# Blades in the Dark tags: #game/rpg/blades-in-the-dark #game/rpg/forged-in-the-dark ![[Blades in the Dark (cover).jpg|600]] **Blades in the Dark** is the 2017 John Harper game that birthed an entire genre, and the hobby has never quite recovered. Set in the sunless, ghost-haunted industrial city of Doskvol — where the sun was destroyed, the dead linger as spirits, and a lightning barrier keeps out the horrors beyond — it casts players as a crew of scoundrels pulling scores in a Victorian-industrial-fantasy underworld. It's the game that made "heist with flashbacks" a mechanic and turned the GM into a facilitator of cinematic mayhem rather than a referee. The core is the **Forged in the Dark** action roll: roll a number of d6 equal to your action rating and take the single highest die. A **6** is a full success, a **4/5** is a partial success (you do it, but with a consequence), and a **1–3** is a failure where things go badly — with two or more 6s a **critical** that increases your effect. Before you roll, the GM sets your **position** (controlled, risky, or desperate) and **effect** (limited, standard, or great), and you can add bonus dice by getting **assistance** from a teammate, **pushing yourself** (taking 2 stress), or accepting a **Devil's Bargain**. When you don't like a consequence, you **resist** it by spending stress; mark your last stress box and you gain a **trauma**, and four traumas retire the character. Around the roll sits the loop of **scores**, **downtime**, **progress clocks**, and the **faction game** of turf, tier, and claims. Its influence is the point. The Forged in the Dark engine spawned a small industry of hacks and inheritors, and its fingerprints are all over the solo scene too. In this vault alone its lineage runs to **[[Blades '68]]** (the swinging-sixties Doskvol supplement), **[[Band of Blades]]** (the Legion's desperate retreat), **[[Scum and Villainy]]** (space scoundrels), **[[Runners in the Shadows]]** (shadowrun-style runners), and **[[Bump in the Dark]]** (monster-hunting teens), while its dice-and-narrative DNA helped shape solo games like **[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Starforged]]**. The original book credits **[[Apocalypse World - Burned Over|Apocalypse World]]**, **[[Dogs in the Vineyard]]**, and **[[the Burning Wheel]]** as touchstones — a lineage that keeps paying dividends. ## References - [Blades in the Dark - Official Website](https://bladesinthedark.com/) - [Blades in the Dark - Evil Hat Productions](https://evilhat.com/product/blades-in-the-dark/) - [Blades in the Dark - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/170689/blades-in-the-dark)