break from D&D to run a session of Blades in the Dark next session?

Action Shots, Wilderlands, session 13

Here the B-team brawls with some bugbears:

Here the unfortunate Abraca Dorfman is brutally mauled by Bugbears

Considering a New Table

Our  current game table measures 5 feet by 5 feet.   I'm considering making a change to a 6 feet by 4 feet sized table.  That would give us some more room around the edges, with only a small decrease in surface area.  There are some advantages to the square layout, but I think it might be an improvement to change.  The trick is actually finding a reasonable 4x6 table