Graph Paper Games

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 ...

My gaming group decided to give Evil Hat's Blades in the Dark  a quick try.  The first session was last Friday, mostly spent introducing the group to the rules and the PC and gang creation system.  The initial PC's include A Leech specializing in pseudo-science technology A Whisper who can influence the weather A Cutter who is a former merchant marine A Lurk who can briefly enter the ghost realm And a Slide who is a professional con artist For a gang, they decided to be Smugglers, which I thought of as being a fairly "safe" choice and easiest to stay on the morally unobjectionable side (versus say, a Cult or Hawkers, who are vice peddlers).  Some of the younger players also picked fairly "soft" vices, like being obligated to their family instead of gamblers or drug addicts. Photograph by Orla on Deviant Art.  There is no shortage of possible group photos online for this game. I suspect that the game will likely be more of a "Han Solo...