GURPS-ize the "Blades in the Dark" stress track?

[Black Leviathan]

I'm really not into these sorts of mini-games inside of a game. If your players are into it, and I stress if it is what they are into, you can tack this onto your GURPS game. I'd avoid meddling with Fatigue as it's already calculated for what it does. Make a token system for tracking stress and follow basically the same rules from Blades.

[Antiquation!]

Originally Posted by weevis

Just read it. Christopher R. Rice to the rescue! It's very helpful as an inspirational example, thanks again. I like it, but it does seem like the goal is different. The SP/LSP system in "Mad as Bones" adds mental degradation to things that already happen via other existing game mechanics. In contrast, the BitD stress track usually provides an alternative resolution for things that would otherwise happen using existing game mechanics.

e.g., in the "Mad as Bones" mental stress system, being in a battle and having a major wound would cost you 2 SP. In the BitD mentality, the stress system is sometimes more like a pool of emergency "Oh s__t!" points. You could take the major wound and not use any stress or even mention SP. Or you could choose to resist the wound and spend stress. Or you could also have bolstered your tricky rolls in advance with modifiers bought using stress, ideally preventing the wound in the first place. I think also the "Mad as Bones" recovery is too easy in BitD terms.

But it's great food for thought.

Ah yes, I see, that makes sense. In that case then, as Varyon suggested, Impulse Buys may be closer to what you are looking for inspiration-wise. I'm sure with some tooling around as you mention in the original post, you can get something close to what you're working towards emulating.

I suppose the main hurdle will be hacking the refresh and/or costs, but you already seem to have some solid ideas on that.