Blades '68
Welcome to the Swinging Sixties in Duskvol! They fixed the shattered sun with a magitech dome of artificial sunlight, everything is just groovy, the situation is stable (and the Ministry of Stability will reprogram people who disagree), and you are here to Do Crimes!
Blades ‘68 is the sequel that we don’t deserve. Blades in the Dark is my very favorite RPG, and Blades ‘68 is simply better. This is the prettiest game I own. Denee previously worked as a commercial illustrator and has used this as his platform to indulge in the bold graphic design of the era. The striking brightly colored illustrations of cool scoundrels provide a clear unity of theme, enhancing the clean layout. Meanwhile, in-universe artifacts like business cards for the factions and restaurant menus give graceful in-setting touches. A greasy spoon diner has JUST MEAT (Chef’s Choice) for $0.10, or you can go a little more upscale to Chuckleberry’s Family Dining for a Rat Pot Pie or Gelatin Surprise.
Art is important, especially in this sad world where games are read more than they are played, but I’m a rules man, and Denee has finely tuned the FitD system from top to bottom. Every playbook is a little different, even beyond abilities and unique gear. While most characters have an ethnic background, an Intellectual has a field of study and a Veteran has a war they fought in, because these are more defining than their accent. Each character also has three Keys, roleplaying characteristics, which can be ticked once per session for XP. Keys are deadlocked when a scoundrel maxes out their stress, with the trait reversing or amplifying, as a replacement for trauma. A player can also choose to freely turn a Key that’s been marked three times, getting an automatic critical success at the cost of a deadlock.
The downtime and score planning system has also been tightened and made more explicit, with a collaborative engine for putting together a score, clear GM advice on the payoff, and a much less annoying Trouble Engine to generate consequences. I’ll confess to having never run Blades downtime by the book, and I am excited to put these rules into play.
The setting is a loving 60s pastiche, with dials that can be tuned from gritty street-life like Get Carter to superspy antics from You Only Live Twice or the forbidden touchstone. It doesn’t require much Duskvol history to understand, and is frankly less weird than basic Blades: No more constant darkness and no more demonic whale-blood powering everything. The key ‘not in Kansas’ fact is that dead people attract prompt attention from the reality wardens of Section 6 and their death radar, and ghosts can come back and fuck everything up. The political situation has lots of crunchy analogues, like a cold war between the Imperium and Skovlan, as well as radical youth movements, Severosi power, and decadent intellectuals. While your mileage may vary, there’s a lot more to sink my teeth into with the super-science and radical politics of Blades ‘68 than the Victorian occultism of Blades in the Dark.
This is a big book, with a lot of setting write-up, new rules, and new situations. The downside is that due to physical size limits apparently some of the core rules have been left out, with a note to refer to Blades in the Dark or Deep Cuts. Personally, I didn’t notice anything missing, and the 10 pages of system changes clearly lay out where this game is different, but some people have complained that it’s not possible to run Blades ‘68 from this book alone. I disagree, but the complaint is out there.
So far I’ve run three one-shots for Blades ‘68 and I’m incredibly excited to put a campaign together. This game is simply perfect. I’m looking into how I can give it six stars.