Storm Bunny Studios is updating their streets & sorcery tabletop roleplaying game, Bloodlines & Black Magic, via a Kickstarter campaign. The new edition expands the game beyond its Pathfinder First Edition roots to be more universally d20/OGL as well as offering original gameplay options. Through this interview I learned more about this game and see it uses PF1e and D&D 5e as a launchpad instead of a destination. Co-creator Jaye Sonia shares his insights into some of the mechanics for the newest edition of Bloodlines & Black Magic.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): I appreciate you taking away time from your Kickstarter campaign to talk about Bloodlines & Black Magic. What’s the pitch for this RPG? Is it fair to say it’s “for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition”?
JAYE SONIA (JS): So, when [Clinton] Boomer and I released the first version of Bloodlines & Black Magic, we did so clearly to support the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game; within a year of that release, however, Paizo announced PF2. We had already had several requests to convert Bloodlines & Black Magic to 5e and were in the process of doing so when we realized – late last year – that we were essentially retrofitting our game again…
At the time, Tim Hitchcock, Clinton Boomer, and I were discussing the merit of trying to color within those particular lines and kept coming back to the same question – why not just write our own game.
And so we did.
EGG: This was based around Pathfinder 1e originally. Why upgrade it using D&D 5e as your baseline instead of PF2e?
JS: Honestly, it came down to building the game we wanted to share with the world. While I love both 5e and PF1, we agreed that being beholden to another system – especially when the d20/OGL space has been open to the world for decades – wasn’t a move we wanted to make. Given the talent on the team and our previous involvement with other editions of these games, it just made to build a game with which everyone could play.
EGG: In terms of genre, this is a streets & sorcery tabletop RPG. That begs the questions: Are there elves? Dwarves? Orcs? Goblins? Dragons? How do you handle the D&D and PF signature creatures?
JS: The first version of Bloodlines & Black Magic lacked these monsters, trading them for cryptids, haunts, madmen, urban horrors, and the like; while those things exist in the fantasy, that’s not the game we designed. There are wonderful games that transplant the fantasy model into our modern world, often with plenty of exceptions and explanations as to how that happened.
That said, we don’t discourage GMs from using any monster as a unique, one-off encounter in the Invisible World. So, while there aren’t magic-using samurai orcs driving around cop cars (that’s Shadowrun’s theme), there are plenty of opportunities for GMs to import more traditional monsters in ways their players won’t expect.
Bloodlines & Black Magic has a unique ecology we call The Crimson Ecology. The seven major groups of monsters we work with in the game are listed here.
EGG: How do you reimagine staple classes like the thief and warrior? Or do they translate from medieval fantasy to urban fantasy seamlessly?
JS: We use seven different, modern classes. These are the Brawler, the Hunter, the Occultist, the Operative, the Psychic, the Spiritualist, and the Witch. We’ve written each class to fit seamlessly into our world, although GMs could easily export any of these into their 5e games if they really wanted to – although they would want to make some adjustments before doing so.
Both the bloodlines and the classes are described here.
EGG: In the description, you mention The Arcana. What is that?
JS: The Arcana is an 80-card storytelling deck inspired by the Tarot. Every player at the table is assigned multiple cards they can use in play to modify, adjust, or otherwise influence the encounter in which the card appears.
EGG: This system uses XP to encourage roleplaying over combat. How does that work within the d20 framework?
JS: That’s easy. We base XP awards on discovery, task completion, cooperation, and other forms of non-violent conflict resolution. Moreover, we award XP as PCs complete their missions or episodes, even when they fail; this game rejects the concept that you need to “fight” through 20+ battles every single level simply to gain “experience.”
That’s not how the world works, and we didn’t want to design a game that continues to reinforce that mechanical narrative.
So, when a player completes 18-20 hours of play (about 3-5 episodes), they level. It’s pretty simple, really.
EGG: You have The Neophyte’s Guide to the Invisible, the free quick preview to the RPG on DriveThruRPG. How has it been received? If you don’t mind my asking, how many times has it been downloaded?
JS: It’s only been in our store since February, but it’s been downloaded about 400 times.
EGG: You have episodes of the playtest for this version of the game on Twitch. What were some of the biggest tweaks you took away from those sessions?
JS: Honestly, that’s a BIG question that I won’t have time to tackle today. For the sake of brevity, I’ll say this – we definitely make skill adjustments during the Twitch playtest, adding the skill Investigation back into the game – I had pulled it in favor of Perception over the summer. Tim and I had an ongoing debate about it, but resolved that during the game. Tim was right. I had to eat crow.
EGG: Beyond Bloodlines & Black Magic, what else are you working on?
JS: I’m still working on a cookbook we kicked last year which we’re behind on, but that’s been a project heavily impacted by the global pandemic; it’s been challenging.
Late last year, I finished writing another book – The World of Alessia Campaign Guide – a 5e space-fantasy project we funded a couple of years ago. While this book took me longer than I ever anticipated, at 340+ pages and 26+ 5e species, I’m okay with it taking longer. That’s out with backers, but I’ll be sharing it with the world later this summer.
It’s going to be fun.
EGG: Thanks for talking with me. Where can fans learn more about your campaign and follow your work?
JS: Thank you, again, Egg, for reaching out. Both Boomer and I appreciate the coverage.
Follow the Kickstarter, my Patreon, and routinely check our website for new releases, new info, and unscheduled weirdness.
The Bloodlines & Black Magic Roleplaying Game from Storm Bunny Studios
End Date: Sun, May 31 2020 11:28 AM EDT.
“A dark, modern roleplaying game.”
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