Content:

Introduction

The World

The City

The wheels of justice

Glossary

Actions

Playbooks
Archivist
Attorney
Trickster
Warden
Theologian
Herald
Introduction
Laws of the Dark is a Blade in the Dark hack that let you play in a world heavily
(heavily) inspired by the craft sequence, a book series written by Max Gladstone “set
in a postindustrial fantasyland: gods with shareholders’ committees, necromancers in
pinstriped suits, and soulstuff as currency.” short version - it’s awesome.
long version - it’s a world that takes modern conceptions and institutions and presents
them honestly and fairly in a completely alien setting, and thus help us as the reader to
reexamine the foundations of our society from the outside, and have a lot of fun.
Seriously, go read it. I’m waiting.
You did? Great. Now it’s a good time to tell you that Laws of the dark is not set in the
craft sequence. Your table may run it exactly like the world in the books, and it’s cool,
but my working assumption is that it’s better to mix and match all the things you love
about the craft sequence and add all bunch of other interesting concepts and places to
play with, without feeling obligated to stay true to the book’s cannon.
Disclaimer - all of the Craft stuff, with the exception of the Theosphere and Babylon
Ascend, is inspired by the Craft sequence, including some paraphrases and (sometime
unmarked) quotes from “three parts dead”, “deathless: the city’s thirst” and “full
fathom five” all of it is the intellectual property of Max Gladstone. Blades in the Dark
and its rules are the work and property of John Harper.
Now, with that out of the way, what do we have in LotD world?

The World
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Gods, like humans, are patterns imposed
upon the chaos, only differing in scale: Gods are creatures of gargantuan might,
encompassing countless transactions of faith and grace, souls and sacrament,
insurance and ritual. Mortals, on the other hand, have relatively little obligations that
truly root to the core of their being - to the earth for their body, and to the stars for
their souls.
That truth, as with many others, took some time to be acknowledged.
That truth, as with many others, set the world on fire and shook it to the core.
Unlike many other truths, that truth might very well end the world, and almost did.
“Societies characterized by the relationship between the divine and the mortal, and
appear as an immense accumulation of power. To improve these societies, we must
understand the dynamics of power.”
Those are the first words of Maestre Gerhardt treatise Das Thaumas. Seemingly
innocent words, until one understands their implication - that gods and mortals only
differ in how they accumulate and apply power. Many understood. The first
experiments to prove those outrageous claims made vast plains into lifeless wasteland.
Poor results, but positive evidence nevertheless. The gods didn’t approve.
And so, the God Wars began. A global conflict between gods and human practitioners
of Craft - the science and art or using powers at the gods’ scale. Gods feared that
unrestrained human use of Craft would destroy the world. They tried to fight the first
generations of Craftsfolk. This did not end well for them.
About half the world is now under Craftfolks rule, which might be a serious problem,
as mortal Craft consumes soulstuff, and desiccates the surrounding world. Craftsfolk
tend to regard this as an amusing side effect, as they discovered they can live off
starlight forever with no special side effects beside the loss of their flesh, feeling and
most of their sense of morality. They are called deathless kings and queens, and are
rather horrifying.
There were, naturally, a lot of dead gods lying around by that point. Most of them got
harvested by the dread kings for souls and power, but the nature of many gods is
inherently inaccessible to the unbelievers (as a security mechanism) and the deathless
kings are as unbelieving as you get. So, we got a lot of dead gods lying around, some
physical, mostly metaphorical and spiritual. They keep the faithful connected even in
death, but it’s a hollow, twisted sort of connection, like a phantom limb, or the
memory of a dead lover.
And so, some desperate priest turned to the only ones that could help: the Craftfolks,
and the Craftfolks did what Craftfolks do - they examined the relations of power
inside the dead deities souls. Then, they have cut the dead parts that alien pests
infected, streamline the connection between the remade god and their faithful in a way
that didn’t make them go mad, and (in a stroke of insanity or genius) connected most
of the dead gods into a single, huge, interconnected web of information.
The Theosphere.
By some miracle of undivine dumb luck, the following chaos didn’t ignite the war
anew. The deathless kings and living gods carved their own domains in the realms of
the Theosphere, and the world got a lot smaller than it used to be - everything and
everyone just a single prayer to a dead god away.

The City
While the Gods War raged, most cities got involved in one horrible battle or another,
sustaining terrible damages that are showing until the present day (especially since the
war didn’t end very long ago).
Most cities.
Babylon Ascend isn’t like most cities. Since the dawn of their history, Babylon
enjoyed extremely polytheistic views - every deity can be worshiped and respected in
Babylon, and all visitors are welcome. When the Gods War was about to start, the
gods and craftspeople asked Babylon to take sides, but the city declined. When the
Craftfolks took it as a declaration of war and laid a siege on Babylon, the defenders
started to worship them, which got the dread kings so confused they immediately
accepted the surrender and moved on to less theologically complicated cities.
Today, Babylon has stayed one of the few officially neutral places in the world, not
taking sides in the economical and ideological conflict between the dreadlands and the
godslands. The city’s status as a neutral party changed her from a relatively
unimportant port-town, into a massive metropolis, economic powerhouse, and safe
haven for fugitives from both sides. Also, they are currently building a gargantuan
tower they plan will bypass the atmosphere and let them harvest starlight directly
from the heavens, hence “Ascend”. Absolutely nothing will go wrong with that plan,
they assure The Tower’s stockholders.
You are playing a small law-firm in Babylon Ascend, and are about to dive head-first
into the city’s convoluted justice system. Are you ready?
Too bad.

The wheels of justice

There are no strict rules for the course of a trial in Law of the Dark. In universe there
are strict (though archaic and convoluted) rules to determine the due process in each
and every trial, but the game is not meant to simulate an actual criminal justice
system. That would have been amazingly boring. Rather, the rule's purpose is to help
you enjoy a dramatic representation of a larger than life supernatural justice system.
Are there juries? You tell me. How many judges are there? Roll a few dice and round
to the closest topological number. Can demons show as expert witnesses on
theological issues? Well, the legal precedents are unclear, how will you show the
judge it’s legal? (probably Bind or Debate action roll)

Don’t expect realism here.

Here are some components for our imaginary justice system - mix and match, ignore,
or reinforce them as you please. The justice systems should be:
● Consistent - as in - when the rules are changing you need to invent some
excuse as to why.
● Frequently unfair -if protests are legal, there should be protests against many
laws. If protests are illegal, then they are illegal protests.
● Highly inaccessible - to the uneducated, unconnected and to those who don’t
have the money to hire a decent Craftperson.
Also, the law should feature a weird mix of:
● Modern-seeming laws and issues: insurance trials, risk management's expert
opinions, municipal regulation disputes, suing Theosphere providers for
copyright infringement ext’
● Clearly archaic or supernatural issues: biblical-style father’s blessing disputes,
gods’ sovereignty disagreements, deities suing sinners for breaching the faith’s
contract and running from the temple, heirs suing their undead parent for their
inheritance, god’s bankruptcy bridging between believers and creditors, ext’
● (taking into account your and your players’ sensitivities)
Outright horrifying laws and punishments: beheading, sending criminal’s souls
directly into one of the hells, locking people into
law-enforcing-golem-iron-maidens, erasing years of copyrighted memories of
people's minds, slavery or de-facto slavery states, public executions, etc.’
In the start of each trial, let the PC decide who is their client, what is their goal for
the trial and how they plan to achieve it. Then jump straight to the action with the
engagement roll, no additional preparations.
Here some examples for clients, goals and plans (remember - the players can usually
choose their side in a case - if one of the example’s counter arguments looks cooler to
you - just flip the objective):
● Keep a criminal mobster out of jail by convincing the jury of his excellent
character and showing them the many charities he is involved in.
● Disgrace a city councilor by showing he has accepted bribes from some rich
person.
● Fend the father’s creditors off his daughter's back, arguing she had no
involvement with her father’s failed business.
● Make sure an assassin will be executed and her body publicly hung out of the
city walls, by invoking an archaic law of her homeland gods.
● Show a maintenance worker is not to blame for a (horrible, deadly,
supernatural and\or damaging to profits of someone powerful, ext’) accident,
by blaming the original builders for faulty design.
● Banish an illegal immigrant from another reality by showing he breached his
summoning contract.
● Convince a judge to grant permission to crack open someone’s mind and find
critical evidence in his memories (despite or because the horrible damage it
will cause to the said unwilling witness) by arguing his memories are critical
for exposing a vast and highly illegal conspiracy of stock manipulation.
The engagement roll is a fortune roll, using the vulnerability of the target as the trait
for the roll. The more vulnerable the target, the more dice you roll. Judge the
vulnerability of the target by comparing the goals and plans of the PC’s against the
awareness and readiness of the target versus that lawsuit. Also, consider the difference
in Tiers. A lower-tier target should yield +1 or +2d. A higher-tier target should yield
-1 or -2d, as their Craftfolks are better.
0d Strong: The target is especially resistant.
1d Ready: The target is well prepared.
2d Average: The target has standard preparations.
4d Weak: The target is ill prepared.
6d Exposed: The target is especially vulnerable.

The GM uses the outcome of this roll to describe the situation when we cut to the
action of the trail, already in progress. Use the examples below as a guide.
Bad Outcome (1-3): The opposition turns the tables! They seize the initiative and
launch their own counter-action, potentially revealing some overwhelming evidence
or turning one of the PC’s key witnesses (or even the client!) against them.
For example, a plan to show a worker’s innocence after a dam collapses may be
challenged by the prosecution showing the client’s diaries, clearly plotting to avenge
his god’s death by flooding the countryside. The fool is looking at you with guilty eyes
and sweaty neck, what do you do?
Mixed Outcome (4/5): The PCs initiate their own plan, but an unexpected
complication arises. Here are some options:
● A third party interferes: You're negotiating a new insurance deal for the
slams between the property owners and local gods, when the judge informs
you the deal won’t hold without the slam’s residence agreement, whose
current protest against the deal is preventing the magical wards from taking
place.
● Unexpectedly prepared: You attempt to expose the concealer's misdeeds, but
his accountant deflects every query of yours effortlessly by presenting a clear
and legal source for every thaum of soulstuff. somehow, they have rigged their
books perfectly in three days. How?
Good Outcome (6): The PCs start to execute the plan to achieve their goal. There are
no sudden surprises as the action begins, though the opposition still opposes you, you
know? Don’t drop your guard.
Critical: The PCs seize a definite advantage. For example: they've already shown the
jury the assassin is a hideous woman with minimal effort, making them inclined to
approve her gruesome execution (though they still need to prove it’s legal, the show
must go on!)
Glossary
Coin - Soulsuff
Stash - Investment
Crew - Firm
Scoundrel - Partner
Heat - Paperwork
Wanted - Malpractice
Rep - Cred (short for Credibility)
Turf - Contracts
Incarcerate - Convicted of legal malpractice
Arrest - court hearing \ required for court hearing
Prison time - License suspension\banning\prison time
The Internet - The Theosphere
Private Network - Private Domains
Numbered in-game amount of money - Thaum
Actions
Ethos: is used to resist social and magical consequences with your reputation and
resolve.
Bond with other socially and casually
Bind powers, beings and legal agreements
Broadcast to the masses through speeches, announcements the theosphere and the
written word
Blend unnoticed in the crowd or the environment
Pathos: is used to resist physical and emotional consequences with faith, passion and
prowess.
Convince others with passion and rhetoric
Command cohorts in action, or fear in enemies and bystanders
Clash with enemies in battle
Commune with godly or ungodly powers with conviction, and establish connection
with the theosphere or private domains.
Logos: is used to resist consequences from misdirection, bureaucracy and bullshit
with logic and insight.
Deduce the truth from documents, persons or the environment
Debate legal and magical matters using reason
Devise magical or physical solutions with the Craft or technical knowledge, Devise
legal documents, and theosphere sprites.
Damage structures, persons and spellcraft with precision and skill
The Craft
The setting’s magic is The Craft - Lawyers as Necromancers, basically. Ironically, the
books are really bad at providing clear rules for the craft. This is a problem for a
roleplaying game. The original blades solves this by going with a relatively
low-magic setting - shitloads of ghosts, few fireballs. We can’t really go with this
solution and keep the grander-than-life feel of some parts of the setting.
Playbooks
Archivist
researcher and theoretician of the Craft
Deduce: *
Devise: **
Knowledge is power: Three times per case you can assist a partner without paying
stress. Tell us how you prepared them for the situation.
Analyst: When you take extra time and care to gather information during downtime,
you get potency.
Right on schedule: Due to your careful planning, during downtime, you may give
yourself or another crew member +1 downtime action.
The old ways: You can devise an occult ritual to summon effect or being of the gods
or of the Craft. Costs based on the magnitude of the results.
Necromancer: You can devise ways to raise the dead to do your bidding or deduce
the cause of death or a sickness from the state of the body. You get +1d when you
make acquire asset roll by raising the dead. Also, your zombie servant is fine now.
Well read: You get special armor vs. ignorance and subterfuge: where did you find
out the truth? When you roll a critical while using knowledge or the Craft, clear 1
stress.
O Craft Ward: You know how to Devise an area with the Craft so it is either
inaccessible or enticing to spirits, demons, arcane influences or everyone without a
clearance (your choice). It can also be outside of our plane of existence if you so
wish.

Attorney
practitioner of the legal aspects of the Craft
Debate: **
Bind: *
O Flawless logic: you’ve practiced the law, you practically perfected it. You can
debate with anyone who hadn't lost all reason and you gain potency when debating
with the supernatural.
O As good as your word: when you catch someone breaking his word (lie, break
contract, ext'), you may magically bind him to make amends to the offended party.
O Objection!: You get special armor vs. legal actions and the breaking of violence.
When you roll a critical while using fine rhetoric or legal agreements, clear 1 stress.
O Friends in the lowest places: when you roll an action and fail (1-3 result), you
may ask one of you friends from the other side to lend a hand. If you do, name it and
reroll the action. None of the original consequences come to pass, but you take the
level 1 harm in debt, you can’t resist it. If you are already in debt you take the level 2
harm owned, if you are already owned... oh boy.
O Good Investment portfolio: At the end of each downtime phase, you earn +2
investment.
O Contract management: when you Devise or help devising legally binding
documents, choose one quality the document exhibits, regardless of the result of the
dice: it is short, elegant and clear-meaning / there are no loopholes / it will not
infuriate any of the parties involved.
O Chains of the Mind: Spend 2 stress to bind a distracted or sleeping mind with The
Craft and sway them in the face of contradictory evidence. Illegal without
mind-warrant. Spend 1 stress for each additional feature: They have only vague
memories of the event / your hold last indefinitely (until broken) / your touch leave no
trace.

Trickster
Con artist and professional malpractitioner
Convince: **
Bond: *
O  Cheater: Take 2 stress to roll your best action rating while performing a different
action. Say how you adapt your skill to this use, you cheater.
O Xanatos gambit: when you fail a desperate roll, you may pay 2 stress to declare
it was part of the plan all along. Tell us how you did it, and treat the failed roll as a
successful setup teamwork action. You still need to suffer or resist the
consequences, you bastard.
O Lies upon lies: You get special armor vs. the truth and suspicion. When you roll a
critical while using subterfuge, clear 1 stress, you liar.
O Knife in the back: you never need to pay stress for a flashback in which you
betray your allies, friends, clients, lovers or partners. When you betray firm partners,
they mark playbook XP.
O  Mesmerism: When you convince or bond with someone, you may cause them to
forget that it's happened until they next interact with you. If it happens in court,
exploiting their confusion gains potency.
 O Trust in Me: You get +1d vs. a target you have a relationship with.
O Sleazy bastard: When incarcerated, your malpractice level counts as 1 less, your
Tier as 1 more, and you gain +1 faction status in addition to your roll.
Warden
protector or enforcer of the lawful or the criminal justice systems. Imbued with shroud
of power when on duty
Clash: *
Command: **
O Actual Veteran: gain +1d to social interactions with people and beings you know
from the god-wars. Sides may factor into position.
O Mantle of power: when in a physical conflict, you can call upon the powers the old
gods and the dread kings used in the god wars. When you do, pay 2 stress for 1+
scale, with no upper limit. It last until the physical conflict is over. Suffering a
trauma can’t take you out of the conflict while wearing the mantle of power.
O Grim determination: You get special armor against physical attacks in combat.
When you roll a critical while investigating a case, clear 1 stress
O Burn the liar’s tongue: You have a hunch when someone is lying to you. You gain
+1d to resist lies and when you flashback to find evidence of a liar’s misdeeds, gain
+1d.
O Good cop: you have many friends in the criminal underworld who are happy to
lend a hand. Your firm take -1 paperwork each case and suffer only 1 extra
paperwork for cases that involved murder.
O Bad cop: when you command prisoners, criminals or witnesses, you are especially
frightening, take +1d.
O Leader: When you lead a cohort in a group action, they always count as soldiers in
addition to any other types. If they are already soldiers, they gain +1 quality under
your command.
O Guards and Wards: You are an expert at assessing security systems, the readiness
of the stuff, and the quality of the wards. Any attempt you make or assist at making to
create, improve or break security gain potency.

Theologian
priest, community's shepherd, or just a practitioner of practical theology
Commune: **
Convince: *
O Holy books: you know the sacred texts of your religion by heart. You get +1d
when dealing with gods, religious laws, believers and when trying to establish
theosphere connection.
O Sacred powers: When you commune with dead gods and spirits to gain scared
boons or cast horrible curses upon your enemies, you gain potency.
O Guiding hand: your advice is wise and helpful. When a partner follows through on
your setup, they gain +1d in addition to the other effects of the setup action.
O Counselor: you’re good at providing spiritual and emotional console. When you
convince someone hurt or in need, gain +1d. Also your firm partners gets +1d to
long-term project healing rolls.
O Devotion: You get special armor vs. mental burdens (fear, confusion, etc), when
you use it, it can protect anyone in your presence. When you roll a critical while
dealing with the divine, clear 1 stress
O Overwhelming presence: in social interactions, your actions never suffer limited
effect from being out scaled.
O Cryptopreist: You have mastered the art of composing secret prayers and rites.
You gain potency when devising or communing with the theosphere or private
domains, and +1d to resist being traced on the sphere.

Herald
journalist, PR manager or mad prophet. Broadcaster of news and lies.
Broadcast: **
Bond:*

Follow up question: you can always ask one extra question when gathering
information, regardless of the dice roll.
Scoop: when you expose the truth, gain potency, also, you get 1d+ to resist revealing
your sources.
The fine art of talking shit: when you broadcast to tarnish someone’s good name,
you gain potency and the consequences can’t harm you directly without making your
target seem even worse.
I have my sources: you get one free gather information action each downtime.
The dark sphere: when you bond with shady figures from the deep parts of the
theosphere, gain an exceptional asset, and choose one: they don’t screw you over, the
price is (almost) reasonable, you get it immediately.
Disguises something
Free speech: you have special armor against anything and anyone that tries to
interrupt your speech or connection. When you roll a crit while talking and talking
and talking, clear 1 stress.
Propaganda: you can always Resist the way you and your allies are remembered. If
the MC rules this Resist roll only mitigate the reputation you are trying to contest, you
can immediately flashback to action that will mitigate it further, for no stress cost.
Investigator:
spy or detective. Finder of hidden truths
Deduce: **
Blend: *

Wrenched: oh poor thing. You made some bad deals, didn’t you? Vampire, Shade,
spiritually bankrupt student of the Craft, or any similar badly screwed ex-mortal.
Damage: **
Blend: *
Spirit(???): demon, god-pawn or intelligence artificial construct, whatever you are,
you were never mortal.
Bind: **
Commune: *