If you're running Blades in the Dark: Deep Cuts and bringing in new players, you've probably hit the same frustration I did - all the quickstart guides teach vanilla mechanics, forcing you to constantly say "learn this, but actually that's changed in Deep Cuts..."
So... I created a focused 5-page quickstart guide that teaches ONLY Deep Cuts mechanics from the start.
https://roezmv.itch.io/quickstart-for-blades-in-the-dark-deep-cuts-edition
Nice work! I have some questions:
1. Did you mention how assigning results with multiple threats works?
2. At multiple occasions you do mention how help from another crew member boils down to them spending 1 stress as requirement - isn't that the old way?
3. You talk about spending 2 stress to improve your roll - isn't that the old push mechanic?
4. Shouldn't struggling because of your ambitions be mentioned as XP trigger?
Thank you kindly for the feedback!
"1. Did you mention how assigning results with multiple threats works?"
Yup! Page 2 :).
"2. At multiple occasions you do mention how help from another crew member boils down to them spending 1 stress as requirement - isn't that the old way?"
Check out p 104, "When you’re in position to help a teammate, tell the GM what benefit you're hoping for and say what you do to help. The GM has final say on which benefit you get, then they tell you what's required to do it."
3. You talk about spending 2 stress to improve your roll - isn't that the old push mechanic? However, you can pay a COST of 2 Stress as devil's bargain.
You're right. I misread that!
4. Shouldn't struggling because of your ambitions be mentioned as XP trigger?
I left out XP triggers from the quickstart, felt like you could learn that later.
I really like your guide and have allready used it, but there is one thing that deeply irritates me; you mention in the introduction, that Blades + DC contains over 400 pages of rules, which is a misleading statement. On one hand DC shouldn't be added to the count, because it is a collection of alternatives, so there is no need to learn all of the rules in the core book AND DC. On the other hand this statement leads to the impression, that Blades is a massive book with countless rules and while Blades is not the lightest game, it is definitely on the lighter side. Neither the core book nor DC consist just of rules, but your introduction makes it seem like they do.
Quick update on my Deep Cuts quickstart guide based on your feedback:
✅ Safety Tools section - Session Zero, X-Card, Lines & Veils (most requested addition!)
✅ Visual progress clock examples - Actual diagrams instead of just text descriptions
✅ Clearer Deep Cuts mechanics - Fixed confusing parts about Teammate Help and Devil's Bargains
Still only 5 pages, still teaches Deep Cuts directly to new players. Pairs perfectly with my Lite VTT for complete new-player onboarding.
Download v3 of the Quickstart Guide: https://roezmv.itch.io/quickstart-for-blades-in-the-dark-deep-cuts-edition
Download my free VTT: https://roezmv.itch.io/blades-in-the-dark-deep-cuts-lite-vtt-by-roezmv
