Band of Blades is a Forged in the Dark dark military fantasy game, written by John Leboeuf-Little and Stras Acimovic. It puts the players in charge of the remnants of a famed mercenary troop, the Legion, which was recently shattered in a huge battle against dark supernatural powers.
The setting, at least for the first published campaign, is the Western land of Aldermark, once part of the Old Empire. For the last eight years, Aldermark has been on the front line in the war against the Cinder King, the powerful leader of an undead army.
Last year a combined army of the Eastern nations, led by the Chosen of the Eastern gods, marched west to face his forces. They lost. Some of the divinely empowered Chosen fell, then rose again as corrupted undead, new lieutenants for the Cinder King.
This year there was a last-ditch attempt to halt his advance at the battle of Ettenmark, with the Legion among the assembled armies. Once again, they lost. Now the remnants of the Legion, aided by one of the few surviving Chosen, is making a fighting retreat to the East.
If they can reach the mountains before winter, to repair and hold the old fortress of Skydagger Keep, which guards a pass leading to the Eastern nations, they might just prevent the Cinder King's undead armies from slaughtering the other half of the continent. And by doing that, they might just help to save the world.
But the price will be high.
The creators have said that The Road to Skydagger Keep, the campaign within the main Band of Blades book, is intended as the first part of a trilogy. The remaining chapters are not yet published.
Band of Blades contains the following tropes:
- The Ageless: The Chosen of the Zemyati’s Living God. Other Gods empower Chosen when they need them, replacing them after they burn out. The Living God created all of his Chosen centuries or millennia ago, and they endure until something kills them.
- All Deaths Final: Magic can heal the living, and the Cinder King’s power can create undead, but nothing can bring the dead back to life.
- Animate Dead: Played with but generally averted. The Cinder King and the Broken can certainly create undead, but it's usually a slow procedure with specific requirements, not a magical invocation. In some cases it also requires live humans, not corpses, as a starting point.
- Big Bad: The Cinder King, although he's almost a Greater-Scope Villain for the initial campaign. He's well aware of the Chosen accompanying the heroes, though, so not quite uninvolved or distant enough for that to apply.
- Clockwork Creature: Clockwork, undead and lethal. Lugos the Clockwork Assassin is one of Blighter's lieutenants.
- Co-Dragons: The two Broken pursuing the Legion are this to the Cinder King (as are the other, offscreen, Broken who aren't directly seen in play); each of the Broken has three Lieutenants assigned to serve as their own co-dragons.
- The Corruption: As well as physical and mental harm, this is a hazard for player characters as well as npcs. Corrupted humans will eventually need to be dealt with before they change sides and become the Cinder King's creatures. Especially notable with Blighter's army.
- Crapsack World: It wasn't. In fact, within living memory, most of it seemed quite pleasant. And then the Cinder King arose.
- Fallen Hero: The Broken. Each of them was one of the Chosen, the great heroes blessed by the gods. They rode out to confront the Cinder King and he corrupted and recruited them.
- Great Offscreen War: Two of them. Not much detail has been revealed about either, but they cast a long shadow over the campaign.
- The Godswar, 190 years ago, when the gods and their Chosen fought each other.
- The Breaking of Dar, when Zora did... something... that may have consequences.
- Mercy Kill: If Shreya is the Legion's Chosen, anyone tainted by The Corruption will be slain long before the effects become a major problem.
- Necromancer: The Cinder King certainly qualifies, as do the various Broken who serve him.
- Non-Human Undead: Generally averted. Some of the Broken have corrupted monstrous animals, but none have managed to create undead from anything other than humans. That said, one mission in the first campaign asks the Legion to stop the Broken from experimenting on one particular type of fantasy creature. Just in case they do find a way, presumably.
- Perpetual-Motion Monster: Generally played straight with undead foes, but the Fleshblighter's 'Rotters' keep decaying, so won't last forever.
- Role-Playing Endgame: The game ends when winter falls and the remnants of the Legion reach Skydagger Keep, an abandoned fortress in the mountains, and make their last stand against the Cinder King's lieutenants and their undead hordes.
- The Scrounger: Officers and Scouts both get a version of this. Scouts have a 'Scounge' skill that lets them find shelter or supplies in the field; Officers get 'Channels' which lets them issue equipment or supplies that the Legion doesn't officially have (or, at least, it's not on the Quartermaster's records...) before the squad starts a mission.
- There Are No Therapists: As with the original Blades in the Dark game, there is no standard mechanical way to remove Trauma once you acquire it. If you fill all your trauma boxes, you die. And Band of Blades characters can't soak up as much trauma as their Blades in the Dark equivalents.
- Walking Wasteland: Blighter’s lieutenant Black Rotting Gale exemplifies this. He’s weaponised the corruption that so many undead carry, and his presence poisons the air, land and water around him.
- Weird Moon: The moon was the domain of the Goddess Nyx. When her Chosen was corrupted and Broken, the moon shattered. Some large pieces also fell to earth - depending on the players' choices, they might visit an area where some landed.
- Zombify the Living: Gaunt, Spitters and Gut-Sacks all follow this creation route. Burned don't need to - but if they're dead first, the corpses need to be very fresh.
