Blackout: Shadows Under Bluetime - Blades '68
Bluetime hides a city of secrets. Your shadow crew must plan the perfect heist before Doskvol's underworld swallows you whole.
$20.00
/ Session
Details
1 player following this game
Weekly / Wednesday - 12:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 3 hours
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
It's 968 AC. The sun is shattered, but Doskvol doesn't need it anymore; the B.L.U.E. Array bathes the city in artificial daylight, and the Swinging Sixties are in full, neon-colored swing. Mod fashion, psychedelic radio, and protest anthems fill the streets by day. But when bluetime fades, the old city creeps back in: fog-choked alleys, whispered conspiracies, and things that shouldn't exist clawing at the edges of reality. You are Shadows: spies, saboteurs, and information brokers who thrive in that in-between. Governments, corporations, and criminal syndicates all need people like you: deniable, disposable, and very, very good at getting in and out unseen. This is Blackout, a campaign for Blades in the Dark using the Blades '68 supplement. Expect Cold War-flavoured espionage plots layered over Blades' signature heist structure: infiltrating Imperial ministries, running black-bag jobs for foreign consulates, playing Akoros, Skovlan, Iruvia, the Dagger Isles, and Severos against each other, and occasionally colliding with the genuinely paranormal (echoes, anomalies, and worse) that the Bubble was built to keep out. Score by score, your crew's reputation and its enemies will grow, and the geopolitics of the Shattered Isles will start bending around your choices. I run tight, cinematic sessions built around the game's flashback and clock mechanics: less rules lawyering, more "how does your crew pull this off," with consequences that feel earned rather than punishing. If you love heist movies, spy thrillers, and morally gray characters who are excellent at their jobs but terrible people to cross, this table is for you. New to Blades? No problem, I'll walk you through character and crew creation in Session 0, and the system is genuinely one of the friendliest entry points into narrative-forward TTRPGs. Bring an appetite for scheming, a willingness to make your Shadow's life complicated, and a taste for noir with a splash of go-go boots and lava lamps. Doskvol is waiting. So is your next job.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Meet the Game Master
4.2
(23)
2 years on StartPlaying
97 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, World Builder
Average response time: Under 1 hour
Response rate: 100%
About me
Hi, I'm Davi. I'm currently a university student from the UK and an unapologetic fantasy nerd. I started running D&D when I was eleven after falling in love with fantasy worlds where ordinary people could become legends. What began as running games for friends somehow turned into a huge part of my life. Seven years later, I still spend most days thinking about stories, worldbuilding, and the next adventure. Outside of tabletop games, you'll usually find me buried in fantasy novels, sketching out new ideas for settings, or disappearing down some obscure bit of lore that absolutely didn't need three hours of research. I'm also a player whenever I get the chance. I love being on both sides of the screen, and some of my favourite memories come from sitting at someone else's table and getting completely swept up in their world. More than anything, I enjoy meeting people through this hobby. Some of my closest friendships started because a group of strangers decided to roll some dice together. When I'm not studying or running games, I'm usually building something new, whether that's a homebrew system, a setting, a one-shot, or a completely unnecessary spreadsheet that seemed like a good idea at the time.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Character creation happens together in Session 0, a dedicated session run before the campaign begins. We'll build the crew (a Shadows crew, using the Blades '68 supplement) as a group first: pick your crew's speciality, reputation, and turf, then build individual characters using the standard Blades in the Dark playbooks/rules adapted for the '68 setting. No prior Blades experience needed; I'll explain the dice pools, clocks, and flashback mechanic as we go. Starting characters begin at Tier 0, fresh Shadows looking to make a name for themselves in Doskvol's underworld. Playbooks available: Hound — A relentless bloodhound in a trench coat who smells a lie at fifty paces and never lets a lead go cold. Hull — A human soul locked inside a chassis of steel and stolen memory, one job closer to remembering who they used to be. Intellectual — A brilliant, restless mind that treats every locked door and impossible problem as a puzzle begging to be solved. Operative — A ghost in a tailored suit, trained to vanish into shadow, silence, and someone else's identity without a trace. Paranormalist — Someone who's stared into the resonance field and decided to stare right back, bending the impossible to their will. Radical — A true believer with a bomb in one hand and a manifesto in the other, ready to burn the old world down for something better. Swinger — Effortlessly charming and dangerously magnetic, able to talk their way past every lock the world puts in front of them. Veteran — A soldier who survived wars the history books will sanitise, carrying skills and scars in equal measure.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Read (or skim) the Blades '68 primer material I'll share ahead of Session 0 - a short setting overview, not required reading in full. Join our Discord server (link provided on booking) for scheduling, session recaps, and between-session chatter. We'll be playing on Roll20, so create a free account ahead of time if you don't have one. No dice needed on your end - the VTT handles all rolls.
What Davi brings to the table
I run immersive sessions with light ambient music/soundscapes for mood, and I lean into character voices when it fits. Combat and action scenes move fast and cinematic; Blades in the Dark isn't built for tactical grid combat, and I play to that strength, focusing on consequences and fictional positioning over crunch. I favour Rule of Cool tempered by "yes, and here's the cost"; your plans can and should go wonderfully wrong sometimes; that's where the best stories come from. Between sessions, I'll run light downtime/freeplay scenes if the crew wants extra scheming time.
Homebrew rules
Standard Blades in the Dark engine with the Blades '68 setting supplement layered on top (new factions, gear, and paranormal framing appropriate to the era). No additional homebrew beyond what's in the '68 book. I'll flag any table-specific rulings in Session 0 if they come up.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Headphones
Platforms used
Safety
How Davi creates a safe table
Session 0 includes a full walkthrough of the campaign's likely content, and I'll share a Lines & Veils document ahead of time for anyone to fill out privately. I check in briefly after any heavier scene and always leave room for an open-door conversation if something didn't land right. You can message me privately any time; no need to wait for session end. Safety tools are there to be used, not just listed; I'll actively watch for signals during play, not just wait for someone to speak up.
Content warnings
Safety tools used