Beam Saber (Part 2)

Unlike other mecha TTRPGs, this one is about the characters

The first part of the critic can be found here.

5. Disassemble Engine

Games have a flow, which, when you hit, the game pretty much runs itself. It is extremely satisfying. After examining the interactions of game elements, we single out the most important - the one that sets the pace of sessions, or even campaigns. We focus on how that engine works, how it makes the game move along, and what to do to make it do what you want to do - and how to keep it running clean.

Lucrécia

Beam Saber has a very orthodox FitD engine. Clocks and filling of clocks fill other clocks or stop the filling of other clocks or make things happen, powered by actions rolls that convert your stress into ticks in clocks.

There are some pretty good support engines, but Beam Saber is about using what already exists with baseline Blades in the Dark and repurposing it for its use rather than reinventing the wheel.

Brad

Time is life, punch a clock, solve a problem.

6. Essentials For Session One

So, you got this game; you are going to play it, but you don’t have the time to read everything. Or even worse, you have read it and now it is all jumbled together. Here we break down the things that you absolutely want to get right and/or hit during your first session, so you get the feeling for what makes this game stand out from similar art.

Ludo

The art of designing player’s principles has fallen to the wayside, both in the wake of PbtA “aging out” and in the rise of FitD. Beam Saber knows how much a principle can carry a game, and its principles are pretty good: they excel at creating play culture and reminding each other of mechanics and their nuances. As such, they are a light read that will pay dividends (pg. 144) when trying to bring the game to the table.

Beam Saber will be very easy to introduce to BitD/FitD veterans — despite its many innovations, it is still a very orthodox FitD. However, it contains many tools that are as good as the original Blades in the Dark Play Kit at introducing players to the game.

• If utterly new to BitD/FitD, read and share the basics.

• The session zero setup is pretty useful and should not be skipped (pg 253).

• Learn how Vehicles work (pg.154), with special emphasis on Quirks (pg. 162) and additional Vehicles loadouts (pg. 158)

• Familiarize yourself with Drives, even if they may not show up in the first session (pg. 68), they are pretty important for Beam Saber.

• Squads and Factions work significantly different and have unique mechanics. If you have the time, you should give them a read (pg. 180).

Once you have done that, you should run the Fort Jovanol Incident (pg. 304). After that, use your hands-on experience to make your own missions (pg. 287). It is possible to play two sessions in a single session with little prep or additional work.

Brad

I would make sure in addition that you are very familiar with Squads! They are as defining as individual playbooks and will define the rest of the campaign, a [Redacted] Squad will have a very different set of missions than a Mechanized Cavalry Squad.

Factions matter to missions, read them and understand how they work and what they want before you run your first operation!

7. Playing The Game Wrong

Games are played wrong. Rules will be misunderstood, interactions will be confused, the importance of certain tech disregarded; etc. This is good, and it is good to acknowledge for: you cannot have the designer at your table, and even if they were, they would be just another player - and entitled to play it wrong. After identifying stress points of the game, things that don’t connect that well, we think of the things that are more likely to be (or have been) “played wrong”. What happens when you forget a line on page 273 clearly saying this is impossible?

Lucrécia

Unfortunately, Beam Saber suffers of the fate that seems to befall even FitD games that are successful in establishing their own identity, systems and gamescape: they are designing on top of one of the most over-designed rules frameworks, so they always have to build on top of a convoluted foundation, ending up with all that baggage rattling somewhere in its gears.

Beam Saber, however, is more successful than most at easing these familiar pains. For example, while some elements of each step have been streamlined for action rolls, it is still a 6-8 steps process: you still have to negotiate for pre-emptive consequences and reactions, positioning, clocks, negotiate for bonus die and then finally roll and tally. However, two things do wonders for making action rolls more fulfilling and faster to resolve: streamlined consequences and stated ways how action rolls translate into action rather than feeding clocks which then produce an action (so you don’t have to go through this dance at least twice for doing the simplest thing).

Resistance is, infamously, one of the most punishing trap options of BitD/FitD; if you rolling to are Resistance, you are going to end in an awful position resource-drained, so better be avoiding something that would be much worse on where you would end up if you had not Resisted. While remaining a trick option for Pilots, Beam Saber changes how it works for Vehicles. Resistance becomes worthwhile when piloting your mecha, especially when combined with armor¹.²

Assisting someone is pretty unsatisfying in FitD baseline — the best way to “help” someone is to contribute to the same clock, otherwise you’re spending stress to get them extra die but not helping that clock faster. This is not the case in Beam Saber! You get various options for Assists, all of them useful in the right circumstances. Do not sleep on Assists; they can be a powerful tool at your Pilots disposal.

Brad

I have played several FiTD games and still occasionally struggle with positioning, doing the best I can, and being willing to let players talk me into some differences. I think that mastery over that will only come with time. Beam Saber’s streamlining dramatically improved this process and made it more palatable for my table.

8. What to Steal

Experiencing good art is the most important step in making good art. We look back at the things that worked and did not work about this game, see what we learned for design work, interesting tech and just a general overview of things that we will take from this game and bring into others. Or more honestly: since many of us may not play this game and we have it in our library, this way we can get some use out of it.

Ludo

The end of session and XP mechanics for FitD are a masterpiece on how reward incentives shape play between sessions and how players/characters approach the world around them, and worth studying by anyone interested in designing in that space or just how to homebrew progression for different types of BitD games. The best incarnation of that has to be Beam Saber.

Drives! Drives are so good at tying the existing game engine to characterization, pulling so much work for one of the biggest negative spaces of BitD/FitD; its design and impact deserve study!

Beam Saber is a greedy mecha game that tries — and manages — to hit as many features of the genre as possible. There is much to be learned looking into the ways it does that, especially when building a mecha game for established systems.

Brad

A maximalist FiTD game about Mechs doesn’t seem like a winner from that brief description, but it works so well! A refined FiTD with cool new elements and interesting vehicle rules does elevate Beam Saber.

I think that is where you can steal, always focus on how you can turn little parts of the system that your game struggles against into a strength, and always be willing to sand down and smooth parts of the process that don’t work.

We really enjoy making these critics, and we hope you enjoy reading them as well. It is through the support of our collective, CyCo. You can find more of our work by backing our Patreon, and support us by sharing these posts with friends. You can also get reminders of new content and further support us by subscribing to our newsletter.

1. But of course, Armor always better, and Vehicles have no limit to how much armor they can pick for load.

2. And like most FitD games, Beam Saber drops the rules about being forced to do a Resitance roll and succeed before attempting certain types of Action Rolls.