So here's a houserule/revamp I've been tinkering with for a while. The main idea is to add an element of mindgames and strategy into the game.

Blades discourage convoluted plans in-fiction, but I think it'd benefit from a mechanic that requires planning ahead: is this action important enough to warrant spending a big card, or is it better to keep it for later? Or maybe should you fail and dig deeper into the deck?

* * * ^((imagine like it's, like, centered, I don't think reddit formatting allows for that?))

Instead of dice, a deck of 48 cards from 1 to 6 is used. (You can take two regular decks and shuffle all cards from Ace to 6 from them together.)

Setup

First, shuffle the deck, obviously. Then, GM and each player draw five cards each.

Challenge

Whenever you would normally roll dice, Challenge occurs instead (all other rules on position/effect, clocks, scale, whatever work as normal).

First, the player plays a card face down, and an additional card (also face down) for each die they would normally roll.

Then, the GM plays a card to set the difficulty.

Afterwards, the player chooses one of the cards they played and reveals it. Compare it’s value to the difficulty. If it’s less than the difficulty, the action is a failure, just like 1-3. If it’s greater than the difficulty by 2 or more, the action is a success, just like a 6. Otherwise, it’s a success with a cost, just like 4/5.

Finally, the player returns all unrevealed cards to their hand. If they failed, they also draw a card. Otherwise, GM draws a card.

Resistance

Whenever GM introduces a consequence that can be resisted, they play a card face down. Then, the player plays face up any number of cards up to the number of die they’d normally roll. Then, the GM reveals their card and the player takes stress equal to the difference.

Example of play

Djamilla is Tinkering with a lock on the warehouse door to open it. Despite the deep hour, there are some dockers still lingering, and if they spot her, it’d be trouble: “Risky/Standard”, GM says.

Djamilla has three dots in tinker, so she plays four cards: one by default, and three more for the 3d she’d normally roll. It allows her to hedge her bets: she knows she played 1, 2, 5 and 6. She hopes the GM will lowball and she can get away with a 1, but even if they go hard, she can still succeed.

Score been too smoth so far, so GM is down to see Djamilla in trouble. They play a 6 from their hand. Djamilla sighs and reveals a 6: success with a cost!

“Just as you click the lock open, it turns on its own, the door opens and a heartbeat later a huge dockworker grabs you by the throat. Prowess?”, GM smirks and places down a card.

Djamilla is low on stress, so she really doesn’t want to risk it: she has two dots in Prowess, so she plays two cards: 1 and 5. No matter what GM has in store, she’s guaranteed not to take any stress.

Well, turns out GM predicted exactly that: they played a 1, and Djamilla is now down a valuable 5. But hey, it’s better than getting a trauma!