𓃠 BLack Poodle SOlutionS

Body and soul ... fit so well together

yet they are eternally in contention.

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It was just a stray conversation with a handsome stranger. Perhaps you had a few drinks, maybe he slipped you a few honeyed words. Maybe, you were just that desperate.You have something you need, don't you? A problem you can't solve, a desperate craving you can't scratch, a desire that makes you restless.He gave you a black card with a poodle lined in silver on the its matte black face, the words 'Black Poodle Solutions' printed upon it, and 'wishes fulfilled, dreams realized' on the back.Did you call right away? The next morning? Or did you let it linger somewhere, forgotten but burning like a brand in the back of your mind until the desperation simply grew too great.Rest easy now; whatever it is, Black Poodle Solutions can fix it. Lorcan, together with a team of his faithful, his affiliated, and his network, really can make anything happen.Worry about the price when it's done. That can come later.

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OOC

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Hello and welcome - thank you for enduring my bullshit. My name is Ezra and Black Poodle Solutions is the IC company belonging to my OC Lorcan Merel. With this IC company, I host a small rp group where I can act as the DM to complete plots brought forward by my friends, run plot that I think would be fun and further my own character's plot. I'll be experimenting with various DM and TTRPG systems along the way, so please bear with me.The IC jist of this group is that Lorcan is a Mephistopheles type of character, who will help people in their darkest hour with the intent to gain their soul. In so doing, he hopes to amass a web of loyal souls and endebted connections to help him complete his penultimate story - getting revenge on a powerful enemy from his past. To do so, he has bound himself to the Archfiend named Khadeija, and together they scour the star, making lives better and worse at once as they lure people into the web.OOC, this is the premise I use to help further the plots of my friends and people I meet out in the wild and have a good time rping with. OOC there are no expectations of soul contracts being forged or characters being locked down or committed in anyway. From an OOC standpoint, this is purely an IC justification to do things, and if you want your character to be committed on a deeper level - that's cool too.For the ease of conversations, there are three distinct roles of characters who have some level of involvement in Black Poodle. The individual pages will have more information, but basically:

Clients - Clients usually get a single arc before they become one of the three roles below, but these are the people coming to Black Poodle Solutions for help. Characters can be a client multiple times, but it's secondary to however they fall into the structure after their first time as a client.
The Soul Contracts - These are characters who have sold their soul to Lorcan in order to pay for him solving their problem or fulfilling their desire.
The Network - The contacts Lorcan has made who may or may not owe him a favor, but regardless are people he can call upon to assist in the matters brought to Black Poodle Solutions. They may be combatants he can deploy into battle - or they may just be people in high places, who can pull the necessary strings.
The Affiliated - These are the people who keep the cogs moving. Lorcan is just one man, and though meticulous and restless, he cannot do everything alone. The Affiliated help handle logistics and may or may not be Soul Contracts as well. Some of them simply manage his household - where others scout for people who need to receive Black Poodle Solution's card.

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carrd template created by suncarrds

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For whatever reason, your character has decided to sell their soul to Lorcan. The jobs given to Soul Contracts are the same as the jobs given to people in the Network or who are Affiliated - they're just more trusted ICly.There's a few important "rules" I'd like to bring up for anyone looking to make/currently having a soul contract. Just because this can get sticky fast without proper communication. Forgive me this is long as fuck aaaa

I will narratively always avoid taking your character's soul - This means that unless you explicitly consent OOC to having your character's soul sold, I will not write Lorcan buying it. Even though Lorcan is always gunning for it ICly, that is purely IC.I will not ask if you want to sell your character's soul - Because I don't want to pressure anyone and also because I want to be sure that's something you want - it's a conversation you have to initiate OOC. My friends who I've leaned on - don't look at me, friend barking is different.A conversation is required - OOC, I need to know your expectations of how a soul contract will go. Winging it and finding out is not acceptable here, because your comfort and mine is important - we gotta work out a little bit of the trajectory and what Lorcan and his contractors relationship looks like, and make sure we're both happy with it.The theme of the contract is giving in to the devil - This is not an opportunity to rp an abusive relationship. It may at some points be abusive, but on the whole, Lorcan will respect the consent and will of your character except in times of need when he needs someone to do a job and has no better option. Lorcan is Mephistopheles - he is a demon doing the bidding of a greater evil. For Mephistopheles, that was the devil himself, for Lorcan, it is the desire to give in, to fold, and the evil we expose ourselves to in taking the easy way out.Your character must be capable of and give full, informed consent - Again, this is not abuse. Lorcan will be honest that the deal is a bad deal, and your character has to be desperate - but not so desperate they cant make decisions for themselves. There will be no tricking people into having their souls stolen.

What Lorcan is looking for ICly in a soul contract:

People with a practical use - If your character is particularly gifted in a given skill, Lorcan will probably want to add them to his arsenal. It could be combat, medical skill, a talented weaponsmith, someone who is very business savvy, con men or particularly gifted thieves.
People with a strategic use - People who can be leveraged to coerce others to do what he wants.
People who provide resources or can be used as fodder - These are people who are 'low hanging fruit', and are easy contracts to make without a lot of external connections, people who would miss them, or have plentiful access to resources that Lorcan can make use of

Other things he would contract for that require OOC discussion and rp before I agree to it:

People who have or are a voidsent that were contracted to Khadeija in the past - She is an archfiend, so she's got some of them hanging around, but we need to talk about it first.
People who help Lorcan stop himself from chasing the rabbit and keep him oriented towards his goals - These will be few and far between, and our OCs need to have good chemistry and a good relationship first.

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Characters in the Network are any and all characters who, for whatever reason, are willing to help Black Poodle Solutions out when they are contacted.Members of the Network may be Soul Contracts, they may just be Lorcan's friends, or they may be people who are indebted to him or Black Poodle Solutions as an organization through average means. Unless a member of the Network is a Soul Contract, they likely don't know that Lorcan deals in souls, but they may know he has a voidsent attached to him.People in the Network generally have skills such as the following:

Skilled Combatants - People who can hold their own on the front line and can be deployed into the field to serve the needs of Black Poodle Solutions' clients.
People with Connections - These are the people who have reach in places that Lorcan does not, and who are called upon to pull strings in favor of Black Poodle Solutions' clients.
Commanders - These connections would be people who can mobilize others on their behalf, making them more valuable as a connection than a single person alone.
Information Brokers - The people with their ear to the ground who can help Black Poodle Solutions access useful information that Lorcan would otherwise not have access to.

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The Affiliated are those who do not necessarily help directly with the needs and dreams of clients, but they are still integral to the operations of Black Poodle Solutions. They can be Soul Contracts - or they can be average people who are simply earning a wage and turning a blind eye to some of the darker dealings. Soul Contracts in this category will be far more privy to what is actually happening - and some may be tasked with finding more.Characters who fall under the Affiliated are characters such as:

House Staff - Black Poodle Solutions is run primarily out of Lorcan's private home with his husband, but due to the traffic and in interest of trying to keep his private life separate, some house staff are employed to help.
Office Staff - These are people who help with the logistics of Black Poodle Solutions - from taking calls, fielding client communications and filing paperwork to personal assistants.
Scouts - These are people doing the legwork of finding new clients for Black Poodle Solutions - and if they are Soul Contracts, they are also on the hunt for more souls to add to the arsenal.

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These are the two narrative systems that will be used, published primarily for easy rule reference. Redblades is a homebrew version of Blades in the Dark put forward by the free company Chikage.These systems will be used depending upon the needs of the scene, with the Narrative system being a more rp heavy system taking place through text. Redblades, conversely, is a teamwork and problem solving based system, with a focus on random chance, overcoming challenges, taking risks and potentially coming away with more trauma or stress than your character intended to.The Narrative system is played out via text, where as Redblades will be played via discord voice chat. Speaking is not required for Redblades but is encouraged for the sake of time. Narrative based games take roughly three hours, where as RedBlades will take about five hours per session. These are rough estimates so please plan accordingly.

• Narrative
• Redblades

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The Narrative System is a simple, task based system where the focus of the session is moving the plot forward and giving players the chance to analyze and digest plot points and hints without the added stress and distraction of a complex TTRPG system. This system is often used in a campaign or arc in conjunction with a TTRPG system such as Redblades, with the Narrative System aiming to complete low stakes, low risk, information and roleplay heavy tasks that are still impactful to overarching plot. When participating in a Narrative mission, it is an ideal time to roleplay with your party, brainstorm and play your character dynamically and creatively to discover and potentially drive further plot points.In the Narrative System, damage is opt in and success or failure is prescripted by the DM. Success or failure may or may not be communicated to the players depending upon story line needs, but damage and the severity of that damage (to some extent - severe injury may be limited if it would derail the objective) will be opt in at DM prompting.Narrative sessions are played with a maximum of 5 players with 2-4 being preferred. The session will take place in game and over text. Below is the general formula you can expect to follow on these missions.

At an in-game location, players will gather in party and receive an opening narration about the setting, NPCs and points of interest currently in view. Those NPCs and points of interest will be marked with waypoints. After opening narration concludes, the party is then free to engage with the NPCs and points of interest as they deem necessary.As the mission progresses, more NPCs and waypoints may become available. In the event of characters hitting a wall or running out of ideas of where to go, narrative hints will be provided and if worse comes to worse, a gentle nudge from the DM will arrive.There may or may not be combat during a narrative mission. If there is combat, the rules are simple: Every post used to attack an enemy does 1 hp of damage to that enemy. That 1 hp of damage may be increased or decreased at DM discretion according to narrative flow and also player effort and innovation. At DM discretion, those enemies may then attack and deal opt-in damage to players either between player turns or after all players have had one turn in combat. Enemies will generally have between 2-10 hp.When interacting with points of interest, there may or may not be roll checks for success or degree of success. In order to tie in with the RedBlades system, if the DM asks for a check, these will be performed with everyone getting 1d6 to roll to try to clear the check. It is then up to the player to use their RedBlades sheet and convince the DM why a trait they have on their sheet would give them additional d6's to roll corresponding with the trait in question.The outcomes of roll checks are as follows, with the highest value from all dice rolled being taken:1-3: Fail
4-5: Partial Success
6: Success
Two+ 6's: Critical SuccessThe mission will continue until the IC objective is completed or a prescripted mission failure occurs. Narrative missions take roughly 3 hours IRL on average.

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Redblades is a homebrew version of the TTRPG Blades in the Dark, modified to adapt to a final fantasy setting and a one-shot format over a set party format. The system is based around the use of a d6 and is a fail forward system which emphasizes being rewarded for playing out the flaws and vices of your character, even at the detriment of your party.Every action in Redblades comes with a consequence (unless you roll a 6+), and those consequences may come in the form of damage or narrative consequences, so come to each session prepared for rp consequences.This system will be used for high risk, high stakes missions where the focus is more on teamwork, random chance, unpredictability and creative, innovative, in the moment thinking. These sessions will take place over discord voice chat, using either in game or roll20 as a map. Listening is required but talking is not, though it is encouraged for the speed of play and interactivity. These sessions typically take roughly 5 hours.Though Redblades is a homebrew with its own rules, most questions that are not answered here can be answered by looking at the Blades in the Dark Website.

• playbooks
• basics
• Downtime

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In Redblades, you play your character based on a character sheet that falls into one of twelve different playbooks. The easiest way to think of these are as a class. Each playbook has a different flavor and abilities, having different specialties that may be useful during a session. No one playbook is good at everything, and for all of their strengths, there are equal trade offs to each, with no playbook being an allrounder. Because of this, teamwork is encouraged.Before a Redblades session, a completed character sheet is required. Building a character sheet for the first time takes roughly 10-30 minutes. In general, characters start out with 6 trait points to allocate and can then level up through play, though this may be modified in certain circumstances. A guide is posted below of how to set up a character sheet as well as the sheet templates, and the playbooks are as follows:

The Founder - An inventive saboteur & engineer
The Theurge - An arcane adept & channeler
The Spider - A devious mastermind & coordinator
The Rake - A dangerous & intimidating fighter
The Jack - A savvy pilot & deckhand
The Slide - A subtle manipulator & spy
The Lurk - A stealthy infiltrator & assassin
The Hound - A deadly sharpshooter & tracker
The Stitch - A physician of body & soul
The Ghost - A spirit without a body
The Hull - A soul bound to a mechanical frame
The Ravener - A being twisted by their dark hunger

• Playbook Guide
• Playbook Template

• top
• basics
• Downtime

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Though a full TTRPG system, Redblades is easy to pick up on the fly with the help of the DM and other players, with little if any research needed before a session. That said, in order to prepare and understand what to expect, below is a break down of what the start of your first session will look like and how to play out your first turn.

Engagement Roll

A Redblades session, also referred to as a heist, starts by the party going over downtime that was performed ICly before the heist, if there was any. For each downtime action that contributes actively to the heist and is not for personal growth or projects results in adding +1d6 to the engagement dice pool, as well as other benefits, though that is discussed more in the downtime section.Once downtime has been reviewed, the engagement dice pool will be totaled. Every heist begins with a baseline of 2d6 that can be added to or removed from depending upon downtime and narrative circumstances.The DM will give an opening narration, and then the party leader will roll the engagement dice, with the highest outcome deciding the level of danger the heist begins with, according to the chart below.

Two+ 6's: Exceptional result. You’ve already overcome the first obstacle and you’re in a controlled position for what’s next.
6: Good result. You’re in a controlled position when the action starts.
4/5: Mixed result. You’re in a risky position when the action starts.
1-3: Bad result. You’re in a desperate position when the action starts.

Following the engagement roll, the DM will then narrate the outcome of the engagement roll and the scene of the heist.

Turn Order and Loadout

The scene is set - now it falls to the party leader to discuss turn order, and for each party member to declare their load out.Turn order is dynamic and players can swap with each other at any time or as the need arises - but they may only go once per player turn. However, deciding a turn order at the start of the heist provides a fall back and stability to keep the heist moving forward for the sake of time.Loadout is how much inventory space your character has on their person. Unlike other TTRPG systems, you are not required to declare what your character has in their bag prior to the session. Instead, you only need to declare how big your character's inventory is, and then when your character needs to use something such as armor, a weapon, or an item from your sheet, you can declare it when it is used and account for it in the loadout you declared at the start of the heist. Each loadout has a pro and a con, which may be in the form of space or narrative discretion. The loadout breakdown is as follows:

Light: 3 slots of inventory space. Your character is light on their feet and does not stand out among civilians.
Medium: 5 slots of inventory space. Your character may be noticed for the amount of gear they have and may struggle with acrobatic feats.
Heavy: 6 slots of inventory space. Your character is obviously heavily geared, and an action roll will be required for any stealthy or acrobatic actions.

Setting Up your First Turn

It's now your turn, and it's up to you to decide what your character does. The DM will be an active part of your turn, helping you decide which actions to take and providing insight into your choices. Your party can also add their input or advice at your discretion, however it is in the individual turns in which the Redblades system shines. In most TTRPG systems, a player turn generally aims to be the most mechanically effective it can be - in Redblades, however, your character is encouraged to act how they would act, whether it is for the good or ill of the heist.Something to consider when taking your turn, are your characters beliefs, drives, heritage and background as well as their vices and breaks. Though not all Redblades arcs will award leveling due to the one-shot nature of this rp group, in situations where it does, this is how you gain exp. It is fine to do something that gives material benefit to the heist or help out your teammates, but it's also fine to play your character as they are, flaws, struggle and all, even if that puts the heist at a detriment or is a selfish action.With this in mind, you need to decide on an action. For each turn you can complete one intention, and you are limited to one action roll and one turn roll.An intention is the goal of your turn - for example, if you want to steal something from a room but a locked door stands between your character and the room, you may use your turn to pick the lock, but not pick the lock and steal the object.If you want to steal the object, but the room is crowded and you need to sneak past a group of people, you may perform a flat Action Roll at the DM's direction using either a trait (the stats on your sheet) or category (Insight, Prowess, Willpower) to see if you are able to sneak past successfully.Once you have decided on your intention, explain the DM how your character is narratively going to complete that intention, and what trait your character is going to use to do it. The DM will respond by telling you your position, which is how safe or dangerous the action is, and your effect, which is how well the action might go depending upon your roll. There is a standard breakdown of both position and effect:

Desperate Position: Any consequences of your action will be severe.
Risky Position: Any consequences of your action will be moderate.
Controlled Position: Any consequences of your action will be mild.Great Effect: You are confident you can complete your full intention.
Standard Effect: You may complete your intention but not how you anticipate.
Low Effect: You may complete the intention but it may not have the desired effect.

When performing your turn, you will start off with a dice pool of however many points you have in the trait you are using for the turn. Once the DM tells you your position and effect and clarifies how many dice are in your starting dice pool, if you are content with this, you are free to roll and end your turn. However, you are also free to alter your formula.

Altering Your Formula

There are a few ways to alter your formula and either increase your dice pool or increase your effect. They are as follows:

Taking a Devils Bargain - A devils bargain is a deal with the DM. You can have +1d6 or increase your effect by one level, but in exchange your character will experience a consequence that cannot be resisted. These consequences are always bad - but you always have the opportunity to ask to hear the devil's bargain without taking it.
Pushing Yourself - Your character can push themselves, taking two limit but in exchange earning either +1d6 or increased effect.
Abilities - Your character has abilities, and some of them may increase effect or dice pool.
Get Help - Your teammates can assist you and give you either +1d6 or increased effect. Your teammate will have to describe how they are helping and what trait they are using that they have points in.
Use an Item - Items can only increase effect, but the items on your sheet are items your character has access to for free (aside from the cost of inventory).
Flashback for an Item - If there is a specific item you want your character to use to increase effect that they did not acquire in downtime and is not on your sheet, you can ask for a flashback to obtain that item. Flashbacks cost 1-3 limit depending upon DM discretion.
Drop your Position - Explain to the DM how your character makes the action more dangerous than it needs to be and if the DM accepts it, you can drop your position to increase effect.
Sell your Snakeoil - All turns in Redblades are a conversation between yourself and the DM. It may be difficult, but you can try to convince the DM why you should have greater effect.

You can use all of these methods to alter your formula, or pick and choose as needed.

Turn Endings, Consequences and Resistances

So you completed your first turn. The outcome is decided based on your highest roll, as follows:

1-3: Fail
4-5: Partial Success
6: Success
Two+ 6's: Critical Success

Which means that if you didn't roll a 6, your character receives a Consequence. You're in luck though, since with the exception of consequences incurred from a Devils Bargain, you have the opportunity to resist.In order to resist you may either use armor (which costs inventory slots), a party member can protect you, or you can resist with a Resistance Roll. A resistance roll is done by telling the DM which category (insight, prowess, willpower) you will use to resist and narratively, how your character uses their insight, prowess or willpower to resist. For example, if your consequence is having your character's secret identity revealed, you can use Willpower to talk your way out of it.Once you have decided on how your character will resist, now it is time to roll. To roll resistance, you will roll as many dice as you have traits in the given category, and take the highest outcome. No matter what you roll, you resist the consequence, but your roll does determine how much, if any, limit you take as a result of resisting that consequence.

1: Five limit
2: Four limit
3: Three limit
4: Two limit
5: One limit
6: No limit
Two+ 6's: Heal one limit

You can only roll one resistance roll per turn. You may also use armor or be protected once per turn. To use armor, you must simply declare you are using armor and then mark the inventory slots, bearing in mind that armor is one use only. To be protected, a party member must declare that they will protect you. At that point, the party member can then choose to take the consequence on themselves, or resist the consequence.

Limit Breaking

If you have used up all the limit on your character sheet, your character will Limit Break. What this means is that when you have used up all your limit, your character will have the option to complete one free minor intention at great effect. They may not be able to kill the boss with a limit break - but if they were already hitting the boss, or the boss was low on HP, a limit break may be the thing which ends the boss, and so on. After limit breaking, your character is effectively out of the heist. You can choose what that looks like for you - passed out, no longer willing to participate, depleted, etc - but after your character limit breaks, you are no longer able to take any actions or assist in the heist.After limit breaking, you can select a Break, which is a consequence of limit breaking that needs to be healed from. Breaks are similar to vices, but instead of being an indulgence your character struggles with, they are a trauma your character struggles with.

• playbooks
• top
• Downtime

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Not every heist will have downtime as not every heist will give characters the chance to prepare beforehand, but for those that do, downtime can be a useful tool.Downtime is just what it sounds like - it is what characters spend their time doing before the heist, and the benefits (or consequences) it gives them. Downtime can be spent a number of ways:

Starting or Advancing a Project - Your character can build something or have another objective that can be moved forward during downtime.
Indulging in a Vice - Indulging in a vice is a way to heal limit before the heist begins, and is helpful if your character is going on several heists that occur narratively back to back.
Training - Your character can spend their downtime training, which will give them one block of exp in the trait that they train.
Acquiring Resources or Information Relevant to the Heist - This is the most encouraged downtime action. In order to make the heist easier or to better prepare, your character can do a 'side quest' to obtain information, resources or some other advantage to make the heist easier for themselves and the rest of the party. These play out like a simplified turn roll with reduced consequence in exchange for not being able to take devils bargains, push yourself, use items or drop your position.

For every downtime performed by a party member that directly assists with the upcoming heist, the party will gain +1d6 to the engagement dice pool.

• playbooks
• basics
• top

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