Blackguard
I bought some blank dice yesterday and wanted to write a game. So, after two hours of drawing on dice with marker pen and using nail polish remover to correct mistakes, here it is. It’s a thiefy game. I really like it.
Blackguard
Blackguard is a game for two players (might work with more, haven’t thought it through).
It takes about 15 minutes.
You need
Five special dice: three white Blackguard Dice, one red Danger Die and one blue Style Die.
They have special symbols on them.
The Blackguard Dice have:
- Two footprints, representing Stealth.
- Two speech bubbles, representing Charm.
- Two lock symbols, representing Breaking And Entering.
The Danger Die has:
- One exclamation mark, representing Danger.
- One question mark, representing Suspicion.
- Two pound signs, representing Swag.
- Two blank sides, which represent different things: see below.
And the Style Die has:
- Three stars, representing Success.
- Two pound signs, representing Swag.
- One exclamation mark, representing Danger.
Who’s Who
Decide who is the Criminal and who is the Taskmaster. If you can’t decide, roll dice.
The Criminal
If you’re the Criminal, choose a name and describe yourself briefly.
You have three skills: Stealth, Charm and Breaking And Entering. You are good at one of these; average at another; and bad at the last.
The Taskmaster
You’ll invent challenges for the Criminal.
To start
Decide, together:
- Where you will burgle: perhaps a mansion.
- What you will steal: perhaps a diamond.
- A mystery that will be solved when you steal it: perhaps “What do the secret engravings on the diamond say?”
Using pennies, keep track of:
- Obstacle Points: These are placed in the middle of the table. There are five to start.
- Alert Points: These are placed in front of the Taskmaster. At the start, there are zero.
- Cash: These are placed in front of the Criminal. At the start, there are zero.
Setting Challenges
If you’re the Taskmaster, you’ll decide:
- Where the Criminal is and
- What obstacles stop him getting any further.
Sometimes, this will be obvious: if, the previous turn, the Criminal failed to pick a lock, he is probably still outside the door.
When it’s not obvious – and particularly when the Criminal enters a new location – roll the Blackguard Dice for inspiration.
- If you get any Stealth, describe things that will let the Criminal move stealthily: shadows, a rope.
- If you get any Charm, describe people that the Criminal may charm: a guard, a crowd of partygoers.
- If you get any Breaking And Entering, describe physical obstacles that the Criminal may bypass: a lock, a barred window, a safe.
Don’t feel you must incorporate everything the dice give you: just give it your best shot.
Example: George rolls the dice and gets two Stealth and a Charm. He describes the Criminal finding himself in a drawing room. Houseguests are talking after dinner (and the Criminal could try to charm them). Much of the room is in shadow (so the Criminal could also creep past).
Example: George rolls the dice and gets two Breaking And Entering and a Charm. He describes the Criminal finding himself in a passageway outside a guarded room. There is a guard (whom the Criminal might charm to open the door) and the door is locked (which the Criminal might pick, without the guard seeing him).
Getting past the obstacle
The Criminal now describes how he will get past the obstacles. Between you, decide which skill it involves: Stealth, Charm or Breaking and Entering.
If the Taskmaster likes the Criminal’s idea, he may give him the Style Die.
Then, the Criminal rolls:
- The Danger Die
- The Style Die, if he was given it.
- A number of Blackguard dice, depending on which skill he is using.
- One die for his bad skill
- Two dice for his average skill
- Three dice for his good skill
Finally, look at the dice to see what happened:
- If any Blackguard Die shows the symbol for the skill used (Stealth, Breaking And Entering or Charm), the Criminal gets past the obstacle! Take away an Obstacle point.
- If the Style Die shows a Success, the Criminal also succeeds, in the same way.
- If any die shows Swag, the Criminal has found something to steal! Describe what it is. (It’s not the main thing you came to steal.)
- If any die shows Suspicion, the Criminal has drawn attention to his presence. Perhaps he made a noise or left scratches around a lock. Add one Alert Point. (Ignore this if another die shows Danger)
- If any die shows Danger, the Criminal has been discovered! Add one Alert point and one Obstacle point, which you will use immediately (see below).
- If no Blackguard Dice show the correct Symbol and the Style die doesn’t show a success, the Criminal failed to pass the obstacle, and may not try that particular way of bypassing this obstacle again.
Note that many things may happen at once. Whatever happened, describe it, together.
Danger
When Danger is rolled, the Taskmaster describes the Criminal being discovered. He immediately sets this as a challenge. The Criminal describes attempting to escape by running, hiding, charming the guard or similar. Dice are rolled as usual.
- If the Criminal succeeds, describe escaping from the discoverer.
- If the Criminal fails, describe being captured: the next obstacle will be escaping from imprisonment.
- If Danger is rolled again, someone else discovers the Criminal as he attempts to escape.
Afterwards, one way or another, the burglary continues as before.
Alert
As Alert increases, so does the chance of discovery.
- 0 or 1 Alert points: It’s all quiet.
- 2, 3 or 4 Alert points: The guards are suspicious. If the Danger Die shows a blank, reroll it (once).
- 5, 6 or 7 Alert points: The guards know you’re here. If the Danger Die shows a blank, count it as Suspicion.
- 8, 9 or 10 Alert points: The guards are searching for you. If the Danger Die shows a blank, count it as Danger.
- More than 10 Alert points: The guards are tearing the place apart to find you. Now, Danger adds two Obstacle points instead of one and, if the Danger Die shows a blank, count it as Danger.
End of the game
When there is Obstacle Point left, the Taskmaster describes one last obstacle between the Criminal and the thing he came to steal. This challenge requires a roll, as normal.
If the roll succeeds, the Criminal has what he came to steal! Together, describe the Criminal’s escape. Then solve the mystery.
If you want to carry on playing, solve the mystery so that you create another thing to steal and another mystery to solve.
For example: Sparrow, the Criminal, has stolen a diamond. The mystery was “What do the engravings on the diamond say?”
Deciding they want to play on, they answer the mystery by creating another thing to steal and another mystery: “The engravings identify a map in an ancient library. But where does the map lead to?”.
And Sparrow must steal the map.
Clarifications
- Sometimes, you’ll get no alerts during the game. That’s fine! Just play again: solve the mystery so that you create another thing to steal and another mystery.
- The Criminal may deal with obstacles in an unanticipated way. For example, the Taskmaster might roll Breaking And Entering and Charm, and describe a guarded, locked door, anticipating that the Criminal will pick the lock or charm the guard. However, the Criminal may use Stealth, if he can justify it: for example, waiting until the guard enters the room and creeping after him.
- Backstabbing and acts of stealthy violence are Stealth. Toe-to-toe fighting isn’t allowed. You’re a thief. Run!
- If the Criminal wants to do something unusual, then: if it’s about physical objects, it’s Breaking And Entering; if it’s about social interaction, it’s Charm; if it’s something that must be done undetected, it’s Stealth. If in doubt, choose together.
- Sometimes, the dice can be difficult to interpret. Don’t worry. Make sense of them, as best you can, when you describe what happened. Make sure the Obstacle and Alert points are updated correctly.
Looks great, I want to try it!
A couple of quick typos.
In the If any die shows Danger section you mention Challenge Points, but presumably mean Obstacle Points
In the Clarification section you say “the Criminal might roll Breaking And Entering and Charm, and describe a guarded, locked door” presumably you mean “the Challenger might roll”
Oh, thanks, David. Yes, right on all counts.
Graham
This is great, Graham. What a great way of generating adversity and setting. I like that the Challenger awards the style die.
And an excellent example of improvised, infinite acceptance.
But having the overall structure of the 1) premise and 2) place where it’s set creates a nice ring of ideas within which the players can easily work together.
Oh, thank you. Yes, it’s interesting. I’m kicking it around. The Alert points aren’t quite right, yet.
[...] a combination of the promising-looking Blackguard by Graham Walmsley and the ninja thread at Story Games have got me itching to revisit my attempts [...]
Graham, my wife and I just played two rounds of Blackguard. It was loads of fun!
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We made our own dice, as per your instructions (with $ in place of pound signs, for ease of use this side of the Atlantic
First game: Art McSneakerson, a larcenous liberal arts student, attempts to steal the map to Confederate Col. Euleliah Jackson’s hidden gold from the university library at Princeton. Art is almost thwarted by a Security Guard, but flirts with teaching assistant, Aubrey Goodlove, to gain access to the Map Archive.
Second game: Chumley, halfling thief extraordinaire, must steal the Magic Cookbook from the estate of Lady Beulah von Bartlesnap, rival of Chumley’s fellow mischief-maker, the Duke’s Daughter. Liberal amounts of bacon, knife-throwing, and foot-massage eventually see Chumley past angry gardeners, giant cats, and larders full of marmalade to his prize.
Overall, the dice worked well as a pointer for “what happens next”. I agree that the Alert points are not quite right. In the first game, my wife rolled well–Alert points were at 0 the entire game. In the second round, I rolled horribly and racked up a wopping 16 Alert points! However, I don’t feel like we have enough data here to make a judgement on how to mitigate the issue. At first, I thought maybe a blank should be replaced with a ? on the Danger die, but the second game seems to indicate otherwise. We may try it a few more times to get a better feel for what’s going on.
Couple other thoughts: it might be interesting if the Loot played a role other than just color (perhaps a resource the Criminal can trade in for a benefit?). Likewise, what if the Challenger could burn off some Alert to gain some advantage (though the challenger’s role is to make the Criminal’s life interesting rather than to beat the Criminal, so I’m not sure what an “advantage” would mean for the Challenger)?
That’s all I have for now. Thanks much for the great game!
Mike, you’re brilliant. Thanks very much for playing.
I agree that the Alert points are not quite right. In the first game, my wife rolled well–Alert points were at 0 the entire game. In the second round, I rolled horribly and racked up a wopping 16 Alert points!
See…here’s my new thinking on this.
I quite like it. Sometimes, a job goes perfectly. But when it goes wrong, it goes completely wrong.
I’ve sort of fixed it. Look at the Clarifications above: I’ve basically said that, if you have a game with no Alerts, play again.
Is that OK? Or am I totally missing the point?
Couple other thoughts: it might be interesting if the Loot played a role other than just color (perhaps a resurce the Criminal can trade in for a benefit?).
Yes! What if, between games, you can use Loot to buy Equipment? Equipment will let you reroll dice, I think. But only once per game. For example, you’ll have Silk Rope, which you can use to reroll a die in a stealthy climb.
Likewise, what if the Challenger could burn off some Alert to gain some advantage (though the challenger’s role is to make the Criminal’s life interesting rather than to beat the Criminal, so I’m not sure what an “advantage” would mean for the Challenger)?
Yes…you’re on to something, though. What if the Criminal can burn off Alert for a disadvantage? Makes it an interesting choice.
Now…maybe…how about if, as the Criminal, you can buy off Alerts with Loot? I’m not quite sure how. But it makes things interesting: you can stop the trouble, but you’ll lose your cash.
Oh, by the way. I’m editing the post, above, to add new rules. It changes every couple of days.
I like the clarifications but I’m not sure I get the point of the rising alert level effects. They seem to boil down to
LOW : You get a reroll
MEDIUM : Danger and suspicion are a little more likely (as is loot)
HIGH : Tests are harder
How come High alert doesn’t make danger and suspicion more likely? Or are they supposed to be cumulative? Also since a failed test means you can’t try that way again doesn’t that mean that very high alert can make an obstacle entirely impassible by making you fail the only sorts of tests you can use to pass it?
I was seeing this more like Tenchu stealth assassin … when the alert level is high the guards and so on know you are coming, so stealth becomes harder and danger more likely, rather than everything being harder (e.g. high alert makes it hard to pick a lock at the moment).
I don’t know, it just seems that alert should either end the game at a certain point, or not make things impossible, one or the other. At the moment it seems like it would just dump you in a pit of ineffectual actions.
I playtested Blackguard last night and loved it! An Actual play report and extended comments can be found on the Collective Endeavor board at http://www.collective-endeavour.com/node/603
David, you are brilliant. I’ll reply over there.
Oh…and your previous comment…I agreed with it all, so I changed the rules.
G
“Oh…and your previous comment…I agreed with it all, so I changed the rules.”
Ahh such power!!
Graham,
The latest updates to the rules look good.
I like the idea that the mystery at the end leads you to the next caper. That thought immediately occurred to my wife and I after we finished up our first game.
Regarding Loot (Swag now, I see), I’d like to see it used a resource by the Criminal to burn off Alert or to buy gear between thefts for re-rolls. Add that in!