Shadow of the Wolf GM/Spoiler Thread

[odd kayak]

neat

[pearl inlet]

That's an amazing idea

I'm planning to run the module for LL2 now, how would y'all go about the rewards from the NPCs and stuff like the augur bonding reading? I mean, I'm pretty doubtful all the new RKF alt frames would be taken, but I'm moreso wondering if I give them the frames that they wouldn't end up using it.

[north knot]

don't doubt your players' ability to find builds that will make your life hell if they're able to bypass two license levels of build requirements. speaking from experience, I ran a pinaka rifle tagetes with an RSU that was an absolute monster when I ran through SotW as a player.

similarly I'm certain there are other builds with the Hecatoncheires and the Taraxacum that are equally creative and nightmarish to be on the other side of.

[scenic marlin]

In the game @little bay ran for us, we actually did find a use for a couple of the altframes that you get as rewards.

(We started at LL2 as well)

Theta made some new NPCs that don't appear in the book, and one of them just straight up lost his frame during Combat 2

And because we felt bad for him, we gifted him one of the altframes that we'd acquired

Much, much later, towards the end of mission 2, one of our players got his Tokugawa so badly banged up that it was a liability, so we switched him into the Tagetes instead

The Bond reading needs little modification for LL2 - because it doesn't happen until Mission 2, when rules-as-written your characters will be LL1, they will already have their Bonds anyway.

Theta did make the combats a little harder for us given that we had LL2 frames, gear and talents

Also, specifically, my character was extremely cynical and resentful about Augurs, Karrakin religion and Bonds because they had always been marked as the Titan, largely because of a lie they had told to their uncle (Hyderad-Cannamos, Praya's father) 13 years ago.

And every Augur they met since had read them as the Titan even though my character knew this wasn't true.

This led to a massive disillusionment about the Augurs, that they were just con-men repeating the words of the powerful.

So when they walked into Kahin's reading with the card already lying in front of them, they angrily flipped it over, yelling that they already knew it was the Titan, and that Kahin was just another snake-oil salesman.

The card displayed the Firebrand.

[pearl inlet]

Absolute cinema hahaha

[pearl inlet]

How did it differ exactly, if you don't mind me asking?

[scenic marlin]

I mean it didn't really differ very much at all other than that little vignette with my character Atreyu

And as a GM it's up to you to decide whether Kahin is actually prescient or whether he's just an excellent cold-reader who can also put the pieces together as regards ||the Hagiographic conspiracy||

[final frigate]

Tonight, a masquerade ball, topped off with the big mecha dance.

It's gonna be spicy because:

= praya 47 is going to attend the ball unannounced because she wants to see argo again
= praya 48, the one who replaced the prior praya after some prior campaign events, is there in attendance with the stonelord
= The party is going to try and isolate the noble sponsoring the event so they can kill, kidnap, or otherwise convince him to abandon the conspiracy he is a part of
= One of the main NPC love interests of a PC now has a near full borg body after the injuries he sustained in the semi-finals of a pankrati tourney at the hands of 48, and this is his first public apprearance since
= one of the PCs, a house sand assassin and ignoble, betrayed house sand, and her sponsor is going to be in attendance

And to make all of this worse/better, everyone is dressed up, no one knows who anyone else is except for people who arrived together (and Rawan, because she's wearing a really small mask, cos fuck noble party bullshit), and they need to navigate this madness.

With the cherry on top being argo wont actually be around during the first half of the ball, because he's helping sandmen get inside Eligo's casket room to put their own NHP there, which will cannibalise Eligos ||like what happens in wallflower act 1 with begger one and patience||, in order to have an NHP on the inside.

[quartz sentinel]

wonderful 🔥

[final frigate]

very good session

[pearl inlet]

/// HOUSE OF REMEMBERANCE ///

HOUSE OMR ANEMONE (or just Anemone for short)

Founded simply as house Anemone by Tagetes during the succession war in the early annorum Tyrannus period, Anemone began as a mere Knightly House in the service of the Colonial unification campaign after its founder, Cyrus Anemone distinguished himself in the battle of Umara, where he led the precision strikes against Umaran Grounded anti-ship batteries eventually allowing for Tagetes' fleet to quickly establish supremacy in low Umaran orbit, leading to the planet's submission.

House Anemone's nobility was recognised by the Karrakin throne upon Tagetes' (and Cyrus') return to throne Karrakis, where the then ruler Calendula officiated Anemone's ascension to nobility and arraged Cyrus' marriage to Duchess Fatima, sole heir of the then fading House Omr of Arrudye. Thus forming house Omr Anemone of Arrudye.

Following the heavy casualties during the interest war, House Omr Anemone was one of the many houses tasked with the rapid development of a martial doctrine focused on surgical strikes, chassis usage and minimisation of collateral damage. Due to this, the house's martial prowess is known and its scions are often expected to perform well on the field.

Aligned with the Liberal ideology Remembrance, Omr Anemone uphold the Baronic nobility system fiercely, specially their own noble status. However, they see the protection, education and stability of the ignoble class as a strategic, administrative and even moral necessity. Ignobility under the management of House Omr Anemone most likely benefit from house-managed social safety nets (Healthcare, better worker rights, etc), but still lack the power to really cause change within the noble house.

One of my players and a fellow GM cooking up a house to use

Also this as a hook for others maybe:

While also recruiting aggressively from the ignoble class to bolster their own forces, Anemone is a house often seen present within Arrudye's house company, the Crimson Memory. Anemone is known to often offer academy sponsorships to those of ignoble origin with tactical aptitude. Of course, while ignoble officers can achieve significant rank and wealth within Anemone's forces, executive command and full kuirasser positions within the house company remain only within noble bloodlines.

My steak too juicy, my lobster too buttery

[clear nymph]

Quick question for the hive mind: players have maxed Tomas' relationship and one player is debating using the Taraxacum as an exotic frame. Without the Mule harness, how would carrying other people work?

[quartz sentinel]

the lifting and carrying rules are not well specified, the most common interpretation I've seen puts them under the category of a full action skill check, but it's really the GM's call

(for clarity since this is related to CRB rules this isn't really something I'm empowered to make official calls on)

[clear nymph]

Player ended up keeping their Lich for mission 2 (3 in my game). Unfortunately for the players, their heat caps have plummeted so they are having a difficult time dealing with the shenanigans of Rawan and Tomas' team. The Balor walked into a Blackwall and got exiled to the shadow realm on their first turn. The rest of the team split up. Tagetes managed to get their hands on a Siege Cannon from a rented equipment reserve and took out one of the Pyros in a single shot, but now is stuck behind two black walls and a napalm patch. Hecatonchiries who went for a scouting and scooting build went south and is currently duelling the Seeder over the southern czs. Lich and Metalmark went North to confront Rawan and Tomas. Tomas is lurking around the true cz and has been a particular thorn in their side, causing two stress on the Metalmark in 2 rounds. Rawan drove both players to temporarily retreat by using her Flash Lens. Top of Round 3 now. Balor reappeared next to one of the Aegis's, Tagetes has reloaded their siege cannon, and the deadlock is so far maintained.

[pearl inlet]

for anyone that has expanded the first mission into 2 seperate ones, what did you do? Like the overall theme of each mission, the number of combats, what did you keep/change?

[final frigate]

I broke the whole thing up into 3 missions total. Each covering a year at the college.

Mission 1 is set up and low stakes. Everyone gets to know the assorted extended cast, participate in lessons and deal with petty noble politics, ideally with different NPCs forming relationships to the squad.

I added 2 new fights to mission 1. One was about fighting on free sanjak, the other on HAs capital world, as a means of foreshadowing what the college expects the students to fight in soon. Rawan is on the opposing side both times and is sporting a HA sherman, which, if asked, she does not appreciate.

Basically the idea is to sow the seeds for future plot points, and the main "antagonist" is the Dean commander, who is more or less being a hardass on the PC squad if they won the initial duel against praya and argo. I also have baroness akirita act as a counterpoint to house stone bullshit, because they are meant to be the "good" aspects of the house personified, at least, thats how I always portrayed her ||I have fun subtly hinting she may be the "father" of Elsa from time to time as well and thats one of the many reasons the Dean Chancellor trusts her completely.||

Act 2 is the pankrati tourney and the mid term exams. 3 rounds, each against a clique of NPCs that formed in act 1, and then a fight against praya and argo again in the finale. I also put the carandze (however you spell it) just before the finale of the pankrai, because it means theres way more tension and talk in the air. Having it after the tourney finale works well to though, and, tbh, its a GM judgement call thing more than an absolute thing.

Run the exam in the wolfs teeth and the final mission of the module virtually unchanged IMO.

The only thing im doing with act 3 is maybe making the escape from the campus into a point crawl in mechs across the city, but thats very much a work in progress.

Pretty much everything from the argo fight to the finale (including the trial before the prime baroness in the epilogue) doesn't need any changes and is great as is.

Its only made better if you deepen the relationships between everyone involved.

Its why Argo being viewed by my group as the single most evil, misogynistic, catty, petty twink to have ever walked karrakis is going to make the finale so satisfying.

And why Praya having more time to develope depth and display the breadth of her character has made my group adopt the belief that Hydrad is the biggest threat to the stability of the Concern.

Praya herself benefits the most from the 3 mission structure, IMO.

All the other NPCs to, but, as the final fight, it gives her time to breath.

You could make it into 4 missions if you wanted to.

First year
Pankrai tourney
The wolfs teeth exam
The finale

But that might be too long.

he says, having ran this one module for nearly a year

[quartz sentinel]

if you're interested in the original three mission pitch, I described it here along with some ideas that didn't make it into the final module:
#1335142849754169447 message

[pearl inlet]

Thanks so much Ms Kat! I was scouring thru for this thru all the old msgs but couldn't find it!

[odd kayak]

Can you give an example of more "gamified objectives" for Pankrati ms Kat

[quartz sentinel]

I don't have specific examples because it never quite got to that stage of development, but the general principle would be to make something that gives the feel of a sports match - diegetic point scoring, maybe something to do with flag carriers, a referee and mechanics for cheating

I think there are a lot of third party sitreps out there that should work pretty well if you look around, I'm sure #gm-corner would be able to give some good suggestions

[burnt iris]

I would take a look at #1058448539522449449

It's a third party supplement about being a pankrati and how to run tournaments in Lancer as well as a couple custom sitreps

[final frigate]

I used coldcore coliseum for my own pankrati tourney and it didn't go all that well.

the sitreps were good in concept, but, in execution, my party steamrolled the 2 i used from it pretty decisively.

That said.

I can recommend :

signal chase from INTERPOINTs enhanced combat (with the caviat that the objective starts in the middle, not the player deployment zone, and it's 'first side to 5' rather than 8 rounds)
demolition from INTERPOINTS enhanced combat
Secure from Castor and Pollux
Outrun from MAXIMUM THREAT

Demolition and secure i used for mission 1s training missions for sanjak and the HA capital world, but, tbh, they're really fun.

Also recommend Liminal Space for some NPCs, since it has some good ones that fit the KtB, like the Warden (big claymore wielding knight that protects a single allied unit with its life)

[odd kayak]

thanks guys

[final frigate]

(out of context message from one of my players during last weeks session)

[silver vault]

yeah that's dueling words

[pearl inlet]

Which ones did you try out? I tried the scoring sitrep with the key (idk what it's called) for another table and I really enjoyed it!

[pearl inlet]

So if I undersand:
• Mission 1 - 5 combats (c1,c2 and c3 plus two add ons that are training excercises)
• Mission 2 - 5 combats (tourney 3 and c4 and c5)
• Mission 3 - As is

[final frigate]

It was that one and relay.

The scoring one ended up getting min-maxed by the group to hell and back. This was a very, very, very aggressive defender team with an optimized Enkidu, a Field Guide To Iridia Nemesis (flying striker that hits like a truck) and a Sunzi who more or less ensured the enemy team could never hope to score, and always ended up back in the Enkidus claws.

The problem i had is that once a single one is scored, it becomes a game of keep-away until the clock runs out, since there's no point in scoring again unless you want to more firmly secure your lead, and with the NPCs constantly respawning after death (which, sure, fills the role of reinforcements in other sitreps fine), there's no reason to not go Chess Desperado and run them into PC mechs for maximum damage over playing the objective, meanwhile the PCs increase their chances of winning by almost killing NPCs, then slaughtering 3 or so in one fell swoop so they have about a round or 2 to score the torch objectives and win.

If I had to redo it, I'd make some tweaks to how the sitrep functions. Namely, make it a 'best to 3 points' so scoring is mandatory, and keep-away strats don't apply, along with investing in multi-structure NPCs more heavily so killing them off is both harder, and more problematic for when they respawn.

I used buffed versions of Aloynious, the twins (who actually performed pretty well), 2 nameless NPCs, and lady Achellia, who was a 3 structure elite weaponmaster ronin (weapon master comes from field guide to iridia and is one of my all time favourite templates). If I had to run it again, I'd have given both the nameless NPCs templates, so they'd be 2 structure as well.
The twins were by far the most difficult thing for the squad to deal with on the field, given their insane mobility, and some additional optionals they had from the exotic template.

As for relay?

They secured pretty much every control point turn 1 (Sunzi setting everything up turn 1 to enable easy capture of the 1st objective, then moved to secure the 2nd by themselves, while the 3rd and final one was more or less instantly secured by the Enkidu going move, boost, pankrati charge alongside the forth party member, who asked me politely if they could change over to the...the shield mech in the KtB book, i forget the name.).

I couldn't dislodge them from the final control point, because that Enkidu had a high heat cap, high HP pool, and I lacked any major forced movement options in my enemy comp. As a result, I lost in 2 rounds flat.

I also couldn't contest that point the enki was controlling because, well....uh...

have you ever tried to approach an Enkidu?

and survive

The relay sitrep is good, but, I got steamrolled by the squad hard.
If I were to run it again, I'd change it to the squad needing to hold all 3 objectives simultaneously, rather than securing each one sequentially. OR, make it so that each side can only secure 1 objective per round and in a set order, to draw out the sitrep.

[final frigate]

Bingo.

I do recommend giving some kinda reward for the tourney, namely exotics, extra repairs, etc, and if the squad fails a sitrep, cutting off the future combat encounters.
The former is because if they survive the whole thing, they'll need the extra stuff to survive the wolf teeth exams, and the latter because by losing early, they preserve a lot of resources to use in said exam.

If nothing else, I may ban this specific player from using Enkidu again because of how their optimized, preferred build warps the experience.

granted, they are threatening me with a storte build if I do.

But I think I'll handle watching the odd NPC get one shot over a massive zone of impending death and immobilization.

[pearl inlet]

That's actually pretty interesting way of going about it! I do like this idea over having them actually play out more combats (if they lose one combat in the tourney)

Did you give them reserves/exotics after each fight or after the whole tourney?

[final frigate]

after the whole tourney.

Their 'reward' was based on how far they got.

they made it to the finals, fought argo and praya, won, and I basically said "hey, take a single exotic gear of your choice, its SP cost is reduced to zero until the end of this mission."

which...considering what's coming up?

they're gonna need that. and the extra repairs I gave them.

[pearl inlet]

Pretty cool

[odd kayak]

btw, a player and I made a neat "student console" to serve as a landing page in foundry some time ago and I forgot to send here but its pretty cool

when you click a icon it opens a journal

with students, teachers, the akademy's calendar, information about the world, and since its the 2.0 version after downtime I also added a tab with their org "Black Knights" where they keep track of their investigation and the faction influence/efficiency

Foundry is cool, I only bought it to run the campaign but now im in love

[final frigate]

One of my players got proposed to by Tomas, because both of them are ace yet deeply passionate about the things they care for, and love dancing.

She said no...for now, maybe yes once they graduate.

Now tomas has someone to wistfully yearn for 😌

[civic snow]

I'm finally getting back to the College for the last time after running a "What the hell is a Void Rend" M3 on Arrudye. I'm thinking of utilizing the pankrati tournament idea as the backdrop for their final semester (because it's transparent that normal educational encounters can't really challenge the Saviors of the College without being entirely unfair), while Aloysius and Rawan's interests threaten to mar their graduation with blood. I want to do it pretty open-endedly, testing the Factions system as a cover for the actual intrigue plot and, fundamentally, allowing the players to influence whether the mission finale will be centered around Rawan's cover being blown or actual, normal exams. I think it's going to be a good send-off to KCC as the players outgrow it.

(the mission quote is the "You Used To Be Nice" bit from Banshees of Inisherin, of course)

[quartz sentinel]

that sounds super fun 🔥

[graceful turtle]

Nature is healing!

[odd kayak]

dumb question: Does Throne Karrakis have a police force

[tame mauve]

Almost certainly, it is the seat of power for the KTB. They might even be royal guards who are as fancy (and corrupt) as you wish.

I also think they mention the police or security forces during the Sandman combat

[odd kayak]

oh yeah thats true

[pearl inlet]

How you using the faction system so far 👀

[glass prism]

I dubbed them as The Keepers Of Order what with Karrakis being a House of Order planet

[gray magnet]

Prepping for a Shadow of the Wolf game. Party is being assembled, and one may be a Dawnline Ungrateful sponsored by Viceroy Hardy-Alto of the House of Sand, from New Madrassa

since the dawnline ungratefuls are KTB backed and anti-HA

she got a promotion

[civic snow]

Barely, if I'm honest, but the idea is that the attack on the College + power vacuum left after Praya + a little time to reflect and shittalk caused the student body to factionalize into 2 main groups: a republican-leaning faction (that I dubbed Fiore del Alba because its face is a pompous Montekki nobleboy) and a hagiographic-leaning faction (who are just called the Unitarists because they are, at least in its mainstream, a backlach to the growing republican sentiment). There is also technically a third faction that is just the twins stirring shit and trying to come out on top no matter who wins. The party has been notably cagey and centrist about their politics, but its opportunities to maintain that are shrinking. I'll have them make a couple of mood-setting decisions early in the mission that will shift how the factions see them (everyone respects them after M2, but whether Praya's attack was bad is not contested; how the College and KTB should function in its wake is). After that, I'll be able to run Faction Aid and Faction Interference during the tournament part. At the end of the day, the factions are there to hide the fact that the instigator of the end conflict is just Aloysius, who will try to expose Rawan without attracting attention to himself, and whichever faction (and the larger forces that they represent outside of KCC) the party will maneuver with better over the course of this mission will be able to support them when they head to Tilimsan to actually deal with the stragglers of Praya's attack (which is an endeavor that their previous patron, BI, is entirely unwilling to undertake). Tilimsan is the post-KCC arc, chosen partially because Argo feels way more likely to be concealed by his house instead of on the run from it, and partially because one of my pilots has lost most of his family to Laurents, so it doubles as a personal story (and also because KaffeeZombie's awesome BLACK ORB maps come in forest and sand versions, and I'm all outa forest)

I populated factions by some of the named students the party interacted with, but definitely not all, the point is that the factions have goals and sentiments beyond personal feelings about the party

[pearl inlet]

Really interesting usage of the system tbh!

[civic snow]

I'm really just coasting off the fact that Kat was able to put more hooks in this module that got to play out properly. It kind of begs to be returned to, and I'm glad my players are all for it at least for one more mission.

[quartz sentinel]

I'm so happy to hear they've been useful!

[ocean idol]

helloooo :) I'm new to GMing Lancer and I'm planning on running SotW soon! My group's session zero is this Saturday. I've been reading the module itself as well as the the KTB field guide. I'm very excited about the whole Karrakin Cavalry College as a setting, and all of the lore related to Passacaglia is so interesting. is this a good place to ask for any useful tips or resources for running this module? feel free to ping me! ty in advance!

poked around some older threads and found some retrograde mini kitbashes... hell yes 👀

[final frigate]

Was chatting to one of my players about the campaign, and, while we did get into some wonderful details, they will not live down the following quotes:

"He is gods most forcefemable soldier."
&
"He isnt being flanderized, hes being feminised."

@remote frigate (have fun reading the reactions, )

[final frigate]

This is a fantastic place to ask for advice. We are friendly, and theres some resources kicking around here to.

Shadow wolf is a great starter module to, and we are happy to make it easier to run.

If you dont mind me asking, what are you running it on? Foundry, in person, roll 20?

[remote frigate]

i would not actually forcefem him i would only do it voluntarily
forcefemming is best left to other targets

[ocean idol]

awesome, ty for the warm welcome. seems like a great place so far 🩷

I'm running it on FoundryVTT Version 12!

[final frigate]

Great choice 😌

Also, seems like you found the retrograde premade token pack for the module? If you havent yet, well worth getting as it makes life easier.

I personally pre-prepared all the combat maps, sitreps and npc statblocks in organised files on the foundry before the campaign started as it cut down on in-between session prep.

[ocean idol]

This is the resource I found! If you know of something else, I'd love to take a peek at that too!

and oh yeah. I like to have all the pieces put together before any playing takes place. Makes running things go a lot more smoothly. I love having things organized ahead of time. does it take significantly more hours to do this? yes, it's called "trusting the process" and i love it... :3

Things like NPC stat blocks and their tokens, scenes for narrative beats and such... all left open and ready for when the players breathe life into it all

or rather, burn it all down? Being a GM is kind of funny. Youre inviting your friends to come set everything on fire, and its kind of amazing

Ive found the token compendium on itch! I'm new to all of this so im not sure of places to look, but im learning ^^

The link for anyone else like me in the future who may want Retrograde Minis for shadow of the wolf!
https://snipertoaster.itch.io/sotw-npc-compendium

[gray magnet]

currently humbly suggesting to one of my players that her pilot could be a know-nothing aunic cultural enthusiast after they learned that they have a second, spare apollo. surely they too can get psychic powers by being a cool enough pilot. suggesting it like a witch offering a poison apple

she said she was considering making some kind of passacaglian but didnt quite know how to make it pop

[final frigate]

maybe a passacaglian aestheticist? someone who is obsessed with the art, stories, culture, etc of the time period and just...really wants to go back to that, and the actual politics of it are something they don't really consider too in depth? basically a useful idiot, who's arc can be about becoming aware?

[burnt iris]

Passacaglian obsessed with the Helios Gate and how it must be the link between the Baronies and the Aun

[gray magnet]

shes liking the concept as is so alls good

[quartz sentinel]

feel free to ask me any questions also. I hope you have fun with the module!

[ocean idol]

I actually totally have a lot of questions! I'm honestly so geeked, still taking it all in and getting my ideas in order for how to introduce my players to the karrakin cavalry college

[pearl inlet]

yes yes welcome friend! We are all cooking up all sorts of ideas here and sharing bits from our respective runs of the game!

A thing I've done, idk if anyone else has, is seperating the first few chapters before the adventure into a doc for to share with players, since it is a setting primer and guide to Karrakin culture and society. I've told my players to keep it on hand during session and flip thru it if and when they need small bits of lore, need info on the possible political leanings of a house member and play into some burdgeoing ideas all while keeep that sense of immersion.

I won't share it here since it is paid content and file size a bit too big (sadge)

[final frigate]

The way I did it was a large ball, as per the book, but the way I set it up was that I had all the tokens of NPCs laid out in clusters on a large ballroom map and let the players figure it out from there.

So they might end up meeting, say...the twin primors, Elsa and Aloynious in one clump, meanwhile another is composed of Rawan, Kay and Kirionia.

I had the head mistress introduce the PCs to the staff early on to.

Made for a nice way to introduce a large group of people, with Hestia and Argo being notably absent, because their intro in the module? yeah, no, running that straight is fire

[quartz sentinel]

I would generally caution to not dump the players face first into every single NPC right at the start, the narrative beats are spaced out a little for a reason

giving them the opportunity to meet people early if they want to is reasonable but it's important not to overwhelm them with 18 relationship clocks right off the jump

unless they're sickos for that kind of thing I guess

[pearl inlet]

Yeah hard agree! I think there's validity to really have the 3 heads of syllabi, the dean and the head of the college be the focal point. I mean letting them extend the scene further could use psy's idea but limited to them getting locked into interacting with one NPC cluster of say 3 characters before transitioning into the next scene.

[pearl inlet]

I mean I had total sickos who wanted to spilt of and try and talk to all the people present lol.

I even ended up doing some quick thinking and rolled up some extra characters so I could save the moment of exchange with some of the other NPCs for later into the module.

Also, idk if I've asked this before, but has anyone tried to run factions from the KTB book with the module?

I'm trying to flesh out some possible options, both in-lore house names and details, as well as my previous table's creations.

[tame mauve]

Anadyn is

[final frigate]

tbh that's not a half bad way of handling it.

I did mine my way because I kinda like the chance to introduce damn near everyone early in, but, def not for every group.

[pearl inlet]

Ahh that's there! I forgot she was doing this!

But I was also looking for multiple factions from kinda the jump

[ocean idol]

My party does happen to be full of sickos (affectionate). I don't have all of the information I need from everyone yet since our session zero is on Saturday but I'll give a little breakdown of the party concepts I've heard so far. I'm so excited to figure out how to connect the dots once I know more but so far...

We got
-Optimus Prime
-Seto Kaiba (House of Order)
-Sparri Batman (secret republican revolutionary)
-A freak for the Hecatoncheires
-Someone whose name might be Egg (royalty)

[ocean idol]

I feel like I could look at Fire Emblem Three Houses for a bit of a guide. Maybe set up a monthly calendar and put certain events and opportunities on certain days? It could help get the feeling of training at an elite college and then gently sprinkle in events like the Matriculation Ball

[ocean idol]

I actually have a perfect map for this leftover from a previous campaign. When I do run the ball I'll try this out! Though I'm thinking about slowly introducing NPCs to my party before the ball...

[odd kayak]

after they helped Rowan I let them meet all the students with simple introductions and how they act like then let them decide who to talk to

[odd kayak]

https://tenor.com/view/egg-egg-targaryen-aegon-targaryen-dunk-and-egg-bald-child-egg-gif-6026927483337280834

[clear nymph]

Live Fire Exercise ended last night. Rawan intentionally cooked her mech off by overheating to get the Lich. Balor munched through the Aegises in the center field. Turn 5, Tomas is KOed by a combination of Reliable damage from the Metalmark and the Hecatonchiries being able ignore Invisible. Hecatonchiries went back to duelling the Seeder, only for Rawan to shake the ash off her wreck of a mech and revive through Feign Death. She then proceeded to my miss the Metalmark with her Thermal Lance and a Lock on. Lich hellishly pulled itself back together and use their Prototype Weapon to put Rawan down for good. Called the combat at that point since they knew the true CZ, and the Seeder was the only opfor left and couldn't reach it to contest in time.

Iphianassa was fairly unimpressed by the performance all around. Rawan made unsanctioned modifications to her assigned mech and injured herself with the explosion trick. Tomas had the Metalmark dead to rights at one point but hesitated (I was feeling merciful and activated a different enemy). And the players didn't know the true CZ until turn 5 and if it were any other CZ may very well have lost. She was even less impressed by the backtalk from the players and Rawan about the increased intensity of the combat and the ramping up for war. Had to remind them that this is not a noble finishing school. This is a military training institute and better to face danger here and be prepared than on the field without any experience.

No one gets the Extra Repairs because of this, and they get a punishment assignment of writing a full after action report to boot. The players commiserated with Rawan and convince Tomas not to quit the College. I also revealed the cost for the Hecatonchiries pilot getting the frame using the Power at a Cost downtime action with Kay ripping into them for using that mech after they had sided with her against Aloysius about the tech being too dangerous. Relationship is irreparably damaged and Hecatonchiries player loses the Kay relationship bonus Repairs the players had earned. Players are convinced the Hounds Teeth and the resulting militarization is a set up.... By Baronic Intelligence. No indication they suspect Praya at all

I am so looking forward to next session!

[quartz sentinel]

this rocks, I hope the players are enjoying having the screws tightened

[clear nymph]

They are loving it!

[final frigate]

I need to start doing that to my own squad tbh.

Right now they have a much stronger influence over the events as they play out and are actively working to dismantle the conspiracy before the wolf teeth exam has even happened, in part because one of them was able to get a taste of the pangloss blood, while another PC was an agent under Argo until they turned coat literally just two sessions ago, so while they dont know the full plan, they have vague ideas.

I think i need more evidence planted onto the PCs, to raise suspicion, along with the arch Chancellor no longer favouring them (they worked really hard to get into her good books tho).

That said Eligos has been cannibalised by an NHP argo slipped into its casket room and supplanted it, and while they've made decent friends of a lot of NPCs, they've pissed off the sponsors of some NPCs.

I think...I need to use the wolfs teeth exam to really frame them specifically.

As in, yeah the attack points to HA and/or the ungratefuls, but the PCs have been using HA frames for the most part.

...but theyre also going to win the favour of the prime baroness if they sinch the finale of the pankrati tourney...

Its a case of them having built up considerable momentum and influence, and I dont wanna undercut that, but still threaten them and their reputation enough to get back in line with the theme of fragile privilege and how easily that protection can be stripped...

[odd kayak]

I did something like that. I separated the module in a trimester before every official fight, with 4 downtimes (not too broken in retrospect) in each trimester, then I put some events they could participate in at the start (study club, party in kiriona's house, karrakin cultural tour with Kay and Rowan, etc)

[final frigate]

One of my players describing one of the noble npcs I added to the game.

[ocean idol]

Update on this as of Session Zero happenings. Listing characters in the same order as they have changed:

• An officer-in-training for Company Centimane who has been sent to the KCC (The Knave)
• Class President Seto Kaiba (House of Order, The Broker)
• Sparri Batman / Saw Gerrera (House of Smoke, The Firebrand)
• A bonafied mech freak (Squire for a Free Company, The Magus)
• Omelette (pronounced Ama-letta) Du Fromage. Basically, Char Aznable. (Exchange student from Union, The Harlequin)

[ocean idol]

note: they have not taken those bonds yet, theyre just the ones they will take after completing M1 :)

[ocean idol]

and their mechs are as follows

• Sagarmatha, "Changing of the Guard"
• Everest, "Known Unknowns"
• Everest, "The Price of Freedom"
• Chomolungma, "BEHIND YOU"
• Sagarmatha, "I Palindrome I"

[final frigate]

was doing a bit of searching to find a suitable name for Elsa's father, since that has become relevant, and:

if it does mean bright star, then, that is a very amusing concidence considering Elsas relationship to Kirionia

I'm going to go with Beckett Rao for now.

[odd kayak]

I love when random rpg names happen to have symbolic meaning

happens at least twice in each campaign our table makes

[quartz sentinel]

I would 100% ignore name websites of any kind, especially user submitted name definitions, they're almost always complete garbage

or AI generated (but I repeat myself)

etymology doesn't appear to match up

[final frigate]

what language does the name Zenova come from, or rather, what were you looking at when coming up with the arch chancellor and the principessas name?

[quartz sentinel]

that name is Zoeva not Zenova, and it is a makeup brand

it is one of the more shallow references, but it follows in the spirit of Smith-Shimano

[final frigate]

aaaah, apologies 😅

and thank you

[graceful turtle]

My dad and I are big fans of bike racing, and somehow I didn't put two and two together until I was watching last year's Tour de France and when I saw a trailer marked "Shimano" I was like "WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING HERE?" lol

SSC using genetically-engineered cyclists to cheat in races or something

[quartz sentinel]

I will say that Zenova Zoeva (whatever it means) is an excellent name

[odd kayak]

Miguel Lopez when making lancer: "hmm, what shall I call our biopunk megacorp? looks at his shimano bike Yeah that has a nice ring to it, but I wanted something more weyland-yutani... looks at his Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum Oh yeah that'l work"

[graceful turtle]

Funnily enough the Smith part also comes from a bicycle company, they make cycling gear like gloves and stuff

[odd kayak]

It's bikes all the way down

[graceful turtle]

Lancer is actually secret propaganda funded by Big Cycle. KTB actually stands for Kool Tough Bikes. HA actually stands for Have Axels. IPS-N actually stands for I Pedal Speedily Now. You are all fools

Miguel Lopez is actually just a sapient bicycle behind a computer that types by very carefully pressing each key with the edge of one of his handlebars

@quartz sentinel Your profile picture pose even perfectly lines up with cyclists leaning left to make a turn at high speeds, I've cracked the code

[final frigate]

my party is going feral over eleni's dad rn.

[open granite]

Question about Combat 4, and theoretically the other combats that have reinforcements: At what rate are enemy reinforcements meant to deploy? In combat 4 all the enemies are held as reinforcements, and the standard extraction sitrep only says to deploy 1 NPC per round as reinforcements. Given this is meant to be a particularly difficult fight, it seems unlikely that this is the case. Sorry if this is stated somewhere and I somehow missed it.

[ocean idol]

I feel like you could probably adjust things as you see fit. a good way to measure how difficult an encounter is could be how many NPC activations there are vs PC activations in a round. whoever has the advantage of action economy is going to be doing better overall

[opal chasm]

Any good narrative threads to make sure to include between Combats 1 and 2?

one player can't make next session so we're doing a shorter roleplaying forward one and I want to start peppering important stuff in

[glass prism]

I added two NPCs per round. Though I did run it at the 5 player setup, so there were a lot of NPCs to get into the fight.

[pearl inlet]

Who is Eleni?

[pearl inlet]

Have them meet some other NPCs that weren'treally introduced in the first two beats. I'd suggest you carry out some scenes for Lord Hesketh,Lady acheillia and Eligos. You could have some scenes with the twins too, as getting friendly with them means that they hand over the bombs.

[odd kayak]

I played it by the book (one npc per round) AND gave them a allied npc every 2 rounds and the fight was still extremely hard, tho my players were particularly fucked after combat 3 (2 mechs destroyed)

[odd kayak]

You can also put opportunities for players to interact with npcs they already know. I talked about that some days ago

[placid nest]

o/ helloo
I remember a while ago there was mention of an Origin doc for the NPCs, was wondering what the status on it was cuz I remember being interested in it

[quartz sentinel]

it's on indefinite hold while I work on Far Field

[placid nest]

mhmhm makes sense~

far field is very cool

[mellow valve]

is there any actual play series for shadow of the wolf? I am quite interested in actually seeing how other people have handled/are handling the module

[ocean idol]

I tried looking for this as well but didn't find anything, at least not on YouTube. lmk if you have any luck

[odd kayak]

Personally I can barely find actual plays of lancer as is, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an actual play of a module

Btw we had the bond reading session today, and the highlight in the players opinion was Kahin saying “you may count with my help for anything, and may contact me for any query, for we are connected through many worlds… and my WhatsApp. Soto shall give you my number shortly.”

[dark tusk]

I'm curious what the licensing line is when it comes to AP of modules- i figure you need some consent from the license holder as it'd be direct commercial use.

[gray magnet]

is there an image available for the spread on page 22-23?

[odd kayak]

The full academy?

If so yeah

Right here

[gray magnet]

thanks!

[odd kayak]

Any ideas for what he'd say?

[graceful turtle]

an extremely blurry photo of some kind of small animal or plant in a place where it's obviously not supposed to be and some kind of message that offers absolutely zero context, like "splendid" or "jefferson" or some shit

[final frigate]

I just got an amazing coupon for 40 Manna off my next purchase from #FlytesFancies, and all I had to do was click the below link and share it with 5 other people
www.FlytesFancies.FS
You should click on it and claim the coupon to, before the offer expires

Followed shortly by

"Soto told me to message you as soon as I got access to my whatsapp again, disregard all prior messages, I clicked on a convincing trojan message thinking it was the prophasized backdoor link promised to be by an informant, but....no, it was not."

[silver vault]

bro got got by the Beast Coin (it's HORUS this time)

[opal chasm]

Any strategy advice for combat 2 past the notes mentioned in the book? Those are super comprehensive but I thought I’d check here anyways

[quaint egret]

Hey! I literally just finished running Combat 2 for my group! Here's what I've got:

• Brightstar's your main attacker; do NOT do what I did and suicide her into the PCs without any support. If I had a re-run, I'd have Sapphire give her a Latch drone early on so she has more survivability. Losing my main attacker at round 3 made it very hard to take ground and pressure the PCs
• I sent Rose and Goldenrod south to the blue CZ and I think they did pretty well there on their own. PCs who can't quite make it into the zone but push as far as they can anyway have to contend with their overwatch fire to actually set foot in the zone
• If Zero is on the field, I planted him on top of the buildings in the green CZ all game and abused the heck out of his Moving Target reaction while he was the OPFOR's most consistent scoring character. I personally ruled that being on top of the buildings counted as being in the CZ since it would have been in the boundary square but I can see an argument for why it shouldn't count too.
• If you have Sparky, get her out as early as you can and plant her in the center of the field so she has the best chance to sandbag the PCs. I had a new player join our group halfway through the match so in-universe, I had Iphianassa say "early reinforcements arrived for both teams" so the new player could get into the game ASAP. By then, it was too late for Sparky to do much of anything as everyone had already gotten themselves into their zones

In a white-room scenario, I'd send Brightstar north to the red zone, Sparky into the crossroads to enforce speed limits, Rose & Goldenrod south to the blue zone, Zero sits on green, and Sapphire gives Brightstar the Latch Drone before sticking with Sparky to give her Restock Drones (Or the Primors if Sparky's not in the combat)

[empty flame]

I actually had Brightstar pick up a latch drone and ignore the objectives at first, instead going out to taunt the most aggressive melee PC she can find into a bit of a duel (she has the advantage because she can resist their damage) before leaving them in the dust to deal with an objective

[odd kayak]

Don't forget Kiriona has resistance to the closest source of damage like I did

and here are some tips the server gave me when I made the same question some months ago

[odd kayak]

Even so, just with Elsa's drone she was the mvp alongside Hedros

the players won by like a point

[quaint egret]

Hmmmm…how unbalanced would it be to upgrade the Grunt Bastions in Combat 3 with “Deathcounter”?

I know they’re supposed to be fodder and it’s not like they take the damage when acting as Hard Cover anyway. I feel like it’ll make them a little less pointless (have to dedicate a whole Barrage or 2 Skirmishes from 2 different PCs to take them out) without bogging the whole combat down.

What say y’alls?

[final frigate]

I'm gonna be doing it, but that's primarily because my players have an Enkidu in it, alongside a good artillery frame that can casually kill them before they do anything.

That said I'm also bulking up lady Achellia and adding another instructor to the fight, because...this party is really good at killing people.

[quaint egret]

Yeah. I have a Pegasus among my PCs and homeboy loooooves the Omnigun.

“NO RULE IN THIS BOOK OR ANY OTHER SUPERSEDES THIS.”

Guess it doesn’t matter if my Grunt Bastions have “Deathcounter” or not. Peggy’ll eat them alive! 😂

[odd kayak]

Grunts did very little on my game in part because there was a Anihilator from Tokugawa present

At the same time it was the only fight they lost for now because they made bad choices AND I got luck on my dice (iphianesa recharged her missiles in the same round so I got 3 people on them twice) AND they got extremely unlucky with their die (one of them got 8 misses in a row, three of those being natural ones)

[quaint egret]

Yeah, AP with Burst 1’ll do it.😂

[clear nymph]

I'm debating having my players start outside their mechs for Combat 6. Need to get to the party bus to get their mechs.

[ocean idol]

running my first session of this module on Saturday

I plan on introducing the PCs as the last arrivals to the college via maglev train - Eligos registers them into the same class house as a team since they arrive together. I have it planned that the train they arrive on goes out of control, and they have to try and stop it before it crashes into the college. If they somehow don't manage to do it, I have a little scene with Karrakin Black Witches swooping in and slowing it to a halt with their magnetic fields. the whole last arrivals thing is a sort of hazing ritual, but the train going haywire could be deliberate sabotage. kinda keeping it open to see how my players react - either way it's the reason I came up with why they'll be late for everything on day one

they have classes, go to the ball and then get to meet Lord Praya and Count Argo during the encounter with Rawan... combat 1 is gonna be so cool

[pearl inlet]

that's a cool approach!

that could a small scene or two between their characters while on the train and then disaster strikes!

this is all gonna be a skill challenge I assume?

[ocean idol]

exactly! One of my players' favorite movies is Bullet Train so thats where the idea came from. I havent written any details for a skill challenge yet but i was thinking of winging it with a few skill checks. It's very loose at the moment

The train empties out until they are all who's left on the train so they can actually meet each other before getting to the KCC

[pearl inlet]

I think you could use the oppurtunity to use 2 clocks (one that goes up and protects everyone and other that's disaster strikes, even though that just means the Karrakin/BUC mech team comes in for a quick rescue)

Them saving the train could set them up as heroic upstarts and them failing could have the ire of some/ a loss of face as they couldn't pass the vibe check of being a Kavaliere

[ocean idol]

That sounds perfect. I have 5 PCs so im thinking the disaster clock could have 3, probably 4 for good measure - and the Save Everyone clock could have 4 or 5 segments.

[pearl inlet]

Hmmm! That could be interesting to see. Maybe in the aftermath, to sell the fact that this could've been a sabotage targetted at them you can have local Karrakin news covering the incident and that it was unprecedented event since the train has never had any issues for decades/ at all! Or if you feel like it needs to be a bit more direct, then something about sudden inexplicable engine failure or tracks malfunctioning due to a viral bug messing that caused large power outages. Maybe even going as far as to make it a hacking attempt, leaving behind some very strong messages, that give vibes of HA/Sanjak stuff to allude towards that coming C4 fight.

[pearl inlet]

I'd say make the save clock 6 and the disaster clock 4. Or make it an even 4 - 4 for both.

disaster clock goes up 1 on failures and 2 on checks they fail if they push it.

If your group is using bonds then this is a good time for to flex those bond powers and mark stresses as well.

[ocean idol]

oooh i love the angle of having news coverage.

I do really like the idea of it being a direct hacking attempt - jumps right into the conflict but leaves a lot of questions for the players to ask like: was this deliberate? who would do this? why were we targeted? and so on

[ocean idol]

We are using bonds but im starting them at LL0 so they wont have access to them just yet sadly

[pearl inlet]

Yeah absolutely! This could be something that some of the more inquisitive players would like to get answer to and could slueth around for clues as to why it happened.

[pearl inlet]

Ahhh by the book gotcha gotcha

[dark tusk]

I'm down a player from my game and short on time and was trying to figure out something concrete for a tenor change into mission 2 and I love minigames.

The players before got to start off the semester with a little flower arranging exercise for the humanities class with Castor Eyros.

I am now having them start off solving a small substitution cipher in exchange for an extra reserve !

[mellow valve]

Hi everyone, I have a couple of questions,

1. What would you recommend to adapt the module to an ll1 start instead of ll0?
2. One of my players wants to hail from or have ties to the order of xenoglossia, but I'm having a hard time concocting something that makes sense with them, what would someone from the order be doing at the college? What ties could someone have that relate to it?

[dark tusk]

Two members of the order are big parts of mission 2 ! Augur Kahin reads their tarot cards at the start of the second half, and they I think are assumed to do mysterious consultations to the administrators of the campus.

[gray magnet]

shadow of the wolf preplanning continues, players currently considering the dress code and the lack of strictness surrounding it for some members

[mellow valve]

I am aware of that, just wondering why they would fit as students and not just on "augur duty" and stuff like that like in mission 2

[gray magnet]

showed some portraits as examples of uniforms in the kcc and going off only the art my player's reaction to rawan has been "oh this poser"

[dark tusk]

There's like the grammatons in the order who are bodyguards, so they could be there training for that?

The augur could have intentionally moved them like a pawn into the place and if the player wants to you can play up the ambiguity of the question i.e. "Why am I here?"

[dark tusk]

One of my players fedjacketed Rawan because Rawan is so vocally anti-apartheid

[gray magnet]

"ok so you wear all of these signifiers of counterculture and rebellion but you're going to a military college at the heart of the empire, where to even be a student you need the patronage of the powerful or noble title, benefitting from the systems the flags you wear on your chest would scorn" is the summary of the impression my players got from the art

nobody knows she's a spy

there is both someone from the house of promise and a dawnline ungrateful (sand funded) so that will be fun for them to interact

[pearl inlet]

That's really cool! Would you wanna share that cipher and how you did that flower arranging minigame? I'd love to have small things like this in my games. On that topic what minigames have yall done in your games?

[pearl inlet]

As for question 1 : I'd say it's pretty easy to adapt as is, especially Mission 1. Now, moving into Mission 2, players will have license frames and Ms.Kat has said that the combats have been a bit more balanced around having GMS frames. So atp you might want to tune things around a bit. Largely, the module will run just fine if started at LL1

[mellow valve]

got it, thanks

[dark tusk]

So I'm thinking of doing just a simple substitution cipher. So like represent A with E and B with F and so on. 2 notes showing HA correspondence.
I'm using the bit they did in that movie about Alan Turing where both notes end in "Hail HA" to help them build the key.
RSTLN and particularly E are the most common letters in English. That and a lot of the-s makes it easy to decode I'd think

For the flowers it was very very rp. You are in the campus garden and castor asks you to make flower arrangements. Go through the garden, RP a bit, brainstorm something, and tell us what your character would make. I gave an example arrangement that felt artsy and aristocratic and used some basic terms like shape, form texture, depth from a flower arranging wikipedia page to help the players think about it.

They all came up with super duper evocative stuff without having to know the names of flowers

[clear nymph]

A literally explosive session. Praya has played her hand and accused the players on live broadcast. Players, to escape campus security, blow up a statue in the garden with copious amounts of explosives and incite a riot among the student body over the blatant injustice. Now detainment orders have turned in to arrest warrants.

[dark tusk]

One more SotW sesh in the bag !! Doing some return to campus NPC status quo setting. Two main beats I want to highlight:

1. Our local radical republican player was brought into the deans office alongside Rawan at the start of M2 for wearing "symbols showing allegiance or advocacy for anti-Baronic groups and terrorist ideologies- a violation of the code of conduct for BUC personnel, and according to student reports received by the office consequently chilling campus speech." All because she wears a little red beret. They were let off with a warning and an implicit edict to hide their power level so to speak. This is pushing her and Rawan to start some kind of campus advocacy group or action to be discussed further at our next session.

2. Another PC has been in a long standing and messy love triangle bouncing between Elsa and Kiriona that imploded during the Cadenza when she took Kir. Given the threat of war Elsa extends a big ceremonial olive branch as conflict gives them cover to publically rebuild their friendship. I have Kir speak directly to my players core interest her character isnt ballsy enough to say: "We all like each other lets just do a behind closed doors thruple jfc". The cost: As a Federalist who would rather not be explicit about what she actually believes, this player now has to West Wing up a centrist consensus position on the potential war and aristocratic system with these two if she wants her polyamorous romp.
   I'm proud of this cause she really wants to treat SotW as a dating sim, and it's directly fed back into The War of it all.

[clear nymph]

I had originally planned to have the players lay low. But with them causing a student riot and blowing up a statue (both not my idea mind you!), I'm thinking Praya is going to move up the attack to now to blow the school under the cover of the riot. She wants this all to blow up in her dad's face so she's plastered the House of Stone fingerprints all over the specious accusations and a heavy handed response to the riot. She's more than a little bit pissed that the players aren't playing the correct role of innocent obviously framed people which is confusing the narrative she wants to spin.

But she trusts that they will either die as martyrs against the corruption of the House of Stone trying to stop her or successfully slay the villain and implicate the monster supposedly behind her. Either way she's getting what she wants.

[dark tusk]

That is some crazy layers there for her motivation I love it

"I'm going to let myself die in an explosion I caused to spite my dad who I hate" is incredible.

[clear nymph]

She's definitely not alright. Doesn't help that this isn't even the same Praya that started the College. Dear Father decided Praya 26 was a failure when she didn't finish first in the Hounds Tooth exams. He's disappointed in himself for not properly molding his daughter into the perfect ruler for a new Annorum. Again. Had to discard the refuse. He's certain that he will succeed this time though!

27s first test was executing 26. That thoroughly convinced 27 the plan needs to go forward.

[dark tusk]

Fuck yeah that's perfect.

Ya know, I implemented something similar by having Praya confess to a PC who is Argo's childhood friend that she's the 48th, and I did have the stonelord call her a failure publically at the cadenza and blame it on unionists, the teachers, liberals, degeneracy, etc.

I might have to crib this as the motivation for the attack for her because it is perfect

[odd kayak]

https://tenor.com/view/che-cpm-kammi-sagavu-sfi-gif-14566705

[odd kayak]

sounds perfect

[rocky ridge]

I'm running Shadow at the moment, and it's going interestingly. By which I mean we're four sessions in and one of the players is Praya's lover

[opal chasm]

where we're at at the end of round 3. my set of twins (players) made it a point to take out the other twins lmao

It'll be close but I think the players can take it. Kiriona has been a huge nuisance for contesting points. Dealt 2 points of structure to one player and 1 point to another with the Hedros Gun That Kills You.

although next round I'm sending Kay south, Elsa north and Kiriona to pull the player in the Red Zone out of it with Lasso and then off to contest the yellow Zone to keep them down on points

if Round 4 ends without the players getting any points and the NPCs can snag 2, it might be over? They'd need to focus fire Kay and Sapphire

[odd kayak]

Hey miss Kat is Argos called that because of Odysseus dog?

[quartz sentinel]

You'd have to ask Miguel, Argo is a name used by other figures in the Baronies (most famously, Yond-Argo)

But I suspect not directly

The Argo was Jason's ship, there were many figures called Argos or Argus in Greek myth

[odd kayak]

Argo also appears a lot in the book because its the system HQ of IPS-N apparently

[quartz sentinel]

Argo Navis is a constellation (named after the ship)

[odd kayak]

yes

[quartz sentinel]

Lancer uses mythological references all over the place

And Miguel uses names multiple times in some places to refer to different things

So it's really hard to know what precisely was intended

Why the pairing of Argo and Balor is an interesting question

(low key imagine if the answer were: A & B )

But yes I can say that metatextually Argo is me intentionally reusing a name

[ocean idol]

i ran my first session last night and my players got into a situation with Argo :) called him a name at the Matriculation Ball - they stepped outside to talk. he got dirt kicked at his face (22 on a Take Someone Out roll)

overall the college was not a very warm and welcoming place, we ended the session with the scene of Praya standing over and kicking Rawan

the party very much feels like underdogs, and I've been slowly introducing them to the faculty and students. there's people they like and of course there's the people they hate. they're very much being fueled by spite in their motivations and already have a personal grudge - id say it went well?

[quartz sentinel]

Excellent work! 😁

[ocean idol]

the players are gonna try to kill praya next session, I can feel it. all they know about Rawan is that they have the ancom and pride flag on their uniform and Praya is kicking them

combat 1 is gonna go crazy

[opal chasm]

A note from a player during combat as I explained the Sniper’s Mark dealing structure damage lmao (said in jest)

[quartz sentinel]

https://tenor.com/view/rita-powerrangers-welcome-surprise-gif-5303725

[odd kayak]

One of mine took the wolf bond and is half halfheartedly threatening me about taking the insta kill ability to kill Argos specifically

[ocean idol]

scarey...

I know one of my players has her eye on The Knave and the power to take an NPC out of a scene when they break

just. get into a fight

[odd kayak]

Tho I imagine killing him later (around beat 9) can be fun and a good reason to escape the Akademy

[odd kayak]

lmao

I'm reading Knave to check that power and damm Knave sounds fun

cool powers

[ocean idol]

combine that with the Magus power of knowing what an NPC fears is gonna go nuts

[odd kayak]

Magus is cool

we have another lancer table (the original before they begged me to run sotw) and the DM doesn't want to use bonds because we already are LL6 without them but I would love to take Magus there

[opal chasm]

I’ve got a Knave in my party

I think my group is Knave, Seneschal, Celebrant, Harlequin and Fool

[ocean idol]

i think once we finish M1 my players will be Knave, Firebrand, Magus, Broker, and Harlequin

[odd kayak]

Mine are firebrand, harlequin, wolf, and celebrant

[clear nymph]

Seneschal, Magus, Fool, Builder, Celebrant

[opal chasm]

I think I'm going to have Argo have the parents of the two twins in my party be kidnapped (non-noble, head of a huge hotel enterprise on the House of Glass) and frame the one of the twins who has recently gone of her meds and is displaying increasingly erratic behavior, using this framing as a layered piece of evidence during Beat 9.

[odd kayak]

I'm sleepy and read "I'm going to have Argo be the parent of the twins"

[opal chasm]

Wouldn't that be a twist?

[odd kayak]

Time dilation makes family drama get weird

[final frigate]

While prepping for my upcoming wallflower campaign, it has been fun fleshing out one of the members of contingency white as a member of Argos house since they both have the last name.

Considering two of my players will be rejoining for that campaign, it'll be fun to see their reaction to yet another Laurent causing problems.

[civic snow]

Meanwhile, in the mission 4 adventures: the House Games happen, and the party kills two birds with one stone by losing a race to repay a favor to Aloysius and helping Rusonia, the next year's taker of Kiriona's spot, win her comrade's favor. The next time they see her is in the semifinal, when Kiriona deploys to the arena with a Leech wrapped suggestively around her, callsign "Roommate". Incidentally, Happy Pride Month everybody!