Forged In The Dark games (Blades In The Dark system)

[Nefaro]

Blades In The Dark is an interesting approach to RPGs with it's Apocalypse World inspired system and the party focus on running a criminal enterprise, and includes many tables and such for assisting the GM in running such a sandbox game.

I see that there are new ones coming out based on the same system, but with a different setting than Blade's dark fantasy industrial revolution (like that of the video game Dishonored).

Next up is Scum & Villainy which is a sci-fi/fantasy based one, also of the criminal enterprise variety.  Evil Hat started taking pre-orders, but the physical book won't be out for a few more months. 

I'm curious as to what's in the setting and what may be a bit different in this new one.  Instead of the players running/building their criminal territory, they are instead upgrading their starship (of course).  I have no idea what the setting portrays otherwise, however.  One to investigate?

https://www.evilhat.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=79&products_id=336

[Dammit Carl!]

On it!

(Note: This is one I've had an eye on anyway, so peer pressure wasn't to fault for this purchase)

[Dammit Carl!]

So far (and I hope this goes towards describing the setting without too much bleed-over into rules and whatnot):

Character types/templates are pretty much the same characters you see in Firefly: the Mechanic, the Doc, etc.  Also included is a character who gives a hearty nod to a certain high-tech sword swinging person who channels mystical energies  ;).

The ship picked out of the choices so far kinda-sorta implies the characters' career choice and acts like a character themselves.  However, like anything, this is relevant with regards to the story at hand so don't get hung up on too much here.

Now, the Hegemony is in charge of everything, but they are waaaayyy over there --------->.  So to better run things, they've broken their holdings down into Sectors which are then controlled by Houses who in addition to the typical House infighting, have also to deal with cults, criminal organizations, guilds and such.  In other words, things are delightfully fractured under the pretense of a strong, controlling government and that is where the PCs come in with their nefarious ways.  Oh, and way before the Hegemony became the HMFICs, there was another group who ran things and had their own particular technologies; i.e. The Ancients from Traveller.

In terms of games I've seen before, it's kind of like Fading Suns gets a wee bit of Star Wars treatment.

In a similar vein to Fading Suns and a few other sci-fi shows/movies/games, starflight is mostly an in-system thing.  Interstellar flight is via the use of gates (mostly - of course this is mutable per story needs as well).  Don't see too many details regarding additional tech past this quick skim.

Speaking of the pdf itself, the layout is clean and very easy on the eyes.  Included artwork is adequate and portrays the relevant portions of the chapters it is in.  I cannot comment on the additional items included with pdf purchase as I haven't downloaded them as of yet.

[Nefaro]

Thanks Carl!

I like the Fading Suns type of setup.  The previous releases of the Fading Suns RPG were a layout & organizational mess, and I'm looking forward to the new edition Ulisses is currently in the process of creating, but having a similar one using the Blades in the Dark sandbox system sounds pretty groovy. 

Was also under the impression that somebody was working on a cyberpunk themed version, but it may not have been official.

[Dammit Carl!]

I feels ya.  Loved FS too.

Could see enterprising folks using this as a decent stand-in for a newer, "honest," set of FS rules.

Will be interesting to see the final form of Scum and Villainy.