Shattered Isles | BLADES IN THE DARK

[@thomashooper2451]

Blades in the Dark is such an odd setting, and I'm not talking about the ghosts. It's such a creepy, oppressive world full of horror around every corner, but it's all just the backdrop to a heist game. Imagine if you sat down to watch a Saw movie and it turned into a romantic comedy halfway through.

[@thomashooper2451]

Speaking of weird settings, some other wonderfully strange ones that more people should check out - Spire: The City Must Fall + Heart: The City Beneath (same world, but two very different games with different priorities) - Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City + Red Sky, Dead City + The Memorialists - Witchburner + Longwinter (can you tell I'm a fan of shared settings where an author wants to examine the same broad world from two radically different perspectives?) - Trophy Dark/Trophy Gold/Trophy Loom - The Clay that Woke - Unicorn Meat

[@mistuh69420]

@@thomashooper2451UVG would be HYPE i fucking love weird lit and weird lit inspired settings

[@evilsclone2499]

​@@thomashooper2451unicorn waht?

[@samueljohnson4414]

You can't prove my horse doesn't hunt ghosts

[@Kennyselman]

...the ghosts fear my horse. His Name is Scooby doo!

[@DragonBoi3789]

I think my favorite bit of lore our table came up with for Tycheros was how shortly after the cataclysm a leviathan beached itself on Tycheros' shore and fell into a sort of coma. Its body was torn open upon the rocks it crashed into and its blood seeped into the land. That leviathan's blood now runs through the entirety of Tycheros, keeping everything alive and thriving in a twisted, demonic sense. Its body has been harvested by the Tycherosi over the millenia and now only its skeleton remains mostly intact, serving as the foundation for Tycheros' capital city.

[@archrp7868]

Ok that's metal as fuck and incredibly cool

[@DistractedRogue]

Blades in the Dark is by far my most played TTRPG, and I adore lore videos like this being made about it

[@jonathanrobinson319]

I played a warhammer fantasy campaign with blades in the dark rules, it was based in a fanfic where the end of times never happens and the world of warhammer fantasy advance to a industrial age like steam/diselpunk.

[@Zaktact]

Ooh, that sounds awesome!

[@scruffinmacguffin447]

Could you tell the name of the fanfic?

[@kacperdrabikowski5074]

Blades is definitely one of the best TTRPGs out there, at least from what I experienced and from what is somewhat popular. Both in terms of the setting and rules. I have played one campaign, more of an introductory one, where we were a fledgeling teen gang, not unlike Oliver Twist, and I played a Tycherosi. Took the 'demon blood' hints more towards the weirdness and leviathans and said that my guy had barnacle-looking growths on the chin and hands, not unlike the Davy Jones's sailors in PotC. Made my day when in one conversation the GM described how unsettled the NPC was by it.

[@wagz781]

I sent these videos to a friend that was 110% onboard with everything this system has to offer. Finally got them to gm after many years of playing. Currently playing an absolute menace of a giant rat man that was twisted from a rodent by a mad scientist out in charterhall. When debt collectors came knocking, dear old dad decided to leave my life explosively. I was granted human rights if only so I could take on his debt generationaly. Thankfully whatever was *in* that serum made me about as intelligent as him, and with plenty of notes still around, I've been able to make great use of his serum to slowly expand the crew's cohort all while peddling consumable party favors on the side. It probably helps his intimidation a bit that he's got a bit of a g-man style cadence. If you can't tell, the music played for the group oscillates between super ghostbusters and cowboy bebop.

[@chickane5586]

This series is great - I've been playing Blades for about 8 months and struggled with processing just how much lore there is, getting the tone right and setting the scene. So these videos are really valuable!

[@loganusher591]

Thanks for the great videos on blades! Been looking for a more digestible and quick intro to things so this has been perfect!

[@fluffywolfo3663]

*SKOVLAN FOREVER*

[@JAKMAN32]

Sees new zaktact video message, clicks immediately

[@NickTobi]

Yes! More Blades in the Dark, lets go!!!

[@marlutteyestrelt3441]

I'm definitely collecting all these odd heavy metal dark fantasy settings from Maleghast to Blades in the dark along with ICON and my own setting of DISMALIA to create the ULTIMATE ruinous world post-post apocalyptic weird sci fantasy campaign.

[@guineagrisen6099]

2 seconds in and I now want to replay dishonored

[@squeethemog213]

God, what an awesome setting. The way you present it makes it even more engaging and fun. Can't wait to pick this up 🤩

[@pokerguh]

les go another Blades vid

[@Aaron_mf]

Hell. Fucking. Yeah. Another Blades in the Dark video

[@randomomega9966]

This is such a crazy setting, I love the air of mystery and eldritch powers just existing in the world.

[@RisaxTheImp]

Man, I can't imagine how fucked up a trainheist would be in Blades in the Dark. All the weird shit going on in the world can certainly make for some interesting hooks for heists. 🤔 Thanks for the info! Not sure if there's more lore for BitD to discuss, but I wouldn't be opposed to it. Keep up the good work!

[@svenabel2987]

I wasn't ready for ghosthunting horses. Can't wait for the next dose of "horrors beyond human comprehension"

[@superOMGgirl123]

Man I love this setting I've made so many characters for it. My first character was a mystic from the dagger isles who's family indeed had a different way of deal with ghosts (they had rituals and psychic abilities to keep ghosts from attacking people) Another character was a Skovlan refugee who escaped his war torn home with his father. Only to be preyed upon by a mad scientist who performed experiments fusing humans with leviathans

[@BalthusHomewood]

I ran into a therapist that specifically plays Blades in the Dark with her friends. That says something, but I'm not entirely sure what 😅 I do find the World building of the setting fascinating though. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[@bthsr7113]

The biggest question to me is... what lies on the other side of the void oceans? What happened to other continents? Are there more civilizations out there that managed to survive? Perhaps ones with more primitive means, more occult, or even more advanced. Or are there thousands upon thousands of square miles of desolate hellscapes overrun with raging souls amidst ruins of lost nations?

[@Zaktact]

Those questions are one of the reasons I love Tycheros' presentation. Tycheros itself could be part of a much larger continent, perhaps many. The affected people there show that humans themselves not only have methods of adaption, but physical adaption in some sense. It and the other isles natures, both in their geography and societies, show that there are different ways of surviving post-cataclysm than just the lightning towers. With the way each isle is left open to interpretation and implementation, everything you asked could be true. It's one of the reasons I like the setting, that even when vague it's actually a prompt to expand on.

[@bthsr7113]

Have "deliberate use of ignited coal seams/veins for continuous light and heat" as a freebie for ideas, and feel free to add spooky sauce on top.

[@aso576]

Id live to play as some sorta smooth talking front man that has like 5 different character sheets with different personal information on them

[@joshuachamplin1310]

I enjoyed this video. I hope there will be more like it.

[@davidvulakh744]

I played a Tycheros descendant who had a mouth very similar to Mileena or Baraka from Mortal Kombat, and was a former male prostitute. Said character also had a sister that was largely unmentioned but led to my other player character, a veteran of the Unity War who was the brother in law of the first character… and the two dislike each other, the former for what can be read as envy towards successfully getting his sister out of Doskvol and the latter because the former is… promiscuous. It was a fun dynamic.

[@BillNyeTheBountyGuy]

Ah yes, the shat-isles.

[@Itsunobaby]

Ghost Vietnam is something I didn’t know I wanted until now

[@anonymousbobby2424]

for tycherosian demon features a good referance mighy be warlock marks in the shadowhunters books by cassandra clare

[@mistuh69420]

You should do a video on WoD it would be cool

[@Zaktact]

I've got the masquerade book and have ran games, played games, wiki dived. It's definitely in the cards.

[@mistuh69420]

@@Zaktactmage is funny and definitely doesn’t drive you crazy from trying to read it

[@AlbecoSound]

I haven’t actually played Blades in the Dark, or even read that much about it, but I DO have a different Josh Harper RPG, Agon. It’s not nearly as detailed, because instead of a whole new settings, it’s designed to be played in mythological Greece :) it’s a very rules secondary, story primary system. You don’t even have health or anything. You can’t die unless you CHOOSE to die, but you get a huge bonus go your roll :) it’s great, but not for everyone. But yeah, Josh Harper is the king of indie RPGs

[@saedimic]

Atleast Ra cant get me here

[@curiouswind9196]

British Big E is becoming scarier more I think about it.

[@KOkami03]

Yeah honestly, calling Blades in the Dark "Dishonored as a ttrpg" really does not do the setting any justice in the slightest. ...On that note, there actually is an Official Dishonored ttrpg. Oh, and do you have any plans to go more in-depth regarding the different Playbooks and Crews?

[@Zaktact]

I agree, that the comparison alone does not do it justice. In fact I think many of the comparisons floated around really skip out on the undead fantastical side of it. Also didn't know there was an official ttrpg for Dishonored. I do have plans to cover Playbooks and Crews in abit more depth at a later date.

[@MrDrewwills]

I gotta say, Blades in the Dark has the worst fucking cover art of any rpg ever. For the longest time I thought this game was set in our world modern day because the guy on the cover looks like he's wearing a hoodie. I also had no idea the system used magic because the cover art which was the only art I saw when the game popped up was just some dude with a knife. This lore is making me wanna play this game yesterday.

[@smoati9ap309]

realism VS fantasy is a false dichotomy. A fantasy world should be believable, else it's just a decoration, like in Truman's show: yes, you will have your share of fun, but sooner or later you will have to either challenge your disbelief or ignore obvious problems. Fantastic conventions are a thing, yes, but they have to be verisimile. Funny thing is, giant lightning towers and ghost trains are quite normal, albeit not safe and efficient. I can easily imagine electric barriers be like 10% cost effective because of incredible corruption... and it fits the setting so well. But there are other big things like "shattered sun" and "catalysm one thousand years ago". Those things would have just destroyed life as it is. Gosh, COLD isn't even mentioned as a problem - only darkness (which is in itself enough to kill all plant life, but let's assume there are species that can survive some other way, although it would have changed THE WHOLE FREAKING ECOSYSTEM, AND CITY IS AN ECOSYSTEM AS WELL) i have a strong feeling that Harper (although mechanical genius) just thought "fuck it, i am just making cool sounding things. Demon blood! Shattered sun! Immortal Emperor! Yay!" And that would be fine in something like morg borg or another setting that doesn't take itself seriously. Doskvol, i think, does (in a good way). It's a great city. But it just can't exist in a world that Harper gave us. Yes, we can interpret and tweak his descriptions hard enough so that it at least imitates believability. As in, lore in the book is not HOW THE WORLD ACTUALLY IS but how people perceive it. If he meant exactly that - well, my fault, his win. But he didn't telegraph it well enough, in my opinion. Meanwhile, I understand that Harper left many lacuna by design, so that players could refurbish the world how they please. And it's good, at least if players are at least a little bit responsible demiurges. Even if they make Doskvol a guy-richiesque setting, it's okay, the emperor can be in fact a dildo enthusiast with a funny alias, but the world has to be CONSISTENT. Consistency is something that HELPS build a great world and play a great game, but some people think otherwise for whatever reason. I have chatted furiously with dozens of them. They told "wtf does it all matter, i'm just playing a cool guy in cool decorations". Well, some people think Moonfall or Armageddon are okay movies as well. But if Doskvol is such a setting, maybe it should have been sold as a comedy or kitch) which i think it isn't

[@ragnar40kblackmain]

HI ZAK!! CAN I HAVE A HAPPY REPLY PLEASE!

[@Zaktact]

Having a nice day? Nice evening? Nice orbit? In any case I hope all is well and good.

[@thesmilyguyguy9799]

:> D