Night's Black Agents Express vs Against the Dark Conspiracy

#1

Does anyone have any experience with Lowell Francis’ NBA hack Express and the NBA-inspired PbtA Against the Dark Conspiracy? How do they play?

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#2

I haven’t played NBA Express but ATDC was really fun - the play cycle generates exciting missions and unexpected twists from the dice and the players’ choices in a really smart way. But it’s not pbta - the mechanics are based on Cthulhu Dark, I think.

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#3

Hi Sandy! Do you think the game will work with a more trad set-up where world-building/plot is skewed more heavily towards the GM?

If you’ve also played original NBA, can you compare it against that?

#4

You can definitely run it in more of a trad style, although I don’t feel you’d get the most out of the system that way - one of the things I liked most was how it surprised me as the GM. But the rules include an extended section on using it to run published adventures, and I understand it evolved because @Alun_R wanted a system to run NBA adventures but found NBA itself crunchier than he liked.

I haven’t played NBA so couldn’t compare.

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#5

Thanks, that’s very helpful!

#6

I think @Alun_R or @Will_H might be able to speak to the comparison, since they’ve played standard Gumshoe (in Delta Green at least) and the NBA Express version.

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#7

One more question, are there mechanics or rules that deal with the agents’ relationships with loved ones?

#8

IIRC AtDC players define a key NPC who is especially important to them. At certain points they can gain mechanical benefits by describing more about their relationship with that NPC and/or allowing them to be endangered by the conspiracy

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#9

iirc the way we had it was key NPCs could be used to help with recovery and they were also targets for GM hard moves. If I were going to do it again, I would definitely lift Against the Dark Conspiracy’s single significant NPC with a danger clock attached to them.

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#10

@Nickwedig’s World of Secrets has an elegant mechanic where attribute damage can be cleared by narrating a scene where a character’s double life causes strain in their personal life (spouse found cheating, child kicked out of school, etc.)

Is it something similar?

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