I've really enjoyed seeing how different Forged in the Dark games change the mechanics used in Blades. I know my first hack started because the genre I wanted to design for didn't really fit the faction system, so that was the first thing I started modifying. I then ended up leaving out the claims system because competing for territory didn't make sense and other forms of claims didn't occur to me at the time. (I'm revisiting the claims idea now in my design).

For everyone else working on a FitD game, what were some of the first mechanics you decide to change? Or what were the systems you ended up leaving out entirely and why?

The first thing I took out was load, because it didn't seem to make sense for my game.  I'm not looking at putting it back in but changing what it means significantly.  I've pulled claims as well for more descriptive or networking style stuff, for roughly the same reasons you did.

I'm now looking at simplifying the action terms, as I've seen other hacks where that seems to be turning out pretty well and I might want to go that direction.

So, mine started as a FitD game, but I really slowly took all of Blades out of it: even the fundamentals like dice, progress clocks, etc. The only traces that are left these days are that there's a Score-like phase and a Downtime-like phase, and that it runs because of this chewy reward cycle of circumventing your place in capitalism. Which surprises me because of how much I like Blades and how versatile I think it is.

I think I eventually wanted to own my own design, and understand every choice I was making.

I came up with a Forged in the Dark hack for my FF2k19 game jam submission, but I realized pretty early on that I wanted to streamline the mechanics of the system—partially for ease of play (to make the game easier for one shots/making it extremely low prep on the GM side), but part of that was also because I was on a time crunch and didn't want to overextend myself at the time.

The biggest leap for me, mechanically, was changing the success metrics—instead of 1-3/4-5/6/crits, I gave players a pool of dice in every stat, and made success based on the number of matching dice you get. It skews the probability way different from your typical FitD game, which I find kind of a fun challenge.

(I also changed it because I have a friend who rolled snake eyes all the time during our Scum and Villainy sessions, so that was kind of a nod to him and to those players who consistently roll poorly)

I'm starting to play with a FitD hack and the first thing I likewise took out was base building and claims, neither of which fit with the theme. Claims will make their way back eventually in a completely different (and completely optional) form that's tailor built for a specific purpose, but as it stands they're not adding to the genre emulation I want to have.

I also took out supports, like your gang, since I want the game to have much more narrative on the player characters themselves than gathering a small army of people. 

I'm still in the process of my hack, but so far I'm ripping out crews/factions, changing the way dice pools are calculated and chances are rep, heat and stress will change too. Blades has a lot of foundational stuff I really like, but part of my design process is carving away things I don't need and replacing them over time as other parts of the system redesign come together.

Taking out playbooks felt big, but they just weren't adding anything.  Instead I focused on including interesting and diverse abilities, and I already had sixteen distinct elements for four core traits, and every princess chooses a speciality anyway (Cookie Princess, Tiny Princess, Stabby Princess etc). I also had a good look at the territory/claims mechanic and eventually decided that for this game they could be replaced by a simpler system that flowed better with the other mechanics. Bit ironic seeing as this mechanic was one of the big initial draws to FitD as a base, but oh well.

I also added an escalation mechanic, influenced by 7th Sea's raises. Players can increase the number of sides of the dice they're rolling in exchange for increased effect. Being able to voluntarily raise the risk of a roll in exchange for increased effect has a feeling of drama and power that I really like. It feels very princess. I also wanted a mechanical representation of princess flamboyance--rolling d6s on an action means doing it in an efficient, conventional sort of way. Escalating to d8s or d10s or d12s or, hope bless you, d20s carries with it the chance of spectacular success, but also the risk of spectacular failure. This one feels like the biggest break from the pure core of Blades (those precious blessed ever-elusive 6s), but it works well in play and besides, I love having a chance to break out the polyhedrals once in a while.

There are a lot of smaller changes too, and honestly one of my favourite parts of designing this is getting into really pedantic examination of each mechanic, like 'what is this DOING, why is it HERE'. (And Blades in the Dark is such a nicely designed game, it was a joy to slowly pick it apart.) But, overall I was surprised at how well the mechanics for scoundrels doing crimes in a haunted fantasy-industrial city translate to a game about demigod-avatar princesses balancing tea parties and giant monster attacks.

Good question.

My first design moment I felt good about was using 9 actions rather than 12. I'm making a cyberpunk hack, and try as I might I couldn't figure out where to put the hack action. Attune made no sense to include, and putting Hack in the same attribute as all the social actions made no sense. Try as I might I always ended up with an odd number of action per attribute, which would've messed up how resistance worked, and aesthetically I hated it. Then I thought, 'Screw it, let's just collapse these actions as much as possible' and I ended up with 9 I feel really good about. 

Also seeing how Scum & Villainy has 3 ratings for each actions inspired me to use the same limit, and instead of using gambits to make up for that potential, let players acquire 4th action or attribute dots by getting cyberware.

Changing what the actions were called took some doing too. I've changed a bit of vocabulary in my hack (Traumas are Glitches, cohort gangs are teams, etc.) and that was just a lot of time spent on thesaurus.com. Ditto for what to call the playbooks.

Some of the biggest changes came straight out of Blades in the Dark, in Chapter 9: Changing the Game. I was tying myself in a knot trying to figure out how to design mechanics that Poor Beginnings and Tier Tied to Lifestyle already cover. These are important components for me as they highlight the fact that the players start as poor freelancers, desperate to try to get an edge, and the only way they can make significant progress is by the accumulation of wealth, to buy into the system, to hustle.

I'm in the process of putting together a working draft of my folklore-fantasy hack, The Blackwood Tales. The elevator pitch is that you are wandering adventurers inspired by (mostly European) folklore who have gathered together in an inn to recount adventures you went on together years ago. The GM is the Innkeeper and seems to know more about your adventures than they should...

I haven't thought in terms of "what I'm cutting out" because essentially I started with a foundation of GM/player principles and agendas and literally nothing else. When a principle or agenda requires a mechanic, I look at what exists already and figure out if I can use one of those pieces. So for now my hack is limited to:

• Position/Effect
• Stress ("Tangles")
• Trauma ("Folly")
• Vice ("Calling")
• Playbooks (currently 4 character playbooks and 3 currently undrafted crew playbooks)
• Push Yourself and Flashback have been combined into "Embellishment"
• Devil's Bargains

Load, Reputation, and several other mechanics will probably become a part of the hack too but I'm not sure yet! Trying to build as lean a draft as I can at first so I can playtest and determine what's missing.

I had an idea (feel free to steal it, I don't have the time right now to make this game) that if a FitD game was about underground gamblers, instead of rolling to resist consequences, play a game of Russian roulette (simulated obviously) and if it's an empty chamber then you resist normally but if  it's a bullet then you trauma out (or die if you want to raise the stakes even more?), and the MC would keep track of where the bullet is so every six resists it's guaranteed to trigger unless there's also some action that can spin the barrel