Keys (Lady Blackbird) with Whitney Delaglio

About this episode

Sam Dunnewold and Whitney Delaglio discuss the character 'Keys' in the game Lady Blackbird and their importance in role-playing games.

Transcripts available at diceexploder.com I love pregens! But why do I love pregens? I dug into this a bunch on an episode last year with Aaron Lim about the characters in Last Train to Bremen: I love being given a clear goal and baseline temperament when I sit down to play so I can get into drama as fast as possible. But the game Lady Blackbird goes a step further. Each character has "Keys" which lay out not just character traits and goals, but the central dramatic questions and stakes each character's arc is likely to concern itself with. And that, more than anything else, is probably what I want from my pregens. Whitney Delaglio joins me to talk about Lady Blackbird's Keys (originally from The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Nixon). She's got her own game coming to Backerkit next month - The Old, The Cold, The Bold - which iterates on Keys. So today we get into not just how they work but how you can make them work for you. Further Reading Lady Blackbird by John Harper The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Nixon The Old, The Cold, The Bold by Whitney Delaglio - second edition on Backerkit soon ! Socials Whitney on Bluesky Sam on Bluesky and itch The Dice Exploder blog is at…

People in this episode

Host: Sam Dunnewold

Guest: Whitney Delaglio

Topics covered

• pregenerated characters
• role-playing games
• character development
• dramatic stakes
• game mechanics

Keywords

• Lady Blackbird
• Keys
• Whitney Delaglio
• pregens
• role-playing games
• character arcs
• The Old, The Cold, The Bold

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Old, The Cold, The Bold

Books & works: Lady Blackbird, The Shadow of Yesterday

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