Arcane as in the League of Legends Netflix show (first few episodes mainly).
I’m not big on the sort “oppressive, endless darkness/ever encroaching void” vibe of the default Blades setting. But while watching Arcane I can see how well it could mesh with the system.
Thing is, I’ve never actually run a Blades game before. Mostly listened to podcasts, read some of the book and played a session of Scum & Villainy.
How easy is it to tweak the “vibe” of the default setting? Reading through the book is not doing much to inspire me, but I like the system a lot and think I could get into the setting if I could just make it more of my own.
Should be noted that I’m not looking to play in the world of Arcane verbatim. It’s just a touchstone.
There’s nothing in Blades that requires you to run it in Doskvol, but that setting does have a few things going for it that makes Blades easier to run. Firstly, the players can’t just nope out of the city and lie low for a while in the countryside. They’re forced to deal with Doskvol all the time. Secondly, there are real and immediate consequences to murder and death. This incentivizes the players to at least attempt non-lethal methods. Of these, only the pressure cooker environment is really crucial for a game of Blades. The rest of the setting adapts just fine. You could, for example, run Blades in a post-nuclear war 1950s era New Orleans where the surrounding lands are surrounded by nuclear fallout. The city, however, survives due to protections conferred by devils.
Doskvol is just a tad too dark for Arcane, I do agree there. You don’t necessarily have to adapt Blades itself tho. Have you taken a look at a|state RPG? It also uses the Forged in the Dark engine but is a little more lighthearted. In that game, the crew are troublemakers trying to make one corner of a hellish urban landscape into a better place. The system makes caring as important as fighting. I think you might have better success with that system.
The pathfinder city of Alkenstar I think has some really good analogues for piltover. Its a desert city where magic doesn’t work. “Inventor” is the primary profession. Steampunk + fantasy alchemy with a good dash of early gun-smithing wild-west mixed in. You could ignore the wild west bit. There is a system-agnostic source book out there somewhere. I would pull from that personally.
I think one of main issues is that Runeterra (world of Arcane and League of Legends) has fantastic races like Yordles, while Blades is humans only game.
I haven’t seen Arcane, but tweaking the setting should be relatively straightforward.
The key thing about Doskvol that I’d recommend carrying over is the pressure cooker environment you get from having a place that the crew can’t easily or meaningfully leave. It allows the tension and stakes to naturally ratchet up over time, forcing the crew to deal with the problems they create rather than laying low until things blow over.
Aside from that, ghosts and the occult could get narrative makeovers to better suit your setting.
I think you should go for it!
Thanks! Yeah, it would certainly have the same or similar stakes. I just want to add some color and joviality to the whole thing.
Do you have any tips for how to go about it? Blades seems kinda tied to Doskvol so the whole thing feels a bit daunting.
I would recommend running the game after the events of Arcane. Piltover and Zaun are at war. Your game should take place in Zaun. Leaving Zaun is a huge risk due to the war. This helps keep that pressure cooker vibe mentioned above.
With Zaun at war with no leader you have waring gangs all struggling for power and control. This is where your players come into the game. A small gang trying to make it in the undercity.
The only real thing you would need to do is just rename the map city sections based on Arcane.