Character, Crew, and World Creation

If we are Shadows, I'd say that we take a "professional" approach, i.e. we hire our services to anyone who is willing to pay the price. That would leave us as rather neutral about Factions, at least at the very start, although things will surely evolve, and we'll gain both friends and foes as we start meddling with others' stuff ("retrieve that item from X manor", "get me information about my rival", etc...)

For this type of Crew, I think I would play either a Lurk or a Slide. Let me think about it and I will post a first concept for my character.

I was going either for a Leech or a Hound at first, but I think I can discard the second one if we go for Shadows. Whisper could be an interesting one too in this crew type, using spirits to spy/gather intel maybe ? So I'd like to go either with this, or a Leech using tools and inventions to gain an edge in their missions.

Cool. So, as we have a Spider and a Leech/Whisper, I'll let you both the role of the smart guys and I'll be playing as a Lurk. :-)

Everyone is smart, just in different ways! There are the school-smart, the street-smart, the social-smart, the emotional-smart, the artistic-smart... to each their own ^^.

My character preferences haven't changed, so I'm still interested in playing a Spider. As for crew reputation, I'm particularly partial to Savvy, but I think Professional is good as a starting point. As for the other crew stuff, I'm still thinking about what would be fun to play.

How does one start with a reputation for Professional? It is fine, but think about the fiction.
We can also think about how the Crew came to be. If they are known to be Professional, is that reputation based on the founding members as individuals, or some previous association with the name (we also need to come up with a name for the Crew, so think on that as we develop the rest), or something else.
Is the Crew new, or did it exist --in some form or the other-- before now? Are your Characters 'founding members', or was there a previous generation who might- or might not, still be around, in the background, maybe pulling strings? Is the Crew independent, or do you have a backer or patron to whom you owe allegiance (non-mechanical)?

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As for Crew Upgrades and Special Abilities, we can talk about those in general terms as well as specific. You can say what sorts of things you want to see the Crew doing, and we can work out which options best suite that, or you can say which options sound interesting and we can talk about what sorts of Jobs they would lead to.

Unless you take Cohorts (NPCs that 'work for you') there are only really two Crew specific Upgrades to pick from (Steady requires 3 Upgrades and you only have 1, so it can not be taken at the start).
Thief Rigging is all about what you carry with you on Jobs, taking it might suggest also upgrading the Quality of your Gear or Tools (now or later, but these Quality Upgrades can be argued to have a stronger effect the lower your Crew's Tier is, adding +1D to roll is less significant when you have 4D already than when it takes you from 0D (roll two and take the lowest) up to 1D (50/50 chance of success) but don't let plans for the future cripple you in the now).
Underground Maps and Passkeys is about your ability to get places, and speaks more about the nature of your Lair and your people than their stuff.
But you don't need to let one choice affect the other, think about the whole, but pick whichever individual Upgrades seem interesting to use now.
You probably don't want to bother with Vaults until you start having too much spare money.

Your Lair is Hidden, and therefore 'safe', but you don't live in your Lair, so you are still vulnerable in your homes. Taking the Quarters Upgrade gives you somewhere to sleep/live, in your safe Lair (or sleep more comfortably, you can always sleep on the noisy floor). This a safe option, but does remove a whole element of gameplay from the table. Think about whether you want your Characters to have to deal with these problems for a while and then find Quarters as a solution, or if you want to have this safety be one of the things that make Crew membership attractive in the first place. All options can lead to interesting stories. :)

We have not said anything yet that suggest any specific Special Ability at the start, they all work and are useful for the types of Jobs that have been alluded to.
Whatever you pick might affect the sort of Jobs you are suited to, and lend a focus to the early game. Keep this in mind while choosing, but don't dwell on it, all Crews are flexible.

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If you have questions about what a choice means or how it works in the game, or what it applies to, ask. (The distinction between Items, Gear, Tools, Supplies, and such is not as clear as it could be, for instance (look for the exact word on the Load section of your sheet).)

OK, so before we get into the mechanical details, abilities, etc... for our Crew. I'd say, for example, that our Crew was "founded" by saevikas' character. After his previous life as investigator, he got tired or whatever, and decided to use his knowledge of the criminal world to cross to the other side. He somehow found us, a specialist in stealth (gnomius) and a technical/magic expert (Rattila) and convinced us to join him in this new entrepreneurship to get rich and famous. What do you say?

That sounds nice and simple to me, perfect for a first time !

saevikas: Do you want to take on that role? For whatever it ends up meaning.

If so, is/was your character trying to set up a 'Detective Agency' when they started this and that degenerated into criminality, or was the life of crime the plan all along?

Sounds okay to me. I would think that something drastic happened that had Kristov drop everything and turn to crime. I think that motivation would depend on what kind of jobs our crew takes.

Do you want to hash out the types of jobs now so you can get a handle on that motivation, or do you want to leave Kristov's reasons as a mystery (to yourself as well as us) and reveal it as the relevant jobs happen in play?
We can, of course, do a combination of these above. Whatever you want to nail down now can be defined (but might turn out to be untrue/incomplete) and the rest can come in play.

Leaving the motivation a mystery at first sounds good to me. I think holding some of the cards close to the chest adds quite a bit of intrigue.

Cool. As you discover the truths about these motivations you can reveal them to us. Maybe to the other characters, or maybe only to the players. Let us know if you want us to help with a setup for a 'big reveal' or something.

The other PCs can engage with the story element as much as we like. Speculation and character secrets can be fun.

That sounds cool, yeah. Now that we already have a base concept for the Crew, I'll start fleshing my character out. By the way, vagueGM, should we fill in a character sheet and submit the character to the game?

Have we had any more thoughts on the rest of the Crew (or Character) stuff?

It might be helpful to think about the part of the map you are interested in having your base in, as well as where you want to conduct operations. This may suggest which Factions start with a particular interest in your Crew (as friends, rivals, clients, or whatever). We can work out how each of your choices affect the other Factions as we pick, or come back and do all the Faction stuff at the end.

Maybe your lair is hidden away in the wealthy district where you are trying to 'foster a better class of clientele'? Maybe you are stuck in a poor area and have to claw your way out towards the industrial district where you run your Jobs?

Who else operates nearby? Do you have to pay protection money to some bigger organisation?

How is you lair 'hidden'? What keeps it from prying eyes?

We don't have to start with the Lair. If you have other ideas we can tackle them first.

Your Lair and your Hunting Grounds don't need to be in the same location. You can expand your Hunting Grounds to other --possibly separate-- regions --and types of jobs-- as well. You can also move your Lair if need be.

I don't want to presume, but it sounded a bit like your preferred type of Job was 'Espionage'? We are supposed to pick from the list below, but we are fairly free to define what the word means as we play, and can go off-book if we all have a better idea for operation type.

Hunting Grounds
Choose a favored operation type:
Burglary: Theft by breaking and entering.
Espionage: Obtain secret information by covert or clandestine means.
Robbery: Theft by force or threats.
Sabotage: Hurt an opponent by destroying something.

We also need a Special Ability, two Upgrades, and Favorite Contact. If you have ideas about any of these, let's talk about them.

I have created a Shadows Crew Sheet in the wiki. Everybody should be able to edit it (let me know if you can't and I can look at the permissions).
Does someone want to take charge of managing the Crew sheet? That way we can avoid double updates.
The 'wiki' does not track history nor who updated what, but it should be simple enough to recreate this sheet if something goes wrong, everything changed here should be based on discussions elsewhere.

By all means.
If you want, you can copy the relevant sheet template from the Resources page. Easiest it to find the playbook you want, hit the Quote link beneath it, then copy that to your character sheet (sans the [ quote][ /quote] tags, of course:).
I have enabled dice color highlighting and the character sheet integration with the dice roller, this is not on the Templates since I made them before it was available. Blades is a bit messy, with so many things being Lowest of Two Dice at the start and the roller not supporting that (we will just have to do that manually, same way we have to ignore the = total part).
If you want to try use it, you can copy the below table to your sheet. Either replace the Attributes and Actions section (I spent so much time on those unicode tables): or add it in a 'spoiler' like below. (again, easiest Quote this message and copy from there, the code blocks add all sorts of weird blank lines.Suggestions for improvements welcome. I am not sure about the string of increasing Fortune lines, we can just have one and edit the dice before hitting Post. I also don't like the repeated 'lowest of' text for the 0d5 rolls, but for now it is a reminder.

And, of course, --though I don't know how things normally work here-- you don't need to complete the character before submitting. I will not be 'reviewing' them or anything, just accepting the first sheet you propose. Details can be worked out once we have a place to put them :)

OK, let's start with the noob questions. :-)

I'm not sure whether I quite get the difference between the Consort and Sway actions. Descriptions from the book say:
For me, they are very very similar and somehow overlapping. Both seem to imply using your charm to lie or get the information you need. Am I missing important details here?

To give you more context, my character will be Iruvian, and as a background, she will be the daughter of a spice merchant, so I'm not sure whether Consort or Sway are more adequate to reflect her ability to trade, haggle, lie, etc...

Yes, indeed. There is overlap in a lot of them. This is by design (which does not mean it is not a bit of a pain, John admits her was fixated on the 4x4 symmetry and there probably should be fewer Actions).

First: Take a look at page 170 of the book --which goes into a bit more detail. See if that helps clear things up, then ask again. (I don't want to duplicate what it says there, you have to read it anyway, so it is not like at the table where I would try explain:).

Remember these are deliberately called "Actions" and not "Skills". These are the things you are doing, they say very little about the way you are doing them.

Remember that you guys get to say what Action you are rolling, I don't get to decide what you can and cannot do.
But you also do also need to first show your Character doing the Action in the fiction, so there is very little realm for abuse.
Unfortunately, this is a bit of a lie, since the GM gets to say how much effect the Action can have, so they really do get to say 'you can't', just in a roundabout way. I run all my games openly, if the group thinks (actually thinks) an Action is the right one, and that it should have better effect, then that is the truth.


That said: The most common difference between Sway and Consort is how people will feel about it afterwards. Consort was you having fun with them and they did a thing. Sway is you persuading them to do a thing. After a Sway they may resent you if they have problems stemming from it, after a Consort they may wish they had not been so drunk, so something, and commiserate with you about the trouble.
Command is the harsher cousin of these two. It is, pretty much, 'bossing people around'. Your friends might not like it and might stop being your friends after a while if you keep Commanding them to do things.

As the text says: Consort only works with Friends and Contacts, (though you can use to make friends) and takes some time socialising. A Quick lie can work on a shopkeeper, but that is probably Sway.


For your merchant's daughter: 'trade, haggle, lie' could be Sway if they are one-and-done deals, but could also be Consort if you wine and dine them, for instance, to get a favorable relationship and deal.