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Blades in the Dark has interesting world-building quirks that I really appreciate.
1. The cops are corrupt, attempting to militarize, and operate essentially as a street gang.
2. There is a dynamic of settler-indigenous-alien, even if a bit problematic.
1. The cops are corrupt, attempting to militarize, and operate essentially as a street gang.
2. There is a dynamic of settler-indigenous-alien, even if a bit problematic.
3. Energy is always a direct result of either death or demons, and nothing else.
4. There is a border wall that must be maintained by this energy.
5. The fundamental question of the game is about land ownership and land usage.
4. There is a border wall that must be maintained by this energy.
5. The fundamental question of the game is about land ownership and land usage.
6. Prisons are a big part of the game and often cause irreversible trauma.
7. The way to seize land usage rights is through turf wars, heists, cons, and coercion.
8. Factions include transportation, local and regional governance, the working poor, and the upper class.
7. The way to seize land usage rights is through turf wars, heists, cons, and coercion.
8. Factions include transportation, local and regional governance, the working poor, and the upper class.
9. The state religion understands that ultimate power lies in becoming, ourselves, demonic.
10. Whenever gangs are at war, there is always a third party seeking to profit from their conflict.
11. Trade is not a benign operation; instead it’s fundamental to class stratification.
10. Whenever gangs are at war, there is always a third party seeking to profit from their conflict.
11. Trade is not a benign operation; instead it’s fundamental to class stratification.
Here’s the point: I love this game not because I am represented in it, not because it makes some sort of nod to diversity, but because it gives me the tools I need to represent myself and my own understanding of how the world works.
This game makes clear that the fundamental resources of the world are death, land, and demons. I feel comfortable playing in a world that articulates itself as such. I feel represented. This is a view of the world, our world, the one we live in, that makes sense to me.
Compare this to your typical swords and sorcery, where the fundamental resource of the game is “nature” and the pillaging of ancient ruins created by those long gone and now inhabited by monsters.
This is not to say that Blades is a decolonial game; simply that, as a system, it holds the possibility for us to tell those stories that emerge from this space. Turf is the central acquisition. Rep, coin, tier—yes. But you gotta expand your land rights claims and defend them.
So for creators looking to create diverse games: don’t simply add an Asian person in a wheelchair and call it a day. Define what is fundamental to your game, who is fighting over it, and why. True diversity emerges from racial & capitalist critique. Represent systems, not people.
