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Hope you're well. It's been almost a year since the last update, so I thought I'd poke my head in and see how things are going. I'm going to dust off my World Anvil wiki and try to flesh out my own version of World a bit more. I'm still looking forward to seeing a Process playbook and the Moderator crew.

EDIT: Noticed the unannounced(?) update from June with the expanded content on the setting and catching up. I do like the cats & dogs metaphor you used.

Good questions that I've been pondering as well. On one hand, having the slot full means that it's been accounted for in your retroactive plan: Picking something up that requires a memory slot implies you went in with it empty, so it's a limit on your retroactive preparation. As a GM, I'd allow the drop or exchange you propose simply because it's the most intuitive way for me to look at it: You freed up the memory by dropping/giving/exchanging an item to allow you to carry another.

It seems to me the best way to mark it on your sheet is that the row of 4-6 memory represents how much of your load has been accounted for, while the marked slots on the equipment and Coin sections can be freely swapped out, so long as the total doesn't exceed the number of marked memory cards. As long as you have unmarked memory cards, you can do flashbacks to say you brought along whatever equipment.

One thing I'm considering is a mid-score refresh of memory in the form of a rendezvous with a supply vehicle or something. Then again, the whole thing is also complicated by using the slots for indulging personal recall, which is something not quite so easily dropped off, at least in my mind.

I'm trying to get an idea of what some Revisionist claims "look like" beyond the straightforward mechanical bonuses, and how a crew might acquire them as part of a score. Right now in my solo playtest, I'm working with a crew that gains access to and restores an airship that was originally a "revisionist tactics" support vessel in a forgotten war. Some of the claims could be part of the ship's onboard equipment with scores to obtain parts or code to restore their functions, but it'd be dangerous to keep all their eggs in one basket. It's my understanding that a typical Revisionist crew would have multiple facilities, each potentially a target for a hostile faction to steal or destroy if I roll "assault" during entanglements.

I'm trying to think of how certain scores could lead to obtaining revisionist claims:

• Social/Deception score: Convincing a daemon to give us the forbidden code we need to build a facility around.
• Stealth (Heist): Stealing experimental equipment from a research-oriented faction, or a hostile revisionist crew.
• Authority: Simply build or modify it into whatever we're Compiling or Formatting.

I guess what I'm also asking is, "What does a revisionist crew is typically going to look like as they go up in tier?" Currently, I'm imagining them as a slim organization that relies on quality of members, rather than sheer numbers, like a Dynasty.

EDIT: Reread the crew section in the core book. Realized I was thinking of it too much like Dynasty claims.

I'm curious about this as well.

Near as I can tell, a person leaves lots of timestamps behind unless they do well on a Mask Function, which seems similar to covering up footprints as you go along, or at least leaving fewer tracks in the first place. As for cleaning up the timeline of an object such as the safe in the example, I'm guessing Archival tools and appropriate credentials are necessary, so that you could more easily modify the archives of something your crew owns, while doing so with someone else's item would be trickier.

For a heist, I noticed Intrusion tools leave a detailed trace, so I imagine a competent team could do it by cracking the safe open with intrusion tools, using Mask or Ping, and then someone with skill in Restore would use Archival Tools to remove that trace by overwriting it with details from a "clean" snapshot.

I've done some solo playtesting / storycrafting using the system, possibly for a future webcomic. I think I've got a better grip on what a crew can handle after running a few scores. Club Print is ready to perform their first Authority score to format an airship that will dock at their HQ. They have 12 Reputation with 1 Leverage. They stole the key to the airship, made an alliance with the ReCyclers in the junkyard, and planted an Informant in the hostile (-2) Blue Bloods faction in the region.

So, let me see if I have this right:

Authority Score

1. The crew makes their way into the junkyard to find the derelict airship, possibly dealing with the actions of Blue Bloods (-2) and Debuggers (0) along the way. Possible encounters with Glitch in all the junk.
2.  Upon securing the airship, they invoke the Format command to repair its vital systems and modify it to be the flying cafe they want.

Authority Questions

• Area 2 (Building) It's large enough to house several customers, complete with outdoor dining on the top deck.
• Quality 4 (Superior) It's a nice place.
• Force 5 (Overwhelming) "A server-bound airship" is listed as an example of power level 5. It also houses some old Revisionist Claims that can be restored as the crew buys them.

11 total, so the crew takes on a total of 11 stress, divided among the six members, when they begin the formatting.

Reputation returns to 1, rather than 0, thanks to the Leverage discount of 1.

Payoff

• Coin and Reputation would probably be related to the number/wealth of customers they attract with their new airship.
• Heat would be whatever trouble they ran across/produced, +2 for invoking Authority.
• Faction allegiances would shift according to how the balance of power was changed. -In this case, the Amber Knights wanted the ship for its original military purpose and to raise their tier. They'd be able to put 2 and 2 together to figure out their would-be warship is the hot new flying cafe, becoming more hostile toward Club Print.
• Club Print, having leveled up their facilities through obtaining the airship is now ready to increase to Tier 1, and will do so once they get their reputation up again.

Does all this sound about right?

So, I've got some questions on quality and equipment.

Acquisition: Right now, I'm thinking standard quality equipment is readily available, while better equipment is scarce. If I want an open source monocycle, I can just flashback to using the equivalent of a 3D printer to make a standard cycle or Restoring one from the Archives. But if I want a higher quality cycle and for the crew to keep it for more than a score, I imagine I'd probably need to do something like the following:

• buy one for Coin or a Fortune Roll,
• Compile one or more with Authority (Quality + Scale for cost)
• Steal one from a cycle gang.

Using Quality Equipment and bonuses: I've stolen the High Roller's prized cycle, a Quality 4 retro style motorcycle. They're pursuing me in their Quality 3 bikes. If I understand correctly my Goto rolls to outrun them gain +1 effect. [Edited after reading a bit of advice]

Gear outside of Scores: I'm guessing that players can store items in their homes or HQ, which run on a different, larger set of memory, where MEM on the character sheet is just how much stuff a character can keep on their person.

EDIT: I think my "crunchy" background is asserting itself, again, along with some min/max tendencies. Probably best to assess quality, potency, and so forth on an individual basis, rather than try to form a concrete matrix.

Nice. Good to know my intuition is working properly. Thanks for another preview, too.

One thing I've idly wondered about Restore seems to be addressed in the point about not being able to bring back self-aware entities: Using it to heal harm during a score. Of course, the meta reason is that it's inherited from Blades in the Dark, far removed from the instant healing in other TTRPGs.

Like the bit about the viper sentry on the safe. I've written up a few ideas on my World Anvil for animal subroutines and the like created as pets, and this seems like a good extension of that.

I think I have a good grasp on them, but thought I'd post some examples and get input.

Buffer seems very much like the "Tank" function, both in terms of protection and battlefield control, including some area denial.

• "I Buffer my injured friend. If they want to derez him, they'll have to attack me first." (Defend/taunt)
• "I pull out my tricked out arc wheel and throw some fancy ricocheting shots to Buffer the enemy out of cover and into the open." (Seizing ground/area denial)
• "I Buffer the collapsing ceiling, using myself as a support pillar so the Capacitor has time to Restore the structure."
• "I Buffer the lone Troubleshooter with my Intimidator ability, hoping to 'convince' him that he didn't see anything." (Breaker ability)

Crash seems pretty straightforward.

• "My Daemon pulls out her blunderbuss and Crashes at point blank range, rather than Ping from a distance."
• "Since the Filcher's lockpicking failed, I'll just Crash the lock with my nodecutter."

Echo is illusion, deception, and emotion (?).

• "I Echo the boss so that he thinks it was his own idea, rather than my suggestion."
• "I Echo the safe's timestamps so that no one knows when I took out the contents."
• "I Echo the crowd with the faction's villainous deeds, trying to rile them up into rioting."

Find is straight up perception and sorting through information.

• "I turn my Find function onto the crime scene to look for clues, tracks, and relevant timestamps.."
• "I'm not sure I trust this Daemon and try to Find if she's sincere."
• "Before I open the box, I see if I can Find any traps."

Goto is movement and agility.

• "I use my Goto to parkour my way over the fence."
• "I use my Goto to serpentine toward that cover and make myself a more difficult target for the sniper along the way."
• "I use my Goto to chart a shortcut and cut them off at the pass."

Link is the diplomacy and leadership skill.

• "I Link with our cohort to inspire courage and review our new tactics."
• "I Link with the shopkeeper to negotiate a better price."
• "I quickly and quietly lock eyes with our hidden ally, and Link with her to signal a warning before rejoining the conversation."
• "I Link with him, trying to convince him that I'm telling the truth, which I am."

Mask is stealth, thievery, and disguise, so a near-universal "thiefy" skill.

• "I Mask myself and try to pick some Coin off the target with my memknife while they're distracted."
• "I Mask myself to look like just another face in the crowd, minding my own business."
• "I load up the security guard's biometrics and Mask the scanner to make it think I'm authorized to be here."

Ping is repeated effort and/or calculated precision.

• "I target the enemy's weak spot and snipe with my Ping rifle."
• "Rather than Crashing with brute strength and risking a derez, I use Ping Fu to disable them, aiming for all 64 nodes in rapid succession."
• "I turn the logic probe up to full power and Ping my way through the I/O tower's locked door."

Restore manipulates the Archives and an object's 'save states.'

• "Instead of straight up picking the lock, I Restore the safe to an earlier, unlocked state."
• "I dig through the parking lot's Archives to recreate a wall that used to be here before the site was leveled and paved."
• "I rifle through the junkyard, Restoring items to see if I can recreate anything useful."

Got an updated version of this on my World Anvil, if anyone's interested: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/soulbank-ziggyzapf/a/process-playbook-article

I could use ideas on the Deresolution table.

So, I've recently been introduced to the idea of a D.A.O.: Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which is essentially a block-chain version of a stockholder's board. It's built around tradable digital tokens that represent influence on the board, and that got me to thinking of the Service Weapon mentioned in the article about Control. I think I might make a faction called The D.A.O. that works for The Board of Hello, World using artifacts as their tokens of authority. Seems appropriate for one faction taking up residence in my Neon City's financial district.

I've also written up a World Anvil article for players that briefly mentions "Paralogicalism" as a philosophy of beings who seek to understand and possibly emulate enigmatic beings like the Administrators and The Board in an effort to seek out a greater purpose.

Thanks for the response. I'll try doing some more playtests to get a better feel for it. I'm a chronic over-preparer thanks in part to a lot of "crunchy" RPGs, so I have to work on my improvisation skills and my confidence in them. I think the 3 P's system you mention might be worth looking into. (I'd probably replace "Politics" with "Purpose" in my case.) In my hypothetical score's case, getting the key is the purpose, but finding other profit while they're digging through the vault would be a consideration to balance with getting out before the alarm is raised.

I think one of the difficult things with improvisation is having appropriate consequences to give out, especially on 4-5, but if my FFG Star Wars games are an indication, a lot of players are eager to offer ideas.

I've never run a BitD game before, so I'm trying to get a good idea of how many obstacles (and how difficult) to throw at a newly formed crew. The score in mind right now is sneaking in and stealing a unique security key from the Amber Knights, a Tier 2 gang, while they're distracted by fighting/hunting down the ReCyclers, a Tier 1 monocycle gang the crew has allied with. Argon Entertainment, a Tier 4 organization, has turned the local gang warfare into a spectator sport with the Amber Knights as the local favorite. The major players of both gangs will be in the arena, having their battle televised.

Obstacles that come to mind:

Getting to the Knights' HQ, which probably involves avoiding monocycle patrols and traversing the dense neighborhood without attracting attention from sympathetic locals.

Getting past the HQ's security: Locks, sensors, patrolling Process.

Danger clock - ReCyclers' stand: The ReCyclers can put up a good fight, but they can only drag out the competition so long.  Whichever side wins the arena match, the Knights are probably going to be on guard after the game ends.

So, question that's come to my mind is how World's society reacts to Innocents. They'd be subject to exploitation, but without memory, they wouldn't have much of anything worth taking, and still being Users, they're still entitled to the privileges, including protections. I'm thinking Innocent could be marked in some way so that people can accommodate them, but that would also mark them as easy targets if someone can exploit them. I can imagine someone becoming an Innocent by a Daemon's bargain where they trade their memory for (quickly spent) Coin.

Of course, there's also the emotional reaction from other users, which would probably range from annoyance to contempt, possibly tinged with a bit of envy for their simple, constant wonder.

Yeah, I'll bear the player in mind. Right now, I've got my own worldbuilding going for varying plans, and it's just fun coming up with my own answers. I should spend some time with my group to discuss the update when it comes out and see if they're still interested and in what. I'll let the ideas from the linked article simmer for a bit, too.

I suspect the nature of "paralogical" behavior is left vague so as to let GMs fill in their own ideas, but I think I could use some ideas on how to depict Administrators, The Board, and other such entities.

I have one idea for Admins who are acting on conflicting imperatives toward Users: The Users were uploaded for a purpose the Administration knows about, but they must also respect User autonomy, so they can't force Users onto their forgotten mission. They also have a social algorithm that rewards "driving User engagement" with Memory in the form of XP, Rep and Coin under certain circumstances, but at the same time, seeks to preserve "order" also marking disruptive crews with Heat. In the case of my particular setting, they've resolved the conflict by prioritizing User happiness, letting them enjoy themselves until the world crashes around them. Some of The Family wants to prepare the Users for leaving the system by stirring up conflict and hardening them, hence Daemon's bargains, if only to rid of the Users, not caring if they succeed or fail.

I haven't made any decisions about how The Board fits in, but I'm open to ideas.

See: The Revisionists' Mindpurge ability.

I imagine it takes some special permissions or forbidden code to strip someone of their allocated memory. You can delete or destructively copy what's in stored in that memory (whether it's equipment or past experiences), but they'll still have the blank space to fill in most of the time. Still, I imagine it'd be quite a shock for a Revisionist crew's biggest rival to discover one of their own is suddenly an Innocent.

For my particular take, Users have some unspecified amount of built-in memory for "core memories" like Inside Out, with the rest accessed via common "Recall terminals." Accessing a recall terminal for stress relief spends a MEM slot on your sheet, representing keeping an additional memory to mull over. Core memories are more vulnerable from deresolution, hence Drift, and reiteration usually means constructing a new self from their archived memories. User XP represents additional built-in memory to work with, and thus function dots, special abilities, or playbook equipment. Losing one's UID also means losing permission to access their Recall archive.

Now imagining someone ending up as an Innocent because they kept reallocating their built-in memory from being spent on core memories so that they could carry more useful equipment.

One idea I've come up with is an Iterative Will, essentially for a User to leave an agenda to shape their next iteration's thoughts. For Innocent, it's called a "Mantra" as they tend to say it a lot when questioned. Usually, an Innocent's Mantra is short, with something along the lines of "I just wanna have fun," though some pseudo-crews of Innocent have longer, shared mantras that end up resembling sub-cultures. From this idea, I came up with a faction of mostly Innocent called the Revelers whose Mantra includes an elaborate initiation ritual when they manage to convince a User to become an Innocent and join their ranks. I'll need to come up with a sinister agenda for its non-Innocent members to nudge the collective toward.

Scary idea: Innocent whose idea of "fun" is a bit of the ultraviolence with their droogs, made scarier by the general consensus that Innocent aren't really considered responsible for their own actions, tying the hands of legal authorities. They also have little to fear from deresolution, so intimidation won't stop them.

They may not make good antagonists by themselves, but I've got a couple ideas from this, nonetheless.

Cultish hive mind that recruits Innocents and tinkers with their minds. They'd make good sleeper agents because they won't remember why they carried out their tasks, only that the impulse struck them.

Every User in my setting has a UID, and with certain forbidden Authority functions, a User can be stripped of their ID, functionally becoming a Process. Naturally, Innocents would make for good targets, and there are Daemons and Process who crave the privilege of User immortality.

Good to know. I was working under the assumption of Revisionists getting an expert, since Revisionists strike me as the type to favor quality of operatives over quantity.

I actually hadn't realized that, but I notice the updated handouts make it clear, so thanks. I guess having the crew make their flying coffehouse/studio would be followed by a series of social scores to make it a popular hangout and regain the spent reputation and then raise their Tier.

I notice the Revisionist sheet doesn't have a Cohort slot pre-filled out. Do they not get a starting cohort, or do they get a choice of type?

I see Inversion lab has been changed so it's a flashback mechanic. I'm just imagining a Revisionist crew using an Artifact in a heist to steal that very same Artifact and resolving the paradox by sending the stolen one back to their past selves.

Still trying to reconcile how it all works without involving "actual" time travel, being a nerd, but I guess Timey Wimey can easily be made into Archivey-wivey once we're playing at the virtual table. I think having Revisionist crews in the world would make traveling across servers an interesting experience if they're running independently, and a person might find their home server's history changed when they return... New thought: Shades of forked Users who couldn't properly return because their "new" past stayed there.

The idea of the Census adds some interesting ideas as well. What happens if a Census occurs when there are two temporally displaced instances of an item or PC? I suppose that's one possible source/explanation of Heat if the PCs get too reckless, as the system erases the redundancy and flags the crew for their temporal shenanigans. It might also be the fate of the Mysterious Strangers to get deleted at the next Census.

So many tropes to play with.

Sweet. Looking over them now.

I'm particularly looking forward to the Revisionists, based on the preview over in my short questions thread. In another thread in the Blades in the Dark community forums, Charles Simon gave a preview of the Council crew type, which is what Conspiracy evolved into. I'm also curious about Moderators, just to inspire ideas about how to run Troubleshooters as antagonists.

Writing up some notes for a game of HW I'm hoping to run or play, since I've got some interested players. I'm filling in gaps and homebrewing from the Forged in the Dark SRD. Currently breaking my brain on the Revisionist preview you posted earlier, since I'm excited about that crew type:

1. Inversion Lab: "Retroactively plant items in Archives."

My current interpretation: I have to be able to fit a "host object" into the lab. For example, I could put a briefcase full of documents in the lab and plant a weapon in the Archives so that I could Restore the briefcase to get the weapon out. How I'm thinking it'd play out at the table:

Player: "I'm carrying a briefcase full of documents in through the front door."
GM: "Security checks the briefcase for weapons."
Player: "That's fine. There aren't any weapons currently in there."
Player, later in the score: "I do a flashback where I brought along a ping rifle in the briefcase."
GM: "You're going to need to explain why the guards didn't find it."
Player: "I prepared to be searched by using the Inversion Lab. I put the briefcase in the wayback machine and added the rifle to its history in the Archives. I want to roll Restore to 'revert' the briefcase to the state where it contained the rifle I planted. The rifle wasn't there when the guards did the search."
GM: "That makes sense. You don't need to take any stress for the flashback, since it was a reasonable preparation. Roll Restore to see if you can retrieve the rifle."

Without the inversion lab, I'd probably have to pay more stress or have a better explanation of how I got the rifle in there undetected.

2. Memory Tomb: "+1d to Find and Restore on Site"

I'm guessing it's referring to such checks made inside the "Tomb."

3. Inversion Mastery: "Change the past with a Score"

This one just scares me, but at least it'll take a while before my crew would be able to get it. I'm just going to guess there's a much longer explanation than would fit inside the circle. Of course, it could just be fun having the crew fight cyber-Cthulhu as they do literal time travel by going into the Archives.

4. Message In A Bottle: "When you indulge [Futuresight] by describing an unforeseen complication that will soon affect the whole crew, you may clear 1 additional stress. Also a Mysterious Stranger will assist any one function roll you make - from now until you next indulge this recall."

Mechanically, this is easy for me to understand. It's not so easy for me to get what's going on from a narrative perspective. Is the Mysterious Stranger like your future self hitting World's "rewind almost everything" button and helping you out in the new timeline that results? That's the closest I can imagine without involving "actual" time travel.

5. Stable Loops: While paying the costs of any flashback, you may mark Memory as if it were stress. How do you close the loop?

Mechanically simple, but still confuses me on a narrative level. I'm kind of guessing that from a narrative perspective the Memory expense represents manually changing the past to accomplish the same meta-effect as a flashback.

In some of these cases, I'm just kind of tempted to say, "It's Archive Magic, let's not try to explain it and just get on with the game."

I'm eager to hear about progress in development, and right now I'm contemplating what the Process Playbook will look like. In the meantime, I'm getting a little impatient and homebrewing my own. If you're reading this Mr. Simon, feel free to steal anything for the official version. I'm happy to listen to constructive criticism.

Step 1: State your Designation. Process usually have a serial number for their designation or a User-determined name. Those who reach self-awareness will often use a nickname that is abbreviated or otherwise reminiscent of their original designation. "One" is particularly common among those determined to assert their individuality, much to each other's frustrations.

Step 2: Remember your Programming. Process are always created with a purpose in mind and have personality programs that facilitate their role. Whether you're serving your function or rebelling against your Admin-given purpose, your programming will still influence how you see World.

Examples: Bureaucratic, Efficient, Friendly, Perfectionist, Sycophant, Unobtrusive

Step 3: Declare your Purpose. Choose one of the following, representing what you were compiled to do:

• Chatter: +1 Echo, +1 Link
• Router: +1 Goto, +1 Link
• Striker: +1 Buffer, +1 Crash
• Tracer: +1 Find, +1 Mask

Step 4: Assign 3 Function Dots. You can have no more than 2 dots in any function at the end of this step. Consider adding one to a function that represents your Programming, and one to something representative of your Purpose.

Step 5: Choose a second Special Ability and Loadout. All Process start with Part of the System. Choose an additional ability from the following list:

• *Part of the System: You cannot accept Daemon's Bargains. Whenever you earn a User's gratitude, clear 1 stress. Other playbooks may not use abilities from this playbook.
• Specialized Software: Pick a specialization within your Purpose. You may spend 1 memory to resist damage or another consequence from performing your specialty, or to push yourself in a feat related to that specialty.
• Beneath Suspicion: ???
• Made to Order: ???
• Help Function: You are an expert at meeting User needs. Twice per score, you may assist an allied User without spending stress.
• Neural Network: You gain +1 Potency in group actions involving similar Process.
• Standard Procedures: Once per Score, you may reroll a controlled action.
• Faceless Masses: You gain +1d to Echo and Mask function rolls to blend in with crowds of Process.
• Veteran: Pick a Special Ability from a User playbook. You may choose this option twice.

Pick 4 boxes worth of items from this list:

• Redundant Code: Your avatar contains backup subroutines that mitigate damage by replacing or rebooting body parts that experience errors. (2 Boxes, +1 Armor)
• Copy/Paste Face: You blend into crowds or the background more easily thanks to your open source appearance. (1 Box)
• Maintenance Credentials: You are clear to access various behind-the-scene work areas not meant for Users. (2 Boxes)
• Model G Spark Mag: Wildly innacurate, but its repeater subroutines make it good for suppressive fire. You may wish to spend MEM on Ammo to Spare, though.
• ???
• ???

Open Source Code

Process operate differently from users in terms of stress, harm, and deresolution. They possess a Warranty trait that potentially decreases each time their harm is patched by licensed facilities. When Warranty reaches zero, the Process is retired, and their MEM is reallocated. Player Character Process and Users who get attached to individual Processes often rely on illicit facilities to do repairs. Extended Warranty can be purchased at one Coin per point of Warranty.

Visiting a licensed patch facility for more than Level 1 Harm necessitates a roll, starting at 1d, modified by circumstances.

1-3: Your harm is covered under standard wear and tear policies or is easy to fix.

4/5: Reduce Warranty by 1.

6: Reduce Warranty by 1. Additionally, specialized work is needed to get you back up to code, costing 1 Coin in parts and labor. Failure to make these repairs adds +2d to your next licensed patch roll.

Crit: You voided your warranty and are marked for retirement. You must escape the facility or accept your fate.

Visiting an illicit patch facility carries other risks, such as shoddy repairs, behavioral tics, voiding your warranty if the illegal repairs are discovered, or being given the chop shop treatment and sold as parts.

Process Stress

Instead of derezzing at maximum stress, Process lose access to some of their functions. Roll 1d to determine which:

1-2: Computation compromised: You automatically fail at Find, Ping, and Restore functions as your logic subroutines become stuck pondering paradoxes, contradictory directives, and performing recursive diagnostics.

3-4: Resolution compromised: You automatically fail at Mask, Echo, and Link functions as your directives lead you to laser focus on the tasks at hand, unable to predict or understand the actions of other entities.

5-6: Stability compromised: You automatically fail at Buffer, Crash, and Goto functions as your avatar seizes up.

In this state, a successful Restore function roll by another being may clear 1 point of stress. The Crash function may also be used, but will instead convert stress into Harm.

Process Harm

Process experience harm levels 1 to 3 the same way as Users. Process with Level 4 Harm are derezzed and put into the nearest licensed patch facility to be reconstructed.

Playbook Experience:

At the end of each session mark 1 XP if an item below applies or 2 XP if that item was met multiple times.

• You addressed a challenge by acting beyond your established abilities.
• You expressed or actively defied your programming or purpose.
• You struggled with issues of agency, individuality, or your relationship with Users.

Looking at Authority, now, and trying to get an idea of how it works. Let me know if I missed something.

Let's say my crew is ready to move up to Tier 1. They've made a name for themselves in the local Bohemian society, and decide they want a mobile art studio and base of operations. They can probably Compile one from scratch, or Format an old airship after using Restore to get it functioning, again. We spend 12 Rep, minus any discount we might have for leverage.

Compile:

• Scale 2 (Building-sized: They want it to be fairly spacious.)
• Duration: 6 (A Demi-iteration: They want it to last.)
• Quality 3 (Might as well make it nice.)

The total is 11, plus any points the GM might assign to make it mobile, if slow. The crew pays that in stress, and we go over the factions to see who's attitude would be affected by our new airship.

Alternatively, we might work on obtaining and restoring an existing airship, and then use Format to improve it.

• Scale 2 (Building-sized)
• Quality 3 (Starting from 0, up to 3)
• Force 2-4? (It's a very large vehicle, but no combat functions, aside from possibly ramming.)

In this case, the total would be 7-9, making it less stressful, but it would require more initial work and someone with a strong Restore function. Follow up with the same questions as we increase our Tier.

I'm also thinking about the issue of Scores, and what would constitute them for a not-so-criminal group of bohemians. Some ideas that seem the most appropriate:

• Adding graffiti in a secure area. (Stealth)
• Obtaining Leverage by recruiting or infiltrating (Social)
• Protecting our people on the inside by sowing confusion or allaying suspicion. (Deception)
• Defense? I imagine some "critics" would not take kindly to our crew adding fractal graffiti to their territory. (Assault or Transport)

Thought I'd put up topic to encourage anyone else interested in the game to post their own ideas, and hopefully get an idea or two into the final product.

Character and Crew Concepts:

Print{}, Revisionists: Crew of revolutionary artists who like to destabilize the status quo with their ideas and introduce beauty, chaos, and whimsy to stagnant servers. Seeks out artists of any unusual origin.

• Crew Ability: Stable Loops(?)
• Cohort: Fan club (Chatters) Subtext Recognition, Mandatory Patches

Rho, Filcher: A fractal graffiti artist who uses modified holobombs to produce elaborate organic fractal sculptures. Uses his Mask functions to sneak into all the places he's not supposed to be. His previous iteration chose to be formatted a bit differently with his love of art and desire for transcendent experience intact, but without his business sense. He didn't want his next self to be entangled in the bureaucratic end of memory purveying that dominated that life. He has some forgotten business partners looking to re-recruit him, but they'll have to find him, first. Given the flamboyance of his signature style, they'll at least know what district he's in.

• Mask 2, Link 1, Crash 1, Goto 1.
• Filcher ability: Shadow Dance.
• Filcher Equipment: Boosted Grappling Gear, Encrypted Memory Knife, Holobombs

Brut3, Daemon: A one-armed gigadaemon with a soft side in his textile pixel art that frequently explores negative space. Struggles with his public perception, but always there to defend his art guild. Dreams of a kilocycle when daemons become a respected segment of society, which probably means tearing everything down, first. His intelligence is often underestimated due to his name and stature, but he still knows how to make a deal. Often seen with his signature rug wrapped over the spot where his right shoulder should be. When asked about it, he often responds simply, "Co11ateral." He's perfectly willing to moonlight as a mercenary for Coin, wielding his giant Node-daichi in his left hand. Formerly known as Cu11, he's rumored to have once single-handedly derezzed a small Moderator faction, but at the cost of a banishment where the Arbiter did not look kindly on him.

• Link 1, Buffer 2, Crash 2, Goto 1.
• Daemon abilities: Mobster, Daemon Hide
• Daemon Equipment: A Vile Blade or Two, Legitimate Warez

Illicit Goodz Artifact: High Integrity MEMcard intended for Administrators. If a User is derezzed while in possession of one of these cards, they take no Drift, but always have the result of an unpleasant interrogation in The Stack, resulting in 3 Heat and the MEMcard being confiscated.

Sweet. One of the things that encourages me about HW is that I had a similar seed idea for a setting, and then you come along and show me an example much further in development, with a TTRPG framework to build on. So, yeah, I'll be quietly making my own homebrew HW setting and dreaming up ways to tweak the system as I get a better understanding of it.

Oh, yeah, one little thing that activated my pedantry: It's called The Stack, but it functions as a queue. I'm going to be calling my server's equivalent the "Rez Queue" for the pun's sake. ;) Anyway, off to reading the Daemon playbook.

One gameplay issue I'm thinking about: What does a player do while their character is in The Stack? I've got a few ideas of my own, like giving players a simple Process crew member to control (Some Function dots and standard equipment), letting them manifest as a Shade, or shuffling GM responsibilities so they get a bigger say in plot developments.

I'm also pretty fascinated with some ideas on handling the Process. I feel like treating instances as ephemeral beings that fade in and out in response to User actions, allocating and freeing up memory as needed. Admins and Users can mark exceptions as unique ones who stick around.

Thanks for the answers! I haven't played Blades in the Dark yet, so I'm not used to the non-linear perspective to running heists. (It'd probably help one of my usual groups move along: We're prone to excessive planning phases.) But yeah, it makes sense from that perspective. I'll probably have to get used to it, since Revisionist is looking especially mindbending in the fun way.

Character I've had in mind: A Filcher Artist who sneaks into places he's not supposed to be to unleash 3D fractal graffiti, just to add a little beauty, chaos, and whimsy to places in need of it. Now I'm thinking of an art-focused Revisionist crew who's reckless with the past out of their philosophy of impermanence.

Only recently bought the game, but I'm already putting out feelers, looking for an interested group.

1. How do you determine the chaos level? Is it based on the region's Data Structure (Stable/Chaotic) bar, or is it something else?

2. Are rules for Conspiracy, Moderators, Revisionists still in the works?

3. I'm trying to wrap my head around how MEM is swapped out. Is standard gear like having an ethereal catalogue or inventory and taking the time and MEM slots to download an item make it substantial? If that's the case, I'm guessing the time or opportunities are too prohibitive to reliably swap out during a Score, hence the restriction.