Character Creation - BitO (pt.1)

Running Duskwall with Into the Odd

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✨🚀 Next Sunday, Murkdice is dropping something big 🚀✨

I recently released a FREE hack called Blades into the Odd (BitO), check out the announcement here. In short: it’s for running the setting of Blades in the Dark with Into the Odd.

Over the coming weeks I’m going to be doing a bit of a breakdown of this hack, though it will be interjected with other articles to keep things fresh.

Let’s start with the obvious. Why did I make this hack?

I’ve run Blades in the Dark (Blades) and loved it, but I don’t want to go back to that ruleset right now. I did want to go back to the setting though, the city of Duskwall. I just wanted to run it with a lighter system with less story-game mechanics.

I picked Into the Odd (ItO), a d20 roll-low NSR system. It’s cousin Electric Bastionland would have done well too, or I could have gone for Swyvers. But ItO has a special place in my heart, it’s minimalist and has everything I need to run a game in Duskwall.

I was also inspired by my own article ~my humility has no bounds~ on compact sandboxes where I described Duskwall as being a great example of a compact sandbox scenario. Plus writing about using pre-written material to make a Mork Borg sandbox got me wanting to grab something rather than making it from scratch.

(If you’re unfamiliar with sandboxes see this YouTube video).

Duskwall’s sandbox content is pretty system neutral. Plus by picking ItO, I’ve less mechanical work to do. So, join me on this journey as I talk through how I port Duskwall over to ItO and turn it into an NSR sandbox.

This week will be focused on character creation changes and tables of equipment.

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Setting changes

I’m running a more ‘grounded’ game than Blades: BitO assumes no humans doing magic unless it’s high preparation occult rituals, no magical items or objects that humans can utilise beyond engineering their own doom in some kind of ceremony.

This impacts some of the factions in Blades. For instance, the Spirit Wardens no longer have a magic bell that rings when someone dies or death seeker crows to find bodies. This is a manual job now, which makes everything more grotty and less fantastical.

I’m going to be less specific about the supernatural and keep spirits very scary e.g. likely to kill a character. Ghosts ripping people apart in shady alleyways happens quite often in this version of Duskwall.

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Character Creation

There’s a couple of changes to character creation in BitO. Because I’m making a setting specific equipment list, I ditched the ItO method of using HP and highest ability score to choose starting gear for you. Now, it gives you a budget.

I’ve also introduced a vice rule (an addiction mechanic), because the Blades vice mechanic is one of the strongest hooks of the game. My rule is less narrative than Blades, and is more concrete by being centred around debt and the possibility of someone coming after you if you don’t pay. It also provides a motivation for player characters to bringing in coin.

Whilst it seems likely the players will play gang members, they don’t have to. They can pick a faction, like the Bluecoats (law enforcement), or any other purpose really. But the Vice ensures that they are out doing something that makes them good money.

Gear

A lot about ItO is what equipment you’re carrying. In some senses, Blades is too. To that end, I’ve combined the Blades and ItO gear lists into a hybrid for BitO:

For certain sections I’ve noted a generic save, like Strength for ‘compounds’.

Each piece of equipment has a cost, and has ItO relevant rule details where needed. You’ll note I haven’t ported across prices for food and rest. This is a city, and I’m not too interested in keeping track of the characters eating meals here. I’ll assume they have a few coppers lying around to get bread and water at least ~or they’ll steal it~

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Next time

In two weeks, we’ll be doing BitO lairs, upgrades to them, and statblocks.

Next week, we’ve got a big announcement 🚀

If you like this article, please like and share! Commenting helps out MurkMail a lot and I love chatting with you folks. If you like BitO, come join the conversation on our discord.

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Recommendations

Blog: It’s no secret that I watch Luke Gearing’s blog like a bloodthirsty hawk. This week there’s an article on travel incidents and mishaps. It’s a really neat implementation that would make travel more spicy, giving players regular problems to contend with. I like the ideas here a lot, and I plan to mess around with them in my own games.

YouTube: JP Coovert hits us up with a make your own GM screen tutorial. I feel inspired to think about designing my own in the future, and as usual JP’s tutorials are thorough but accessible.

🎃MÖRKTOBER🎃: It’s that time of year, the spooky season is upon us, and it’s also a time to drown yourself in a rotblack sludge of Mork Borg content. Exuent Press is running it’s amazing MÖRKTOBER Mork Borg game jam. Creators of all kinds will be producing daily Mork Borg creations for an entire month!