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Band of Blades

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THE ROAD TO SKYDAGGER KEEP

The Legion is in retreat following a failed battle against the armies of the undead. You are a member of the Legion, your bonds to one another forged in the dark by bone and blood.

But time is running out as more fall to the indomitable forces of the Cinder King. As Legionnaires, you must make it to Skydagger Keep before you're cut off or overtaken by the undead. Paying horrifying costs, you'll employ offensives, maneuvers, unwise bargains, and desperate gambits as the ever-ticking clock nears its final hour.

Do you have what it takes to outwit, outrun, and outlast the endless hordes of the undead, or will your band of blades break beneath the Cinder King's iron fist? Play to find out in Band of Blades, a stand-alone, Forged in the Dark RPG of dark military fantasy.

Band of Blades contains all the rules you need to play. In this book you'll find:

  • A clear game structure for playing out missions filled with moment-to-moment danger and tracking the overall fate of the Legion.
  • Rookie, Soldier, and five different Specialist playbooks, with Legionnaires created as they are needed when the casualties of war set in.
  • Legion roles for all of the players: the Commander sets mission priorities, the Marshal directs the troops, the Quartermaster manages precious resources, the Spymaster gathers intel in the field, and the Lorekeeper preserves the histories of the Legion.
  • Three playable Chosen—humans imbued with the powers of the gods, each with their own unique gifts.
  • Army advancement throughout the campaign, including gaining new materiel and the promotion of the Legion's troops.
  • Four distinct heritages of brave and flawed people seeking to survive another night of the Cinder King's horrors.

Join us on the road to Skydagger Keep. Our numbers are few, our supplies are low, and every operation is a deadly risk—but if any chance exists to make a difference in the outcome of the war, it is this cohort, the only remaining hope, this bloody band of blades!

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Reviews (3)
Discussions (17)
Customer avatar
Matthew B June 01, 2020 2:05 am UTC
Does the pdf have the errata from the Evil Hat website already integrated? I'm almost definitely buying it either way. I'm also lazy, and want to know if I have to cross-reference before I actually do.
Customer avatar
David W J December 21, 2019 9:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is there a set number of how many people are in the legion at the start of the game? Can the players increase that number? I was thinking of having the unique squads be scattered across the map and can be found through a mission.
Customer avatar
John S December 17, 2019 1:06 am UTC
I wanted to add another vote for removing the heavy black borders to make the playbook sheets more printer-friendly. Bonus points if we could see it without the grayscale areas.

I'm excited to try this game!
Customer avatar
Charles N August 30, 2019 3:41 pm UTC
why is there no real preview of what's in the book? i would like to see a simple of what i'm about to buy.
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Customer avatar
John L September 17, 2019 10:57 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
There's a full table of contents, a few sample pages and pieces of art, and you can find the character sheets on the official site (http://offguardgames.com/band-of-blades/). What do expect to find when looking at previews?
Customer avatar
Panu L August 01, 2019 10:08 pm UTC
How much of a one trick pony is this?

It sounds really interesting and evocative game but I am slightly conserned about its replayability.
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Customer avatar
John L August 05, 2019 10:37 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
As creators we're aware of this sort of thing (because surprise, surprise, you have to playtest a game of this scale a bunch) so there's a bunch of replay-ability options built in. There are different Chosen, different Broken, and different paths of advancement, not to mention that random generation puts different missions in your way.

We've found there to be plenty of replay-ability, but your mileage may vary.
Customer avatar
Michael G July 27, 2019 12:35 am UTC
Any chance those playbooks are going to get a printer-friendly treatment? The black book edging as styled look great on screen, but there's no way this is going to see play if I've got to invest in ink-moist and dripping sheets of paper!
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Customer avatar
Michael G July 28, 2019 10:45 pm UTC
No longer an issue for me; seriously, thank you for keeping the .PDFs "unlocked." I still think it would be a good idea to have a white border version for those without editing capabilities.
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Customer avatar
John L July 31, 2019 11:45 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
We have fans supporting us and buying the files here. Keeping stuff unlocked is just a way of respecting the fans. :)

We'll discuss a no-border take! Might be something we look at for the future.
Customer avatar
Aaron A June 26, 2019 6:51 pm UTC
Any chance Band of Blades will get a Print on Demand once the hardback officially releases?
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Customer avatar
Aaron A June 26, 2019 7:04 pm UTC
Whoops never mind I scrolled down
Customer avatar
Nathan J April 29, 2019 7:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Just bought this--looks fantastic--seems the latest update to these files were in May of 2018. Any chance we can get a more recent version of the playbooks and rules soon? I am extremely curious about the changes to the system over the last year. I have a group that is willing to start and we would be happy to provide play test information if you are interested.
Thanks!
Reply
Customer avatar
John L May 15, 2019 4:48 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Good news. We have the full text (standalone) finished. Should be out to all you folks in a couple weeks (soon as the sheets are updated).
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Customer avatar
Nathan J May 20, 2019 10:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Great news, thanks!
Reply
Customer avatar
Nathan J June 21, 2019 3:55 am UTC
PURCHASER
Now that the Preorder (and final PDF) is available, any idea as to when DriveThruRPG will get updated PDF files?
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Customer avatar
John L June 21, 2019 4:52 am UTC
PUBLISHER
You're cracking me up Nathan. Clearly a superfan! :D Thanks for your excitement.

I finished the stream where we announced it, and immediately hopped over to update the product site (ya beat me here). I'd expect tonight, or tomorrow (sometimes it takes a bit for products to go live once we hit publish).

But the answer is: soon!
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Customer avatar
John L June 21, 2019 5:34 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Ok Nathan, should be good to go. It looks like on the backend they still have to update the title but I promise the files are updated and you should be able to download the new stuff. GOOD LUCK.
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Customer avatar
Nathan J June 21, 2019 8:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Awesome! Everything looks great!
Customer avatar
Gregory M April 06, 2019 4:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
i can't dwld the Bob6x9beta1.0 folder! it's tell me incompleted or corrupted format! can you help me?!
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Customer avatar
John L April 06, 2019 6:52 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I just bought it from a personal account and verified that all the files are good. Check that the download popup for this site works, and your ad-block software isn't stopping it. If you keep having the problem email drivethru support.
Customer avatar
Robin D March 23, 2019 4:12 pm UTC
PURCHASER
hey john,
any update if theres going to be a kickstarter or something alike?
would love to throw some money at you for a special edition, extra dice etc..
hope you are doing good
robin
Reply
Customer avatar
John L May 15, 2019 4:50 am UTC
PUBLISHER
First off—you're awesome. Thank you so much for the support!

Right now there isn't a plan for a KS since the core book was part of the Blades in the Dark KS. We're hoping to get to expansions and the like at some point, and we'll take a look at it again then.

For now our focus was on finishing up this game.

Thanks for asking!
Customer avatar
Brian S January 18, 2019 2:37 pm UTC
I’m interested but $17 for an unfinished pdf that requires another product to play, seems a little outlandish.
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Customer avatar
John L January 19, 2019 9:53 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The quick start that requires the free SRD to play is only temporary. The files will be updated to the full book text once it's complete in a couple months (so you get the full version at this price as soon as it's available) and that's what most people are buying into.

Since many people have requested this (and indeed, we get a lot of questions, feedback and actual-play reports from it) it's targeted at the big chunk of our playerbase that doesn't want to wait for the full version to get this to their table. Additionally the quick start rules help fund all our art, and finish development.

If you want the full version, feel free to visit in a few months.

Thanks for the feedback!
Customer avatar
Mike S January 14, 2019 7:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Very intriguing game, but even in a Beta format this really needs at least an opening page that sets it up for me. It's really odd to open this up directly to a playbook. Like, what am I even looking at here? What is this game about? Even a summation of the Role:Game Master page would be a better opening than what you have now.

Frankly I had to check all three files to see if mine was bad and was missing the opening pages!
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Customer avatar
Mike S January 14, 2019 8:38 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Quick update - I failed to open the correct file and just now noticed that the 6x9 file is actually the real game text. So I withdraw the complaint above, but it would be nice to append "handouts" or something similar to the other file names to avoid the confusion!
Reply
Customer avatar
John L January 19, 2019 9:48 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Interestingly you're the first person to bring this up, but it's actually a reasonable suggestion. We're working on the full version atm, but I'll make sure to have updated filenames when the files go up.
Customer avatar
Luc B September 12, 2018 1:33 pm UTC
I have the same question as Gareth. I'm interested in this game but as a print on demand product that has been completed.
Reply
Customer avatar
John L September 19, 2018 10:27 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey Luc!

As you can see in the comment below, we will indeed have a standalone product.

We also do plan to have a physical copy, though I'm not sure print on demand is likely.
Customer avatar
Gareth L August 29, 2018 6:04 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi there,
Is this going to be expanded into a complete game, or is it intended to always require blades to use?
Reply
Customer avatar
John L September 19, 2018 10:26 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey Gareth!

We're definitely making this a standalone product, same as we did with Scum and Villainy (we mention this in the product description).

The gist is this. We wanted folks to be able to pick up something they could play with the Blades SRD (which you can get for free here: https://bladesinthedark.com/) right away, but as we work on the text the folks that picked up the game will get updates until it's finally done.

So yes. You'll get a complete standalone game, though books take a bit to write. I promise we're doing it as fast as we can (almost have a full text first draft!).

Thanks for asking!

Customer avatar
Chad K June 25, 2018 3:07 pm UTC
Please make the preview even smaller, I want to go blind so i can get a dog and that sweet white cane. i also look good in dark sunglasses. thanks.
Reply
Customer avatar
John L July 30, 2018 9:56 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Chad K -

The preview is auto-generated by DriveThru. We can only tell them what pages to generate it from. But if you do get a cute dog, nice shades and a sweet cane, we definitely want to see some photos! :D
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad K July 31, 2018 12:16 am UTC
There is an option for a "FULL SIZE PREVIEW" that you can talk to Drive-Thru about. :) :) :)
Customer avatar
June 09, 2018 8:27 pm UTC
Getting vibes of "The Black Company." Sounds great.
Reply
Customer avatar
coleman G January 18, 2019 5:30 pm UTC
I'm getting the same vibes...along with vibes of the "Myth: the Fallen Lords" series by Bungie (which drew a lot of inspiration from the Black Company series). An army of the dead with corrupted Generals, tactical retreats, a mercenary company called the Legion...
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Product Information
Mithral seller
Pages
464
ISBN
978-1-61317-173-8
Publisher Stock #
EHP0048E
File Size:
95.09 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
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File Last Updated:
July 19, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on May 31, 2018.