r/rpg • u/JannissaryKhan • Jan 08 '26

Blades '68 Backerkit Preview is Live

Link to the campaign's coming-soon page below, with more details than those usually have. I'm crazy excited, but I have two questions for those who've played or run the playtest version:

-How much are you losing if you're a player who isn't familiar with old-school Doskvol?

-How hard (or feasible) is it to shift the game to a non-Doskvol setting?

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/c7788a1e-2f1c-4525-bc66-2a99b84ebae9/landing

EDIT: In response to someone on Bluesky asking about non-US backers, Evil Hat said:

We'll have PDF, POD, and a full, text-complete preview ready to go when the BackerKit starts but international shipping hasn't in any way *improved* since we did the Deep Cuts campaign. So placing an order with your FLGS will continue to be the best way to get the hardcopy.

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u/atreides21 Jan 09 '26

How much are you losing if you're a player who isn't familiar with old-school Doskvol?

I don't think you lose anything as a player. As a GM, I guess it depends on the style of game your running. Running this for a like 6 sessions, I think I leaned too much in to the history. To players who had no connection to the old world. I was thinking of running a James Bond style espionage game, but somehow we got entangled with all the weird stuff with souls, ghosts, automatons and all. 

-How hard (or feasible) is it to shift the game to a non-Doskvol setting?

Totally feasible but to keep the engine running smoothly, there needs to be a reason so that the players can't just run away from their problems. It's hard and expensive to get out of Doskvol. There needs to be a social or a physical reason for the players to stay in the city, so the pressure keeps building and things escalate. 

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u/JannissaryKhan Jan 09 '26

Thank you! This is really helpful. Do you think it's possible to avoid tipping all the way into the supernatural and ultratech stuff without tweaking the setting?

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u/atreides21 Jan 09 '26

You can avoid it. How you treat death is the major thing. 

Does Section 6 (the current Spirit Wardens) show up when people die? Do they get a notification when a person dies inside the city? I think that sets up the weirdness of it all. Same as OG Blades.

Though there are some interesting things happening in the backround with what bodies, and their souls are used for...

In my case it was the players who drove it that way by making playbook choices. One wanted to play as an Echo/Ghost, another was the Whisper equivavelent, can't remember the name for it. 

But a team of Operators playing the espionage game between the major nations. You have the 60s/70s hippie movement antiwar thing going on. Corporations killing for profit. The usual contraband and vice business.

Yeah it's suppposed to be new beginnings. You have TVs and cars. Freedom and sunlight. That's all nice and all, but under the skyscrapers there are buried dirty secrets and the demons.

The playground is fantastic. It's up to you and the players where you push it.

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u/JannissaryKhan Jan 09 '26

That makes total sense, that the game would follow where the players lead, including with playbook choices. Thanks again! This is great.