Captain (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

As a captain you are boldly taking charge of a situation and lead from the front, empowering your crew. Captains exist at all levels of society, from poor village elders to great nobles and kings.

Not every player wants to follow a leader, so this playbook requires an agreement in the group to work well. The abilities of this playbook have been written with this in mind, there are no condition that those led need to follow orders.

Touchstones: A fictional leader of any kind, from a gang boss, to the leader of a work crew or caravan, to a military or ship commander. Chris Adams from "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), Don Lope de Aguirre from "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972), Martin from "Flesh and Blood" (1985).

Special Abilities

1. Coordination: When you lead a group action, you suffer only 1 stress for every two crew who failed their rolls, rounding down, as long as they can all hear you. This does not mean you need to be shouting.
2. Devil's Dare: When you or a crewmate who can hear you fails to gain full success on an action roll during a score, you can spend 2 stress to allow a re-roll with the same number of dice. The position of this second roll is always desperate.
3. Focus: Three times per score you can assist a teammate who can hear you without paying stress. You can take this ability several times to gain three additional uses of free assistance each time.
4. Liberty: When you and your crew roll 2d or more to indulge in vice, you may pick which dice result to use to reduce Stress. For example, if you rolled 3d and got 2, 3, and a 5 you could choose to reduce your Stress by either 2, 3, or 5.
5. Morale: You and crew members that can hear you gain +1d when resisting Resolve consequences. You gain +1 stash at the end of each downtime phase.
6. No One Left Behind: As long a cohort can hear you, they gain extra effect and 1 armor. They can retreat safely when you order them to.
7. Stand Fast!: As long as any of your crew can hear you, you and those crew who can hear you gain +1d on all resistance rolls.
8. Team Spirit: You may expend your Special Armor to allow yourself or a teammate to resist or to negate the entire stress cost of a group action. Teammates must be able to hear you to benefit.

Shrewd Friends

˄ ˅ Bram, a merchant.

˄ ˅ Finley, a judge.

˄ ˅ Quin, a taxman.

˄ ˅ Remy, a traveler.

˄ ˅ Sho, a barkeep.

Inventory

☐☐ Banner.

◯ Emerald Pen.

☐ Fine Dueling Weapon.

◯ Fine clothes [☐ if carried].

◯ Mount.

☐, ☐, ☐ Paper Bird.

• Banner ☐☐ : A personal banner showing your identity and allegiance. This increases your abilities that have a range based on hearing to include anyone who can see the banner. Playbook.
• Emerald Pen ◯: This pen is tipped with an emerald nib and requires no ink to write. It can draw green lines and text on any material, including in air, and you can make the text glow for a few minutes. On a surface it lasts much like normal ink, in the air it disappears when it stops glowing. More expensive versions use other gems and create text of other colors. Gadget.
• Fine Dueling Weapon ☐: A masterwork light weapon like a rapier, smallsword, or arming sword or an exotic dueling weapon such as a war fan. The fine quality improves the effect.
• Fine Clothes ◯: An outfit that increases your apparent living standard by +2. If you're carrying this item as a second outfit to change into, it is ☐.
• Mount ◯: A horse (or other appropriate mount) trained to carry you in battle.
• Paper Bird ☐: Write a message of fifty words or fewer on this magic sheet of paper, fold it into a paper bird, and speak a creature's name while recalling their image. The paper bird flies to the recipient, whereupon it turns back into a mundane sheet of parchment. If the paper bird is soaked, damaged, immobilized, or hit by the rising sun before reaching its target, it turns into ash. Common, Consumable, Gadget.

XP

• Every time you roll a desperate action, mark xp in that action's attribute.

At the end of each session, for each item below, mark 1 xp (in your playbook or an attribute) or 2 xp if that item occurred multiple times.

• You addressed a challenge using co-operation or charisma.
• You expressed your beliefs, drives, heritage, or background.
• You struggled with issues from your vice or traumas during the session.

Starting Actions

Command 2

Finesse 1

4 points by choice, no higher than 2 in any one.