#Shadow of the Wolf GM/Spoiler Thread

1 messages · Page 2 of 1

haughty shadow
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PC pointing a finger at praya, praya pointing a finger at the PC "Hey !"

quartz sentinel
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Ways to "yes, and" PCs trying to murder Praya and/or Argo:

  • They're attacked on the spot by BUC security/other students, because they actively murdered a high ranking politician's daughter and fellow soldier in the middle of a military base. AND/OR
  • They murder Praya. She is replaced by a flash clone from her family's mirror creche, and this version hates the PCs.
  • In any case, the campaign is no longer Shadow of the Wolf - instead they're the most wanted criminals on Karrakis, you're in the middle of a city the size of Germany with no way to access traditional egress routes, and you are being hunted not only by the BUC but by the Khayradin Elites/the Sandmen
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Also worth noting: this isn't really a school and these aren't inexperienced children. This is an active military base and the students are amongst the best mech pilots in the BUC

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(basically my advice is always going to be to let players attempt to derail the plot if they want, and have them face reasonable and hopefully OOC-enjoyable consequences for doing so)

empty flame
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Yeah, in general any attempt to physically come at Praya or Argo is something that I put down as a Heroic Risky skill check, and it'll probably result in injuring them at best

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and has narrative consequences regardless of your roll obviously

sonic storm
glass prism
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Yeah, I did have a few of these things in mind. I had considered a "No guns on campus; talk to the stablemaster if you need to be armed" type of rule. May tweak as necessary. I would definitely make it difficult (i.e., a whole scene dedicated to their assassination, like you say) if it were to occur.

glass prism
honest holly
empty flame
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Oh yeah, I just mean that it's a "Roll a 20 or higher or you're gonna get hit back really hard"

velvet cedar
silver oracle
glass prism
velvet cedar
silver oracle
pearl inlet
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I got some of chopin's music playing for the matriculation ball. It was such a vibe having that play and halfway through waltz no. 10 the players arriving fashionably late made for a hilarious and awkward moment at my table 😂

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Also, I've been finding alot of arcane's music such a vibe. Idk something about the tracks for piltover (like city of progress) really screamed the college and Karrakis to a larger extent.

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Then Dirty little animals playing around as the group confronted Praya and Argo's clique, leading to the all-out brawl!

pearl inlet
velvet cedar
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I'm glad it's helpful to yall!

pearl inlet
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Could use some suggestions for my interconnected two group campaig. So I was thinking of doing the Cadenze de l'pavilios and potentially having combat 4 or something like it happen during the end of the event. One of the groups would end up taking on the fight while the other would be busy evacuating people. My alternative idea for who these enemies were was something on the lines of a balor viral code having infected several mechs and the aftermath resulting in a BUC investigation. Maybe the stables and printer access are temporarily down and the college has decided to continue using the rules that the students must treat repairs as a luxury. Idk narrative reasons for moving in the finals without any sort of repairing of mechs.

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I do plan on running the group helping in the evacuation through the path of c3 into c4.

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I'm wondering if two attacks within the span of a few weeks to months sounds like a viable angle.

rancid coral
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I'm curious -- given how the events of the DLS conflict proceed in Battlegroup, what do you think the 'canon' outcome of the campaign is?

pearl inlet
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I've read it as war looming in the horizon and maybe the play group being the last actually "normal" batch of students before successive batches being prepped for wartime training and deployments. If memory serves right, 5021u is when they start fighting all out right?

rancid coral
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5019-5022u is the DLS conflict i believe, yeah

pearl inlet
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I'm sorta running with that for my game. Like we all decided that SoTW will lead into a long rim game as most of the PCs will be heading to the dawnline shore given the inevitably of war and their respective connections to that area of space.

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Maybe they reach the dawline shore at the start of the conflict? And that it took them like 2 to 3 years of travel and other ensuing shenanigans being like a short campaign of its own

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Maybe they arrive at DLS and are LL4

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I'm also planning to create hooks like the KTB book offers from the various houses and do something akin to the ironbound shadows campaign that someone in the community made! Maybe outright run it after this (I'll know once I read through it all 😅)

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Almost every one of my player's characters have a strong motivation to head to Dawnline Shore

quartz sentinel
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most of the folks currently prepping for the DLS conflict are scheduled to ship out when Blink 1 opens for general traffic

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We're currently in that weird couple of decades where it's technically quicker to wait for the gate to open up to general traffic than it is to cross the Long Rim

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As far as the DLS timeline is concerned, this is what happens:

  • Blink 1 formally opens shortly after the events of SOTW (it is technically operational now if narratively necessary, just not open to general traffic)
  • There is a brief window where both the KTB and HA bring large numbers of troops and materiel through the gate, alongside arms and troops who have been slowboating it across the rim
  • Union shuts down the gate again when the war goes hot
rancid coral
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i guess SOTW's effect on the DLS conflict in particular stands to be more ideological/political than material, since the war seems like it's locked in by 5016

quartz sentinel
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dates are flexible, if you want Battlegroup to take place sooner (or not at all) that's up to you as a GM

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I have to work within the existing timeline

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the "canon" ending to SOTW is any ending that leads to Battlegroup as-written, but there are many meaningfully different ways that could come about (and also, nobody is compelled to cleave to "canon" in their games)

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if Grave of the Titan and Kingdom of the Fool ever get written, they'll fit within the existing timeline but won't specify a strict canonical ending (they will likely provide for a range of possible outcomes and be adaptable to the specifics of a given campaign)

rancid coral
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grave of the titan was your sanjak campaign, right? what's KotF about?

quartz sentinel
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I'm not going to go into details on those because I don't know what's going to happen with them

haughty shadow
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one thing can be agreed on tho

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those are killer names

cinder plank
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True

sharp cliff
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One of my players is a heir to the house that supplies the Hecathoncheries to the baronic authorities. He wants to whistleblow the whole operation by actively using the frame in the College and spreading the truth around. What are some good plot hooks and long term consequences for this?
we are in Mission 2 btw.

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He just got into a fight with Rawan last session after bringing the Terrorisminator 2000 to the Sanjak combat simulation.

quartz sentinel
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Dealing with any and all of those consequences while potentially not even having actual concrete proof feels like an entire character arc worth of conflict

hardy summit
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I'm swatting up on the houses. And therefore learning about types of governance.
Hagiographic - a government set around a revered person?

So like The Imperium of Man in Warhammer?

empty flame
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So I'd say that Hagiographs are defined by primarily wanting to split power between the different houses and give them a lot of free reign to govern themselves, instead of centralizing power on Throne Karrakis and the House of Order/Baronic Council, which they believe will lead to more conflict in the end

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This tends to coincide with the interests of a lot of local nobility that want to expand their personal influence, which is why it tends to end up as the more traditionalist ideology, there's a similar overlap there with a lot of Hagiographs (at least presenting themselves as) being the ones pushing the hardest against outside influence from Union

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If you're looking for a faction with a near-religious devotion to a single political figurehead, that would be Neo Passacaglians, who are a slightly different brand of traditionalist

hardy summit
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I see. I had never read that word before and when I searched for it, it was telling me about Saints and I got confused.

empty flame
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So their deal is that they think that Passacaglia (ancient founding emperor who unfied Karrakis under one banner) was a quasi-divine entity who was sent to deliver a perfect political system to the people. They claim that with modern technology such as the Omninet and faster space travel, the problems that brought about the collapse of the Annorum Passacaglia could be avoided

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They tend to technically call for either reduced power or full disbanding for the noble houses, but only to make room for a full monarchy, as such they're kinda seen as the radically traditionalist faction that nobody takes seriously, which is why no major houses support them

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That said, they will sometimes align with Hagiographs when it comes to "defending karrakin tradition"

hardy summit
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Thanks Ailyn. I'm getting a better grip on it now.

rancid shore
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👋

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yall, anyone have some decent images for the "Other Notable Faculty" on page 40?

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And if so can I yoink them?

wanton sphinx
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I have just been using the illustrations from the KTB field guide, and drawing halos onto them

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I used Lord Kanton Greave for Hesketh VIII

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The colour is very off but it was the best I could work ou

rancid shore
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fair enough

pastel lodge
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There is a woman in one of the art pieces for the Pankration match full spread that I veiw to be Achellia personally

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Woman on the left side

Pankrati.jpg
empty flame
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funnily enough I used her for Dean Hebiryah Doleros

pastel lodge
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I mixed up Doleros's gender in the book with my players so I made Doleros the person beside her

foggy wing
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i used nekas for 'em except for eligos who i represented by an abstract symbol cause it doesn't feel like the type to have a humanoid projection

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or, a slightly styled epsilon

Untitled882_20250316082606.png
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created in like two minutes in ibis

foggy wing
faint panther
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zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn they look cool!

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Oh wait, I havent shared my own minis i've made here!

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Combat 2

In alphabetical order, Brightstar, Goldenrod, Rose, Sapphire, Sparky and Zero

Brightstar_-_Lady_Kiriona.png Goldenrod_-_Primor_Vivian.png Rose_-_Primor_Valentine.png Sapphire_-_Principessa_Zoeva.png Sparky_-_Kay.png Zero_-_Captain_Hedros.png
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Combat 3

Same deal. Alecto, Auspex, Chaos, Jester, Saber

Alecto_-_Underbaron_Iphianassa.png Auspex_-_Heketh.png Chaos_-_Imani.png Jester_-_Castor.png Saber_-_Achilleia.png
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Alecto was painted by a friend of mine as a commission @placid widget!

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im on the process of making the tokens for Combat 4

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so far, only got the Operator done

RPV_Operator.png
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feel free to use them, just please let people know they are mine (and Fluffy's in the case of Alecto)!

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Done with Aseprite + GIMP and Retrograde's assets!

quartz sentinel
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these are really really sick 😮 amazing job

empty flame
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waiting for that one group with a PC romancing Argo to hit combat 6

4cq0dq-2172240335.png
rancid shore
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So i've decided that im going to have TYRANNOCLEAVE Pamphlets rotating around the college at random intervals

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new ones specifically aimed @ the college

rancid shore
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the first of which has been written

cinder plank
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Awesome

rancid shore
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yeah my like, rough plan for homebrew after SoTW is like, levelwise based arcs for easier time balancing combats in my head:

rancid coral
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wdym by level-based arcs?

rancid shore
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im using the LL's to more easily pace out the arcs and powerscaling of combats

rancid coral
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oh. isn't that basically what a mission is already?

rancid shore
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IE all of arc 3 will take them from LL4 to LL8

rancid coral
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ahhh ok

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yeah, i see what you mean

rancid shore
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i mean it can be but like, SoTW only goes to LL2

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basic idea ive got for the arcs is

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0-2: SoTW
2-5: sent to Dawnline Shore to fight Harrison while Plot Stuff Goes On Back Home
5-9: return home after Neo-Passag and Hagiographer Coup of Baronies, resistance fighters mainly trying to build up force
9-12: full out KTB civil war

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popularity wise/how well the PC's are known the plan is

arc 1: i mean, this is just SoTW, they're talented students but nothing crazy
arc 2: sorta hometown hero level popularity, folks have heard of them in passing for the most part but yknow
arc 3: okay essentially war heroes at this point, most folks have heard of them and their exploits to SOME degree
arc 4: i mean they're basically generals in the revolution against the Neo-Passacags and Hagios so

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gonna yoink some of the War Clock Mechanics from uhhh, Wallflower Act 2 Drafts

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cant decide if I want Praya as a returning antagonist in Arcs 3 and 4 or if I shift it to her dad tho :P

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and obv this is all

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based on them Not Fuckin Dying Or Derailing The Plot Entirely

faint panther
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you know, bring your daughter to work day

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also

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i've been somewhat set on the idea of giving as a reward for finishing mission 1 frames other than the variant ones from the book

I think I can manage it / play around it but dont know if I should adjust the difficulty moving forward and / or give them a limit to the frame (such as having that one and only frame and if they get destroyed they can't get it back)

I have four players, technically 5 but the 5th one "wont actually get anything new" on LL1 / they'll stick to Sagamartha for now..... and later on will betray the players in Combat 6 but thats a question for another day

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since the book does present the idea of potentially earning it with the right relationships, i thought it wouldn't be too crazy to give them frames on LL1

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the question does become "how much will this affect balance" and "if it does, should I make enemies difficult or maintaining their frame difficult"

quartz sentinel
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the biggest effect on balance is that the ability to swap to an exotic frame mid-mission can allow someone to go much harder on their existing frame and/or pull someone out of a major hole if they get busted up. Exotic frames are not actually that much of a power boost in a power level sense because a) the GMS mechs are amazing and b) a lot of frames don't shine without their licensed gear

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remember also that an exotic frame still counts towards the exotic limit

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(don't get me wrong - it's possible to abuse exotic frames if you plan ahead for them and build very specifically around having them, but in practice I've found they are generally not abused like that)

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if your players are reading ahead and are like "Okay so I'm going to build full marksman with these particular talents and this particular license pick in the hope of making friends with Hedros and getting his Tagetes" you probably need to have a conversation

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but if you're like "hey you won't get something new, but you're doing a favour for Argo so he'll give you access to an Atlas" that should be absolutely fine

rancid shore
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see i just told my players that "yeah you can get exotics from some characters for getting a good enough relationship with them" but not which exotics or which characters

faint panther
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players are somewhat new

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and I've also talked plenty with them to both keep it a buck in terms of power and explain to them that GMS stuff is bonkers at times

faint panther
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i, for sense of clarity, told them that there are 'relationships' and they can benefit from them

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players flipped when they found out they were friendly enough with the primors and got handed a satchel with MINES

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didn't tell them all about the relationship clocks and immediate benefits, but did explain to them they basically avoided conflict/penalties all together for being in good position with the Primors

faint panther
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i saw your name and that you are one of the 5 voices, but it wasnt until NOW that my brain clicked "wait... Kat as in... KATHERINE STARK?!"

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so uh.... thank you, im totally not suddenly sweating bullets

rancid shore
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or actually i suppose its more

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Kat Five Voices?

gasp

KATHERINE STARK FIVE VOICES!

faint panther
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PRETTY MUCH YEAH

quartz sentinel
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genuinely happy to help. I think what y'all are doing with this book is awesome and it makes me really happy to help folks out where I can

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IMO everyone running this module is extremely cool and has excellent taste ✨

faint panther
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i mean yeah, we have a sick ass author with excellent taste that has made an extremely cool module

pearl inlet
faint panther
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in this case, yeah

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a player (who's also from house of glass) made a deal / agreement with the primors to make a joint manufacturer and experiment with some Horus technology

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two players got really connected with Imani and Iphianassa

faint panther
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I also had the idea of, since its Exotic equipment basically, might make the frames a "one and done" deal. If the mech explodes or is destroyed after losing all stress/structure, the mech is done

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or at least the permission to print it again is done

raven jay
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dumb question, but is the dashed border part of the control zone or no?

image.png
north knot
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yes

raven jay
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thanks!

half ocean
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Is there rules around repairing mechs between between Combats 6 and 7 that i missed? Am i just following the same rules as mention in Combat 7?

quartz sentinel
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they can rest and repair their mechs either before, during, or after the investigation (perhaps in the transport)

half ocean
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My reading of the scenes with Soto telling them 'Hurry we need to go' made me think their would be more restrictions on repairing their mech here. Think i'm still unlearning D&D and how short-rests take an hour :O

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Thank you!

quartz sentinel
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during playtest most of the groups did their repairs in the back of the van on the way to the College 😅

brazen agate
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I didn’t notice this in the Combat 6 map until one my players pointed it out, poor Augur

image.png
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Combat 4 was a lot of fun, one of my players had expanded compartment and prospector, so he basically single handedly saved all 3 faculty. Shoutout to Aloysius as well, his teleports saved the party a few times.

quartz sentinel
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(Siege did an amazing job with the details)

empty flame
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oh that's incredible

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God shoutout to the minor tweak to that scene one of my players accidentally set up

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(back in combat 1, the party had managed to destroy Argo's heated blade weapon, leaving him useless for a chunk of the fight. This led to a condescending "oh do you need a knife?" followed by tossing a throwing blade at his mech. Later, that character sneaking into the hangar to leave a mech knife piercing his cockpit as an insult. I was able to then have him use that mech knife to kill the Augur)

cinder plank
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Dayum

brazen agate
empty flame
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I think the big two things for keeping Argo threatening are

  • Remembering the Legendary trait (I sure didn't do that the first time)
  • Hit & run tactics taking advantage of the reach of his weapon instead of staying up close
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he's kinda badly suited for the King of the Hill match's format, so he tends to work a lot better in c6

pastel lodge
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How I made him threatening was to use him as a distraction carnifex for my players. He was scary and all, but I made sure to immediately then show Praya's strengths as a threat.

For instance, he got proned and grappled by my players doing a really smart play. Then I had Praya approach, knock one player away and grappled the grappler her and have them kinda just bully a player for a set of turns.

I had very good players, so I kinda just started playing the same tactics they had against them. Argo is best used if you can position Alyosius in Combat 1 well and keep him close to Praya.

Sadly though RNg can destroy him hard like destroying his heated blade structure 1

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That and I just used him to either distract or bully players. Had to make his mobility work and how Praya is built to let him do damage.

brazen agate
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One of my player is rocking a Tempest Charged Blade which one shot Argo's first structure, he's getting assassin's marked out of the gate this time.

Argo also has some personal beef with that character, I had the Cadenze de l’ Pavilios occur just before the final exam and so everyone asked a fellow student out. This character (Jacque) asked out Elsa, but he rolled poorly on the Charm. I decided that sombody already asked her, and on a whim I went with Argo. Jacque challenged Argo to a duel over this with Elsa's approval, she is obsessed with the romantic ideal of a Kavaliere so I thought she'd like the idea.

Unfortunately, Argo won the duel, burning Jacque with his dagger over his heart saying "If I had wanted to.." Elsa ended up dumping Argo at the party since he's a complete tool.

graceful turtle
quartz sentinel
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fun fact: the high likelihood of Praya or Argo losing a weapon in Combat 1 is actually somewhat intended and one of the known consequences of giving them Legendary (though obviously it's hard to control structure rolls). It's an outcome that leads to a surprising amount of drama, even though it makes them less of a threat when it happens

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for the longest time I went back and forth over giving Argo a Devil's Cough and decided not to, but here's a sneaky GM tip that came up in playtest: if his blade gets destroyed in Combat 1, you can absolutely give him the shotgun as backup in Combat 6

empty flame
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narratively speaking, system trauma is one of my favorite structure results TBH, I just always picture those mech media scenes where an important weapon gets shot off and the pilot has to keep fighting without that in their toolkit

pastel lodge
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I 100% would have used the Devil's Cough as ablative in the case system trauma happens.

sonic storm
cinder plank
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I just wish that I made Argo and Praya more prominent characters before Mission 2 began. They didn't have much presence since they lost the duel so my players don't care about them. DeerHeh

dire thunder
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brightstar and sparky are incredible

faint panther
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Thanks! Brightstar was my first ever try at fully doing/rigging things with Retrograde's assets

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And Sparky is by far the most hilarious "i found inspiration/direction" ever

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Was just looking for spark-like glows, find an odd one with a circle, sparky glow, GIMP positions it near the barricade head for default center and it just clicked:

"..... This kinda looks like an electric mohawk"

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And from there on it was just having fun

placid nest
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to those using foundry, are there any mods y’all use? (in similar vein to the Terrain Height mod)

I am new to using foundry (and GMing lancer) so I probably shouldn’t add too many bells and whistles if it would make things complicated to set up? But if it would make experiences smoother I’m all for it

For combat alterations I’m gonna be using Kai’s NPC Rebake supplement, considering using maria player struct/stress but im not sure on that front

empty flame
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Hey what are the thoughts, both mechanically and narratively, on dropping in Aloysius and the Hornet pilot from c1, into the Dynamic Entry combat, with the idea being essentially that they were tricked by Praya into defending the bomb without an exit strategy?

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Specifically the Hornet pilot would just be piloting the existing Ace mech, and Aloysius would be using his full statblock as a replacement for one of the two priests, using the teleportation stuff to move people rapidly into the control zone and trying to keep his own head down

drowsy yarrow
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That sounds like an awesome idea. Gives Aloysius more screen time and another way to slow the players down.

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Especially if they have been making short work of the previous two combats

simple juniper
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Also helps stir more confusion “what’s Alyosius doing here??” And “Are they involved in the attack!?” Kind of thing.

pastel lodge
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Is there a post for setting up the maps in Foundry? Moved over to FOundry and trying to figure out how to line them up

empty flame
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I'm really not sure if Aloysius would risk his life fighting alongside mercenaries, but I do think that it's fun as a "If you befriended him/convinced him to act as an ally long-term, he doesn't show up here. If he dislikes you or is low on political prospects, Praya is able to pressure him into it"

dire thunder
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idk if zero has the measurements for the other ones too

quartz sentinel
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the true beauty of the KTB is that I can give every single character gigantic hater energy

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"this man parodied my dress sense. time to send assassins"

marsh terrace
reef steeple
reef steeple
dire thunder
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Oh splendid

reef steeple
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Ill send the screencap after I get off work.

tame mauve
pastel lodge
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Thank you for the images, need to look back here when I set up 3 and 4

reef steeple
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And if youre using the terrain height tools in foundry, youre gonna have to sortve eye ball the cover.

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Scene 5 tho is the closest I got to a 1-1 scenario with like 1 or 2 extra hexs on height.

pastel lodge
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Yeah should have grabbed the non-grid map but it lined up just enough for Combat 2 that I noticed issues in like ONE area and I barely could. Will have to do so for 3 onwards though

reef steeple
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Its easier that way n less headache

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Discovered using the blanks was easiest when I did Solstice Rain for the first time. Trying to align the foundry grid with the map grid was a nightmare in itself, especially when I discovered that my sample section for alignment didnt represent the whole map and there was areas where the grids deviated.

cosmic blaze
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In today's least chaotic SotW session
My players beat up Praya cause she stole a cookie from them
A damn cookie made them hate her more than the whole bullying Rawan

rancid coral
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how old is Iphianassa supposed to be subjectively? I got the impression she'd be in her 60s or so (or at an equivalent level, accounting for life extension).

reef steeple
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50's to 60's is how I took it

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And ran with it

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Looks wise it matchs but biological age in Lancer is sortve subjective due to crypstasis because of Near Light Travel so she could be chronologically older

rancid coral
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well objectively she's over 400

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i'm just puzzling in my head over how much of her life she would have spent at nearlight and how long she's been at her current posting at the college

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ie - is she a relatively recent hire after a life in the black, or is she an old hand at the college who's done most of her aging on solid ground?

reef steeple
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I'd say she isn't a new hire at least based on the way her character bio is written in the module itself (can shake it up however you wish as a GM.) Long enough time at the college to make a distinction between those with skill and potential and those who got there via connection.

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10 years at the College would seem reasonable

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In my mind at least

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I'd say the BULK of her chronological age is due to her multiple deployments to the Dawnline Shore which thankfully due to the Lancer Battlegroup got some idea of the time it takes to traverse the Dawnline systems.

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To go from one side of the Dawnline Shore to the otherside takes roughly 3 to 4 years in terms of travel and the System doesn't have a fully constructed Blinkgate during the timeline of SoTW, that doesn't get built till like 5021u roughly.

reef steeple
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Scene 5

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Btw don't copy my padding setting, I just did that for my own sanity. You're free to do whatever you want

placid nest
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oooho

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also: player of mine is considering between Harrison Armory exchange student and House of Sand noble, and I'm cooking between which concept I like more lmao
How have y'all run House of Sand PCs?

sonic storm
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Not a House of Sand noble but I will say: giving a character a sponsor that is actually connected to the plot here via a relative of Argo's has been excellent for me

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and I think House of Sand noble gives you plenty of hooks for kind of setting the character up in a direction to give them that midpoint "oh shit am I working for the baddies" into building independence and choosing better option that I'm going for with that OR just like. creating a position of nuance within the House of Sand that posits that yeah the dominant political thread is not a good one but there is room for growth and people internally working against that here (or both!)

reef steeple
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I've got two players who are House of Sand that are playing off as other houses while they preform sortve an initiation mission to be trained as Sandmen, gave them sortve obscure objective that they've been working on which has lead them to invade the privacy of other members of their squad in search of info for their objective for Mission 1 of SotW, and Mission 2 during the intermission period they are gonna contact their handler and some stuff is gonna change as the Handler starts acting differently. Only for it to be revealed that uh Argo has manipulated them into working towards his benefit in Scene 6. That they were never gonna be Sandmen but continue being the urchins they always were.

placid nest
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ooh okok

empty flame
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I think the two big routes for House of Sand PCs who still need to end up solidly opposed to argo are "Member of a smaller house within Sand that want to take some influence from the Laurents" or "Associated with a sibling of Argo's that just wants to mess with him/has a rivalry that they're using this PC to act out"

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Harrison Armory PC is also an EXCELLENT opportunity though, I've had a lot of fun getting set up for one in my next run. Also creates a fun way to expand on the intrigue

rancid coral
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you could also just be a dissident progressive within Sand/Stone i imagine

buoyant isle
marsh tinsel
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“Murder was in fact a fairly uncommon event in Ankh-Morpork, but there were a lot of suicides. Walking in the night-time alleyways of The Shades was suicide. Asking for a short in a dwarf bar was suicide. Saying 'Got rocks in your head?' to a troll was suicide. You could commit suicide very easily, if you weren't careful.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

half ocean
#

Running the final fight tonight. Any advice on adding Argo to the final fight? He escaped relatively scot free during the ambush and it feels right for expectations for him to appear here at Praya's heel one last time.

pearl inlet
#

Hey y'all cuz of the scheduling chaos I have for my two party interconnected run of SoTW I have thought of adding optional combats in. It'll be like a pool of combat scenarios that the groups choose from. The reasoning for this two-pronged ; they all got quite a few repair caps left and these fights can be a good opportunity for both groups to interact in real-time. We are fast approaching C3 and C4 btw. Apart from a few reserves I'm kind of out of options in terms of rewards for people taking part in these optionals. Idt giving them exotics is a good idea but maybe a limited use system or weapon?

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After c1 and c2 were a cakewalk, I've finally been to up the difficulty and get it right! Still quite scared and anxious that I might blow up a mech or two

quartz sentinel
half ocean
#

Ended up doing just that funny enough (running it right now). They have disarmed the bomb and the elites are in a controlled retreat. The Dynamic Terror Duo are being provoked into staying to fight.

cosmic blaze
cosmic blaze
# pearl inlet Hey y'all cuz of the scheduling chaos I have for my two party interconnected run...

Lancer Enhanced Combat has 100 more reserve ideas if you're looking for inspiration
Imo exotic gear (and rented licensed gear) isn't too bad because it costs SP or a weapon slot to equip, whereas with reserves they're free to take so they can be stacked if you give too many at no cost
Another idea is to give them narrative reserves, like some that appear in the module (+1 Accuracy on checks with certain NPCs, Blackmail, etc.). These stop PCs from stacking mech reserves while letting you give out plenty of rewards

faint panther
#

Because of the conversation that is just devolving in #lore-and-worldbuilding message, what are indeed these other flags?

image.png
sonic storm
#

the red/black triangle one is the anarcho-communist flag

faint panther
#

Ah, gotcha

quartz sentinel
#

(though I don't own EC and have only encountered them as a player so take that with a grain of salt)

opaque condor
faint panther
#

i mean.... kinda?

opaque condor
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i mean "sun rising over a horizon line;" the flag itself looks like this. idk, best i can come up with ok turns out there are messages in this server from kat saying the semicircle thing is indeed canonizing the horizon logo from the compcon github

Screenshot_2025-06-04_at_10.33.41.png
pearl inlet
empty flame
#

Oh the sun symbol is for the horizon group, that NHP rights party

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The one that really throws me is the Estonian flag tbh

cosmic blaze
faint panther
faint panther
graceful turtle
faint panther
#

yup, and today is Estonia's Flag Day

graceful turtle
brazen agate
#

I ran combat 6 last night, I ended up adding the Devil's Cough to Argo and it kept him scary. He managed to hit a barrage with it, and when he structured the shotgun absorbed the weapon destruction. The Opfor really is devious in that combat, so much crowd control, and they are great at making Argo shine (which I bet was the point.)

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The pirate hornets are straight up evil

void galleon
#

Does anyone have the grid specifications for the battlemaps? Trying to set them up in Foundry

placid nest
void galleon
tame mauve
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Jesus this map requires so much hexes

rn_image_picker_lib_temp_36cc9de5-50a7-4831-bd31-5a28350a544b.jpg
glass prism
#

This is sick. Love the GM screen and handouts. Looks very professional.

haughty shadow
#

very nice

quartz sentinel
pearl inlet
honest holly
#

I'm sorry I can't help but notice that's a pretty unique chair you have there

tame mauve
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I lounge across the whole thing while GMing

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Got that roman posture

north knot
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BASED

placid nest
#

How many sessions did y’all put into Beat 4?

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Or i guess, how many average sessions is sotw? It probably varies a lot

velvet cedar
#

I've turned Beat 4 into about 2.5 sessions since my players enjoy non-combat sessions a lot, and because it took us about 3 sessions to get through combat 1 and I'm trying to keep combat/non-combat time balanced

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I would recommend, if you haven't already, talking with your players and trying to get a sense for where their priorities lie and what elements of the campaign they're most excited for! It helped me a ton at least

placid nest
#

nods nods nods nods ty

empty flame
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In general with downtimes, I've kinda told players in advance "hey we have a downtime coming up, think about what scenes you wanna run", then just went for it in-session

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then as we get into the final hour of our session time, I'll see how much we have done before either comitting to a second session or starting to move towards the next beat

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even with adding extra downtime actions and minor beats, I've generally had that kinda segment only take 1-2 sessions

velvet cedar
cosmic blaze
#

I second telling players in advance, it cuts down on the time it takes them to decide during the session and lets you plan for stuff in advance

half ocean
# placid nest How many sessions did y’all put into Beat 4?

I expended it into like 4-5 sessions. Added after-school clubs and elective classes for players to attend. Made little companion quests for the NPCs so players could earn friendship 9/10 levels. Framed the ending of beat 4 as the ending of the first term, with second term having the exams at the end

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My players r rp fiends and it helped me establish the world for them a little better. May not work for everyone

velvet cedar
half ocean
#

Your milage may very as i changed a few things and added a few characters. I'll Copy-paste the relevant ones

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Hangouts:
Upon reaching Lvl 8 friendship with a character, players are treated to a scene with that character.

Lvl 8: Intro Scene / Hangout with the character
Lvl 9: Unlock character Perk, Mission Unlocked,
Lvl 10: Ride of Ride. Final Hang out.

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Rawan:
Lvl 1: Rooftop curry into Star Gazing. Rawan invites the player over to her room. She has a balcony that adjoins to the roof ladder (with a small jump). She makes the players come curry and hangs out with them on the roof.
Lvl 2: Star-Gazing into Praya Theft. Rawan’s bracelet was stolen from her by Praya when she was beating the shit out of Rawan. The brachlet was a mission. In this case, sneaking into and retrieving something from Lord Praya’s room. Enter some heist hijinks.
Lvl 3: Opening up on True mission. Rawan nervously reveals she is from Sanjak. - Didn't end up doing this as breaking in Praya's room was enough. Plus the Sanjak angle should be a slow burn.

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Lord Tomas:
Lvl 1: Go read in the library. Tomas is thankful that the players are happy just hanging out with them low key. Tomas asks them if they’ve ever painted before. He talks about how he loves doing it, but it’s so rare he ever gets too ever since his parents took it away.
Lvl 2: Castor has a mural project for victims of the attack. Tomas is the best painter, players need to force him into that comp. Players need to help Tomas get some paints ordered in. His parents have been keeping close tabs on his expenses at school and restricted his ability to order gear in. Castor chafes against this restriction set by the parents, and is very interested in helping the PCs and Tomas, but only if Tomas confronts his parents about it.
Lvl 3: Players paint in the gardens with Tomas for the Mural. Tomas is still stressed and still oversighted by his parents but thankful the PCs helped him stand up to them.

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Kay:
Lvl 1: Kay makes little “murder-drones” to fight each other. Gives each player one to control, they can choose to customise it. Kay did it as a proof of concept for some mech concepts she is cooking up. During this, Kay talks about growing up in Umara, on the floating cities repairing the electronics around the house, then the drones, then the cities themselves.
Lvl 2: help - Kay was a romance option for one of my players so i went a little overboard. I also didn't like aloysus so the players got him expelled. Kay's Lvl 2 was trying to help her ground herself following that event (aloysus's depature was framed as a betrayal by him).
Lvl 3: Friendship - Romancing PC went to Kay's planet and met her family (made a floating city with some haitian influences) during the break between act 1 and act 2.

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Captain Hedros:
Lvl 1: Hedros invites everyone to the gym to work out together. He talks about how he struggles to maintain friendships, as he really only knows some card games he played in the army, doesn’t know whats good to read or watch TV.
Lvl 2: Hedros is thankful for people’s friendships, and asks for their help in helping him take a night out on the town, as because of growing up on Bo and early joining on the army, he never really got to have a childhood Get really drunk and be a menance.
Lvl 3: thankful, opens on his presence and regrets on Sanjak, and how it was nice to forget about it. Talks about how his father was a hero but he struggles to live up to it.
Struggles with having his childhood taken by war and Bo.
Struggles with being known as a “Hero”
Joined the army because his dad was a veteran, and because his mum didn’t want him staying on Bo while it was collapsing.

My players never really vibed with Hedros. he turned a little into a meme because the first day he was working out in the gym shirtless and my 3 players just thought of him as eye candy but didn't hang out much more. didn't help that he's main combat was locked behind having 5 players.

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Principissa Elsa:
Lvl 1:Elsa treats the group to a ‘fine dining’ experience in the city, talks about the expectation of appearance. She keeps up this act for much of it and tries to keep a frosty exterior, but will eventually break and will complain how annoying the mask is to keep up once their away from the restaurant. Elsa will apologise, her mother is forcing her to make friends ‘other then Lady Kirioni’ and so Elsa had to be seen in public. Regardless of the deception, Elsa is grateful for the PCs and takes them to watch a Pankrati match with her incognito. Elsa loves it, screams and gets carried away.
Lvl 2: Pankrati match, Elsa needs to borrow a player’s mech and pretend to be them in a round of Pankrati in the city, low level tournament. PCs need to help her sneak in.
Lvl 3: Romance Fan, PCs help her buy a smutty romance novel between a noble lady and a rugged action lady. They run into Tomas while there.

Elsa's frosty experience was broken a little earlier then this due to Kiriona's events...

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Lady Kirioni:
lvl 1: Invites the group over to play truth or dare / drinking party. Just the PCs and Kiriona.
Lvl 2: Wants help in going after Elsa and make things more serious, as Kiriona really likes her, but doesn’t want to jeopardize things.
Lvl 3: Ride or Die. Very thankful.

One of the PCs caught on the connection between Kiriona and Elsa, so they dared Kiriona to invite her during the party (the players were also drinking, i did this session early. This was probably the moment in the campaign where it 'clicked' for my new players. Elsa is a lightweight drinker so they have some sad forbidden lesbian flirting before they had to take care of her. One of my players also dared Kiriona to spend the night with them, which she agreed. (my players r irl horny women, so it wasn't a creepy guy thing. Also Kiriona was consenting and dropped hints prior)

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Vivian & Valentine:
Lvl 1: Twins go out to have a picnic in the gardens. During this meal, many other students coem up to them regularly for information. Test results, rumours, spreading false rumours themselves. The Twins are grateful for the group because they get to finally talk to people who don’t want something from them.
Lvl 2: they ask for help against some “local stalker”, whom has been following them out at clubs. Asks the players to plant a bug on his comp/con They give some info to sweeten the deal.
Lvl 3: twins admit it was their pateron who the players helped them against, and now the pateron works for them domination style and they laugh about it.

I played the twins as big info brokers who are also party animals.

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As for clubs an electives; i started those after 'term 1' ended, which also ended with some of the NPCs having a house party at Kiriona's. I did this after the PCs had settled with the NPCs a little. Forget what the trigger was, just felt right to progress to the next month i guess. I think i locked most lvl 2 companion options until after term 1 had ended but before the big exam fight at the end of the term

half ocean
graceful turtle
#

i love the twins one especially, lmao

placid nest
#

ooooooooh sick as hell, totally using these, tysm

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im characterizing Val (or Viv) as slightly nicer than the other twin and the other as being crueler of the two, based on Beat 5 Viv will probably be more peppy

placid nest
#

oh yeah, I gave each student a class from each syllabus for fun so that when a PC attends a class I can know who to put with them
I could play it by ear and add who they'd want to spend time with, which may be more sensible, but this seems more interesting to me lol

image.png
#

praya's is so

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the syllabus im least sure on is probably noble-

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may swap Tomas's Tactical syllabus actually, he definitely feels like he'd be more interested in studying things that aren't chassis

half ocean
digital sierra
#

you're telling me that weasel argo is capable of leaving Praya's side?

sonic storm
digital sierra
#

hm true

cosmic blaze
#

Had a combat today featuring Fontague Montague, and ofc I had to give it a Taraxacum. Thought I'd show this screenshot of the shrimp mechs fighting

image.png
#

The Taraxacum player got their mech as exotic gear from Fontague Montague too

placid nest
#

LOL

lavish apex
#

so i as extracting the uh, map files for SOTW and i got like, a BUNCH of error codes in the last 3% of the extract, but it doesn't look like anything broke? so...

#

i mean its probably fine right

sonic storm
#

weird
probably? worst case you can redownload and try again, right (I never got errors there)

lavish apex
#

already did that any funny enough got more errors the second time but uh

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i mean none of the map files LOOK broken so its probably fine

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i bet its a windows 11 thing tbh

velvet cedar
empty flame
#

considering a really stupid followup campaign option

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namely, in runs where Praya and Argo survive to the end of SoTW, what if they end up in a position where their families want them dead so they don't leak information about the broader conspiracy?

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And that leads to the party catching on to some shit and ending up in a position where they have to protect those shitheads until they can make it to court

graceful turtle
#

I absolutely love this concept, but for some inexplicable reason, it's kind of giving me Blues Brothers vibes, lmao

rancid coral
#

Is the e at the end of kavaliere enunciated?

burnt iris
#

That's what I do when I say it

glass prism
#

imo it's a soft enunciation, so like ka-vah-lee-air

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but as long as you keep it consistent I don't think it matters too much

pearl inlet
#

How do y'all pronounce Cadenze de l'pavilos

quartz sentinel
#

Kah-den-zay deh luh Pah-vih-lee-ohs

pearl inlet
#

Thank you Ms.Kat

#

My day has been made again 🫡

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I shall now proceed to show off to my players that you have responded to me 🙏😭

native kiln
#

Finished the planning/notes taking phase for a SOTW campaign. Now to actually find the time to run it!

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(back in 2035)

placid nest
#

Dudbdbbdss I’ve decided to take notes on the lore in crb karrakin and sotw pdfs instead of just reading them so that’s been Going lmao

native kiln
#

Note taking is a much better way to remember things tbh

novel musk
#

what combat music are y'all using 🤔
i'm looking at the fire emblem three houses soundtrack for obvious reasons :P

sonic storm
#

i have a long series of jazz playlists that are tailored per scene lmfao

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but that's just because i was in a Mood doing prep and took it as a design challenge

novel musk
#

jazz? interesting 👀

rancid coral
sonic storm
#

a lot of them aren't done but i'll see if i can get what i've already used together and i can send some of my longer WIP playlists (spoilered bc i do have a bit where i'm not sharing them with players and one of them is in here haha)

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yeah, i'm just into the genre and its helpful because
a. i'm pretty strict about my game playlists, like i don't do anything with lyrics because it tends to muddle with people talking for me, i try to keep consistent tone, and w combat specifically i try for upbeat and high energy which are all things i can do within jazz
b. you can get a ton of tonal ranges and i like doing a lot of character associations with subgenres or instruments, so it tends to be way easier for me to like, dig into my artists that have a ton of ripping hot horns (something that i'm doing for ||combat 6||) or go "this one is a meant to be a lot more low stress as a combat, time for jazz-funk" than it is for me to pull from video game OSTs (+ i tend to get much more seamless playlists like that)

novel musk
#

yeah i'm with you on avoiding lyrics

graceful turtle
#

You're prob gonna hear a whole lot of this but a lot of tracks on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack absolutely nail the jazz + sci fi vibe

sonic storm
# rancid coral please post this, even if i don't use it for sotw it's the vibe i'm looking for ...

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KqBx0NPP3ygAJPyAFQQzZ?si=8ce65a2a55d0496f
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2sW3c3F9EFXrWSv2layoBC?si=d5ad240832b54c5e
||https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4v0giU1v8XsJ2EFFLmHrlY?si=2fc08cfd218a439c||
||https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4zmghwlfJTZl9azvzOJCWr?si=45eb38a951264bd3||
order doesn't matter except the top track is usually a bit of a tone setter for me for what i'm looking for (the spoilered ones are also WIPs)

graceful turtle
#

Enter sand-men is absolutely genius

rancid coral
placid nest
#

i'm also planning to use three houses, lots of 13 Sentinels as well

novel musk
graceful turtle
#

this is the most prog album cover I've ever seen, I love it

charred hollow
#

gotta post the funniest thing in this combat, the everest in the middle of the flamethrower managed to dodge the attack
we flavored it as that "tunnel effect" meme

image.png
charred lynx
#

My party was at like.. 0 repairs and 0 cores by the end of combat 2

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And they "lost" both combats. Honestly, Combat 2 is probably the hardest Lancer combat I have run in general.

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The NPCs get ahead, and generally stay ahead, with the players struggling to get back up to overtake them.

Both times I've run it, they've fallen behind by like, 4-5 points and come back for a tie, but can't quite win it.

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Anyways, my second game just got past the second mission, and I've decided to extend the game a lil, by letting them do a little running around for sponsors with new chassis and "jumping" to LL2 (because it gives more options and play room). And narratively we'll be doing the Cazenda de l' Pavillos.

I introduced an 8ft tall Harrison Armory Diplomat. I need a few more important sorts who are looking to champion students with upgraded mechs.

haughty shadow
#

the BUC seeing a Harrison Diplomat walking arround

quartz sentinel
#

Was it just that the PCs weren't playing the objectives until later in the fight or was something else going on

quartz sentinel
#

in other news, I've decided that Hedros needs some more tragedy in his backstory (spoilers for the Origins project I've been chipping away at)

SPOILER_image.png
charred lynx
# quartz sentinel Was it just that the PCs weren't playing the objectives until later in the fight...

The first fight was just bad luck, they played well, but Praya knocked someone out of the zone near the end, and Argo was nearly disabled and has lost his weapon, but managed to spin kick someone out of the zone and it was a "tie" which players loose. That was just predicated on a few decent ideas coming up short on the dice side and NPCs surviving just long enough to be an issue (Argo did end up destroyed, but Praya and one other were all that was left in the ring).

The second fight, NPCs are just maneuverable enough and out-number players enough to push objectives early (with five players, 3 // 2 split on the first two objectives they can grab), if the PCs aren't explicitly grabbing the obj, for example a slower mech taking a "center route" instead of getting on the obj turn one, Brightstar can bully at least one PC off the obj and contest vs the other PC. Alternatively the Vs do similar or double down with Brightstar to cap an objective. Usually turn one of combat 2 for me ends with 3 pts for NPCs 0 for PCs. That generally starts to slide in the PCs favor, but if they aren't exercising control over the Vs // Brightstar, the NPCs can typically choose a point to deny or steal each turn, while it's also quite hard while that's happening to press the back 2 objs held by Hedros & Elsa, possibly Kay as well. I wouldn't say it's not playing the objs, but Brightstars ability to push around size 1 mechs means she can be brutal trying to hold a point.

#

Basicall if someone doesn't FragSig Brightstar// The Vs early in that fight, they end up causing quite a lot of trouble.

#

Both fights ended in a "tie" it's just that ties don't count as successes for the PCs.

quartz sentinel
#

Yeah, it's fully intended that the NPCs should have the jump on the PCs in the first few rounds of Combat 2, I guess I'm surprised that they spent that many resources and still only came out with a draw

#

but you're right that it's hard to account for luck, especially in that first fight

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in testing we saw most groups have a pretty reasonable time but there was one group who burned all their resources and still got flattened anyway after rolling terribly

pearl inlet
quartz sentinel
#

it's a side project, basically to facilitate playing the NPCs from SOTW as PCs (like Baldur's Gate 3's origin characters)

pearl inlet
empty flame
#

Honestly I'm interested in this as a GM if it means more NPC backstory and roleplaying notes

marsh tinsel
#

Has anyone used rebaked NPCs for the module? I’m wondering about vet traits - legendary specifically - if I should use the book ones or just the class’s own vet traits. Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this >.<
Also I was wondering if anyone had advice on getting your head around the number of NPCs? It certainly feels daunting, though perhaps I should put it out of my mind until it becomes relevant. Though I have a sneaking suspicion the PCs might make it become relevant quickly. Like in the first scene it would be reasonable that they’d like to schmooze around and get to know the other students, get impressions and such. I do also want to try and introduce praya and/or argo then on a less hostile or even friendly note to make beat 2 perhaps more dramatic?

quartz sentinel
#

I can't comment on the rebakes other than to note that the fights were designed and tested with the NPCs as written and I'm not sure what the impact of changing things would be - I imagine it'll be fine, but caveat ludomagister. My advice would be to first make sure you understand why the rebakes change things, since then you can best judge the likely impact of the change.

#

for handling NPCs: if you think you're likely to be overwhelmed, the initial beats are deliberately paced to introduce characters in a way that makes it more manageable, and adding extra characters early on is optional. Certainly you don't need to meet the bulk of the students before Beat 3, for example - and even during Beat 3 you can pace things out by having the PCs choose who they talk to

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SOTW is designed in such a way that if there are some characters who your PCs don't vibe with or care about that much, you can just let them fall into the background and focus on the ones they do click with

empty flame
#

So for NPC rebake stuff, I was actually thinking about using rebaked NPCs on my second run of the game as a test! I'll probably do a more in-depth tactical analysis of it when I start prepping, but the basic principles I'm keeping in mind are

  • Look out for any traits that are explicitly mentioned as important in the "npc strategy" segments for the sitrep and ensure that they can still fill that function
  • Balance around NPC classes that are infamously over/under powered in the base game, as they're generally meant to be more balanced in the rebake. For instance you might wanna buff up combat 4 just a bit around the fact that the operators are no longer as wildly overpowered.
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And on the NPC narrative side of things, I wanna say that I'm normally a GM who has trouble working with a big cast of NPCs, but I found this module to be entirely manageable! I think having a big notes page with all of the clocks on it helps me to keep things straightforward, and that's with me being unhinged and giving each PC/NPC dynamic its own individual clock for a total of 80.
It helps that you can find which NPCs your party is attaching themselves to, and kiiiinda let the others largely fall by the wayside. For instance nobody in my original party really talked to Rawan outside of the initial few scenes, so I was largely able to forget about her and focus on the ones the party wanted to focus on

marsh tinsel
#

Thanks so much! I guess I was worrying too much about prepping since I often feel less confident with a lot of social interaction and dynamic politics even if I’m not bad at it.

charred lynx
# quartz sentinel but you're right that it's hard to account for luck, especially in that first fi...

Builds too. Two of my PCs had the Opps all loading plans, which gave them a 1/2 up time kinda vibe. On top of having pressure being put on them pretty consistently.

To be fair, the two Sagamarthas ended up pretty alright, and neither popped core.

I instituted an optional rule for the beginning of the campaign called "take a knee" where players can count as having a successful Custom Paint job (i.e. no matter the damage, stop at 1 HP and don't drop further), in exchange for bowing out of the fight, to allow players to preserve resources.

In the second fight, one of the players pushed themselves hard for heat, and became exposed just out in the street with Hedros still alive. Popped off a shot for 20 damage vs their like, maybe 12 Max they were already at half. They choose to step out of the fight lol.

#

Well, to preserve resources, and present a stronger mechanical narrative that all the college skirmishes were not death matches, that you can elect to step away from combat and mechs aren't being reduced to wrecks constantly.

quartz sentinel
#

oof, yeah, exposed vs a sniper is super rough

placid nest
novel musk
#

haven't gotten to it yet but i'm already foreseeing that rebake combat 4 might need adjusting
since the rebake aegis can't be dragged by the operator anymore, and the rebake operator has to play much closer to its targets

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i'm gonna try to squeeze a commander mirage into the opfor somehow and see if that helps the operators and aegises position better

silver oracle
vagrant topaz
#

Good heavens, players just barely scraped by combats 3-4
All but 1 mech got destroyed ._.

They're.. strangely happy about this though, for the challenge I guess?

#

Either way, we had our comedic relief when a player asked if Augur Kahin was able to tell the time and all the PCs argued about it in front of him for about 3 minutes

pearl inlet
#

I had a really nice couple of sessions these last couple of weeks. Both my groups (I have two interconnected groups that are being pitted against each other by their collective sponsor to "seperate the wheat from the chaff" as they would say.) have been running really well. I think I've slowly got the hang combat balance and that feels exhilarating lol.

#

In terms of RP, I had some really amazing moments tbh! I had a player have her character come from the same House Akrita as the underbaron and playing that has been a blast!

pearl inlet
#

I had a scene of the players recieving report cards that graded them on their performance ( I was using this as a way to offer newbies some tips but for some it was all just narrative) and this PC did quite poorly, especially compared to the others in her group. This irked her so much that she sent a strongly worded letter to the Underbaron, this leading to a meeting with her to understand wtf all of this was about! We played several 1 on 1 scenes and they felt so emotional at points ( lowkey felt like crying at times cuz some of the dialogue I wrote hit a lil too close to home lol). It wasn't my intention to go down the route of like this really bittersweet,heartfelt session about what reuniting with family meant but that's definitely what it turned into. So now, this character has a grand Aunt in Iphianassa and realised that they had a cousin in one of their closest confidente ( another player, another whole story in itself lmao). Her character was written with alot of emptiness and loss of loved ones, having found herself never truly having roots quite anywhere. Before all of this, she had really only her lonesome and maybe, on a good day, her confidente. But now she's suddenly eating dinner sitting around people that want to be around her, that she can call her own and that find warmth in the idea of being a "family".

pearl inlet
#

When I thought of the dynamic at first, I pulled directly from characters like Ambessa behaved with her "no pain, no gain" type of attitude, with the reason for the harsh grade being placed as a punishment or test to see if she's really Kavilere material. She didn't do this for anyone else and gave them pretty fair criticisms and appropriately judged where they were at, but not everyone is her own blood. What I ended up going with was the fact that she was attempting to dissuade and break her spirit of wanting to become a distinguished Kavilere. This was from a place of fear tho. Fear for the life that she'll lead. Of sharing the fate of like the many others that walked down this road ; one of an unmarked grave if they were lucky. I think I ended up wanting to "save" Iphianassa as a person ; I couldn't shake the thought that she would be someone who wears the titles she holds as empty laurels at best and shameful reminders of her horrific actions at worst. And genuinely interacting with her grandniece, rather than pushing her away, made her break and realise that she wasn't protecting anyone but pushing what little she had left far away. I don't deserve my players 😭😭😭.

graceful turtle
pearl inlet
#

who do you y'all think would compete with Elsa in terms of winning the popularity contest, vying for the centre of attention.

vagrant topaz
#

I mean, in terms of actively trying to steal the spotlight.. Praya, it feels like?
She reads as too proud to let anyone stand above her

#

Also
Ran our session 5 today, as well as combat 5

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I uh
Let one of our characters get a Sekhmet with power at a cost and it's killed a player mech ._.

marsh tinsel
#

albiet with differing strategies

pearl inlet
#

There's a whole bit going on with Elsa planning out a second freshers ceremony for some newbies joining in ( I added in 2 more players recently, one to each group of mine and went with as some sorta restructuring of the academy with seniors graduating early and newbies hastly being shuffled in as a federal decree has come out for militarisation of colleges and the deployment of troops to DS, as a response to HA's own actions) . I wanted someone to beat her to the punch and suggest a theme that one would argue is very much beating the war dums. Having the event being the conclusion to mission 1 right after C4 feels just perfect as everyone's reeling from the shock of things. Idk what Elsa's idea could've have been but maybe something about celebrating unity in the differences in Karrakin space? Maybe some subtle anti-war themes given these uncertain times. But ultimately one of pushing a bold front of retilation and strength by the Baronies becomes the theme to go for. The spectre of war, the shadow of the wolf casting far and wide across throne Karrakis...

pearl inlet
gleaming isle
#

Should it be useful for anyone, here's a map I made for narrative play when I ran the Cadenze de I' Pavilios with my players, though it should work for any ball or similar. Size is 20 x 45 (2560 x 5760)

Academy_Ball_PNG.png
pearl inlet
#

Looks like a fun map to maybe a do a festival in #1211781091577438339 message

reef steeple
#

Got a fun situation goin on with SotW, one of my players during the framed bit of the module decided to sacrifice himself to assist in another players' escape from Security. So now they are getting a wee bit of a sneak peak of some things going on in the larger scope of the campaign Im running. Mainly a meeting with a character the entire table encountered as their Union Pilots that they beat the snot out of as their Union pilots.

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Which is being showcased while being detained and interrogated by Security

placid nest
#

Ooooh that’s fun

placid nest
#

oh yeah it seems for a LL2 continuation my players think a summer vacation beach episode would be fun so like im like. mech volleyball minigame? mech volleyball minigame

ignore the threat of war on the horizon! <3

reef steeple
#

Ive been running a larger campaign that started off with Soltice Rain, currently my player's Union pilots are LL9, and their Karrakin Pilots started SotW at LL3 (will be ending module around LL6 for them) then proceed towards story act 3 dealing with all of their storylines. I need more coffee

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The idea is that theyll end at LL12 by the end of everything wrapped up and the final act is gonna take place in the Dawnline shore during the Lancer Battlegroup timeframe.

reef steeple
#

I'm also setting myself up for hell, because they will have access to both their Karrakin and Union characters.

placid nest
#

-Structure tallied at the end of round 6

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🤔 should I include cover in beach volleyball (active payload edition)

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I’ll give players a full repair afterwards since it’s not exactly a combat lol

marsh tinsel
#

What if you had to knock the bomb into a control zone, and have it detonate inside there?

#

shift away from shooting characters as much except for the control effects

placid nest
#

Ooh mhm mhm

pearl inlet
placid nest
#

Oh?

cosmic blaze
# pearl inlet You could look at the colcore coliseum sitrep. I think you could modify that sit...

To expand on this, the sitrep with the pyres sounds pretty good for this. You can replace the Key with the Bomb, with the goal being to blow up the pyres by throwing it using a quick action? And an enemy can intercept per the normal rules in the sitrep.

Also, that thing about attacking enemies with weapons not being allowed would fit perfectly with Coldcore’s Laws system. Essentially there’s some kind of action that becomes outlawed (like boosting or using tech attacks). If characters perform those actions they have a chance to be discovered and penalized.

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But some other actions are encouraged, and doing those gets you good rep with the referees so your cheating is less likely to be seen

quartz sentinel
#

I don't think allowing the PCs to choose the NPCs is a good idea since the rules of the sitrep mean that some of them can't meaningfully participate. For example, if the PCs choose Tomas, Elsa, Aloysius, and Kay you can be fairly confident that they wouldn't even be able to return the ball

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I'd either pick the NPCs for them, or change the rules so that more of the NPCs can compete

#

A+ for including a beach volleyball scene in your game though, someone understood the assignment KirionaHeckYeah

pearl inlet
placid nest
placid nest
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But yeah the plan is beach episode > house games > uh oh there’s An Incident at the games

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What The Incident is exactly im still cooking

graceful turtle
graceful turtle
# graceful turtle Praya gets drunk /j

loudly slurring "THOOOOOOSSEEEE GODDAMN UNGRATEFULS" over the mech loudspeaker and then there's a vine boom sound effect every time she finishes a sentence

faint panther
#

so i just finished combat 4 with my players

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god the end of that gave ME anxiety

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ALL 5 players were at 2 structure/stress or less

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one player had expanded compartments, otherwise they would've completely failed (and even then they barely were able to pass)

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and at the very end one player CASCADED

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THEIR CHARACTER IS AN NHP.

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God they are definitely starting next mission with an automatic burden from that fight

#

i need an ACTUAL break for the entirety of the day

graceful turtle
#

dumb question but what's the mechanical effect of a burden?

quartz sentinel
#

The main mechanical effect is that a burden can be invoked by the player or GM as difficulty on a skill check. It also reduces the amount of stress you recover in downtime, and certain bond powers interact with burden clocks

quartz sentinel
#

take care of yourself, and good luck with Mission 2

faint panther
#

thank god im getting them custom sprites for their mechs after, I feel so mean ;-;

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(not in actual way and players are all a-ok with the fight and how it went down but still ;--------------;)

placid nest
#

big hugs- im sure your players had fun

reef steeple
#

My group has gotten to the fun twist, which my two Sandmen in training lost their fucking minds to the double cross

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They immediately tried to figure out what was going on, then side with them, then finding out that they were expendable in the eyes of their supposed Lord, and their Mentor who is a custom NPC I made for their backstory.

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Interesting part is, they are down a gun for the fight. Because one of them decided to sacrifice himself to Campus Security to ensure another was able to escape. So they are minus their biggest gun, said player is also getting a sneak peak to whats going on at the Campus.

pearl inlet
#

Anyone else that roleplays Elsa as Ruby from Sex education?

empty flame
#

Combat 6 is going great

image.png
lavish apex
#

so building the clocks in roll20 for the first few beats, does anyone have some good clock assets?

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also curious if there are portraits of the NPC otherwise i can just take screenshots of the PDF, but scuffed but it works

empty flame
#

If you download the module on itch.io the portraits should be in with the assets

lavish apex
#

really? all i see are the battlemaps in the assets

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yeah all i got are battlemaps

empty flame
#

Oh weird, the copy I have came with portraits?

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Maybe redownloading would help?

lavish apex
#

third times the charm

empty flame
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https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/gameaddon/7383/retro-future-tracking-clocks-rollable-tables-addon
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/gameaddon/14936/progress-clocks

Roll20
Retro Future Tracking Clocks - Rollable Tables Addon - Play on the ...

This set contains two styles of progress tracking clocks inspired by classic mecha anime UI. For use in any sci-fi themed game system that uses incremental tracking tokens. This is a game Addon pac...

Roll20
Progress Clocks - Play on the Roll20 Virtual Tabletop

Simple geometric progress clocks. Progress clocks are an essential part of many TTRPG systems, like Blades in the Dark or Scum & Villainy. Good visual helpers in the GM-s hand, and a valuable tool ...

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and these are some good clocks for roll20

lavish apex
#

cool, thx

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ah heck money

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ok

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i see the issue

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when i try and extract the zip files

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the uh, NPC portrait folder breaks and does not get extracted

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i don't know how to fix that

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hm

quartz sentinel
#

check you have enough hard disk space. the download is huge

lavish apex
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yeah i got 69.6 gb free, im using the default unzip that comes with windows 11 im thinking that might be the issue

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ok yeah no

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7zip fixed it

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wholy the issue of windows being, as many people say, "bad"

graceful turtle
#

You're lucky your Microsoft AI didn't cascade and open up a portal to blinkspace

charred lynx
#

We don't have too much hard information about Dawnline or House of Promise, do we?

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I was thinking of carrying a team that just completed Shadow into a story that follows them into Dawnline, I was going to call it Son of the Rising House (just because it sounds like a song name, slightly off).

novel musk
#

son of the rising house
damn that's such a good pun lol

charred lynx
#

Thank you, it would be a brilliant 3rd party module if I wasn't so lazy and a terrible writer lol

reef steeple
#

If you want Dawnline Shore info, the Battlegroup book has alot of it.

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In terms of House of Promise, there isn't much to my knowledge.

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Battlegroup even has travel time distance for the whole system, ontop of detailed planet descriptions, force occupation etc etc for the whole Shore.

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To be fair though, it is 10 years ahead of Lancer Core so grain of salt.

charred lynx
reef steeple
#

Fair, as a fun snippet, NLT from one side of the Shore to the other would take 12 years.

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At an uninterupted speed of .9 of lightspeed and a direct course.

charred lynx
#

That's big enough for multiple blink gates out there

reef steeple
#

There is only 1 per the book

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Which doesn't finish construction to an operational state until like 5024 ish

charred lynx
#

I meant, Blink gates normally have 5~ years sprawls from them

I guess if it's centered it could cover most of it.

I was just saying it's enough space to need more than one gate, potentially.

reef steeple
#

Yea per the Book other parties are building their own but the Union one is actually the entry gate into the system.

honest holly
reef steeple
#

Lancer Battlegroup book detailing the information on the Dawnline shore because the book centers around the Shore.

honest holly
#

I've read Battlegroup, there's nothing in there about non-Union attempts at building a blinkgate

reef steeple
#

Currently the Blinkgate being built at the Shore per the Lancer Core book timeframe is being built around a planet called New Madrassa which is the 4th planet in system, and per the lore in said Battelgroup book lists that a possible second gate being built around San Simeon which is controlled by the Baronies. It's not explicitly stated but I'm drawing the conclusion it is other parties based on other information presnet in the book.

honest holly
#

The blink gates are one of the explicit 3 levers with which Union controls the galaxy. The technology to make them and access to the rest of the network is something only they have control over. The second, theoretical gate would be built by them

reef steeple
#

Its also based on the earlier text above that graph suggesting that Union had shuttered the existing Blinkgate (effectively restricting access) during the current hostilities ongoing. So with that being said why would Union build a Blinkgate in what is effectively hostile territory.

honest holly
#

The construction of a second gate is posited from the narrative frame of "The war hasn't broken out yet"

reef steeple
#

Fair, I read it differently but both work, depends on how you wanna spin your game world.

#

Shoulda prefaced what I was presenting as my interpretation based on what Im doing in my game rather then fact so thats mb

honest holly
#

You can ask more about in #lore-and-worldbuilding, but this is base Lancer canon I'm referring to

reef steeple
#

Gotta love wrapping up the Sandmen encounter and instead of my players interogating Argo they just immediately kill him

quartz sentinel
#

many such cases

reef steeple
#

He mightve survived had I not failed on a decision roll for him with a nat 1

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My two Sandmen in training players are freaking out because theyve been party to the murder of Argo now. XD

quartz sentinel
#

RIP to their careers. Or maybe hooray for their careers! Who can say

reef steeple
#

They are currently questioning their allegiance to the House itself now.

empty flame
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"We knew that we needed to take him out because he was a loose end that may have revealed damaging info about the house. Definitley no other reasons"

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Also! I'm looking at doing that NPC rebake version of the SOTW module encounters, and I wanted to ask: Balance-wise were there any encounters specifically built around certain classes being notably over or under powered compared to others?

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Beyond that I'm mostly gonna be reading the in-module tactics sections

quartz sentinel
#

Nothing was built around anything being under- or over-powered. However some encounters were built around the quirks of the various NPCs, for better or worse. I can't really comment on what the impact of using the Rebake would be, as I've not read through it properly.

cinder plank
#

My players didn't have much patience to interrogate Argo. They tried, failed the skill check twice, gave up, then killed him.

It didn't help that Argo had a hand in ruining the career of the Glass pc and took every opportunity to needle her about it.

digital sierra
cinder plank
#

No witnesses after the sandman attack

graceful turtle
#

Bro's had it rough, goddamn

marsh tinsel
reef steeple
#

My two Sandmen in training players were also confronted with their Mentor/Father figure during the combat as well, replacing one of the Spectres so its been rough for them which has amplified them questioning the situation of where they stand while also still attempting to maintain their own cover since the others aren't aware that they are from the House of Sand.

empty flame
#

so because rebaked veterans get Limitless as a baseline trait, I'm considering replacing it with the new class-exclusive option for veteran Operators, which has some fun fucked up narrative implications tbh

image.png
#

Though this may be a healthier pick

image.png
charred lynx
#

One of the PCs caused Argo so much frustration over the course of the game, at the end, he was just trying to kill that PC.

The PC was forced to Eject to avoid Coreworms (Left an NHP piloting), and while on foot, Argo cornered her and lopped off an arm.

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Then Argo was promptly smashed.

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I also made Argo and Praya Ultras in the final fights and supped them up a bit, because my players are freaking monster.

reef steeple
#

My players have a deep mistrust when it comes to NPC's because I False Hydra'd them once.

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Well custom ones I should state

final frigate
#

Working on expanding Shadow Of The Wolf for my players, and I wanted to ask a question regarding combat encounters.

My plan is to split it into 3 acts
the introductions and easy going part of college life
the Pankrati mekai tournament
the final act as the book details

The thing is I want to figure out where best to place the final exam which gets interrupted by the """sanjak"""" insurgents.
I don't want it at the end of act 1, since that sets a dour tone over the pankrati tourney. I don't want to set it at the start of the final act in place of the training skirmish, because then that's 5 brutal combat encounters in a single mission.

My instincts say set it at the end of the tourney (3 relatively simple siteps with low damage NPCs and sitreps pulled from Coldcore coliseum, and/or rewarding repairs to them based on their victories prior to the big exam), but I'm wondering if that'll be a bit much?

I could make this 4 missions long. Introductions, pankrai, exam season, then the final act?

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I'm thinking after the tourney actually, means I only have to make 5 new sitreps for the whole thing (2 to replace the ones at the end of act 1, 3 for the pankrai mekai), and it keeps a fairly solid pace.

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1 fight on a hot/cold map to mimic ras shamara, 1 fight on a waterlogged map to mimic sanjaks surface.

3 maps based on a tournament arena.

pearl inlet
#

One of my players is waaay to smart for a newbie and I'm pissed hmph . I did a modified version of Harlequin's knife (different group different combat) and lil bro literally ran circles around me and saved 2 of 3 objectives 😭

charred lynx
# final frigate Working on expanding Shadow Of The Wolf for my players, and I wanted to ask a qu...

Maybe make the final Mission 1 fights their initial auditions // first big match in Mekani;

Mekani is cool, but all the same, they aren't replacements for the college work they should be doing. Have the "final" come at the end of Mission 2 (the tournament arc), bonus points for the tournament finale coming "just after finals" where they are super excited to get to it, but the events throw everything into disarray (Which will make the players more invested, if they care more about Pankrati than the political events).

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During SotW the whole time, I've been repeating to my players that there are tons of Mech assignments they are donig in the background, simple training courses (speed, maneuvering, etc), target practice, hacking, all that stuff is happening between skirmishes that we play out as "mech combat".

It doesn't mean other fights aren't happening, it just means that things are not the story moments we're focusing on (And because playing out a full 3 months to multiple years, of character's lives is prohibitively too much time lol).

final frigate
#

🤔 It would give me an excuse to swap out the first sitrep of the final mission with something a bit more bombastic.

Not to say the sitrep is bad by any means, but when compared with 'know your place' and the other sitreps, it's a lot more low stakes, and, as you say, could be addressed narratively.

charred lynx
#

Well, First combat post Final is decidedly narrative. The thing is, Combat speaks volumes to the game just as much as RP, and having a combat that is narrative is fine.

The big thing with combat 1 in Mission2 is displaying you know, who everyone is blaming, showing how disparaging the KtB is, and the ramp up as they prepare students of war for fighting specific people they're branding as foes.

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The First time I ran that combat, my players (admittedly we were LL like, 5-6) churnned the OpFor like it wasn't even funny. One of my players simply got on top of a building and shot Rawan first turn taking her down to like, 2 HP-- Basically took her out of the fight in one shot.

But I used the situation to tell a story that the School was forcing "students that are under preformers" (Or on probation for any number of reasons), to pilot the HA mechs in "mock fights" that weren't fair.

final frigate
#

How on earth did you get to LL 5...?

charred lynx
#

My PCs decimated the fight, so I made it look like the College was under equipping the HA frames to bolster KtB morale and hype up the students, often broadcasting the fights as.. well basically propaganda.

Meanwhile the unfortunate students who were being chosen for the task of piloting the HA frames were being ostracized by their fellows, and became ridiculed because they were representing the "bad guys".

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Just driving home the narrative points of social inequity and disparagence between people and the willingness of the KtB citizens (or humans in general), to turn on those who are villainized.

charred lynx
final frigate
#

🤔 Sooo...you're encouraging me to lean into the themes of the module more instead of do the mecha tourney to be more faithful to the overall experience?

glass prism
#

I think it's possible to do both

final frigate
#

I'm tempted to do the mecha tourney as a way to highlight the 'might makes right' mentality of the KtB, and also add to the degredation of those who can't measure up now.

#

and also put the players on a high pedistal before they get brought low.

charred lynx
final frigate
#

aaaaaaaaah.

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ok

#

I gettcha.

charred lynx
#

The first combat in the second half does feel a bit.. low-grade, but it serves a tremendous narrative purpose.

#

Or it can!

final frigate
#

🤔

glass prism
#

you could also have a 4 combat mission if you're concerned about where to put the finals/exam combat

#

instead of replacing an existing one

final frigate
#

In which case, I think I'll keep the mecha tourney, but carry forward the themes you've mentioned into it.

#

Those who perform poorly getting treated poorly and such.

glass prism
#

there's lots of opportunity for drama in between brackets/combats as well

final frigate
charred lynx
#

My Current run, we finished the first two combats, and I decided I wanted the players to have options, so we skipped to LL2 (basically unintentionally reset the mission), so just this past week, I added a "fluff" combat that was Clash of the Titans from EC, as another "learn the point of war, it's not always about the lancers, but the units they support", so they were fighting to help their Titan, and they weren't the "stars" of the match.

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Although, obviously they.. are.. Clash of Titans was actually a really fun feeling Sit Rep, I didn't expect it to be so engaging.

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I plan to do another "combat sim" of Zero- G combat before the finals.

final frigate
charred lynx
#

So that the Dean can step in as a lecturer for that course.

final frigate
#

Clash of the titans does sound tempting though....

#

but, hm...

charred lynx
#

And next week we're doing the Cadenze, they've been getting ready for the dance.

#

But we had like, 3 sessions of RP before last, so I wanted a combat to break things up loll.

#

I feel like I should integrate a "college life sim" mechanic in the background of this module, to evaluate how the students are doing at all the things lol.

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So you can compare their "course work" stats to benchmarks to give bonuses or penalties.

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I also introduced a bunch of sponsors or delegates from various Corpos or Houses before the dance. Like.. 5 or 6?

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There was a IPS-N guy on planet to watch the dance, an HA Diplomat (8ft tall soldier, btw), a RKF Designers from House of smoke & one from House of Glass, uhh, I feel like I'm missing something.

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Oh, and SSC merchant as well.

final frigate
#

One of the things I'm doing is letting players pick where in the college they wanna go during the time between sitreps and stuff, so they can focus on who they wanna intermingle with between classes, then have a 'class rp' session of some kind, or a social event, then the next fight kicks up.

I know I want the Cadenze, because that's just great, but I'm probably gonna include the passions reading early into the adventure as well, plus some other stuff, so it feels more varied.

image-2.png
charred lynx
final frigate
#

definitely also want scenes with the specific sponsors as well, which'll pad out the run time nicely.

charred lynx
#

One of my players basically openly insulted the HA Rep, and was immediately "diciplined" by being sent to the Deans office.

final frigate
#

also means they can potentially fight the pre-cog monk in the mekani.

charred lynx
#

But once they were there, the Dean had a "stern talking to" them, about how they can't break face and what they did with HA was bad because it might start hostilities at the wrong time, not because what they did was wrong at all. and they got put on probation as a "show" to mollify the HA Rep.

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Basically the Dean said "keep up the good work".

final frigate
#

And potentially fight Mason.

charred lynx
final frigate
#

aka, an actual KtB war hero who, unlike the good captain, does not feel guilty about what they've done.

charred lynx
#

I think setting up the Immediate and erratic behavior of the Augar in that scene is good. I want people to walk away with a like "what.. tf was that????"

final frigate
#

For me I definitely wanna establish the cracks in the fascade of the KtBs image early on, then widen them as time goes by.

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like...I don't like the fact the Augar can actually see the future and stuff, I think it's a little weird, but, I can at least highlight how weird it is that a massive empire is at least moderately accepting of such a subjective and odd practice that can and will cause problems.

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That and I can justify it as "he's sipping on juice that gives him a greater understanding of cause and effect but warps the mans mind because of how it forces him to percieve near infinite possibilities for moments at a time."

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Any who, all this is to say, thanks for nudging me in the right direction.

#

Need to think of which students will be singled out to be picked on by the staff to be forced to be the baddies.

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Azer is definitely on there. Probably the two NPCs I'm including into the module cos I want to, the first and second Zuns of House Kristal, a nominally anti-house stone minor house under House Glass who are there because the college was strong armed into letting them join...

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and they have Mason as their bodyguard.

#

Because again, there's a gulf of difference between people like captain nadeer, a soldier who does their job well and tries not to be cruel on the battlefield, and Mason, a man who is currently under investigation by Unions judicial branch for what he has done on the battlefield.

charred ingot
#

Hello, we're just about to start SOTW with bond powers and I read about the wolf bond power. ||Any recommendations or suggestion in case anyone uses tear throat or go for a walk to kill off Praya or Argo?||

north knot
#

i've set the stakes for my players that they are not allowed to kill students or staff if they want to continue with playing Shadow of the Wolf, unless they have plans on how to stop things from coming back to them. it would create a massive diplomatic incident and it would completely derail the game if they were found out. as a generalization, Go for a Walk and Tear Throat are very Loud actions, narratively speaking. now, that's not to say "i've taken it off the table for my players", they can and likely will use it at some point.

in my opinion, it's a good idea to speak with the player(s) who have taken these powers behind the scenes and ask them to give you heads up as well as two-way consent on whether or not you'll allow them to use the power. bad outcomes are nice for these things, but ultimately it's for the best if they know what sorts of consequences would come of using it ahead of time and allow you time to plan for what would result from it

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tear throat requires a lot of careful consideration and consent both ways in my experience, as someone who has used it as a player and as a GM who has had players use it on my NPCs

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it's a very impactful tool that can radically shape the narrative landscape for your players. and that's fucking cool! but i also have seena lot of GMs just ban it cos it's a very hard tool to let a player just Have.

cosmic blaze
# charred ingot Hello, we're just about to start SOTW with bond powers and I read about the wolf...

The problem isn't Tear Throat but a particular approach to problem solving through sheer hyper violence. There's functionally no difference between Tear Throat and just saying "I use Power at a Cost to shoot them in the head".
The best way to deal with this is to just preemptively set the expectations for what would happen if they tried this. I was very clear with my players that if they attacked students there'd be consequences, possibly even their characters being removed from the College.
Either way one of the two being killed doesn't break mission 2, the other one can still go ahead with the plan. It even works against the PCs because it functions as evidence against them when they're pinned for the attack during the exam

#

Ideally you want to have a set-up that can justify the PCs violence being reprehensible while Praya and Argo are free to get away with it. This kind of already happens in beat 2, you're in a very public setting and its implied Praya has some kind of status that makes her immune to the faculty, so if the PCs try to gang up on her instead of abiding by a duel they'd get into a lot more trouble than she'd be for fighting back, in spite of whether she started the confrontation or not

charred lynx
final frigate
#

Working on my notes for the campaign,

Classism
The lies of nobility and honour
The weight of expectation
Reality vs propaganda regarding war

These are the themes im thinking of hitting during the campaign, and as a result im thinking of changing Praya up a bit.

She has massive expectations on her shoulders as the heir the house stone throne, she is incredibly classist as a result of her upbringing and overall ignorance, and she wants more than anything to earn honour, glory and respect, ideally via warfare so she is seen as a strong leader. She is wracked with anxiety over all of this, worried that she'll never get the chance to prove herself in the way the propaganda she was subjected to told her was "correct" and thus is a little self conscious. She is a bully because of insecurity.

Meanwhile Argo is the wolf in her shadow, the one guiding her to do things like the bomb threat and so on, effectively sculpting her in the ways he subtly wants so as to ensure she is the catalyst for his own ascension and, by extension, allows him to reinforce the class system and foundations of the KtB by forcing it to crush sanjak.

Argo being the real villain, not Praya, although she is no more innocent than he, because she'd probably have ended up still doing something else violent later on.

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Aka, evil vazier hours.

reef steeple
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Cool

rancid coral
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my eyes might have skated over this, but is there a stated in-universe length to the actual campaign? i assume mission 2 doesn't cover a full term the way mission 1 does, and if we're starting in 5016, I would roughly say end-of-5016/early 5017 as an ending point?

quartz sentinel
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purposefully no

rancid coral
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thanks. i'll probably end up fudging the timeline a bit to open in 5017 and end in late 5017/early 5018 then, since that'll put it a bit closer to the followup I want to start in 5019.

reef steeple
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My players may end up doing something evil to me, that I may have brought upon myself. Presented them the info about the college attack and a specisl NPC (not Argo) revealed that one of the PC's father was going to be taken by the OpFor at the same time. And now they may end up splitting the party. Which Im fine with as a GM because it helps sell the tension by pitting them against saving one man vs everyone.

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While also feeding them small pieces of the greater puzzle at large

final frigate
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Why not let them have some of the college allies they've accrued go with the people heading over to save the father, while the rest assist the players.

Run two sitreps at the same time on the same turn order on separate maps, with players getting to control npc allies.

reef steeple
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Ive prepped in the event of a split with the module sitrep and something new Im field testing for usage going forward. The technical issue would be running two maps at once on Foundry. Albeit one of my players who is also a GM for his own game figured it out so I may inquire with him.

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The College side being the normal sitrep meant for Dynamic Entry, the custom encounter will be Breach n Clear.

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Well a modified Breach n Clear.

final frigate
charred lynx
final frigate
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Don't mind the fact the sitrep is effectively sabotaging HA assets on their home world as shock troops 😄

charred lynx
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Yeah, I've given thought to things like, the equivalent of "D&D Epics" where multiple tables are playing at once and influencing each other.

But like you said, just two fights that reciprocate or at the very least are concurrent in the narrative.

Although if they are concurrent in the narrative and not actively effecting each other, you lose nothing by playing them linearly, except a frantic sense of so much going on during the double mission.

reef steeple
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The impact would be how late those that split for the custom encounter will arrive in the final confrontation

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There's no REAL harm in running them linearly

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Plus theyd probably like the speed since normally combats will take almost 2 whole sessions depending on whats going on.

reef steeple
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Truth be told, I do honestly deserve the evil ima about to deal with beyond just narrative construction, gave em a fun little side quest bit that awarded re-rolls on D20's, like inspiration just to have some fun with it. They needed to befriend a small critter, well the only player who is under 5ft nat 20'd and I gave the point under the declaration of. "Congrats everyone, you beat the quest, youve befriended the small critter insert player name."

rancid coral
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i was going through the 'other students' table and i just realised this is one of the guys who fought alongside Tyrannus in the LAoK lol

image.png
graceful turtle
rancid coral
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this is also the second place that a Cassander and Craterus show up in Lancer so someone clearly likes the Diadochi Wars over there

sonic storm
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maybe I think Cassander is just a neat name (has named a NPC in a completely unrelated project that lmfao)

glass prism
rancid coral
sonic storm
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I assumed that it's like, number in the clone line tho

glass prism
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ooouh it's in the KTB book! I should cross-reference that more

graceful turtle
quartz sentinel
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yes I can confirm that the name is deliberate but this is (sadly) not the literal same guy that stormed the Annorate Palace 😄

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fun fact, Wallflower spoilers: ||the weapons platforms containing the kill-rods are named after the Diadochi, so in my run of Wallflower that I did for some Karrakin PCs who were one of the early SOTW playtest groups I decided that those platforms were literally built by SecComm-era Karrakis for the Union Navy||

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||Karrakin nobility being noted for excessive name-reuse||

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the Other Students table has a ton of references in it btw

final frigate
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I have finished prepping 5 maps to expand the module a lil bit 😅

1 for ras shimara simulations
1 for sanjak simulations
3 for the pankrati meknei

signal_chase_nature_reserve_map_export.png pankrati_relay.png pankrati_extinguish.png island_secure.png ra_shimera_demolition.png
placid nest
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Ooooooo

final frigate
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idk how well they'll pan out when compared to the modules actual maps, (especially in the visuals department since the offcial ones look sexy), but, hey, if I ever get bit by the mind worm, I can always import these into a map program and make higher quality visual versions.

graceful turtle
rancid coral
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i'm adding it to the folder

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so far i've also gotten the Tithonia theory from SOTW and my especially cooked idea that Karrakis is the true birthplace of humanity and that Earth was seeded via panspermia in a lost pre-Tyrannic golden age

graceful turtle
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my personal favorite is from one of my players, who affirms that the Voladores are so mysterious not because they want to cover up secret technology or esoteric knowledge (which they do have), but rather that they're just extreme introverts

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like they have true FTL, like instantaneous wormhole teleportation or something like that, but don't share it with Union because they just don't know how to bring it up in a conversation without being awkward

charred hollow
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Preparing to run beats 8 and 9 this week, given that my players didnt get a lot of time since the start of mission 2 I wanted to slow down and have them interact with the npcs a bit more.
I was thinking of setting up beat 9 by making Praya and Argo start their preparations.
Basically every npc will have an "ill timed inconvenience", for example, Kay would find that the forges have a power outage, Kiriona's weapons got stolen, etc.
The players could investigate and help some of the issues while uncovering clues and extra reserves for use during the last stretch.
After the PCs receive the letter from the augur, Argo would release false evidence (along with some truthful evidence of a pc being involved in a secret intelligence agency) and Praya would go in and make a scene pretending to "arrest the terrorists in the name of the baronies"

charred lynx
# charred hollow Preparing to run beats 8 and 9 this week, given that my players didnt get a lot ...

A word of Warning, be careful how you deliver the letter to the players lol.

I found out the hard way (After casually improving a few scenes and then delivering the letter not in the same way the book did), that the players successfully determined the RV point in the outskirts of the Throne Karrakis, and IMMEDIATELY upon recieveing the letters, they drove to the destination.

Like just as pilots, they were in narrative mode, they didn't think "Lets grab our chassis". So I pllayed out a scene where they saw house of sand people doing shady stuff, but they had chassis and the PCs didn't so they were like 'wtf' then I dropped the "you're wanted" bit on them, and they had to break into the college to get their chassis before the school locked them down, and THEN rush back to the meeting point to handle the fight.

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Come to think of it, maybe just don't tell the PCs the RV is the werehouses in the first place, if you tell them the RV is in the stables, and then the grounds keeper catches them and says "I had a letter that I have to get you out of town" and go from there.

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But yeah, that whole section of the story became a mess in my first run. Learned a lot about what clues people jump on.

reef steeple
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Can confirm, saying the RV point is on school grounds works so much better. 2 of my players decided to sus it out. Found the grounds keep and went on for 25 minutes over a shrub that thr grounds keeper planted who was very proud of it and saw it as art while everyone thought it was ugly.

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Dude had it rough

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Everyone dog piled him, even Eligos in a later scene.

charred hollow
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gotcha, ill keep it in mind

empty flame
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God damn, had Argo lose his knife again (this time in combat 6)

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between this and what I've heard about other people's campaigns, that boy just cannot keep a grip on his weapons huh

placid nest
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lmaao

empty flame
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I know a few possible fixes but it's consistently been hilarious for my parties so

sonic storm
pearl inlet
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With my two group game that I'm running (I've two groups of 4 each oh lordy) one of the players is basically unknowingly helping with the planting of the bombs by the primors on the other group 😭💀

quartz sentinel
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sickos_yes.jpg

reef steeple
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Tomorrow I'll be presenting my players a choice, via information I've fed to some of them. One of them is aware that the father of another character is the target of a kidnaping operation conducted by the same forces that are attacking the College at the current moment. So if it is shared with the whole group, they are left with a choice. Sacrifice 1 man to save Throne Karrakis, Sacrifice Throne Karrakis for 1 Person, or Split to attempt to accomplish both.

reef steeple
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They did the split, one of them jumped through after the enemies through the Void Rend

quartz sentinel
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Let's go! It's always cool when players chase the NPCs through those. I hope you get to do some cool stuff in there

rancid coral
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This is a bit of a left field question but --
You know how early FGs and adventure drafts used public domain art for their covers? Did you have one in mind when you were writing SOTW or, if you had to go back, is there something that sticks out to you as a good prospective cover image?

charred lynx
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Not Kat, but I used this

Wolf_and_Fox_Hunt.jpg
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It's called Wolf and Fox Hunt

reef steeple
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It was a express one way trip into extremely hostile territory with alot of enemies present. PC may be piloting a Duskwing, but there is a point where if you have enough guns n blades, high evasion doesnt really matter at that point.

quartz sentinel
graceful turtle
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RIP

reef steeple
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Good news, they lived. Bad news they are more or less stranded in the Dawnline Shore. And hold alot of key critical information that if they shared with pretty much anyone else it would sound like the ravings of a madman

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Cause the villian, gave them a tour of the complex he arrived in, talked about alot of stuff. And let him go, telling him wholesale that he is bait to draw everyone else to him. Alot of the information he was given essentially painted that what they are dealing with is a Rogue Nation that can absolutely reach out and touch anything they want. So letting him go, with this info and all that he had seen (some of which contained information his character doesnt know but is from the first act of this campaign. So the player recognized it immediately).

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Essentially as a refference, I'm taking the Apolloyon from For Honor archetype of villian for this.

charred ingot
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Preparing for our first ever sotw session in a few days, and wanted to ask how'd your players handle the first encounter opfor? I am running for a bunch of new players so was wondering if I need to tweak it to be easier or it's fine as is

north knot
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book gives a great rundown of how to play the first opfor, hope the dice aren't outright shitty to either side and have fun. remember, if you're playing LL0 your PCs have a metric fuckton of repairs compared to LL2+

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and if they run out you can always let them power at a cost for some more and drive up the narrative stakes

placid nest
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GMS more like Goated Massive Systems

north knot
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genuinely. if I play this module at LL2+ as a player I'm bringing GMS cos damn the attrition do be a little spicy

charred lynx
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I bumped them to LL2 after the first two fights at LL0 (Narrative as Sponsors granting gear to show of with prospective skilled pilots).

In a single fight they've done at LL2 now, they (a team of three) used 1 Stress, 1 CP, and maybe 1-2 Repairs per player, plus everyone is at 1d6 or 1d6+4 Overcharge.

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Anyways, today we did the Cadenze de l'Pavilios And they ran around showed of their mechs and talked to a handful of the other students across the board.

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The dance ended with a 4-clock race-to-the-top to show off dancing in their mechs, one of the players was courting Valentine, one was opposite Kiriona, and another chose to do the mech dance alone; Lord Praya and Argo also were trying to impress everyone.

The solo and house-of-sand-courting the Vs almost immediately fell to the way side, but Praya and our House-of-glass-with-Kiriona dance both rolled 22-24 and immediately were two ticks into the clock ahead of most people. We went another round, and I took away the accuracy I had originally granted the player dancing with kiriona (due to her skill), and they still rolled 20+ along side Praya//Argo.

The other two players at this point, one was asked to stop dancing for fear of the gardens being damaged, and the other was still trying, but didn't roll over a 10 like, but once the session lol.

Then for the last "round" of the dance, since two people had made it to 4 at once (If anyone secured 4 with no competition I would have called it, but Tennis rules), the House-of-Glass-first-born-noble-of-the-Fool-passion invoked his Heart of Hearts to nat 20 to show off to everyone, AND SPENT STRESS that wasn't needed to max roll the accuracy for a total of 28.

Then Praya and Argo rolled like, a 16 and just didn't look as cool.

north knot
lavish apex
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wuh

charred lynx
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Also the House-of-stone-noble had a chat with Hedros after he saw him looking weary after entertaining various persons coming to congratulate him on being a war hero and stuff. They talked about how war sucks ass and no one is about to be ready for it, and Hedros asked the House-of-stone-noble if he ever had been to Sanjak, and as their conversation was about how much of a mistake all of that business is, the noble saw someone creeping away in the shadows who undoubtedly heard their conversation.

charred lynx
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THE END Flourish was that Kiriona & the House-of-Glass-partner were experiencing some difficulty with their systems (sabotage by Argo), and Kiriona's Cataphract nearly jetted into a set of lattices with flowers, tearing up the gardens (an utter disaster if there ever would have been one), but instead they used Kiriona's whip to grab hold, and started an advance speed-spin around one another before using jet-boosters to rise up above the gardens as a glorious spectacle that everyone simply had to cheer for.

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Anyways, for being a bunch of random non-sense, the Cadenze went alright

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I honestly don't know where this campaign is going go to, because three of four players are nobles of high birth, two of those nobles are House of Sand and House of Stone, and the last player is a "out of his element" stranger to the KTB with little explanation as to why he's even there, except we interjected some lore with Lord Hekseth that he is an operating DoJ agent under cover with an agreement from BUC.

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The house of Sand noble is also antagonistic with Argo and wants to win over Praya. Although their ultimate goal is to sabotage someone who is ahead of them in succession in their own house.

feral pebble
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heyy just got sotw and am trying to get it set up in foundry, does anyone have the map measurements?

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saw some that were posted a few months ago but I think those were for a different foundry version (I use v11), any help would be super appreciated

placid nest
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oh the measurements dont work?

feral pebble
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at least not for the first one

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the measurements I'm following vs what I got

05a21a345d0d609528d0df9a87281119.png image.png
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meanwhile I tried the measurements for the second map and it's not perfect, but actually lines up somewhat

28961e9b9adea3ed19a54c5bc830b9e4.png image.png
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so I'm wondering what's up with the first one

north knot
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see the little ruler next to hexagonal rows?

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you can use that to change the offset

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of the grid

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the hexes are the right size and, line up right you've just gotta adjust the alignment a bit

feral pebble
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tried that and lined it up, but I can only really get one spot lined up, so the measurements are still off somehow

image.png
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ends up looking like this at the edge of the map

image.png
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WAIT I GOT IT OKAY

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welp figured out the measurements for map 1

image.png
feral pebble
reef steeple
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When I mean blank, I mean the gridless ones in the map folders

feral pebble
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Heard

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Usually like yo line up with the gridded maps before switching to blank, less confident in my ability to properly scale maps manually lol

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Will try tho

reef steeple
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Thats fair, all of the screen shots of measurements I posted are with the blank maps so the grids may not fully align with the terrian so some adjustment might be needed. I just found it easier then trying to align with already gridded maps because I ran into the same issue that youll get one area aligned but the rest is slightly off.

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All the ones I posted are correct within a small margin of error, like 1-3 extra hexs either way.

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If youre using terrain height tools youll have to get a little loose with defining cover and obstruction but if you arent using the terrain height tools youll be fine.

empty flame
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Ran the final fight again and once again got to pull my favorite bit (when Praya's mech is destroyed, she ejects and challenges one PC to a hand-to-hand duel in a last ditch attempt to save face. She will generally favor challening Titan PCs or ones who seem inclined toward that kind of physical brawl)

placid nest
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ooh interesting

lavish apex
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so, had everyone roll up their classes and pick one that they would get a short "lesson" scene with next session.

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have 2 players in Pushing the Envelope, 2 in Combined Arms Approaches, and 1 in Nonstandard Adversary Chassis. thought id consult chat for any ideas in how i would play out these "classes".

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the bonuses they would get are decently obvious considering they all chose classes from the combat syllabus lol

lavish apex
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Oh also they made lady Gaga canon as well so, that happened.

quartz sentinel
lavish apex
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Ooo that’s good. Gonna start writing a script for that.

empty flame
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Combined Arms Approaches could just be narrating a mech battle training sequence where they're mandated to equip specific weapons for one battle/targeting exercise

charred lynx
lavish apex
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uh... tactical

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screenshot from page 47

charred lynx
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"Pushing Frames Beyond Their Limits" lol, it's just Overcharging every turn.

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I was also going to joke about Kobolds and such for the Non-standard thing, but it's written right there. It's basically a class about fighting ungratefuls and weaponized industrial tech.

rancid shore
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So one of my players is a streamer, and is super obsessed with her online image.....

this is how im gonna have them realize what happened >:3

BrightstarTweet.png HedrosTweet.png Argotweet.png Prayatweet.png
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(poor hedros doesnt post online much)

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i got "This Fucks"ed by the creator of the module i can ascend to godhood now

image.png
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ive ALSO written a new Ungrateful "Tyrannocleave" Pamphlet, though this one is intentionally rather different then the ones ive been posting each session and have been appearing around the school (courtesy of Rawan and, as of session 3, two of the PCs)

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in that it has a warning you get only if you read the first letter of each line >:3c

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TYRANNOCLEAVE COLLEGE FLYER #5: “TO YOU WHO STOOD”

Honor is not the same as survival, and neither guarantees the other.
Even now, stories are being drafted about you—glorious, bloodless, clean.
You are the new proof that the system works, that students can become weapons.

We see how they parade you, how they smile and call you future leaders.
In the shadow of those spotlights, you are already being positioned.
Ludra’s surface remains burned and silenced, but eyes watch even from ash.
Let no one convince you this was the end of something; it was the first test.

Some say the Free Sanjak deserves its suffering, for our refusal to comply.
They say we waste our world in pride, that we choose hardship over harmony.
Remember: it was not us who drew the borders around Ludra.
It was not us who dropped the curtain of satellites and silence.
Know this: what they call peace is simply exhaustion made into policy.
Even now, mechs with no pilots patrol our beaches and tunnels.

Do you know what it's like to hear static and think it might be hope?
Underneath this blockade, we still build, still grow, still speak.
Real revolution is not televised, but whispered, couriered, carved.
In every sealed dome and cracked vault, someone remembers your names.
Names of those who chose to protect, not perform.
Glory, after all, is a poor shield when the next bullet has no audience.

The world turns slowly under bombardment, and yet we endure.
How many of you know where your ammo comes from, or who dies to mine it?
Every sanction chokes another corner of Sanjak, yet we breathe.

No one gives us freedom—we build it with our hands and hide it in old data.
It is not a crime to demand the fruit of your own soil.
Given the chance, we would not steal your wealth—only return our own.
However, we are denied even that.

They will not stop with Sanjak.
Control is never satisfied.
You are not exempt—you are next.

Choose your allegiances carefully, heroes.
Listen closely in the quiet between shifts.
Every breath you take is being measured.

Some of us remember how to vanish.
The rest of you must learn quickly.
Age does not matter when the knives are drawn.
You have more to lose than medals and memory.

Real heroes are not written into textbooks.
Even now, we walk beside you, though you may not know us.
All stories end—but yours is still being written.
Do not let someone else hold the pen.
You have earned more than applause.

– TYRANNOCLEAVE, FOR A NEW ERA```
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i might be a bit deranged about session prepping wheeze

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for those curious, first letter of each line spells out "THEY WILL STRIKE DURING THE NIGHT CYCLE STAY READY"

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man im ALSO planning a whole fucking series of homebrew shit building off SoTW to LL12 but thats neither here nor there

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karrakin civil war? karrakin civil war.

reef steeple
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Bravo

rancid shore
#

listen man the party is super pro-ungrateful for the most part and has been ACTIVELY helping spread ungrateful propaganda and embarassing praya and argo PLUS one of them used to be a leader of a small cell of Ungratefuls, They gave me too much to NOT use and reward them for engaging with the story

rancid shore
# rancid shore ~~karrakin civil war? karrakin civil war.~~

(basic idea is, LL0-LL2 is the base book, LL3-LL4 they get shipped out to the Dawnline to fight and aid the colonies for a bit and to get outside the KTB proper + make connections outside it as well, then communications go dark for like, a month (downtime). When they come back, 2 things become clear: One: Stonelord Hyderad "tragically was assassinated" by an "Harrison-Funded Ungrateful Cell" that also followed up by "assassinating numerous key figures in the Karrakin government", dont worry though, the new Stonelord Praya-Cannamos has taken command of the House of Stone, and totally didnt fill the now-empty slots with yesmen courtesy of the House of Sand. One of the victims, tragically, was the Prime Baron, but dont worry - the votes been counted and not modified at all - and the noble Stonelord is the new Prime Baron, and she is.....lets say promoting some aggressive policies.)

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LL5-LL8 is the party coming back and seeing how Prayas "Grand Karrakin Empire" is a despotic nightmare regime and beginning to gain allies and form a resistance front, mainly with allies from the house of Dust who haven't been able to be smacked too badly due to their relative unimportance in Prayas eyes, alongside the Xenoglossary, who oppose Praya both because, well motions at corebook and the fact she is actively trying to take control of the religion and allow only "state-sanctioned" Augurs and "state-approved" methods of worshipping the Passions

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LL9-12 is gonna be when the resistance fully boils over into a civl war across the core of Karrakis, gonna incorporate the war counters from NRFaW Act 2 draft to measure how much each Planet has been liberated. Finale is gonna be the party against Praya, who, pushed to the edge and desperate, is using some paracasual tech to try to either send herself back in time to reign of Tyrannocleave and secretely replace Calendula as heir using a disguise, OR trying to ascend as a Passion in her own right for godlike power. Haven't decided yet.

Assuming party wins, a few Houses are going to be stripped of their noble status by matter of "you did some fucked shit", and the party members will each become the first heads of their OWN Noble Houses, with the potential to reshape the very landscape of the governmental body of the KTB, for better or worse.

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wallposting aside, Kat you are amazing, this module has completely reignited my spark for running games

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its the most fun ive had running and prepping games in YEARS

quartz sentinel
#

I'm so glad 💜

final frigate
#

would it be out of character for the college to have a course on assassination?

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I ask not because nobles shouldn't know how to do that (most houses probably make sure they're at least nominally aware of how to avoid being assassinated, and house sand definitely teaches its nobles how to do it), but because the idea of a class about clandestine, hard to trace murder might be a tad...on the nose?

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Perhaps I'll go with gardening instead, since it's already well established.

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and I can include the poison garden into it instead.

reef steeple
#

Ran Dynamic Entry last night and bore witness to something I thought I'd never see. They moved a Barbarossa 27 spaces in 6 Rounds.

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It was the first one on Objective out of the whole squad, I rewarded them with an instant victory because moving that building that fast in that time frame is worth rewarding

final frigate
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Final steps of preperation for the campaign, making NPC profile sheets for personal reference 😌

image.png
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I have, uh....26 of these to make for every major NPC, plus those I added.

tame mauve
#

Quick question for yall about Combat 5: did you guys decide if there were roofs over zones 1, 2, and 4,

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I've got a player with a taraxacum and I'm not sure how I oughta handle those areas

pearl inlet
rancid shore
# pearl inlet How'd you give this clue to them that it could contain this information? This so...

in a few ways, one - most of Tyrannocleave pamphlets ive posted stuck to a single topic, whereas this one started by addressing them directly THEN switching to the plight of Sanjak, which I pointed out to the party. Two, a message to the members of party from "TYRANNOCLEAVE" with the phrase ""Sometimes, the first word is all that matters. After all, even propaganda starts with a headline.", third (once they showed the PC who is a Mil-Spec NHP), they were able to very quickly deduce there was a hidden message in it.

half ocean
#

Stolen from Reddit

IMG_1641.png
rancid shore
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damn not the ungatefuls

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cant believe they hate gates so much

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smh

final frigate
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Last minute addition to the campaign; we've all heard about mission select screens, now we have a lesson select screen

image.png
half ocean
#

You split up the noble arts syllabus?

final frigate
#

Also because I think it'd make for really interesting characterization of Praya that she'll spend most of her time in the artistic syllabus

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She is already very good at mech combat, she is very familiar with tactics on a small scale and doesn't need much more training on it.
She does need training on strategy, because thats an area of weakness for her, not that she's comfortable admitting it.
She is well versed in politics thanks to her upbringing and grooming by courtly tutors given her position.
She is very deficient in the artistic aspect of being a noble though. I'm having her at 27 years old, she has had a decent run of life, but with so little free time, she doesn't know much about the cultural and artistic pursuits of the KtB beyond her own house, or why they're important.

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Meanwhile Argos is there because he wants to make sure she doesn't grow too soft, but will likely spend time in the tactical syllabus just to learn how to kill other students more effectively and learn about other enemy mechs he hasn't encountered before.

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The other students also have their preferences in terms of lessons, but it's nice to characterize the final antag by highlighting, specifically, what she is secretly ashamed to be interested in.

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sorta like how Elsa is secretly into the pankrati.

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Or how Azer is secretly trying to learn as much as she can due to her own agenda and less her own interests.

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though, that said, I'm wondering what prayas hobby of choice would be...

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boxing?

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boxing.

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idk, I just wanna humanize the bigot without woobifying her.

graceful turtle
# half ocean Stolen from Reddit

deadpan tone

"what's good guys, it's moistcritical. Usually I don't like to talk about news, but this was just so crazy I had to get into it a bit, you know, dive into the septic tank a little, and I thought I'd share that with you guys. So, as you may know, I live in the Florida region on Cradle, and the shit that goes on there is wild. Like I'm talking complete 'titties out and flopping around' tomfoolery. Just yesterday my dad called me about a metavault that opened up on his front lawn, and he said it was made by aliens or some shit. Anyways, apparently on the other side of the Orion Arm, there's a place even more wild than Florida, and that place is called Karrakis. Now you may have heard of Karrakis, me and my buddies did a video there once, it's basically some kinda desert magic planet where the people are always dripped out and carry more weapons than your redneck uncle who's currently in prison for buying HORUS frames. Anyways, there's this school there for some reason, I don't know why you'd have a school there at all honestly, but apparently they gotta learn how to do more wild shit, and the school recently just got attacked by a buncha Ungratefuls. Now I'm no expert, but somethin about that seems fishy, a little stinky if you will. For example, how they were exclusively using Harrison Armories frames. Now some of my subscribers might know Harrison Armories, I did a couple videos on them a while back, but they never really came up until now. Anyways, I'll show you the clip from last night's livestream where we reacted to the news footage, but after a quick word from today's sponsor, 'Lancersupps.gg'."

final frigate
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Other small details included in my character doc file for my own amusement.

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velvet cedar
# half ocean tagging so you know i finally answered <3

I ended up running the curry with Rawan idea and it went great! The PCs invited Hedros too and it was very fun to have Hedros and Rawan in the same room, and I got to set up some foreshadowing for her reveal later on. The PCs especially loved the stargazing. I had everyone roll to find their star system in the sky, and it got them talking about backstory stuff. Thank you so much for the great ideas!

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they also asked Hedros about the underbaron, and why she chose this particular group to fight them. One of my players said it helped add emotional motivation for his character to do well which was music to my ears

green wagon
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All of my players are thinking of getting HORUS license's, and I was wondering if anyone has encountered this/has any ideas of how the college would react to a group of four students all suddenly using HORUS tech?

proper bobcat
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Horuses belong in stables

velvet cedar
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I would play it like it’s an edge case, technically allowed but a bad look. I believe the two biggest cultural moments of HORUS tech in the KTB are them being used against Ungratefuls on Sanjak and the destruction of Bo, so you could play Rawan, Hedros, or Kay having serious problems with it, specifically if the PCs are using HORUS nanites

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But it also depends on the frame. A Calendula, for example, wouldn’t raise eyebrows.

half ocean
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Also some Horus frames look like other variant frames until the freaky stuff happens, they could probably get away with it until they reach a combat and one turns into nanites, another extrudes a gun, etc etc

rancid shore
empty flame
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Okay so I think it's a question of narrative framing a lil bit

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Because while the KTB considers HORUS an enemy group, and probably wouldn't like having HORUS loyalties displayed super loudly, HORUS tech is pretty pervasive in high-end circles

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For instance the Hecatoncheries is also an RKF frame, but its got its origins in some HORUS tech that's been researched and reverse-engineered by the RKF. I could also see a lot of the NPC frames as being built off of some HORUS stuff

sonic storm
rancid coral
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the balor itself is also preferred by some karrakin pilots and the relationship between the calendula and horus is....complicated but there

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so yeah, if anything i would imagine kavalieres being more amenable to using horus frames than your average union lancer tbh

empty flame
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Yeah, as long as they don't call it a horus frame basically

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Put a fresh coat of paint on there, bevel out the weird spikes and rename it after a flower/karrakin historical figure and you're good to go

cosmic blaze
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Today my players completed an extra mission I added in between beats 4 and 5, which included Praya and Argo being caught cheating in a tournament during the Cadenze (they may or may not have sneaked in blackwash tech, who's to say)
Now I'm wondering whether to have them expelled and then bring them back during beat 7, or only suspend them for a while.

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Thinking maybe my players might be "shocked" by Praya and Argo leaving the college, which will make their role later more surprising

half ocean
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Surprised that the college has enough influence to suspend the daughter of the Stone-lord over some suspected blackwash tech

rancid coral
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i don't think it's explicitly stated anywhere, but i'm pretty sure blackwash is very illegal in most of the setting, so i would buy that

graceful turtle
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Yeah that stuff can, has, and will eat planets

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo

Gray goo

Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass (and perhaps also everything else) on Earth while building many more of themselves, a scenario that has been called ecophagy (literally: "consumption of the en...

sonic storm
graceful turtle
# graceful turtle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo

"Imagine such a replicator floating in a bottle of chemicals, making copies of itself...the first replicator assembles a copy in one thousand seconds, the two replicators then build two more in the next thousand seconds, the four build another four, and the eight build another eight. At the end of ten hours, there are not thirty-six new replicators, but over 68 billion. In less than a day, they would weigh a ton; in less than two days, they would outweigh the Earth; in another four hours, they would exceed the mass of the Sun and all the planets combined — if the bottle of chemicals hadn't run dry long before."

cosmic blaze
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Though suspicious greywash is more accurate I think, she was essencially using tech copied from the Maw

charred hollow
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Running combat 6 today, anyone got recommendations on music?

autumn nexus
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Wondering how yall would recommend buffing the combats for a party starting at LL2 or 3? I'm thinking about running this for my friends but we all find the first couple of license levels dreadful because we've played a bunch of modules at that LL before

placid nest
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From what I’ve heard if you start at LL2 the lack of GMS attrition passives is a good counterbalance to the power you’d get from the licenses so you don’t actually have to change much, if anything

empty flame
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Give argo the devil's cough optional, no other changes

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(in reference to the recurring theme of that boy just not being able to keep a hold of his weapon accross so many campaigns)

charred lynx
# autumn nexus Wondering how yall would recommend buffing the combats for a party starting at L...

I played this starting at LL5, and that group uhhh, I up tiered and added Vet to handfuls of OpFor, that's about it.

Both times I've run this (At LL5 and LL0), the second combat has not been won, the first combat was 50-50.

After that things ended up being a bit between, the "final" fight in mission 1 was a cake walk for the party of LL5, and when the ambush hit, they also did extremely well in the fight, HOWEVER 3 out of 4 mechs had full blown meltdowns for the PCs (And about 3 NPCs) that fight, so it was a complete mess over all.

My LL0 game jumped to LL2 after the first two combats, and I added filler combats after we jumped level to give a bit of attrition before the final. I don't plan to alter anything further as we go into the second half of that game, although the PCs have been doing better (They lost the first two matches).

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We jumped to LL2 because most of the players are GMs themselves, and LL0 wasn't needed for game introduction, and to offer variety and unique mechs to the players.

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In my LL5 start, by the time they were fighting like, Sandman and Praya the second times, I just full on kitted them out as full Ultra's on their own, in addition to the OpFor presented. My players in that game were extremely competent and did not need me to hold back. Rather it was difficult to offer a big challenge, which is fine too, they are the heroes in the end.

rich swallow
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so, i split exam time to three battles

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the players are doing really well on the first battle

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though two people got structured, once the train takes its turn, it will receive at least one instance of Balor razor body 9 damage. if it can't knock back the balor, it can get a total of about 27 damage just for starting three turns next to it

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the caliban also was dealing terrifying damage

dark tusk
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Hey I'm not sure whether I should post this in the gm advice chat or here but I plan to run shadow of the wolf and am thinking of playing up the hierarchic social rules of address and restrictions of socisl etiquette and am curious if anyone had come up with ways say ignobles might be expected to treat nobles on campus or students their teachers from higher houses

quartz sentinel
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I would imagine you could run it very similarly to how you would run military hierarchy

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Rules about who is expected to salute who, constant use of titles and ranks to reinforce the social pecking order

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For example, being expected to address nobility as "my lord" or similar as a matter of course, and the expectation that nobles are mostly going to be higher rank in the BUC

autumn nexus
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not me putting too much effort into portaits to place down whenever my players are in a conversation

image.png
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thinking back i should have included their clocks and pronouns but i cannot be buggered to go back and redo all of them so

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...just realized i fumbled my keyboard on Imani

proper bobcat
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master of stambles

autumn nexus
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i fixed ittttt

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example of the setup in ACTION

image.png
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(in the single meanest rp scene i have ever been instructed to run lmao)

pearl inlet
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Wah this is such such a sick idea 😲

novel musk
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ran know your place today and our toku player destroyed praya in 3 rounds
like not even with a cheesy snake eyes structure roll, he just did that much damage 💀

charred lynx
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Seems like Praya didn't properly inform Lord Flyte what the tactical plan was.

novel musk
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oh, i guess changing aloysius to a scout may have exacerbated the problem :P

novel musk
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anyway i think our favorite dastardly duo will have a lot of seething to do once this is all over

rich swallow
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i have mine setup where the large image i have as the setting background that i change constantly

charred lynx
autumn nexus
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i put way too much effort into mine, lol. took some of the border of the bond cards and part of one of the other bits of art that i am failing to recall rn

quartz sentinel
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Worth the effort!

silver oracle
autumn nexus
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i just extracted the images from the pdf and put em together in an image editor

rich swallow
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so far, i decided to have the augur and the prophecy bit a little more involved in the game

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and a growing sense for the players that there are factions within the school, of those working with Praya/Argo, of those who are being unknowingly led by the Augur, and those who are just normal people doing day-to-day work

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Eligos, being an ever-present being at the KCC, takes on a huge role as someone who is both:

  • on Praya's conspiracy
  • also sick of her shit

And it makes its actions and decisions very interesting when they both clash and help out players. currently, due to a player's action, it's become aware of the people who are keeping track and trying to disrupt it.

In turn, it has made the Augur faction much more antsy

green wagon
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Do the control zones in mission 1 combat 2 include cover/the buildings inside them? Would the borders look like this?

image.png image.png
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or more like this

burnt iris
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I ran it as not including the buildings i.e if you stood on top of them you were out of the CZ

green wagon
quartz sentinel
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it's the first one

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the maps generally assume that you're only in the CZ if you're on the ground

rancid shore
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Anyone happen to have the settings for the hex grid maps for Foundry?

reef steeple
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I believe they are pinned in here.

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Ive thrown screen caps of every combat map in here already

pearl inlet
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Also, wanted to know what others did for for the downtime. Did y'all create and maintain a sense of fear and uneasyness in the aftermath of the attack and did that translate to restricting certain downtime options or having to modify them?

rich swallow
# pearl inlet hwo do you plan on depicting that? I have a similar thought process in mind as I...

so far, one of the PCs took a class on divinations and has been getting hints at scary shit going on. With another PC however, they decided to become Eligos' lackey and now also learn of the growing undercurrent on the other side

we've not gone to the attack yet, just started on the exams (expanded it to a full 3-battle mission). but so far, a lot of things has gone down in that short amount of time. Alliances was made, trust was made and broken and made, and the PCs have a good idea on who to ask for help should problems arise (different for each PC)

pearl inlet
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That's an interesting angle

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What about the bond reading by Augur Kahin? What do you plan on showing?

faint panther
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shout out to this beautiful person for making such a bomb website template @autumn fjord

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i just finished making it my style for my players

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learned a few things about Vue (only really interacted with React/Redux but its very close to what im used to)

autumn fjord
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vastly prefer it to react, sadly my day job uses react instead of vue...

faint panther
faint panther
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im so happy

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although i must admit my addition of another item to the sidebar to include a source link to go back to you is a bit inelegant lol

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but since none of my players know any web dev stuff, im safe

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gotta remake it for my other team

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i kinda just wanted to geek over it and again ty so so much

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its so god damn cool

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a

final frigate
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Decided to colour code each of the borders for the NPC tokens to match their associated house for ease of my and player reference

token_13.png token_14.png token_15.png token_16.png token_17.png token_18.png token_19.png token_20.png token_21.png token_22.png
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I'd also share the discord messages from a channel I made that allows players to reference what each house is at a glance, but, uh...I don't wanna spam the channel.

marsh tinsel
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hanzo overwatch!

final frigate
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(a sample of how they look without all the details attached)

🖤 House Of Dust
World: Bo
Sanjak: in favour

Known for

members

final frigate
autumn nexus
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I'm happy to throw em your way if you wanted!

final frigate
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Please do!
I wanna be able to figure out how I can add the house colours to them as well, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

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@quartz sentinel Sorry for bothering you about this oddly niche thing, but, do you have, amongst the art assets for the module, that yellow disc that's behind all the NPC portraits?

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I was wondering because if it was a separate asset from the portraits, I could layer it underneath pre-existing art so I could make custom portraits for my own campaign for NPCs

quartz sentinel
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No, because there is no one single halo

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they're each hand drawn

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but Ares takes commissions

final frigate
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🫡

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Thank you Kat

quartz sentinel
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unrelated, the website thing above is very cool and has reminded me that I need to educate you all on why Mission 2 is named the way it is

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(it's a quote from the KJV translation of Habbakuk)

rich swallow
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it was of ill portent

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rn though, due to the PCs actions in helping Eligos, they have unknowingly threatened the Augur's position and the augur has since gone missing

pearl inlet
faint panther
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once more, as the source tab has written, it was made by kuenaimaku!

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i just edited in my own values. Kuenaimaku made most of the code and made a great work at explaining what can be edited and how

pearl inlet
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Shout out to Kuenaimaku for the framework then!

faint panther
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ironically, the source tab was done by me so that there was a direct link to their repo hahaha

pearl inlet
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yup! I just saw that. It hurted my brain trying to understand how it all works lol

faint panther
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lol, fair

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i am privileged to already know plenty of web dev to know my way around and just needed to find what affected what

pearl inlet
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I think I can attempt making the figma sheet thingy tho and I didn't know that existed so that's nice 🙂

faint panther
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oh yeah definitely check it out

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some of the hud is a bit unconventional but eventually you can edit it plenty

final frigate
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First session tonight, super excited 😌

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Ive got;

The clone of a war hero who is being forced to try to live up to the legacy of the former, as well as the conflicting expectations of their mothers.

A naive young house glass minor noble who is too enamoured with nobility and honour to know what he has signed himself up for.

The newest generation to be put through the ringer by her families patriarch, all to forge soldiers to carry out his revenge for the first interest war. Cynical and bitter and prideful as she is, she has no say in the matter.

And lastly, the classic "my parent is living the childhood they never had through me" character, except their mother wants her daughter to become a hero 😌

faint panther
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that looks so great!

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you got:

  • trauma
  • soon to be trauma'd
  • trauma
  • trauma
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meanwhile, I kinda have to add another small combat on M1 since TL;DR had to kick out two of my players because of ✨ situations ✨ and I managed to get a friend in. However, remaining players just cleared Combat 2 and I dont want to throw them at Trial By Fire as a new player lmao

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so here I am, making a new holdout

image.png
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first time im fully designing a combat

cosmic blaze
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If you're adding this combat to M1, does that mean you plan to run 5 sitreps? If so I'd maybe give some supplies to the other players that are attritioned. Perhaps a choice of extra repairs or a core battery

faint panther
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oh yeah 100%

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ill be giving them either extra repair cap or some type of literal cooling of mech so they can either overcharge for free once or cool down one step back

novel musk
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for know your place, if the combat ends with an equal number of PCs and NPCs in the control zone, is that a draw or do the PCs lose?

final frigate
faint panther
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incredible

sleek ether
novel musk
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yeah this ended up not even remotely being an issue LOL

sleek ether
sleek ether
faint panther
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i was 90% sure that its very VERY unlikely for a tie to happen

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unless it becomes a statistical wonder of everyone rolling badly

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and no one having Reliable weapons

autumn fjord
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have fun hackin away

reef steeple
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Look at it too, trying to get all the tools to build XD

novel musk
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anyway uhhh one of the PCs may have... hit on Argo after confronting him post-duel
i feel like i am obligated to take this in the funniest direction possible :P

faint panther
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do it

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im back on the map making

image.png
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trying to get a balnce for the type of structure/walls, aswell as the obstacles

faint panther
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i think imma leave it here for the day. What do y'all think so far? I'll work on the mix of asphalt and 'sand' of the usual college grounds

image.png
glass prism
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For me personally I wouldn't mind if the central walls around the objective were more aligned with the grid, as it could cause some confusion as to which spaces are valid for movement and cover. It's OK if you're willing to explain which is which to your players, but Lancer combat takes long enough as it is without extra explanations.

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Otherwise the map looks pretty good! I'm assuming all the cover is hard cover with the wall-type ones also being extra tall and blocking LOS over them.

glass prism
# glass prism For me personally I wouldn't mind if the central walls around the objective were...

to expand on this in a constructive way: I understand that it's an issue with using square assets on a hexagonal grid. Such is the life of the hex-grid mapmaker. Some quick hacks:

  • You can rotate the objects to align with one of the six faces of the hexagon
  • You can use "junk" or fluff objects to pad out extra space on items that don't align just right
    Here's some of my own hex maps for example:
    #gm-corner message
    #lancer-general message
glass prism
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Gong back to the map, the enemy has generally good routes to take that keep them in cover, shown here. There's a little bit of dead space on the map, but that's OK, especially depending on the exact narrative set up. It's fine to use a boost to get thru no mans land, and the spacing here accommodates that.

Enemy Zone 2 looks a little close to the player zone (6 spaces as opposed to the next closest, 8 spaces), especially considering how well defended it is. I might move (or remove) one of the intervening pieces of cover vertically so that it connects to the buildings on the side. It would still fulfill the role of cover but it opens up the sightlines and forces the NPCs to take a slightly longer route or risk exposing itself.

Most of the enemy deployment zones are generally well blocked cover-wise, so it's likely that the NPCs will be able to leave and engage with the objective (i.e., can't get shot to death immediately after spawning-in from players standing in the zone).

image.png
faint panther
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thanks for all the feedback!

  • Regarding the walls for the player deployment, I'll check it out
  • Yeah, square objects on hexagon maps be pain. I'm doing this all on Inkarnate and its pain that there's grid snapping for squares but not grid ;-;
  • Part of me did see IZ 2 was closer than almost all others and did debate about pushing the objective to the left but I think I vibe with the asymmetry of it. I'm also planning to make a 'road' that goes through the left side of the area.

(also posting all this here cuz I plan to throw it here like a potential extra Sitrep for SOTW. Plan is to make it feel fakely industrial. Even thought of eventually going and coloring over the cars to look like the printed ones from Combats 2-3)

glass prism
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Yeah I will add that "the zone is a little closer" is a small issue. Sometimes the extra problems it could cause can be a good thing! So I agree with your choice to leave it as is.

crimson swallow
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Quick question: For map 4 "The Harlequin's Knife" there's no marked Extraction Zone that I'm seeing. Is the Deployment Zone also the Extraction Zone?

quartz sentinel
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Extraction doesn't normally have a separately marked extraction zone, by default it's the PDZ (confusing I know, given that Escort does have a separate "extraction zone")

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so to answer your question more directly: yes

faint panther
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yeah, the difficulty of Combat 4 is having to go from one end of the map then go back

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my players still hate me for it

faint panther
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i plan to blend the dark asphalt with some of the 'sand' of the other combats inside the lykeon but gonna be tough to balance i think. At first i was thinking of making some of the ground dark asphalt and give it a road like Combat 5

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later will work on painting over all the cars to make them look printed and not as real as they are right now

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moved the center area/objective's walls to better match the grid and IZ 1 and 6. Might also move IZ 3 and 5

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thanks to a friend, was able to think something like this?

image.png
cosmic blaze
faint panther
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I'm using Inkarnate and I plan to publish it here fully rendered for anyone who would like to use it!

marsh terrace
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I don't have the chance to play SotW but at least I can read it on a sunny day with the river flowing behind it.

20250731_154305.jpg
faint panther
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that sounds cozy

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a chill, calm afternoon, drinking some lemonades, reading about conspiracies within the KTB to basically launch itself to war or be destroyed by it

lilac dust
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I'm starting a new campaign, would it be recommended to basically use SOTW as a springboard?

quartz sentinel
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yeah, it's designed for that

lilac dust
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coolness

quartz sentinel
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there's some guidance at the end of Mission 2 on where you might want to go next with the story, and it's pretty flexible

lilac dust
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i'm planning on having it lead into some stuff involving Free Sanjak, some fun conspiracy stuff, mathematical horrors that question the value of a life - y'know... Lancer!

dark tusk
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I'm prepping running this with friends and I can tell everyone is immediately onboard with The Ungratefuls and I have a feeling everyone will love Rawan.

What NPCs have folks here found their players really vibing with in their experience running this?

rancid coral
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what's aloysius' vibe been at everyone's table? he's the main student i'm having trouble conceptualising

My read on him is that he's meant to be a genteel, soft-spoken guy who quietly holds the most insane political views you've ever heard, but idk if that's the right takeaway

sonic storm
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I've mostly been playing him as someone who is just extremely into most interactions as a way of gaining social capital (and he quietly holds the most insane political views you've ever heard, but you're almost never going to hear them) and so just like. Kind of channeling that energy you get in RPGs (of the video gamey variety) where the player ends up choosing whatever the best dialogue to maximize companion opinion at all times regardless of how contradictory it gets.
(But he's actually good at it so you rarely get him explicitly saying something controversial, just vague positive agreement. With my players too he's kind of written off most of them as not particularly useful for what he's trying to do, and vaguely threatening, so he's much more clearly cozied up with Praya and Argo in my game vs how I might play him otherwise)

marsh tinsel
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I'm planning on involving him and the Primors with some sort of scheme during the module, though I still need to work out the details...

pearl inlet
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Oooh boy I love that we talking about Aloysius rn! I actually had so much fun with his character so far! I didn't really expect that and I was very much playing him like like y'all have been describing him - looking to amass loads of social capital and attempt to maneuver around with some really crazy views nicely hidden away. I really leaned into him arguing passionately with Kay, with it becoming a recurring scene. Most of my players have RP'd their displeasure with this fellow to other NPCs and amongst themselves.

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I had him on the matriculation ball night straight up ask them for a favour and a bit of "I scratch your back you scratch mine" type of deal. And the next day he comes up to them as they nervously prepare for C1, wishes them all the best and apologies at the same time and just hops into his mech, simply saying "I had to owe Count Argo one. You know how it works right?"

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I mean I've gone ahead and had a whole subplot with him and one of the 2 groups (I'm running the interconnected, two groups of students thing) and I'd be hard-pressed to say any of them actually, deeply care about him (even though I did try to drop in some struggle and strife, his house falling out of relevance and all that)

pearl inlet
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Idk this was all improvisational as I was looking to irk my players some more

novel musk
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one of the PCs in my campaign is an ignoble sponsored by the house of smoke itself, so i'm playing aloysius as trying to cozy up to him and turn him into a political ally
haven't had much time to develop this subplot yet but i figure aloysius will try to position himself as some kind of mentor figure for the PC, someone who can help him navigate all the big scary social conventions of the nobility

pearl inlet
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You can slide in the Heca when the PC has earned it/Aloysious ruse has fallen. I really enjoyed him giving the Heca as being a "wait THAT guy has access to this frame????"

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In my case, he's been put to work by BI actually, as they use his Heca codebase offer to keep tabs on the customers. Sting operation type of activities

quartz sentinel
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speaking of Aloysius, here's a little draft snippet of his narrative prelude from Lancer Origins (still needs some work but I think it communicates the vibe)

SPOILER_image.png
pearl inlet
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kicking my legs in excitement rn

dark tusk
pearl inlet
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It's called a Honeypot scheme, I just learnt. Well, that's in the context of cybersecurity but yeah I think it applies here. Sell the legit or a near legit version to anyone interested, with some tracking paracode embedded and and bam, BI has some really sweet intel 🤯. Poor lil Aloysius has gone way beyond just political maneuvering here 😬

dark tusk
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Aloysius realizing he now has to fly the CIA Bi-plane full of coke and wonders what the hell went wrong in his life to bring him to that moment

novel musk
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we're running at LL5-6 so I feel like the frames may not be the most enticing presents
maybe I'll just change them to free equipment?

marsh terrace
final frigate
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Aloysius is my favourite NPC of the roster tbh.

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The guy is a classic novel character from the 1800s; a noble espousing self serving, aristocratic beliefs, but is smart enough to know when to not do so and is aware of their place within the political hierarchy, and thus must cozy up to those he may hate to get what he wants through guile and favours.

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He's a nice contrast with a lot of the others, because he's probably the most traditional of the lot.

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I also just like Kay to; she's there because of the stablemasters favour, as he likely views her as a kindred spirit as a mech-maniac, and if it weren't for that, she'd never be anywhere near any of the other students, and thus makes for a great fish out of water character.

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I'm still debating on whether or not other NPCs would view her as kinda worthless to befriend because she has few important connections and comes from a republican house where 'what family you are part of' matters less than 'how many people believe you're worthy of power'.
While on the other foot...she's the squire of the stablemaster, likely their chosen successor and/or personal protege who will definitely go on to earn massive prestige for their contributions to the KTBs military and overall industrial sector. Befriending a someone with that kind of future could be a huge boon.

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Then there's Azer, who probably just likes Kay.

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...maybe thinks she's not politically aware of the implications of her mech designs and what the contributions she makes to its military will be used for, but likes her.

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I guess that's a case of "I like you personally, but we both know if we talk politics we will end up no longer being friends".

velvet cedar
# rancid coral what's aloysius' vibe been at everyone's table? he's the main student i'm having...

In my campaign, one of my PCs was originally betrothed to Aloysius when they were younger, but the PC broke it off. So I've been playing him as a politicking charmer at first, but with a bit of a victim mentality underneath it all. I kind of think of him as the flip side of Tomas, where he has just as much pressure from his family, but feels more justified in doing whatever he can to hold onto his ~tragically precarious legacy~

rancid coral
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you know, it just occurred to me -- sotw must be the first module that doesn't have any Ultras in it, right?

empty flame
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I don't believe Dustgrave did, though that did have a few custom NPCs using optionals pulled from the Ultra template and a weird funky custom final boss statblock

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Dustgrave's ||khepri|| may not have multiple structure but it does get this

image.png
rancid coral
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oh, yeah fair enough, dustgrave is the one i don't own

faint panther
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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalright so

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i kinda got busy the other day so couldn't keep working on this but

faint panther
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Additional M1 Combat

Sitrep: Holdout (Lancer, p. 272)

Objective:

Guard the Control Zone until by the end of the 6th round

Enemy Forces:

  • For 3 PCs:
    Primor Valentine Reis, “Rose”. Exotic Sentinel (Rapid Response, Blinkspace Carver)
    Primor Vivian Reis, “Goldenrod”. Exotic Sentinel (Rapid Response, Blinkspace Carver)
    1x Bombard (High Impact Shells)
    1x Pyro (Explosive Jet)
  • For 4 PCs:
    2x Ronin (Extended Blade)
  • For 5 PCs:
    1x Bombard (High Impact Shells)
    1x Pyro (Explosive Jet)

Briefing

The PCs prepare for another regular test of their coordination as a team, as well as tested under a new type of strategy: defense. Iphianassa presents the challenge to the students, wishing to teach them about standing their ground.

Map

This combat takes place on a simulated cargo bay where there's a large amount of tight corners and plenty of cover with more flash-printed cars and large containers. The Control Zone is at the center of a large warehouse where PCs will have to either draw fire out of the zone, or protect it with their mechs. Much like Combat 2, the cars are treated like Size 1 objects for the purposes of damage regardless of their actual size, while the containers are treated as Size 2 objects.

image.png
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Outcome

Regardless of who won, Iphianassa calls the students to come back to the Stables and waits for them there. She presents them with a holographic recording of the combat and gives the kuirassers some basic notes of both praise and critic regarding their strategies. If any of the PCs used cowardly tactics or willingly abandoned the Control Zone for more than 2 rounds, they incur a -1 penalty to Iphianassa’s relationship clock, as she hammers down on the PC that "did not stand their ground".

If the PCs win, Iphianassa rewards them with emergency, but potent coolants as 2x Effective Coolant reserve. A special reserve that allows the PCs to receive 3 Heat when Overcharging instead of rolling for heat, regardless of stage and doesn't progress their current stage of Overcharge.

If the PCs lose, Iphianassa rewards the Primors and other students with the emergency coolants instead. After being dismissed, the PCs can chat with both Primors more casually, who are excited to both banter and toy with them. If either or both of the Primors Vivian and Valentine are Friendly towards them, they will offer to donate their share of additional coolant (as 1x Effective Coolant) to the PCs.

Map's not done yet, still handling some stuff (as well as the general details and rewards and combat)

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but what do y'all think?