I went through a very similar debrief after 7 or so sessions of Blades. I had been trying to line up some big picture stuff, but the game doesn’t really seem to want to go there. It was a real challenge to break down a campaign goal into a series of jobs. Though after reading Band of Blades, I can see how it would be done, I’m just not certain I’m the one to do it.

The lack of characterization because of the heavy crunch is real, too. Most of my players, save one, became just mediums for their character sheets. The guy playing the Whisper, well. He was doing a camp Tim Curry voice for his character, inventing rituals, and cavorting with dark powers at every opportunity. Dude was never going to let some numbers constrain his characterization.