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![The Flames of Ambition [Blades in the Dark] [Industrial Fantasy Heists] 🏳️🌈 Friendly](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fspg-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2F33ff1dfc-1cee-476f-97f0-3158dfd7d32f&w=3840&q=75)
The Flames of Ambition [Blades in the Dark] [Industrial Fantasy Heists] 🏳️🌈 Friendly
$20.00
/ Session
Details
Custom / Sunday - 10:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 2.5–3 hours
5 / 5 Seats Filled
Top Game Master
One of StartPlaying's top-rated GMs, a player favorite and highly recommended.
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Schedule
Meet your party members
5/5
About the adventure
🗡️ Live out the fantasy of daring scoundrel 🌆 Fight tooth and nail to gain rep and take territory 👻 Survive a haunted city where ghosts lurk around every corner Immerse yourself in the back-alley fighting, outrageous scheme-plotting, high-risk & high-reward life of a scoundrel in Blades in the Dark! The campaign tells the story of your crew, even as individual characters come and go. Will you be... ...Honorable gentle-thieves sticking it to the rich? ...Ambitious backstabbers willing to sell out their dearest friend? ...Daring smugglers that raid the Deathlands for long-lost treasure? ...or something even stranger? This campaign will be tailored your interests as players and your character's ambitions. *You* pick what jobs your crew wants to pull, whose territory you want to take, which allies to support, and who you're willing to betray to make it to the top. I'm an expert at improvisational GMing, so I'll create believable NPCs on the fly, roll with your wild plans, and make *your* characters the heroes of the story...even if you're the bad guys. :) NOTE: The group is playing a crew of Shadows (thieves, spies, and saboteurs) with a Cutter, a Lurk, a Slide, and a Whisper (brawler, sneaky type, face/social, magic). There is one spot left at the table and the group has only done one complete cycle of mission/downtime. We can definitely still work someone into the crew. About the setting: Duskwall is an industrial fantasy city in a world where the gates of death have been shattered. It's surrounded by massive lightning towers that keep out countless ghosts denied their eternal reward. Dazzling technology runs on demon blood harvested by massive hunting ships that ply the ink-black waters of the Void Sea.
Game style
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(19)
3 years on StartPlaying
109 games hosted
Highly rated for: Inclusive, Storytelling, Creativity
About me
Hi! I'm Mike, a professional science fiction and fantasy author (writing as Michael R. Underwood) as well as a ttrpg designer and actual play creator. It takes a lot of hats to make it as a creative these days. :) My author website: https://michaelrunderwood.com/ My most recent work is as one of the designers of Daggerheart (credit: Additional Designer), Critical Role's fantasy RPG from Darrington Press. I was a game design consultant and additional writer on Candela Obscura and my sci-fi comedy game The Only Logical Solution is Hijinx was published in 2022. I'm also developing Let's Go Steal an Ending: a Forged in the Dark RPG based on my novella series Genrenauts. As an actual play producer, I was a nominee for the Best Game Master (Actual Play Video) award at the 2023 New Jersey Web Fest for my work on VALLOWARD (which was an official selection at five web festivals). I've been playing ttrpgs nearly my whole life. RPGs were a major part of how I learned to tell stories, make friends, and imagine possibilities in what the world can be. I worked in a game store all through college, I wrote my master's thesis on ttrpgs, and I co-hosted an actual play show (Speculatesf.com) for six years. As a professional author, I love games that prioritize storytelling, cool worldbuilding, and collaboration. I grew up with D&D and I'm especially fond of Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark games like Blades in the Dark, Masks, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Scum & Villainy, etc. Some of my other favorites include Heart, Exalted, 7th Sea, and Boy Problems. All of my game listing images and in-game art assets are human-made. Find my writings about and Daggerheart-compatible designs at patreon.com/michaelrunderwood
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
We will collaborate during session zero to create your group's criminal crew, make characters together, develop the assets and connections of the crew, and to calibrate our safety tools and content preferences. Blades works the best if characters and the crew are made together. If you have ideas for your character ahead of time, that's fine, but be prepared to adjust if needed so that we end up with a cohesive group.
The campaign will run weekly on Mondays at 7pm EDT - this game has more flexibility to allow for players to miss a game here and there without as much trouble, but we will need to maintain the player minimum for any given session. The game will not run on US federal holidays unless otherwise discussed.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You will need a microphone that you can connect to your computer and use on a Zoom call. You'll need a free Roll20 account (https://app.roll20.net/create-account) and an internet connection strong enough to be on Zoom and use Roll20 at the same time (again, just a free Zoom account at https://zoom.us/signup#/signup). A webcam is encouraged but not required.
What Mike brings to the table
I will bring the complete Blades in the Dark rules, tons of city maps, play sheets, years of experience with the game, and the complete Roll20 Blades in the Dark package. I'll also bring intricate faction relationships, compelling NPCs, and exciting mission ideas.
Platforms used
Safety
How Mike creates a safe table
The content warnings selected represent options that *may* emerge (since this is a sandbox campaign). Content preferences and how we'll use safety tools will be thoroughly discussed in session zero. Players can expect a cinematic game with dynamic action, big stakes, and desperate ambition.
Content warnings
Safety tools used