Blades In The Dark

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Faction relations surrounding the Crew I'm GMing for (ttrpg.network)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Wanting to bring more (relevant) factions to the forefront of my game I decided to map out relations between

Solid bold lines are between the Crew and those they have direct relations to. Blue for positive, red for negative. (Edit: Clarification) The double line to Circle of flame shows the Crew have +2 relations to them, single line for +1 relations.
Solid thin lines are between the Crew's relations and those they have relations to. Can be to another of the Crew's relations (such as between Circle of Flame and The Hive) or to a more distant faction (two steps separation).
Dashed lines are relations between factions two steps away from the Crew. Not all relations of these factions two steps separated from the crew are included, only those between factions already on the board.

Kinda enjoyed the result, a bit pleasing to the eye. May fully map out the relations of the factions two steps separated (to factions three steps separated from the crew).

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do the roman numerals mean? The (III), (IV) etc. It doesn't seem to be the number of connections?

Also, why are there two thick, blue lines between the Circle of Flames and the crew?

Either way this is so cool I'm going to do this, too!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The roman numerals is the tier of that faction, Bluecoats being tier 3 and Fog Hounds tier 1 for example. And the double line to Circle is that the crew have +2 relations to them, only +1 to the rest. Missed to explain this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What does the tier of the faction mean? How big/important they are?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Pretty much yes. From the Blades' SRD

Tier

Each notable faction is ranked by Tier—a measure of wealth, influence, and scale. At the highest level are the Tier V and VI factions, the true powers of the city. Your crew begins at Tier 0.

You’ll use your Tier rating to roll dice when you acquire an asset, as well as for any fortune roll for which your crew’s overall power level and influence is the primary trait. Most importantly, your Tier determines the quality level of your items as well as the quality and scale of the gangs your crew employs—and thereby what size of enemy you can expect to handle.

What the SRD doesn't mention in that part is that when there is a tier difference between your crew (your tools etc) and your opposition you get more/less effect. Generally how I run it if there is a +/- 1 tier difference I change the effect. Larger difference I either set up a clock or let the player's know they don't have what it takes (impossible task within certain parameters), that is if the opposition is higher tier. Flipped if the Crew overpower the opposition by that much there is no need to roll, they just do it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks great! What did you use to build this? I would love to reproduce something like this for my group.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

https://app.diagrams.net/ I use this for all my mapping needs. From dungeons to quests and relations.

For this I used

Line width 5 for direct relations
Line width 3 for direct relation to their relation
Dashed line width 2 between factions twice separated from the crew and put these lines behind everything else

And arranged factions is a somewhat pleasing manner.