Media (IB)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark hack

This is a work in progress.

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.

News operations can be reactive, to cover a specific event, but it is more interesting to be proactive, to cover your own stories that other's miss.

Heat & Wanted Level

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ | ☐☐☐☐

Credit

☐☐☐☐ | Vault ☐☐☐☐ | Vault 2 ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Special Abilities

1. Newsbred: Each PC may add +1 action rating to Interface, Judge, or Sway (up to a max rating of 3).
2. Additional Playbook: Select another crew playbook. You may now choose its Upgrades and Special Abilities. Immediately gain access only to the Crew XP track.
3. Backgrounding : +1d on Gather Information in downtime.
4. Embedded: +1d on Engagement Rolls with allies or cohorts present.
5. Integrity: +1d resistance with Insight.
6. Partisan: Treat up to four positive statuses as if they were Investment Crew Upgrades.
7. Spin: Reduce the Heat gained from operations by 2.
8. Talking Head : +2 Credit from operations if you have someone with knowledge that is relevant to the subject at hand, such as a Philosopher with the the Specialist ability, Expert Cohort, or faction with positive status.

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.
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.)

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

☐ Cohort. Starts with one Flaw. A maximum of 2 cohorts for each Tier.

Each cohort needs this data.

Name:

☐ Gang or ☐ Expert.

Type: ☐ Agents, ☐ Deckhands, ☐ Engineers, ☐ Marines, ☐ Outis, ☐ Scientists.

Edges & Flaws. Each cohorts can add edges or remove flaws as if they were upgrades: ☐ Armored, ☐ Elite, ☐ Fearsome, ☐ Independent, ☐ Loyal, ☐ Principled, ☐ Animal, ☐ 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.