Blades in the Dark Resources
This is a collection of various resources I have developed or curated for my Blades in the Dark campaigns.
Since this is my site, let’s start with my Blades in the Dark Pinterest boards. A huge collection of images from the web to can inspire ideas for characters, ghosts and demons, steampunk tech, places in Doskvol, and so forth.
There’s also Nychelle Schneider’s huge BitD Pinterest board which is chock-full of weird-and-wonderful visual inspirations for Blades. And John Marron’s very Victorian-focused “photographs only” page of character ideas.
Or perhaps you don’t even know what Blades is? I would be remiss if I did not point everyone to the official Blades in the Dark website. Which also has a collection of links to a whole pack of fan creations, as well as the Blades SRD and information on the game, merch, info on how to run Blades on Roll20, and etc.
And if you want to get into the BitD community there are the — friendly and active — Blades in the Dark Discord server, r/blades Reddit community, and BitD community forums.
I also suggest a trip to itch.io which has a ton of supplemental Blades material created by fans. (There’s far too much for me to link to directly, and some of it takes a bit of digging to locate.)
What most of you are probably here for is the final version release Scoundrel Action Cards. Meant for printing on cardstock, this is a seven page PDF of notecard-sized game aids listing various rules in an easy-to-reference format for both players and GM, including a page of clocks you can print out and use as-is, or laminate for use with whiteboard markers.
You can also get these over on my itch.io — plus a zip file of the individual cards as JPEGs for use with VTTs, a “notepaper” card, and a blank card, which are not included in the download available here.
From Spacecat’s original design, I’ve also crafted a consequences chart reference to help quickly determine appropriate position-based consequences, plus a useful reminder list of the GM Actions from the Best Practices section.
Finally, a small selection of visual aides or immersive handouts I have created specifically for games I have been a part of, either as player or GM. Please feel free to use these in your own campaign for background fluff and color, or as props to provide hooks for the players.
Our cult runs a legit theater in Brightstone. Though the plays are occasionally subversive. And we also use the theater space to hold rituals. This is a pasteup advertisement I created for one of the theater’s dramatic productions. Art used is public domain, text and design of text is mine based on the style of Victorian pasteups.
The Panoramic Theater Presents ‘A Blanket for My Eels’
Something strange is happening in the Charterhall district…but there’s always something strange happening in Doskvol. You just have to read between the lines. This is a one-page “student newspaper” I created for Charterhall University–I was going for that cheap, smeary ink on cheap paper look. Art is cropped and altered from imagery found on the web; layout and text are mine.
The Charterhall Student Daily CCCXLVII322
Burglaries and banditry in Brightstone! Those Kessarins sound familiar, don’t they? At least to underworld ears. Hrm. But…a play about Skovland’s brutal defeat to raise money for Skovlan refugees? OUCH. Just what is Tenth-Hour thinking! This is a one-page “early edition newspaper” I created for the Brightstone district. Art is altered from public domain Victorian art found on the web; layout and text are mine.
Brightstone Free Press Morning Edition XIII315