Media (IB)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark hack

A Media crew shapes narratives—newsrooms, stream collectives, propaganda shops, documentary outfits, memetics labs. You investigate, edit, package, and amplify stories across local nets and inter-hab relays. Your tools are sources, algorithms, and delivery windows; your payload is attention. In a system rebuilt after the Fall, credibility and reach buy more than guns—Credit follows the feed.

Heat & Wanted Level

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ | ☐☐☐☐

Credit

☐☐☐☐ | Vault ☐☐☐☐ | Vault 2 ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Special Abilities

1. Newsroom Trained: Each PC may add +1 action rating to Interface, Judge, or Sway (up to a max rating of 3).
2. Signal Boost: When you publish a prepared piece (score result or Long-Term Project), take +1d to the Engagement roll of your next operation that relies on public perception (Social, Deception, or Transport with cover).
3. Source Protection: When protecting a source, resisting subpoenas/raids, or running a dead-drop, take +1d to resistance rolls; on a 6 you also clear 1 Heat.
4. Crisis Comms: After a fiasco, you may immediately attempt to reduce Heat (once per score) with Interface or Sway as if it were a downtime action.
5. Editorial Line: Once per score, declare a policy stance; gain +1 effect to actions aligned with it and -1 effect to those opposed until the score ends.
6. Syndication: Treat up to three +3 Faction statuses as if they were Investment upgrades for payout/Reach purposes.
7. Patronage: When you advance your Tier, it costs half the usual Credit. Who funds your outlet and why?
8. Additional Playbook: Select another crew playbook. You may now choose its Upgrades and Special Abilities. Immediately gain access only to the Crew XP track.

Crew XP

At the end of each session, for each item below, mark 1 XP (or mark 2 XP if that item occurred multiple times):

1. Expose, reframe, or amplify a story that shifts public or faction opinion.
2. Contend with challenges above your current station.
3. Bolster your outlet’s reputation (credible, sensational, fearless, etc.) or develop a new one.
4. Express the goals, drives, inner conflict, or essential nature of the crew.

Crew Upgrades

Starting Upgrades Cohort (Analysts or Agents), Vice (Obligation or Weird), 2 of choice.

Media Only Upgrades

☐ Uplink — +1d to Acquire Asset when the asset is comms, relays, or bandwidth.

☐ Investigations Desk — +1d to Gather Information (people, records, logistics).

☐ Standards & Practices — Reduce Heat increase by 1 per operation if you published a contemporaneous account.

☐ Spin Room — +1d Engagement on Social and Deception plans.

☐ Archive — +1 effect on actions that leverage prior footage/files; once per score, “pull tape” to gain potent detail.

☐ Botnet/Street Team — +2 Credit payoff on operations that hinge on reach (petitions, boycotts, virals).

☐ Legal Team — Ignore the first entanglement involving subpoenas, takedown orders, or seizures each downtime.

☐ Blackbox Van — Mobile studio: you may treat a public space as your lair for one scene; +1 effect to on-site broadcasts.

☐ Back Channels — Once per score, declare a confidential source inside a Tier±1 faction for position or detail.

☐ Editorial Calendar — During downtime, roll dice equal to your Tier. Gain Credit equal to the highest result, minus your Heat.

☐ Fact-Check Desk — When you Set Up an ally with Study or Interface, upgrade effect by one step on a hit.

☐ Turf — Reduces the Credit cost multiplier to advance crew Tier. (May be taken multiple times.)

Common Crew Upgrades

Available to all crews. See Crew Playbooks for an explanation of all terms below.

Base: ☐,☐ Life support, ☐,☐ Power, ☐,☐ Maneuver, ☐,☐ Gravity, ☐,☐ Camouflage, ☐,☐ Security.

Assets: ☐,☐,☐,☐ Investment — Reduces the base cost of improving Tier, before multiplication.

Installations: ☐,☐ Quarters, ☐☐☐☐ Training, ☐,☐ Vault, ☐,☐ Venue, ☐,☐ Prison, ☐,☐ Workshop, ☐,☐ Medical, ☐,☐ Hangar.

Vehicles: ☐,☐ Shuttles (needs hangar), ☐,☐ Fighters (needs hangar), ☐,☐ Runabouts.

Quality: ☐ Documents, ☐ Gear, ☐ Implements, ☐ Supplies, ☐ Tools, ☐ Weapons.

Vices: ☐ Faith, ☐ Gambling, ☐ Luxury, ☐ Obligation, ☐ Pleasure, ☐ Stupor, ☐ Weird.

Cohorts ☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐,☐ Cohort: (Max 2 per tier). Each cohort begins with one Flaw. ☐ Add Edge or remove flaw from one cohort. Repeatable

Cohorts

Each cohort is either a Team or an Expert with one Type and one Flaw. A maximum of 2 cohorts for each Tier. Each cohort needs this data.

Name:

☐ Team or ☐ Expert. This is where your initial upgrade investment is checked.

Type: First type is free. You can add one additional Type by spending an upgrade. ☐ Agents, ☐ Engineers, ☐ Marines, ☐ Scientists, ☐ Security, ☐ Winghands.

Edges. Each cohorts can add edges as if they were upgrades. ☐ Armored, ☐ Elite, ☐ Fearsome, ☐ Independent, ☐ Loyal.

Flaws. Each cohorts can remove flaws at the cost of an upgrade: ☐ Ally, ☐ Compromised, ☐ Intelligent, ☐ Principled, ☐ Savage, ☐ Unreliable, ☐ Wild.

Damage: Cross one box per level of harm: (☐ Armor), ☐ Weak, ☐ Impaired, ☐ Broken.

Opportunities (IB)

1. A polity’s censors throttle a disaster feed—mirror the truth before the window closes.
2. A whistleblower offers logs implicating a major contractor—verify, then survive the backlash.
3. A viral deepfake targets your ally—debunk fast or ride the wave for leverage.
4. A hab’s elections hinge on turnout—engineer a GOTV campaign under blackout rules.
5. A rival outlet steals your scoop—one-up with receipts or expose their funders.
6. A pirate relay promises uncensored reach—great audience, terrible neighbors.
7. A celebrity crash-lands a scandal at your doorstep—manage it or milk it.
8. An ancient archive AI wants its story told—on its terms.