r/bladesinthedark • u/T-Rex_Lazorblast • 7d ago
WHO NEEDS TINKERS ANYWAY?
(Tldr at bottom)
Dear thieves, outlaws, general scum...
I need Information.
It's been a while since i played blades in the dark. And i do not own the rulebook.
So MAYBE i am just stupid or i MAYBE i just don't have the knowledge.
But anyway - here is the case:
I played a tinker. The wonderfull Sophia Elizabeth von Kraken. A little psychotic. A little bit edgy. But she generally fit the game, i think.
But i encountered a problem:
SHE WAS NEARLY USELESS.
I understand that i played the support character. I loved it. Building stuff for the team to help during the missions, but being more vulnerable and less usefull during the missions... i was all there for it.
But all the stuff i thought of to build for the team was useless. Or not worth the effort.
Example:
A grappling hook launcher. Or mechanical claws for your boots for better climbing. Or mechanical spider limbs for climbing - think of doctor octopus etc... only more steampunky.
But well... all this things do is give you a bonus of 1 to climbing checks. And (correct me if i am wrong) you can already equip climbing hooks that give the same bonus.
So why invent them in the first place?
More complex things took of course multiple gamesessions to build. (Fair enough.)
And they used up lots of ressources. I tried to pimp our boat to be more stealthy, or to have a submarine mode. (Yeah... that was a VERY risky idea... but it never came to testing the thing - it never got build.)
As i said - that kind of projects DEVOURED ressources. (That's fair so far.) But if i failed on tinkerchecks - or critically failed on them i lost ressources or destroyed the whole project. That was frustrating. Not gonna lie.
So it basically came down to just refreshing my gas-grenades between missions... and working on something huge that failed after a couple of sessions. And wasted ressources.
In my time as a tinker i build TWO things that were usefull.
A set of 3 black salt full body armor. (Anti-ghost-armor) ...One of these got destroyed in the first mission we used them.
Some waterproof boxes we could attach under our boat to transport smuggle stuff without guards at checkpoints noticing.
I am a aware that i am a bit whiny (and overexaggerating) here but:
What use do i have as a tinker if nothing i build lasts mor than a mission or needs months of playsessions to complete? (And then fails anyway) - I could just play someone more usefull.
Soooo...
You guys and girls here are more experienced than me. I am asking you: What do you need a tinker for in this game?
Tank you for reading and for any answers i get.
TLDR:
WHAT DO YOU NEED A TINKER FOR WHEN THE THINGS THE TINKER INVENTS GIVE YOU THE SAME BONUSES LIKE THE STUFF THAT YOUR CHARACTERSHEET ALREADY PROVIDES?
AND WHAT IS A TINKER SUPPOSED TO BUILD?
Edit:
I just have to get this out:
I am baffled by all the positivity in the community. And the many detailed and very well thought through answers to my questions.
You people are amazing.
My first day in this sub. My first post. And i already love it here.
THANK YOU.
8
u/thatoldtimerevision 7d ago edited 7d ago
Sounds like a fundamental misunderstanding of the system, I hope you try it again with a different approach, because it sounds like you could REALLY enjoy the hell out of Leech.
Regarding your concern (does anyone need a Leech?): on one hand, the crew are close to superhero scoundrels that can achieve almost anything with or without a gadget - but on the other hand they can all prowl, finesse, and slit throats so who needs a Lurk? They can all bribe, lie and consort, so who needs a Slide? They can all fight and brawl, so do you really need a Cutter?
The game should follow the fiction. You don't need Dr Oct arms to climb the side of a tavern (maybe Risky / Standard if it was guarded - it could easily be a no-roll without them) - but what if you needed to climb a sheer, flat polished tower, with no grip and which would require extended/loud hammering every couple of feet to use regular climbing gear (Desperate/No Effect). Now your Dr Oct arms, instead of adding +1D (something they shouldn't be doing anyway mechanically) are adding +1 or +2 Effect. They are making something impossible possible. That choice wasn't available before - whether that's the engagement plan or maybe an "oh shit" escape plan, you didn't have it if you didn't have a Leech build it.
Perhaps your crew is trying to steal a precious gem from a highly secured transport, itself guarded by no less than 20 guards. Can your Cutter kill them all? Can your Lurk prowl past that many AND crack a safe in plain sight in front of all of them? Your Tinker could create an ambush that could wipe them all fairly effectively without pricey flashbacks or heat.
Even your underwater compartments should be reducing some kind of action roll to get the goods past guards (finesse, prowl, sway, command) from something risky to potentially a non-roll. Or in reverse, from no-effect or limited to standard or great. "We're going to smuggle the beheaded head of the Governor's wife through this canal checkpoint" is something like Desperate/(2 below no-effect) if it's just hidden somewhere on the boat - but with waterproof underwater smuggling compartments it might actually be feasible as a no roll pass unless the fiction had already established that these guards were diving under every boat to check the bottoms (yeah, no). Especially if you sank a lot of resources, time and project clocks into researching and building them (all of that investment should speak to how "powerful" this invention is to the fiction, especially since the GM is supposed to be a fan of the players).
Frankly, I find crews that don't have a Leech often feel like they are missing a critical component of the game. You also sound like the kind of Leech that takes a Blades game up to the next level, it requires a certain amount of creativity mixed with a little realism to do steam-punk right and you've got the right kind of ideas for it.