TEXT:  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Solo Rules for playing Blades 
  in the Dark without a Game 
  Master 
   
  ALONE  
  IN THE  
  DARK 
   
  
   
   
  Written by: Peter Rudin-Burgess 
  Cover Art by: Public Domain/Edited by Peter Rudin-Burgess 
  Interior Art by: Anja, signs4fun, Catharina77, Enrique Meseguer 
  Game Icons: Creative Commons 3.0 BY license by Lorc (http://lorcblog.blogspot.com), 
  Delapouite (http://delapouite.com), John Colburn (http://ninmunanmu.com), Felbrigg 
  (http://blackdogofdoom.blogspot.co.uk), John Redman (http://www.uniquedicetowers.com), 
  Carl Olsen (https://twitter.com/unstoppableCarl), sbed (http://opengameart.org/content/95-
  game-icons), PriorBlue, Willdabeast (http://wjbstories.blogspot.com), Viscious Speed 
  (http://viscious-speed.deviantart.com), Lord Berandas (http://berandas.deviantart.com), 
  Irongamer (http://ecesisllc.wix.com/home), HeavenlyDog 
  (http://www.gnomosygoblins.blogspot.com), Lucas, Faithtoken (http://www.faithtoken.com) , 
  Skoll, Andy Meneely (http://www.se.rit.edu/~andy/), Cathelineau, Kier Heyl, Simon (aussiesim), 
  Sparker (http://citizenparker.com), Zeromancer, rihlsul, Quoting, Guard13007, 
  (https://guard13007.com), DarkZaitzev (http://darkzaitzev.deviantart.com), SpencerDub, 
  GeneralAce135, Zajkonur, https://game-icons.net, and Various artists, 
  https://commons.wikimedia.org 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Blades in the Dark™ is a trademark of One Seven Design. The Forged in the Dark Logo is © One 
  Seven Design, and is used with permission. 
  This work is based on Blades in the Dark (found at http://www.bladesinthedark.com/), product of 
  One Seven Design, developed and authored by John Harper, and licensed for our use under the 
  Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). 
  
   
   
  SOLO RULES INTRODUCTION 
  These solo rules contain the very simple 
  rules needed to play Blades in the Dark as a 
  single player rpg.  
   THE GAME 
  Blades in the Dark is a game about a group 
  of 
  daring 
  characters 
  building 
  an 
  enterprising crew. You will play a single 
  member of a crew as you strive amidst the 
  innumerable threats that surround you. 
  THE PLAYER 
  You are the only player from a crew of NPCs. 
  The choices you make will bring your 
  character to life as an interesting and daring 
  character who reaches boldly beyond their 
  current safety and means. 
  It is up to you alone to establish the tone and 
  style of the game by making judgment calls 
  about 
  the 
  mechanics, 
  dice, 
  and 
  consequences of actions. The game only 
  needs please you so you can take it in any 
  direction you like. 
  YOUR CHARACTER 
  Your character attempts to develop their 
  crew by performing scores and contending 
  with threats from their enemies and 
  complications thrown at them as the story 
  progresses. 
  THE CREW 
  In addition to creating characters, you’ll also 
  create the crew by choosing which type of 
  criminal enterprise you are interested in 
  exploring. Your crew members will be NPCs 
  or even alternative player characters if you 
  wish to continue the crew’s story and your 
  character died or was retired. 
  THE GAME MASTER 
  The game master is replaced by an GM 
  emulator, a set of simple rules, tables and 
  pictures that can answer the sorts of 
  question you would ask the GM. The 
  emulator will also throw up complications 
  and take your story in new and interesting 
  directions. 
  The emulator will present interesting 
  opportunities to the you as the player for 
  you to follow the chain of actions and 
  consequences wherever they lead. 
  PLAYING A SESSION 
  Solo role playing can be a strange experience 
  the first time. You start by just imagining 
  your character progressing through their 
  planned 
  Score, 
  you 
  imagine 
  the 
  conversations they have, the things they do, 
  and you decide on the skill rolls they need to 
  make and the positions and effects. Where 
  the solo rules come into play is when you 
  would normally ask the GM. You don’t have 
  anyone to ask so you use these rules. 
  Solo play often frees you from the 
  constraints of a regular game. You can jump 
  back and forth in time to play flashbacks. 
  You can skip from the most interesting 
  scenes to scene as your story progresses. 
  You can use the regular downtime rules but 
  also extend them to cover the beginnings 
  and ends of operations if you do not want to 
  play the. 
  Often a session of solo play will cover just a 
  single scene or a couple of scenes. If you are 
  new to solo play you may find that the game 
  moves slowly but as your experience grows 
  so your game will move faster. 
  During a session your PC will take actions, 
  suffer 
  consequences, 
  and 
  finish 
  the 
  operation (succeed or fail). Then the crew 
  has downtime, during which they recover, 
  pursue side-projects, and indulge their 
  vices. You get to choose where you put the 
  focus of your game. 
   
   
  
   
   
  HOW SOLO RULES WORK 
  These 
  solo 
  rules 
  use 
  two 
  different 
  mechanics. The first is based upon the 
  standard Fortune roll from the core Blades 
  in the Dark rules. The second uses a library 
  of game icons to act as inspiration cues. 
  THE ORACLE 
  The oracle is a standard term in solo play for 
  a way of answering questions in the yes/no 
  format. You try a car door and want to know 
  if it is unlocked, you would use the oracle. 
  You need to decide if the event is unlikely, 
  about 50/50 or likely to happen. This is used 
  to build your dice pool. 
  Probability 
  Dice Pool 
  Unlikely 
  1d6 
  50/50 
  2d6 
  Likely 
  3d6 
  The result of the oracle roll will give you a 
  range of results from “yes, and…” to 
  throwing complications at your character. 
  The question was in a yes/no format. You 
  should ask the question in such a way that 
  the Yes creates the most interesting events 
  in the game. 
  If you peer around the corner of a warehouse 
  and ask, “Are there any guards I sight?” 
  despite a positive result would be bad for the 
  character. You then roll the fortune roll. If 
  you are breaking into a high security 
  compound the likelihood of it being all clear 
  is low so you would roll 3d6 for your pool. If 
  it was an old barn on a rural farm the 
  probability is high that there would be no 
  one about so you would get a 1d6 pool. 
  Before we look at the possible results of the 
  roll you need to know how to use them. Solo 
  play will test your improvisation skills 
  beyond the improv we all do when role 
  playing. You can imagine your character 
  leaning around the corner of the warehouse 
  but when you get a yes or no answer to your 
  question you have to take several things into 
  account, the situation you are in, the story so 
  far, the sort of game you want and the actual 
  result you rolled and decide what that yes or 
  no means right here and now. It is often best 
  to go with your first reaction that meets the 
  criteria. 
  Your answer comes in two parts. The first is 
  the yes, no or at worst a complication. 
  With the yes or the no, you may have a 
  modifier of and…, but…, or because. 
  The and… modifier makes the result even 
  better than the character has hoped for. 
  Stealing an automobile? Not only is it 
  unlocked but the owner left the key in the 
  ignition. 
  A but… modifier is the opposite of the and… 
  The result is still a yes but not as good as you 
  had hoped. When stealing our automobile 
  now you hotwire it only for it to be out of 
  gas. You have a vehicle but no gas. 
  The because… is the first negative result. The 
  answer is a no but there is a reason why not 
  and one that the character can do something 
  about.  No result can block the story. A 
  because… is a way of providing a way to turn 
  the no into a yes. 
  Complications from oracle rolls can drive 
  your story forward. You want to steal a car 
  but when you sit in it you notice the tag of a 
  bigger and rival crew. 
  You can use complications to introduce 
  additional story arcs, bring back villains 
  from the dead or turn the tables on your own 
  character. Go with what come into your 
  mind first and rationalize it afterwards. 
  • 
  Critical: Yes and… 
  • 
  6: Yes 
  • 
  4-5: Yes, but… 
  • 
  3: No, because… 
  • 
  2: No 
  • 
  1: Complication 
  
   
   
  COMPLEX QUESTIONS 
  Not everything can be answered with a yes 
  or a no. If you want to eavesdrop on a 
  telephone conversation or you open a 
  computer file a simple yes or no is not going 
  to help move the story forward. 
  Complex questions need more complex 
  answers. There is no suitable mechanic in 
  Blades in the Dark to cope with the 
  hundreds of possible results. To counter 
  that I am going to introduce a new roll. 
  D666 
   
  The d666 is a 3d6 roll but you read the dice 
  as a three-digit number. It is helpful to have 
  dice of different colors so you can tell your 
  tens from your hundreds and your units. 
  The result of a d666 roll goes from 111 to 666 
  and has 216 possible results. 
  GAME ICONS 
  Game icons are icons or images that you get 
  to interpret. In all there are upward of 3,000 
  available game icons available online but 
  here we have provided just 216. Reading the 
  icons is extremely easy once you have had a 
  little practice. If you have ever used story 
  cubes, these work the same way. 
  Your character has tapped the cell phone of 
  the leader of a rival crew. The cell rings and 
  you listen into the conversation. You roll 
  your d666 twice and look up the two icons. 
  In this case we get this result: 
   
  In a gang land context, I am seeing this as a 
  plant and a gift or package. Planting a 
  package sounds suitably dodgy for a crew 
  and immediately creates a potential side 
  quest. Who is the victim or recipient of the 
  package, what does it contain? Is a package 
  a euphemism for a person, a gun or drugs? 
  This is where the context of the story so far, 
  the sort of adventures your want and the 
  current situation become so important. 
  If you are playing in a different genre the 
  same icon could have and entirely different 
  meaning. 
  There 
  is 
  an 
  icon 
  that 
  is 
  reminiscent of someone having their head 
  chopped off. In a modern context that could 
  mean they will be fired from their job, as in 
  ‘heads will roll’. In a historical context, “Off 
  with their heads!” was a normal execution 
  method. 
  GAME ICONS  
  Below are the 216 game icons used in these 
  rules. 
  Roll 3d6, it is helpful if they are different 
  colours but not necessary just use them as 
  hundreds, tens and units to find an icon. 
  111 
  112 
   
   
  113 
  114 
   
   
  115 
  116 
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  121 
  122 
   
   
  123 
  124 
   
   
  125 
  126 
   
   
  131 
  132 
   
   
  133 
  134 
   
   
  135 
  136 
   
   
   
   
  141 
  142 
   
   
  143 
  144 
   
   
  145 
  146 
   
   
  151 
  152 
   
   
  153 
  154 
   
   
  155 
  156 
   
   
  
   
   
   
  161 
  162 
   
   
  163 
  164 
   
   
  165 
  166 
   
   
  211 
  212 
   
   
  213 
  214 
   
   
  215 
  216 
   
   
   
   
  221 
   
  222 
   
   
  223 
  224 
   
   
  225 
  226 
   
   
  231 
  232 
   
   
  233 
  234 
   
   
  235 
  236 
   
   
   
  
   
   
  241 
  242 
   
   
  243 
  244 
   
   
  245 
  246 
   
   
  251 
  252 
   
   
  253 
  254 
   
   
  255 
  256 
   
   
   
   
   
  261 
  262 
   
   
  263 
  264 
   
   
  265 
  266 
   
   
  311 
  312 
   
   
  313 
  314 
   
   
  315 
  316 
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  321 
  322 
   
   
  323 
  324 
   
   
  325 
  326 
   
   
  331 
  332 
   
   
  333 
  334 
   
   
  335 
  336 
   
   
   
   
   
  341 
  342 
   
   
  343 
  344 
   
   
  345 
  346 
   
   
  351 
  352 
   
   
  353 
  354 
   
   
  355 
  356 
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  361 
  362 
   
   
  363 
  364 
   
   
  365 
  366 
   
   
  411 
  412 
   
   
  413 
  414 
   
   
  415 
  416 
   
   
   
   
   
  421 
  422 
   
   
  423 
  424 
   
   
  425 
  426 
   
   
  431 
  432 
   
   
  433 
  434 
   
   
  435 
  436 
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  441 
  442 
   
   
  443 
  444 
   
   
  445 
  446 
   
   
  451 
  452 
   
   
  453 
  454 
   
   
  455 
  456 
   
   
   
   
   
  461 
  462 
   
   
  463 
  464 
   
   
  465 
  466 
   
   
  511 
  512 
   
   
  513 
  514 
   
   
  515 
  516 
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  521 
  522 
   
   
  523 
  524 
   
   
  525 
  526 
   
   
  531 
  532 
   
   
  533 
  534 
   
   
  535 
  536 
   
   
   
   
   
  541 
  542 
   
   
  543 
  544 
   
   
  545 
  546 
   
   
  551 
  552 
   
   
  553 
  554 
   
   
  555 
  556 
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  561 
  562 
   
   
  563 
  564 
   
   
  565 
  566 
   
   
  611 
  612 
   
   
  613 
  614 
   
   
  615 
  616 
   
   
   
   
   
  621 
  622 
   
   
  623 
  624 
   
   
  625 
  626 
   
   
  631 
  632 
   
   
  633 
  634 
   
   
  635 
  636 
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  641 
  642 
   
   
  643 
  644 
   
   
  645 
  646 
   
   
  651 
  652 
   
   
  653 
  654 
   
   
  655 
  656 
   
   
   
   
   
  661 
  662 
   
   
  663 
  664 
   
   
  665 
  666 
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  NPC REACTIONS 
  There is a really simple process to handling 
  NPC interactions.  
  • 
  Decide if this is a significant NPC. 
  • 
  Decide if the NPC is likely to be hostile, 
  neutral or friendly. 
  If the NPC is not significant, just a bystander 
  or member of the public then jump directly 
  to deciding their basic attitude to your 
  character. 
  The basic attitudes are hostile, neutral or 
  friendly. You then use this to make a 
  standard fortune roll. 1d6 for hostile, 2d6 for 
  neutral and 3d6 for friendly. 
  • 
  Critical: Exceptional result. 
  • 
  6: Good result. 
  • 
  4/5: Mixed result. 
  • 
  1-3: Bad result. 
  These results can be treated much like 
  Faction status levels but for an individual 
  NPC. 
  Some example results are:  
  Exceptional results for hostile NPCs may be 
  a sudden desire to change sides or betray 
  their employers.  
  A good result for a friendly NPC may bring 
  an offer to help. A good result for a hostile 
  NPC may be a desire to stand off or hold a 
  ceasefire. 
  A mixed result may be a reluctance to help, 
  work with or interact possibly passive 
  aggressive but not working against the PC. 
  A bad result for a neutral NPC may be that 
  the NPC has a goal or objective that is 
  opposed to the characters. 
  You now know the general attitude. For 
  insignificant NPCs you can now use regular 
  skills to interact with them and the attitude 
  roll to decide the position and effect. 
  SIGNIFICANT NPCS 
  For significant NPCs, people who will be 
  encountered more than once and have a 
  name and a role to play in your story there is 
  another step. 
  Each NPC should have a desire and a 
  method. To get these we use the story cubes. 
  A pair of d666 rolls will give you two icons.  
  For example, our character contacts a new 
  fence who she wants to work with. To find 
  her desire and method we will 2d666 and get 
  151 + 215. Those icons are: 
   
  I am seeing a 1970s lava lamp and a comb. 
  Our fence is a collector of automata and 
  machines but goes over every detail of an 
  agreement with a fine-tooth comb. 
  Now you have the attitude, desire and 
  methods you can make your fortune rolls 
  and role play the interaction. None of this 
  replaces the Action rolls your character, it 
  just informs the position and effect. 
   
   
  
   
   
  SOLO PLAY JOURNAL 
  For ease of play it is a good idea to keep a 
  journal. It doesn’t need to be any more 
  detailed than you are comfortable with. The 
  objective is to allow you to refresh your 
  memory of where you are when you pick up 
  the game later. 
  Some people ask a few questions, make a few 
  rolls and then write up the entire scene long 
  hand as if it were a chapter in a book. Others 
  record questions and results and just the 
  barest details in little more than a bulleted 
  list. I am of the second sort. There is no right 
  or wrong way. 
  I find a few lists also come in handy. The first 
  is the Score List. Others are the NPC list and 
  the Loose Ends list. 
  SCORE LIST 
  The point of the score list is to log the key 
  actions in your planned core.  
  The first entry for a new score is all the rolls 
  from the core rules relating to that score 
  such as the Engagement roll and Major 
  Advantages / Disadvantages. You should 
  also include a brief description of the 
  intended outcome. 
  You can then add in the scenes that make up 
  the score as the obstacles are encountered. 
  You can skip back and forth in time. Blades 
  has rules for flashbacks you can role play 
  these out in as much detail as you want. Just 
  record the flashback as a separate scene in 
  the Score List. Whenever a movie director 
  would call “Cut!” would be an end of scene. If 
  the action changes location that is typically 
  a change of scene. 
  With each change of scene, it is not 
  uncommon to ask the oracle questions to 
  clarify the specific detail. This can lead to 
  unexpected complications and in turn can 
  take your story in unexpected directions 
  and could even completely derail your 
  planned score. 
  NPC LIST 
  The NPC list contains the basic details you 
  need to remind you of a specific NPC. It is 
  not their entire playbook. I suggest 
  recording their name, where you met them 
  last and their desire and method. As you 
  create 
  NPCs, 
  which 
  will 
  happen 
  spontaneously as you play, you add them to 
  the list. If they end up dead, you cross them 
  off. It means that if you are hanging around 
  Six Towers then your PC has a chance of 
  meeting familiar faces. If you suddenly need 
  an NPC, reusing an existing one will move 
  your game forward faster and make the 
  world seem more coherent. 
  LOOSE ENDS 
  A solo adventure may create unexplained 
  events. Some of these could suggest future 
  scores. Imagine you want to get to City Hall. 
  You are already wanted for previous scores 
  and you want to check there are no 
  constables about. You ask the oracle and it 
  comes back with a Complication. The first 
  thing that pops into your mind is an 
  explosion and all the ensuing chaos. This has 
  nothing to do with your current adventures 
  but must have bubbled up out of your 
  subconscious, maybe you read something 
  about a gas explosion last week. 
  Going with the explosion idea you decide 
  that the front facade of the city hall explodes 
  from a bomb left in the atrium. People run 
  about screaming and in seconds you can 
  hear the whistles of approaching constables. 
  You have a new situation to role play, but 
  you also have some unanswered questions. 
  Who did bomb city hall and why? 
  You would add these to your Loose Ends list. 
  Just as it is useful to reuse NPCs it can be 
  just as beneficial to try and reuse Loose Ends 
  if you find your list is getting longer. Do 
  some of them start to look connected? Is 
  there a Modus Operandi appearing? Could 
  any of them be the work of a rival crew? 
  
   
   
  A score may look like this1: You are working 
  for a cultist, who wants you to arrange an 
  accident to a constable at a Six Towers 
  location. The trouble: Toxic Substances. 
  You can quickly fill in the score list and start 
  your engagement rolls. You already have 
  two NPCs, the cultist and the constable.  
  At the start of your adventure you should 
  not have any loose ends, but you can start to 
  accumulate them through complications.
   
   
   
                                                             
  1 Courtesy of 
  http://software.brentnewhall.com/blades/ 
  
   
   
  Score List 
  Location 
  Objective 
  Detail 
  Advantage/Disadvantage 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  NPC List 
  Name 
  Location 
  Desire 
  Method 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  Loose Ends List 
  Who? 
  What? 
  Where? 
  Connections? 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
  SOLO PLAY HINTS AND TIPS 
  Solo Playing Tips 
  Playing as a single scoundrel, without 
  backup is hard. Where in your normal games 
  there are other characters to cover your 
  back or get you out of trouble, here you are 
  on your own. 
  Solo adventures are the most heroic of all. 
  You are the hero. You will succeed or fail on 
  your own merits. 
  Below are some tips to help your hero 
  survive. 
  • 
  You do not need to start as an 
  inexperienced crew. Blades in the Dark 
  assumes you will have an entire crew to 
  draw on when there is only you. Use the 
  advancement rules to level the playing 
  field. 
  • 
  Give yourself 2 to 4 added Action Dots 
  or a Special Ability. 
  • 
  It is not necessary to start at the 
  beginning of an adventure. Pick a crisis 
  point and jump straight in. Normally 
  this would be the first obstacle unless 
  you had a luck engagement roll. Do not 
  let the dice dictate your adventure. If the 
  first obstacle is not that exciting move 
  on to where you want the story to start. 
  • 
  Did you die? Jump backward a scene and 
  play the same character in a flashback 
  that leads up to his or her heroic(?) 
  death. 
  • 
  If you don’t want to play through it just 
  jump forward to the parts you want to 
  play. 
  • 
  Playing a prewritten adventure? Read it 
  all start to finish and get a good 
  understanding of both the what your 
  character will encounter but also the 
  narrative style of the adventure. When 
  you ask questions, you can use that 
  knowledge to inform your answers. 
  • 
  The first time you solo play it will 
  probably be slow and stilted as you don’t 
  know the rules or what to expect. Don’t 
  worry, this is normal and the more you 
  play the faster and more fluid it all 
  becomes. 
  • 
  Too many questions can slow the game 
  down and break up the flow. As soon as 
  you have an idea of what comes next just 
  go with it. 
  • 
  It is useful to have a stock of pre-
  generated NPCs. When you are learning 
  a new game, it is useful to make a few 
  characters to try and get an idea for how 
  the rules work. Keep those characters 
  and use them when you need an NPC. 
  That saves breaking up your game to 
  create an NPC at a crucial moment. 
  • 
  Narrative Description is your friend. 
  Have you ever had a character in a 
  barroom brawl and asked the GM if 
  there a bottle or chair at the table you 
  can throw? Or maybe you asked is the 
  chandelier secured by a rope, when you 
  wanted to swing across the hall. In solo 
  play the answer to all these questions is 
  yes. It is your story, your adventure, you 
  are star and director. The props will 
  always be in the right place. 
  • 
  Fail Forward. Sometimes you would 
  normally just make a Fortune roll where 
  there is no specific skill to roll but there 
  is still a chance of success or failure. It is 
  often more interesting to add a 
  complication than simply have a No/Fail 
  result. If failing does not move the story 
  forward turn it into a mixed result but 
  add a complication. 
    
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Blades in the Dark (PbtA) [multi]/Solo Rules/Alone in the Dark - Solo Rules for Blades in the Dark.pdf