Crew prefers endless Free Play over Scores
Hi everyone,
I’m running a Blades in the Dark game and I’m running into a pattern that’s starting to frustrate me a bit.
My players really enjoy roleplaying and world-building. They have a complex long-term plan and like to advance it by mixing Long-Term Project clocks (started in downtime) with lots of free play scenes. That part is fine and often works well.
The problem is they almost never want to start an actual Score. They prefer to stay in free play indefinitely, slowly working on their goals through conversation, small actions, and roleplay. When I suggest “this feels like it could be a score now,” they get confused and don’t really understand why we should switch modes or what the benefit is. They seem happy to just free play forever unless I actively push them.
I’ve tried explaining that scores are how you get proper payoffs (coin, rep, flashbacks, better downtime, etc.), but it hasn’t really clicked yet.
Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you help players understand the value of Scores and gently move them from endless free play into the score → downtime cycle without it feeling forced?
Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated!