Blades in the Dark: A Piece of the Action

As I become more familiar with the rules for Blades in the Dark, a gloompunk fantasy RPG where the PC's play a starting gang of scoundrels, I have begun to really appreciate how much gameplay is taken up with more than just immediate actions.

Basically, in addition to just doing the heists, capers, assassinations, or other immediate criminal activities, the PC group also has to target other groups to increase their reputation, manage a cohort of NPC's lackeys, maintain and expand a hideout, and move into neighboring territories to increase opportunities.  This is on top of doing some abstract bookkeeping of resources, including deciding what you want to keep in liquid assets and what you want to sock away for your PC's eventual retirement.  Oh, and while you're at it, make sure that each PC spends some time engaging in whatever their vice-like activity might be in order to help relieve stress.

A typical BitD character managing their gang.  Also what you get when you Google "steampunk accountant"

That's a lot of non-combat, non-roleplaying activity, representing a kind of world-building gameplay the group is unaccustomed to.  It will be interesting to see how they react, and who in the group will find that portion of the gaming as interesting as scaling wall or punching it out with the police.