Session -1: Setting Building · Game Master's Laboratory

Session -1: Setting Building

Next week, we'll be running Session -1 for our West Marches Blades in the Dark campaign! Anyone is welcome to join, but we all know scheduling can be tricky, so I'll be fielding suggestions ahead of time in the lab, so everyone can participate!

First up, let's discuss the setting! Blades in the Dark takes place in a dark, post-cataclysm world. In the wake of an ancient disaster, ghosts and leviathans roam the sunless lands, forcing civilization into small, protected pockets. Our crew of scoundrels lives in Duskvol, an early industrial city that powers ghost-repelling lighting gates using leviathan blood as its main energy source. Everyone who dies comes back as a dangerous ghost, unless properly disposed of by the Spirit Wardens. To leave the city is almost certain death, and criminal factions strive desperately to gain a hold against one another. As a result, crews can’t just leave town and wait for the heat to die down; you’re in a pressure cooker environment, with ever-escalating stakes and danger. Drive your character like a stolen car!

I've attached a map of the city below! The setting has some pretty important Givens baked into it, but there's still plenty of room to make the setting our own. We'll be building the details collaboratively---feel free to list some ideas under this post, or respond to one another and build off of the concepts. If you're unsure, I've also attached a table from the appendix of the Collaborative Campaign Design book with some inspirational questions you can answer or tweak or ignore (although not all of them are applicable to this setting). The table is broken into two images since it was split across two pages.

I'll start! I rolled a 19 on the table (pretty good luck!) which is "Can people ascend to godhood? Have they already?" I like this a lot, so I'll say yes, yes they can! This sort of applies globally, although for this game, I think anything that says "world" in the prompt could also be treated as "city." I'll say the legendary emperor of the setting ascended to godhood long ago when the world fell, which is possibly part of the reason why the world is so messed up! So people can ascend to godhood, but it has a terrible price. It's probably not "true" godhood, since the emperor still rules the world directly and presumably has a flesh body, but I'll save that detail for when we do NPCs!

Excited to hear people's ideas! You can RSPV to Session -1 here, or read more about the open-table game here.

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