Blades in the Dark house rules
Persistent armor
Combined with the load mechanics, regular armor is just taken and used right away, and dead weight later.
My rule: Armor gives +1d (+1d more for heavy) to resistance rolls whenever it could be useful. You can at
your option mark the armor use box to absorb 2 stress from such resistance rolls. This also applies for special armor.
Sacrifical armor
Optional extension for persistent armor
A player can sacrifice their armor to stop harm altogether. Your armor is then unusable for the rest of the score and…
1-harm is easily fixed after the score
Fixing 2-harm takes time, ie. a downtime activity, or money, ie. 1-coin
Fixing 3-harm takes both money and time: 1-coin and start a 6-clock as a LTP
4-harm isn't fixable, the armor is ruined beyond repair.
Your armor isn't usable until you fix it.
Dynamic downtime
The original "2 free downtime actions and more with coin/rep" mechanic is no more. The crew can
take any number of downtime actions between them as they like. Directly in downtime, or as a
flashback. It's the same.
Every time they do so, I bank a die. Then I use the banked die to roll for other factions' clocks.
The more they do stuff, the more other factions work behind the scenes. (with a crew of 4, this gives
me 8 dice to split between factions and roll after the equivalent of a classic downtime)
Tier-based faction clock advancement
When I roll for the factions between sessions, I roll their tier. Then I assign one die to each one
of the clocks they have. high-tier factions have more to choose from (including the lower ones for
clocks that they'd rather avoid)
The assigned dice advance the clocks as they would in the original rule: 1-3: 1 segment,
4-5: 2 segments, 6: 3 segments, 6+6: 5 segments
Example: The Crows are at tier 2, so I roll two dice. I get a 6 and a 2. Assuming that Lyssa is under pressure for covering her tracks, I choose to assign the 6 to "Find Roric's ghost", advancing that by 3, and "Advance in tier" has to do with the 2, advancing by just one segment.
If a faction has more clocks than they have dice, some clocks just have to wait. They don't advance.
Liquidating stash
Normally you convert coin into stash at a 1:1 ratio but if you want to cash some of your stash in,
it goes back at 2:1. That's the book way of liquidating your assets at a loss for quick cash.
If you're not in a hurry, you may turn that liquidation process into a long-term project. You state
the intended amount of stash you want to cash in and start a clock. Decide on the clock size based
on the economics of your table, I currently use a 4-clock. Or set the size of the clock based on the
amount, including no-clock (just a downtime action). When that clock is filled, you cash in
the stated amount of stash 1:1.
Supplemental extras for liquidity
Hawkers have a claim called Agent: Every member may liquidate up to 4 of their stash 1:1 into coin
The slide gets a special ability: Swindler: Sell some of your stash to one of your sly friends for
And another claim for any crew; Pawn shop: You may pawn your playbook items (special ones, not the
Heavy items in light loads
Deep Cuts introduced a revised load rule, which says that you can't carry heavy items (2-box) with a
light load. These are, however, daring scoundrels, they break the rules.
My rule is; they can. They only have to tell us how they prepared for this with a flashback. Usually
a 1-stress flashback but you're the GM. That flashback may also involve an action roll at your discretion.
Friendly(!) aliases
A modification of character creation step 8 where you pick your name, alias and looks. You don't pick an
alias. You pick your name and looks. And then there's a step 9 after everybody is done. You introduce your
character by name, looks, heritage, background and vice (these are your crewmates after all, they do know
you). Then you pick another player to choose an alias for you. They decide what your alias is, and tell us
why.
This is meant to lift everyone's focus from their own characters, and get them to think like a group
invested in each other; ready for the upcoming crew creation phase.
No pain, no gain
As it stands in rules-as-written, keeping track of harm in the heat of the action is hard. Both the
players and the GM tend to forget about the harm effects. This is meant to mitigate that and make
sure that harm is part of the gameplay.
First of all, the healing clock is now 6 segments. I prefer to call it the "Pain clock" but the
name doesn't matter. The idea is that the primary way of filling it up is to suffer.
The players are now expected to bring up their harm effects in play whenever those could apply. When
they do, two things happen. First, they get an experience point right away, either to the playbook track,
or to the related attribute track, their call. Second, they mark segments on the pain clock, matching
the level of the harm effect they just invoked.
Once the pain clock is filled, the scoundrel can just indulge their vice in downtime as usual,
and that gets the additional benefit of moving every instance of harm one level down.
Healing (the downtime action) on the other hand, is just supervised pain. If the pain clock isn't full
yet, the scoundrel can, with the help of a physicker, suffer without risk as a downtime action,
and fill the clock up, as in the book version of the rule. Then if the clock is filled, harm goes down
without indulging vice.
Early-industrial medicine is just that anyway. Supervised pain.
Comfort zone
If and when a scoundrel maxes out their stash (fill all four rows), they immediately get a new
trauma: Comfortable. They now have less of a motivation to pursue criminal activity, and would
rather enjoy a more stable life.
If this was their fourth trauma, they either retire right now or right after the next score,
their call.
Retirement bonus
When a character retires for whatever reason, voluntary, trauma, injury etc. the crew gets
coins equal to the retiring character's lifestyle. (Possibly due to liquidating their special
equipment, which they won't be needing any more)
One last score
A retired character becomes a crew contact. When they do, define a special claim for the crew,
called One last score and place it on the far edge of the claims map. This should be something
related to the character, possibly some loose end they left behind. Once the crew secure this claim,
They get the possibility to bring the retired scoundrel back for one last score of their choosing.
When the crew exercise their option, the retiree comes back with all their action dots plus one more,
and abilities as they were. They do have access to standard equipment and one of their own original
special equipment which they kept for whatever reason (they can reveal what at the moment of need
in the score). They can acquire/borrow more with flashbacks if needed.
It does not matter who plays the returning retiree, but my preferential order is; the original
player (alongside their new character if they choose so), any other player, and finally the GM
as an NPC. If the latter, don't bother with the retiree's playbook numbers, just play them as an
elite expert cohort.
Once that last score is concluded, the retiree is now truly retired.
The crew can collect separate claims for each retiree contact they have.
Greasing palms
Besides the three attributes (insight, prowess, resolve), a scoundrel can also use their
lifestyle rating (ie. rows of stash) to resist consequences where money or affluence could help.
When they do so, after they make the resistance roll, they pay coin based on their highest
die instead of taking stress.
1-3: 2 coin, 4-5: 1 coin, 6: 0 coin. Yes, being poor is expensive.
The coin has to be from their own pocket. Sharing or accessing crew coin is normally impossible
because this happens in the heat of the moment.
Neck-deep
If a scoundrel resisting with coin cannot pay the amount determined by their roll, they go into debt.
Debt acquired this way is a kind of temporary trauma. It occupies one of their trauma slots.
The scoundrel earns experience points when they struggle because of their debt. If there
are no trauma slots left, it forces the scoundrel into early retirement. The debt clears
when they pay one coin more than the amount owed.