#Shadow of the Wolf GM/Spoiler Thread

1 messages · Page 6 of 1

burnt iris
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the kind of creature you just want to squeeze

north knot
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exactly

rustic peak
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I've been playing Praya as "woe is me I'm the reasonable fascist" and Argo as "hi I'm a slimy weasel fascist who sucks"

civic snow
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It helps that his clock is kind of inherently at 0 almost immediately, little mechanical reason for him to even try and do anything ice

clear nymph
# rustic peak I've been playing Praya as "woe is me I'm the reasonable fascist" and Argo as "h...

For Praya I'm taking inspiration from a take on Arthurian Mordred. She hates the Baronies for being feckless. She hates Union for being hypocrites. She hates her father for being a monster. She hates the system she's grown up in for failing to protect her. But most of all she hates herself for being too weak. For my game this plot with the college actually does have no involvement from the Stone Lord. It's Praya trying to drag him and everything she hates and feels have failed her in her bid for suicide

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My Argo, on the other hand, is completely empty underneath his mask of being a bastard. He's been fully conditioned to see himself as nothing but a weapon in someone's hand or a wolf on a leash. And he will take whatever shape is required of him. He has no goals or pleasure in any of this. He is absolutely content with a complete lack of agency. He is the perfect masterpiece of the House of Sand.

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And an absolutely broken person

odd kayak
odd kayak
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I was thinking of them as Astrid and Eadwulf (but more of an asshole) from the Might Nein

quartz sentinel
odd kayak
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one of my players wants to be a sandman trainee/house of sand's intelligence recruit

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It will be an interesting Beat 2 I think

clear nymph
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Definitely! Especially if you encourage them to explain what their training was and meant. Show that the House is not monolithic

odd kayak
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I also wanted to give opportunities for them to interact with Praya and Argos more so their connection is a good excuse

odd kayak
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do yall think it makes sense for a character to be the first house of promise pilot to study there?

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Like, what they be considered a ignoble or part of a republican house

rustic peak
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Isn't that what Rawan's cover story is?

silver vault
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yeah it is

odd kayak
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I forgor

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actually I thought she was passing as a republican from water/dust

ivory salmon
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cat_ome my players are at the first combat of the second mission

carmine trench
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Ironically one of my players has the exact opposite implementation of Rawan's

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They're an agent from the House of Dust who is in House of Sand deep cover, with the goal of sabotaging Sand

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So still a Republican agenda, but via anti-hagiography

civic snow
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Oh, by the way, forgot to ask - what is the intended use of Kahin's bonus reserve? It's very easy to get after the scene you meet him in, but it's also kind of what he does for the plot regardless. What should change for the pilots in Mission 2 if they reach 8 with Kahin?

quartz sentinel
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if they want to use it in Mission 2 itself it could represent some prescient information that they can use to catch a break, maybe get an opportunity to repair before the final fights despite the chaos

civic snow
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Yeah, it did feel like a forward-looking reserve

burnt iris
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Praya rage quits the match after this shit lmao

image.png
silver vault
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straight up, the higherups at stone disappear that bombard pilot

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black bagged in the middle of the night, never seen again

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Because what do you mean you fired a superheavy cannon into a cluster of 5 and only managed to hit your boss and heir to the house

burnt iris
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it's that photo of stalin removing that guy from the photo

silver vault
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Is this c1?

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I’m trying to remember where a bombard, Praya and Argo show up at the same time but I’m not at my pc

burnt iris
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nah it's a custom mission in between 1 and 2

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college tournament match

silver vault
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Yeah the Stone bigshots are definitely unpersoning that bombard pilot and replacing them with a different student lmaooo

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dog you embarrassed the house in the college tournament and hit the Graven Heir with an artillery shell

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they’re putting you under the floorboards

burnt iris
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summary of today's session:

  • that screen shot
  • just before that screen shot the caliban player pulled off the most risky overcharge play to blow up argo's mech
  • yuri between one of the pcs and a homebrew student i threw in
  • yond-argo meeting with the pcs for the first time, courting them with free repairs, and dropping the bomb that he wants them to help him kill his brother yond-balor
random mirage
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i love it

graceful turtle
odd kayak
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Hello, is Lykeon just a name or does it mean anything? I want to know for translating reasons

rancid coral
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyceum

Lyceum

The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to specific professions are generally taught.

odd kayak
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thanks

quartz sentinel
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it actually has a lot of layered meanings, that being only the most basic one

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it's also a reference to Lykaia (via Apollo Lykaios) and is etymologically derived from the Ancient Greek word for "wolf"

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notably, the Lykaia was a coming of age festival, that involved themes of human sacrifice and cannibalism, and turning into a wolf until one could eat human flesh

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in this case, it's a commentary on the process of turning young people into soldiers

carmine trench
quartz sentinel
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it wasn't foundational, but I was considering a number of different names (I have a tendency to spend a lot of time and effort doing that, all told there are rather a lot of easter eggs hidden away in SOTW's names) and felt that it was particularly fitting because of those potential connections, and decided on that particular anglicisation as a result

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fun fact, I got a comment from Melody during editing asking me if those were what it was derived from (I believe she studied classics, so picked up on both potential meanings)

odd kayak
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Hi guys, our fist session is tomorrow

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So the last thing I wanted to ask here before it is more of a long term thing

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some of my players are under the impression that Karrakis is almost dystopian levels of fucked up and they plan to make characters that try to fix it, which isnt a problem imo there needs to be fixing and its a good way to get into the character

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and it is fucked up on ocasion

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so, I have some ways of showing the federation aint all bad but would love some more sugestions on what to show them

quartz sentinel
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personally I would show them the front of the book

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Sections 1 and 2 are spoiler free, but the section on Throne Karrakis specifically (p. 12), and in particular the final paragraph

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I think it's a fair reflection of a society that is fantastically wealthy and diverse, and provides for all its citizens, but still labours under the strictures of hierarchy and tradition

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Karrakis and in particular Throne Karrakis is the heart of empire, the metropole to which all of the fruits of Karrakin society accumulate

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this is of course bad for many other reasons, but Karrakis is not itself an outright dystopia and the problems with Karrakin society are not unilaterally fixable by the PCs. This isn't to say that they shouldn't try - the module still puts them at a pivot point - but if they only info they have is what they've gleaned from loretubers and they think they're going to be spending their time knocking heads and freeing slaves, they're going to have a bit of a weird time.

odd kayak
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I plan to start the game before the Matriculation Ball with the players (some new to Karrakis and other familiar with her) walking trough the metropolis and shall do my best to represent the Karrakis session in the book MIss Kat 🫡

quartz sentinel
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really what the book wants them to recognise is that they are extraordinarily privileged, but that privilege is highly contingent on social and institutional favour

odd kayak
quartz sentinel
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Oh I mean that's fair, the FKM and the institutions of nobility absolutely need to go

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perhaps they need to see that the ignobles do have some (albeit constrained) political power and that the politics are more complex than space feudalism

odd kayak
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I do believe they have their hearts in a good place when it comes to Karrakis and her people, but they are more familiar with the bad side of the baronies than the good

odd kayak
quartz sentinel
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if you want to drop in some of that as background flavour, I recommend having something like a TV (or equivalent) on in the background somewhere with the Premier of the Ignoble House being interviewed about some legislative change the Ignoble House is due to vote on

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if it's related to the balance of power between the nobility and the ignobles you can use it as a useful segue or even example of clashing Hagiographic vs Federalist vs Republican perspectives

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that should give the impression that Karrakis is a living, changing world, and gives you a topic that NPCs can have Opinions about

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maybe it could be related to the House of Promise accession process, so then you can bring in galactic politics and reference the Dawnline Shore

empty flame
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Honestly I do think a good example to work from for Karrakin politics is just really getting in the weeds with it about Sanjak and House Ludra

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Like mentioning that House Ludra was stripped of all holdings and titles for violation of Karrakin human rights laws does bring to mind that there are Karrakin human rights laws, which while clearly imperfect, kinda keep people from oversimplifying stuff as much

quartz sentinel
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that's true, but hard to bring up apropos of nothing - something that could definitely be explored in the aftermath of Beat 2 for example

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(I guess I'm assuming a show-not-tell approach here, but that's a good candidate for something to mention before or outside play)

odd kayak
# quartz sentinel if you want to drop in some of that as background flavour, I recommend having so...

I like the idea, but this reminds me I thought of using TVs for a different reason: after the attack on the range I’d have Praya’s father doing a discourse like this https://youtu.be/IV0g8hcgqMI?si=vw4FlBRtM4gy8VDv but referring to the attack and the ungratefuls

YouTube
AniQuotes
All men ... are NOT created equal! Speech by Charles | Code Geass e...

Anime - Code Geass
Disclaimer -
All the videos, songs, images, and graphics used in the video belong to their respective owners and I or this channel does not claim any right over them.

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporti...

▶ Play video
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Which is counter productive with what we are discussing lmfao

empty flame
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I do think the other big political points I like to find opportunity for are the ways that the New Prosperity Agreement works (Seccomm era document that's still in place so there's a LOT wrong with that one), and the fact that the Dawnline Shore was specifically handed to the KTB as a way of keeping the NPA's whole pattern "sustainable"

odd kayak
# empty flame Like mentioning that House Ludra was stripped of all holdings and titles for vio...

I have drafts of political discussions that they can have in the classes/downtime, even having Praya and Argus sounding reasonable in them (Argos criticizing Ludraa for being greedy idiots that caused all this and Praya having a modicum of respect to the Senjak’s and the right of choice that Water and Dust have to choose Republicanism, even if she dislikes the push for everyone to be republican)

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Which can be out of character but that’s a risk I’m willing to take

quartz sentinel
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so you should definitely do this as well 😄

odd kayak
quartz sentinel
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Hyderad specifically is the worst of the worst

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he's only not outright Neo-Passacaglian because he's literally lining himself up to become the next Prime Baron

empty flame
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Yeah, the official stance of the House of Stone is that the people of Sanjak should be willing to follow a far nicer noble house overseer, or even reinstate some of their old "lost" noble houses to reintegrate into the system on better terms
If asked about the blockade, there's the go-to excuse of a "security risk", citing past violence (incited by the house of stone but yknow), or the sale of narcotics and weapons from sanjak (because of economic desperation caused by the house of stone but yknow)

odd kayak
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Would be weird if I said house of stone even tried to elevate their leaders to nobility and give them the planet and the Senjaks refused?

empty flame
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So that'd probably be something that some within the house of stone proposed, but it may have been shot down internally or at least kinda legally hamstrung
A common stance on old sanjak nobility is likely that, by integrating into the normal population during a crisis instead of clinging to titles, they "Failed" in their inherent duty as nobles. Some might be open to reinstating them, but many would be opposed or want there to be a "Special oversight" type of situation where a Khayradin noble holds influence over the appointed Sanjak ones

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Real "It's to help with the smooth transfer of power, it's "temporary" don't worry" energy

empty flame
# odd kayak Maybe they have bad opinions of the Houses because we watched code geass togethe...

Oh also I will say, having seen code geass
In spite of the basic aesthetics, the Baronies aren't really that analogous to Britannia (Not much of an expansionist power compared to other players in the galaxy, no central monarch figure, etc.)
While there's no 1/1 map, I'd compare them more to one of the smaller independent states in that setting that's cutting deals to maintain independence (reasonable given everything) while still having internal flaws (that would not be fixed by outside interventionism) that shape the nature of the deals they cut

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The theme of interventionism also really works well for explaining why they don't get along with Harrison Armory, strictly speaking the "we should just invade the baronies by force and install a democratic government according to our own constitutional standards" mindset is just the HA platform for interacting with the Baronies

odd kayak
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I mean, I also don’t think they are analogous besides aesthetics, but they do divide their conquests in zones with nobles in control of them like the Great Houses and their worlds, although they don’t care for their zones like the houses care about their worlds

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Maybe it’s fairer to say code geass is like the passacaglian period

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But still not analogous

empty flame
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Yeah somewhat

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I think the big distinguishing factor is that they don't really have as much in the way of "conquests"? Like the entirety of Karrakin holdings consists of

  • The worlds they were on before coming into contact with any other society, minus sanjak (and also possibly some weirdness with Khayradin? Though that's ambiguous)
  • Half of the land that Union chose to give to them in The Dawnline Shore before the other half of it got taken by HA
odd kayak
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Btw about the second part of the module

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One of my players took the masquerade power from their bond that makes so they always know when someone is lying

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Idk how I can hide praya’s and Argo’s involvement in the attack with that in play

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Specially because I’m planning so they interact a lot (the player is from the house of sand and works/wants to work for their intelligence)

rustic peak
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Go full Aes Sedai and never have them tell a direct lie?

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I don't think the masquerade power lets you know anything about the details of the lie

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So even if they're caught in a lie Praya/Argo can just tell said PC to go jump in a pit

odd kayak
odd kayak
rustic peak
odd kayak
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Btw, did anyone here play the entire story using bonds? I wanted to know if y’all managed to level them up and if so how much

rustic peak
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Or even go so far as have Argo say sth like "if you dare insult us again by insinuating that, I will shiv you"

rustic peak
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I don't vibe with PbtA systems much

odd kayak
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I’m planning to nuke his mech at the start of the attack to deflect his involvement too

north knot
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bonds can vary pretty wildly in their power depending on how many narrative sessions you intend on running per mission

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if you're really getting into the weeds narratively i'd recommend putting a cap on how many bond powers your players can pick up at downtime

odd kayak
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Idk how much xp they’ll get because it’s my first time using it

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But the first level powers they took seem alright

north knot
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if your players are at all invested in hitting their marks in regards to roleplaying they're likely to be getting 3xp/session, so about a power every 3 sessions

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once they get veteran powers they'll be getting 4/session and then it's, obv, a power every 2 sessions

odd kayak
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Damm the math maths

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I’ll see how they go in the first sessions and think on increasing the xp for powers or smthng

quartz sentinel
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the approach that works for my pacing in games that I run is to have XP cap out and not reset until downtime, which makes leveling up once a mission all but guaranteed and soft-ties bond powers to LLs. You could also take the more direct approach and ignore XP entirely

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but that's obviously not an approach that's going to work for everyone

odd kayak
quartz sentinel
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yeah, it's a tough balance to achieve. something I've been fiddling with is that you can only gain one bond power per LL, but you can gain it at the end of any session, so there's still some incentive to engage with the XP system

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but we're fully into speculative territory here and I've not exactly tested it, so I don't pretend to have special insight on this front

odd kayak
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2-3 powers seem fine to me (tho I admit I haven’t read them extensively), if the game is ongoing once they reach that I’ll think on how to deal with it

empty flame
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Oh I've had two player characters with Harlequin in SOTW runs and it was scary both times for just that reason

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That said, it hasn't been a problem either time

  • The party is actually less likely to just directly confront Argo and Praya than you think
  • While I don't think that Argo and Praya are likely to know to use like fairy rules and speak in half-truths, I do think it's reasonable to say they wouldn't engage with that kind of question directly. Stuff like "Don't be ridiculous" or "how dare you accuse me of such a thing?" means they aren't lying because they aren't answering the question in the first place
  • People in universe don't neccesarily know what a bond power is, even if they do manage to nail them with that ability, they now know that Praya's up to some shit, but their evidence is "Well I felt like they were lying" so acting on it meaningfully is hard
  • If shit does start to get a little off the rails, you can always bump up beat 9 by a bit as Argo and Praya rush to divert suspicion from themselves to the PCs (thus calling any testimony the PCs made further into question) and rushing to carry out their plan before Baronic Intelligence fully catches on. You might lose a few beats, but the module still functions
odd kayak
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First session was fun

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roleplay took a lil too long so we paused on round 3

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I made the mistake of giving invisibility on Praya instead of Argos

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they threw pocket drugs on Praya

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it was fun

tame mauve
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Did argo immediately lose his sword?

odd kayak
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Praya took like 10 damage and Aloysus took some damage too

random mirage
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i straight up do not know how this happened but i am halfway through running this module, it is 3 am 8 hours before we start mission 2, and this is the first time i have ever seen the middle paragraph in elsa's description

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how did i miss this

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mystified

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we've had like 8 sessions i never saw this a single time when preparing or referencing her description

quartz sentinel
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it happens. fun detail to miss though! hope it wasn't too disruptive

empty flame
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Happens yeah, sometimes if an NPC isn't the most interacted with details go missing

random mirage
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it was fine, i mentioned it in the session today but i don't think it changes much or would have changed much previously. they've been friendly with her but there aren't any plot threads centered on her so far

random mirage
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our first session in a few weeks went great

Kiriona was hospitalized after her mech was destroyed during combat 4 and has remained in the hospital since, essentially comatose. the players had the chance to visit her for the first time, where they discovered her condition and learned that the House of Moments plans to take Kiriona off life support and replace her with a different facsimile. i wrote that the House of Moments and the Endless Company had a contract with the college guaranteeing a spot representing them in an upcoming Pankration tournament, and since Kiriona's recovery wasn't likely until long after the tournament would be over, it was easier for them to just plan for a new clone to replace Kiriona upon her death so they could get to maintain their representation in the highly-publicized tournament

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i wrote a bit of niche legal lore about transference of rights to facsimiles that idk if is perfectly canon lore-accurate but fit the situation and supported the story

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essentially that the rights of any individual in Karrakis are transferred to replacement fascimiles upon loss on consciousness preceding death, in order to maintain legal continuity of personhood during the cloning processes (i.e. for the clone of a citizen to retain the original's [ig]noble standing upon the previous one's death, originating from the use of noble mirror creches as consciousness-extending applications mentioned in the KTB field guide)

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obviously my players all thought this was horrible, so they spent much of the session trying to influence public opinion and thinking about who they'd be willing to work with to save Kiriona

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basically all of my players have some level of distaste for the noble institutions sponsoring them that would also have the most power to help them, so it worked really well to make them consider what they'd be willing to owe to save their friend, as well as the situation generally making it clear that their noble privileges are only afforded to them as far as they are used to reinforce existing power structures (i.e. almost exactly what Kat said earlier lol)

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ended up with a bargain from one of the player characters from the House of Stone, leveraging his connections in the minor house that he has been trying to distance himself from his entire life.

incredible evil things to come. i will make these noble students from hagiographic houses, with whom they are scared to publicly disagree with, stand up for their beliefs by the end of this module somehow

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on a completely different topic, i could not have predicted in one million years the vibe the PCs ended up having with Kahin. they were being kind of sassy with him (i may have accidentally undercut the seriousness of the moment of their bonds being read when i described him as "aura farming") so in the spur of the moment i just kind of reflected that energy back at them, which it turns out is really easy to do when you're playing a character that can lowkey see the future. now one of the players wants to smoke weed with him and i was like yeah fuck it why not you have some free time next weekend. the rest of the society is being evil i'll let Kahin be chill if it's funny

silver vault
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why not vibe when you can see the future. what is there to worry about?

random mirage
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yeah exactly

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it's kind of funny that literally the only thing needed to get his relationship clock to an 8 in the first scene he appears is to take his omen seriously and my players were anything but serious

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i think after the tension and stakes of earlier scenes, they were not impressed by my attempts to play him lol

dark tusk
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Gosh, it's been a minute since I checked back in here lmao

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I had some gaps in running my game and spent a lot of time leading up to the cadenza and now that it's resolved I'm finally gonna be hopping back in here to brainstorm and share what happened in my game!

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I'm unsure what's going on with one of my players, so my cast might be shrinking but they also are planning to get cloned and come back after being outted as a skinwalker, face/off style, disguised as a student they killed, so they can have some justified time off if they need it

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Tbc: cloned as the subjectivity sync of the actual student mixed into their current genetic cocktail so very confusing lmao

odd kayak
odd kayak
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GEM ALERT MY PLAYER DREW THEIR CHARACTER

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Narcisus-Lithos from the House of Stone

odd kayak
graceful turtle
# odd kayak

I love him, he looks like he's gonna ask me if I listen to King Crimson

rancid coral
tame mauve
odd kayak
sullen harness
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why is he less smug when his head is mirrored

odd kayak
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guess who lost her only weapon just like her partner in crime

silver vault
odd kayak
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first meme image from the table

LIVE_MARCHIS_REACTION.jpg
empty flame
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Genuinely has happened at least once in all three of my runs, idk how this boy has such bad luck with that thing

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Like this shouldn't be a common occurance but it is

silver vault
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Argo's too trained of a duelist and instinctively tries to parry with his mech's blade, which works less well when you're trying to parry machine gun fire /s

quartz sentinel
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it's actually somewhat intentional, essentially it's a side effect of the way the maths for Legendary works out with single-mount NPCs

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you encounter both Praya and Argo twice each over the course of the mission, each have only one weapon, each have three structure, and the probability distribution of their structure rolls is skewed by Legendary. Odds are very good it will happen at least once, often multiple times

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it feels good for the players when it happens because they're (at least in theory) quite threatening enemies but their only weapon breaks it makes them look a little foolish for being underprepared/overconfident, and that's the perfect social dynamic

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getting to clown on Argo because his sword broke is super fun, and it's very easy to imagine him fuming inside his cockpit

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I remember one GM said they gave him a Devil's Cough as an optional when he showed up to Enter Sand-Men, because his sword broke in the first fight and they wanted to make the combat more challenging

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which I thought was a fun touch

gray magnet
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i think the sword being likely to break is a good touch

silver vault
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I like it. I think it actually makes a lot of narrative sense when you realize his dueling blades are hardlight, and thus he never has to worry about breaking them, and might have developed bad habits about that

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"ah, a peasant-like attack. a first year fencing novice could parry this. let me just raise my hard-light blades to counter and-"

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[SYSTEM TRAUMA DETECTED]

empty flame
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I do also think that it's partially because he's got an assassin's blade specifically, if his enemy lives long enough to hit him it's because he's bad at his job or out of his depth

final frigate
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Had a rough session last night.

Opening of the 2nd year of the college, with the pankrati tourney it hosts kicking up.
Party had the pleasure of seeing the prime baroness in attendence, who bestowed upon them a hankerchief and told them that if it was still affixed to their mech by the end of the fight (the PC who had it couldn't take structure loss), they'd gain her favour in the proceedings, and if they won, their names would be engraved on the trophy, rather than simply winning it for a year, which is a massive honour.

They squared up against the twins, aloynious, and two house sand jobbers supporting them, along with their squads sponsor, achiellia.
One of the PCs dated Aloynious for a bit, they also know thanks to the blue blood that he'll side with Argo and Praya if the PCs don't do something about it, and, the twins are partly responsible for another PC being disinherited from her noble house due to too many scandals (of which they helped cause a few of).

Narrative tensions were high, the stakes were good, everything was set!

Annnndddd...the sitrep floundered due to difficulties in player communication regarding how they'll act during the fight, leading to frustration in everyone and a complete drain on their fun throughout the overall experience, killing the good vibe.
Pair that with a sitrep I was using from a 3rd party supplement, which...just kinda fell flat, and it all went south.

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Thankfully the post-fight talks between Aloynious and another PC, along with the disinherited PC and the twins, did a lot to bring the experience back up.

Turns out the twins aren't....awful, but they do what they do because they want to feel alive, prove that they are by doing things their own way regardless of the path set out for them, as they dance along it rather than merely trudge along, and they want to enjoy life to the fullest while making sure their small minor house of glass gets the opportunity to do the same.
They apologised for what they did, and it was arguably the first and only time they've sincerely meant it in their lives.

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I'm gonna pick up the campaigns pace, put some social tools in place, and just try to get to the modules final act.

carmine trench
# tame mauve

my next session is this combat, so may be getting destroyed soon too lol

silver vault
carmine trench
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will have these two pics on standby in case it happens lol

rustic peak
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Wish I had had these images handy when Argo was still alive

civic snow
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Oh yeah, I guess I'll have an opportunity to use these when he inevitably comes back in future missions

odd kayak
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can I ask yall for your sotw playlists

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I want more musics to use outside of combat

clear nymph
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I like using the Metaphor: Refantazio soundtrack. Especially for the fight music since it has a pseudo-esparanto throat singing component that just screams "Karrakis" to me.

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I use this for the College theme when the party are having classes

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The theme I use for regular combat missions

tame mauve
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I used Metaphor for the Khayradin Elites, they fit quite well I think.
For normal KTB stuff, I've been using music from Berserk primarily.
Peaceful
Tense
Combat
Kirona got her own playlist filled with "classical" music as well.

odd kayak
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Thanks guys, im familiar with Metaphor's OST but ill check the recomendations

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Also, I have some downtime ideas (we are using a clock for events in a trimester to have more roleplay sections) and wanted to know if y'all have some sugestions (that arent school events).

Rowan, Kay, and Hedros invited them for a cultural tour in the city (watching a play based on locked tomb's Mathias Nonius and then a star wars marathon or smthng)

Kiriona will make a party in a mansion her house has. There will be a bunch of portraits of past Brighstars (like the Cullen's graduation wall lmfao) and she says her lore if someone asks about it. Argos is there and calls a PC (sandman/sand's intelligence trainee) to hack a House of Moments terminal or smthng

final frigate
#

One of my players now has a pet dragonling the size of a house cat.

That is all.

crisp grotto
#

I've been using songs from Otyken, The Hu, and the Witcher 3 soundtrack for my combat scenes for that rougher throat singing.
And swapped to a more industrial metal track of Doom-style covers just for Harlequin's Knife

broken cloud
#

hey i may be in the wrong spot, but i’m running SOTW rn and to my knowledge it never really clarifies ||who does the attack? i know its probably the argo/praya situation,|| but i was just curious if it was up to me to explore or if i’m blind.

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spoilered for spoilers

#

by that i mean the harlequin’s knife fight

empty flame
#

Yeah, that's ||Carried out by Argo and Praya, presumably with some help from their houses. They're trying to frame either Harrison Armory or the Ungratefuls with the multi-layered deception||

south violet
#

Getting ready to run SOTW - does anyone have the map of the campus on pages 22/23 as an image?

empty flame
#

this one?

KCC_Map_Resize.png
south violet
#

yes! thank you!

broken cloud
quartz sentinel
#

The details are left unspecified because they're not directly relevant within the scope of the module, so that GMs can specify for a followup campaign. It's not beyond their resources, especially if you factor in house backing

empty flame
#

Kinda my HC on all this was that they had done a few things in terms of the espionage for that, including

  • Working with a free company sympathetic to their cause (The Children of Tyrannus) who are allowed to move weapons through Karrakin space
  • Argo using some back channels and underground connections to get some of the more outright illegal components in place (such as the bomb for later)
  • Praya using the same weird firmament tech that gets deployed in combat 8 for the onworld teleportation stuff.
#

Actually now that I think of it, describing the initial teleporting in as looking like the void rends later on could be fun

final frigate
#

I've explained it mostly by saying the following:

  • The college literally taught lessons on this.
  • All of the mechs are already in the stable and easily accessable, since most of the forces participating are house stone and sand students (they sponsored an abnormal amount over 3 years, and there isn't really an age limit on who can be sent there.)
  • The Dean Commander, head of security, is house stone. She has allowed some gaps in security to be heavily exploited.
  • They chose to make the big pushes while ELIGOS was being cycled
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The biggest thing, the BOMB, is easily explained away in a number of ways. But my preferred explanation is that they pieced it together over the years inside the college grounds, with the explosive element coming from the reactor of the college campus itself. Effectively causing a mass power outage on the college grounds, making the security system useless, while also giving them the material they need to make the big BOOM.

#

All of it's easily pulled off without anyone being wise to what's going on.

#

I like to think that teleportation shenanigans would trip some sort of sensor, since i can't imagine the campus wouldn't be able to pick up on that.

#

And Eligos is....very anal about everything being in order, but is limited by the capabilities of the security system from which he operates.

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So the best way to avoid all the fancy software and surveillance tech is the same as it has always been; have a guy on the inside open the back door.

odd kayak
#

Second (technically third) session is today and we may start Combat 2, does anyone have tips on running it

final frigate
# odd kayak Second (technically third) session is today and we may start Combat 2, does anyo...

Keep Elsa in back, potentially just sitting on the eastern control point, she'll die if left exposed and Nadeer (if he's deployed) is best kept in a spot he can cover both her and the main area with gunfire.

The twins are best used to control the north and south points; they wont survive long, but they only need to live like 2 rounds on both points to secure a major point advantage.

Kirionia is your most dynamic and important unit, lose her, you lose the sitrep if the NPCs don't have a significant point advantage.
She can provide support to either of the twins to ensure they survive a while, while also harrassing PCs who over-extend their positioning by dragging them out into the open for Nadeer to obliterate.
She's tanky in one on one close range fights owing to her traits, but will die if focus fired, so you never want her out in the open unless you've got her second activation ready to go.

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Ideally you secure the east, south and north point as fast as you can, and accept that the east point is only going to be contested by Kirionia if the PCs leave a single PC there to hold it, and even then, that's if they over extend.

odd kayak
#

We didn’t get to the combat but next session I’ll put your teachings in practice

final frigate
#

ah stop you're makin' me blush.

#

The module itself also has advice on how to run the sitrep as well, if memory serves.

north knot
#

it does

#

put the latch drone on kiriona or hedros and watch your players squirm

final frigate
#

Latch drone on Kirionia was my go to

#

Grapple taxi-ing players out of control points was an evil but fun play.

north knot
#

yes never underestimate what you can accomplish with a latch drone'd cataphract

#

kidnap people

final frigate
#

the funniest thing I ever did to a cataphract was give them an NPC version of synth-muscle.

#

the yoinkage was real.

broken mauve
#

running shadow of the wolf, can I ask about Rawan's pins? are they suppose to be anything more than they appear? (deeper meanings, etc)

#

on the provided potrait

burnt iris
#

the three black stripes is the ungratefuls, the half circle is horizon collective, the blue tricolor iirc is thirdcomm, and the red-black one is something to do with anarchy?

broken mauve
#

im sorry to be rude, but is there any source that the third committe flag is estonia? 🇪🇪 that sounds kind of nuts and i cant really find an official flag for third commitee

image.png
burnt iris
#

we don't have any official depiction (other than this), but miguel has mentioned that union's flag is a blue tricolor

broken mauve
#

i see,

burnt iris
silver vault
broken mauve
#

i figured it was the an-com flag but its just a little weird because lancer is so detached from equitable real-world politicks like that DIRECTLY (allegories of course; it just felt like a direct mention is weird)

silver vault
#

the three lines one also has some meaning and I think I read a theory about what it was but for the life of me I don't remember

burnt iris
#

iirc in the ktb book on sanjak there's mention that the ungratefuls took the "three bars" symbol after the interstellar solidarity brigades

silver vault
#

that makes sense

broken mauve
#

i see, i see

burnt iris
#

The Three Bars – a rough interpretation of ThirdComm’s simple flag – began to appear, painted and papered onto the mineshaft walls of Lower and in the alleys of Sanjak Underground.

silver vault
#

so we got:
pride flag (kosher)
archaic symbol for anarchocommunism (would mean nothing to anyone not extensively versed in the pre-Fall history of leftism)
union flag (we're all Union here right? might turn heads but totally fine on its face)
horizon collective (NHP rights is a left-wing but somewhat acceptable position in Karrakin politics afaik)
three bars flag (abstract enough for plausible deniablity in the face of anyone who hasn't actually been to Sanjak)

broken mauve
#

that was actually going to be my question about how known the Three Bars is; makes a lot of sense that it'd be a little too abstract to be recognized

silver vault
#

I don't actually have a source on that, it would just make sense

#

it's three lines, kind of hard to pin meaning to it with certainty

#

also Sanjak is basically a quarantined planet, nothing leaves or enters

broken mauve
#

p much, its so isolated

silver vault
#

information like that would be hard to come by in the wider galaxy

opaque condor
#

then again, rawan isn't exactly secretive about her support for the ungratefuls

silver vault
#

well yeah just because the deniability is plausible doesn't mean she won't explain what it is to the right people

opaque condor
#

my point is more im not even sure she's going for plausible deniability

broken mauve
#

how disliked ARE the ungratefuls? i've been running it as well, the general movement is associated heavily w/ terrorism its hard to find sympathy with them (in contrast to being """"one of the good ones"""" like a republician ideology) among most people, with some people who of course, beyond Rawan who is a glowing red flag; find sympathy & reasoning with why they do what they do

#

ungratefuls as in the movement beyond just sanjak

burnt iris
#

her cover being that she's from san simeon helps with the plausible deniability part. chalk it up to a noble-less house having more progressive values

opaque condor
silver vault
#

that was the way I read it too. Rawan gets talking with someone amenable to hearing her out, lets the mask slip a little, Praya & Argo overhear by chance, drag her out for a beating, enter the PCs

opaque condor
#

oh! also, as per KTB book the three bars are an outdated Ungrateful symbol: just the words 'maltank'/'ungrateful' (and the fusion rifle as per long rim) are more common symbols in the narrative present

silver vault
#

there's gotta be like, less than a thousand people in the entire universe not on Sanjak in the narrative present who actually know what the three bars mean in that context then

#

it would be like, the survivors of the original occupation who managed to get offworld in time

#

and that's it

#

outside of the ungratefuls, that is

burnt iris
#

yeah that makes sense to me. 450+ years plus a blockade

opaque condor
silver vault
#

I didn't even consider the time differential that number's probably even smaller

silver vault
broken mauve
# silver vault so we got: pride flag (kosher) archaic symbol for anarchocommunism (would mean n...

it felt a little bit weird to me but i might just be overly woke; but it felt kind of crazy to have the two cis characters from vaguely authoritatian ideology driven houses beat on the non-binary character wearing a pride pin. its 100% not the politics at play with that (mainly because i believe gender & identity is so accepted its a non-issue in 5016u, even if the Baronies are not apart of the post-scarcity Union fully as they have heavy autonomy as a member-state) it just felt kind of crazy? I just wanted to bring it up and ask if i'm crazy for seeing that

silver vault
#

i think the intended reaction is "that's fucked up"

#

ooc

broken mauve
#

i bring this up as funny ha-ha, not like theres some hidden dog whistle or something

silver vault
#

like it's supposed to be a "wow hagiographic ideology is everywhere" kind of moment, and also they're the module villains

#

they're beating her up for being a leftist, not her gender identity, but you would not be wrong to see the parallels IMO

#

it's all one ideological continuum that these ideas stem from

broken mauve
# silver vault i think the intended reaction is "that's fucked up"

i suppose? but i feel like with that kind of angle it detracts from the bigger thing & tension; like identity politicks are not involved at all w/ Shadow Of The Wolf, but having it brings in some connotations that aren't necesarilly there (like praya & argo being bigots over gender, not over

#

the fact that rawan is pro-ungrateful, or the class divide between them, etc)

quartz sentinel
quartz sentinel
#

serious question

#

like, you're saying that it's "kind of crazy" when the queer feminist author has her punk-coded character get the shit beaten out of her by authoritarian villains right at the start of the module as an inciting incident that is textually supposed to get the PCs to stand up for that character and puts them on the villains' shit list. Casual slur aside, what about this seems "crazy" to you?

#

I want to know exactly what you're trying to say here

north knot
#

you're jumping at shadows

final frigate
#

it's also a good way to highlight that those without privilage (an ignoble from the most recent new major house with nowhere near the political weight as most of the student body) are liable to be abused by those who do have it.

#

I wasn't too sure how to make use of Rawan when I started the module, but, as time has gone on, she has really grown on me 😌
She exists as counter to a lot of the ideals of the college and makes for a great vessel to help PCs start questioning them.

broken mauve
north knot
#

okay so then what's your point

honest holly
carmine trench
final frigate
carmine trench
final frigate
#

Knew it.

carmine trench
#

She was already engaged w a diff PC because they went off on their own, so she didn't get the typical resistance buff

final frigate
#

I was about to ask.

#

Thankfully in my run of the sitrep she was able to survive til near the end of the encounter, in part because the squad consisted of an emperor, a kartuzov, a Nelson (who was busy with someone else most of the sitrep), and a Field Guide to Iridia Nemesis. So two size 1 melee strikers, neither of whom could pin her down or deal enough DPS combined to kill her in a single round, while also competing for objectives.

silver vault
#

I know "Kartuzov" is probably an unintentional misspelling, but I am now imagining a Napoleon as a Mario Kart guest character.

#

Gets blueshelled, pops the core as the shell does its little pre-impact spin, NUH UH, wins the race

odd kayak
#

tho I didnt know what the ovni and estonia had to do with anything

broken mauve
#

the secret estonian technique...

odd kayak
#

Dharamshala is not on india or anything its in Estonia they just called it that for the lols

silver vault
#

estonia inherits the universe...

#

It is pretty funny though.

burnt iris
#

Disco Elysium as a foundational text in the Lancer universe

broken mauve
#

The House Remembrance Grand Archives including the last copy of Sacred And Terrible Air as a holy artifact...

#

even if its just like, a one-off word rn from one of the head writers & not in the books, i do fuck with that tricolor being the thirdcomm flag; the color scheme is very hopeful

#

its just really, really funny that its estonia

odd kayak
#

3 of my players have super heavt

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lmfao

crisp grotto
#

Though my players somehow managed to not take out enemy mechs until their exams. They lacked damage before one got a Tagetes from Hedros and the superheavy everest played too cautiously up until the third combat.

odd kayak
rustic peak
#

It's almost time for the grand finale

#

Feel like I rushed mission 2 a lot compared to mission 1

dark tusk
#

Which makes sense it's about fall out from privilege.

#

Also does anyone have a good rules quick reference image I could put next to the map?

#

For like combat

silver vault
#

Like, general combat rules or anything more specific

tame mauve
#

I also made a quick reference sheet for players, but it's more narrative focused (using Field Guide KTB rules), the combat section only has status/conditions

📎 player_ref_sheet.pdf
final frigate
#

Mission 1 is fairly leisurely imo.

#

Mission 2 is about as fast paced as winter scar or solstice rain.

dark tusk
dark tusk
odd kayak
#

that why im putting a pankrati festival/competition there

final frigate
#

good session

one of the PCs was almost assassinated by a dude with a chainsaw in the college gardens.

#

Turns out when you take a jamming device to block out digital signals, and a chainsaw, which makes it impossible for people to hear you scream while its revving, it's remarkably hard to get help when being chased by someone.

#

a shame for him that one of the other PCs, has the wolf passion 🙂

odd kayak
#

btw does anyone have a logo for the college? My players want to make a yearbook using it

#

I think its the Knight Piece on the maps?

odd kayak
final frigate
#

So an ignoble house sand student who is 'totally acting alone and trying to win favour' attacked them in the gardens by themselves in his own size 1/2 mech suit.

#

It's neither subtle, nor tactful.

#

But it is very entertaining.

#

And it's better than me intentionally trying to assassinate them in more typical ways, like poisoning or mech tampering.

graceful turtle
#

Argo: "surely nothing can go wrong from hiring literally the cheapest assassin I can possibly find"

#

"it says on his website that he'll kill another student if we get him three circus peanuts and a half-melted strawberry popsicle"

#

"sounds like a good deal"

final frigate
#

as funny as that is, the logic is more....

"I'm going to give this useless failure an opportunity to be useful and help Aloynious in the tourney."
"...he lost in the first round and cost me a potential political ally. I'm going to poison him and tell him that if he fails to kill my political rival, I wont give him the antidote."

#

And the guys plan was 'they're doing gardening in the main hedgrow area with chainsaws and stuff. If I can just get a jammer inside of one to hide it, dress up like a gardener, and find a good spot to act inconspicuous until the right moment, i can surprise murder them with a chainsaw.'

#

All in all, not a bad plan, just messy.

#

and stylish.

odd kayak
#

Btw, for people that played LL1-3

#

When did yall increase their level?

north knot
#

license level ups happen at the end of missions

odd kayak
#

so they dont play ll3?

odd kayak
crisp grotto
rustic peak
#

My players managed to get both Tomas and Kiriona to assist in the final fight. Unfortunately for everyone, Praya had recently bought herself a new toy called "Short Cycle Lance" 😈

dark tusk
#

I'm thinking of just jumpstarting everyone to LL2 after mission 1. 2 of my players are getting new chassis from friendship rewards and I want everyone to have fun with new toys during the last battery of fights.

odd kayak
#

One of my players made their yearbook!

fcd0f5a7-24ef-40db-b2f4-01342bf2899f.jpg
dark tusk
#

I know the module is attrition based and so the base chassis being cost effective for healing is very helpful, and I'll let them know/ask them after the terror attack I think depending

odd kayak
#

This is the blank version, there is another one with comments

dark tusk
odd kayak
#

Lmao

#

(We are 2 sessions away from the harlequin’s knife)

odd kayak
#

Because they really want LL3

odd kayak
dark tusk
odd kayak
#

Yeah I meant mine sorry, but if yours don’t want LL3 than your plan works well

dark tusk
#

Oh but okay now that I'm here: campaign updates. Last I left off we were building up to the cadenza after a big pankrati tournament, we finally did the cadenza!

One of my players is disguised as a student she killed, Argo's former best friend. She's held hostage and allowed in by the fact the school has her genetic data and thinks it's the data of the guy she killed after Argo gave her hacker friend a backdoor into the medical database before she came to campus. She tried to seduce Argo to give up the gene codes and got the seduction but not the gene codes because even if you successfully roll take control to fuck doesn't make him stupid it just lets the physical seduction work.

She tries to stab him in anger and gets caught by the school security system. During the cadenza we cut back and forth from dance numbers and socializing to said player being tortured to death at an improvised black site on throne.

I have the Stone Lord be a guest speaker/judge and give a perfunctory speech praising diplomats, teachers, students, and lastly his daughter "that is, if she had done anything actually praiseworthy this semester- and the fact you failed her is proof of a degeneracy leaking out of the school and poisoning our future. May the dances prove the vitality of our culture and not be the death spasms of a dying people, on with the show."

The players are really creative with their dances. Two of our PCs were going together so one of them had to go stag. One has been getting into a messy love triangle with Elsa and Kiriona and that was some good drama, she did a starlight revue ass dance with a lot of stage combat inside a hollowed out transparent version of her chassis and it was too avant garde for the judges. Kay and another player went and they were a little clumsy but very wholesome. I just made the dances some skill rolls.

#

The one dating Kir has in her backstory that her family is being targeted by degenerate Baronic Kalshi gamblers trying to profit on her family's succession in the House of Smoke, making her and her siblings regular assassination targets and I had her poisoned at the dance.

What I did was I had her roll a 1d20. On a 10+ we had 1d6+2 scene changes before the poison takes effect. On a 9- 1d4+2. The girl dating Kay hopped in her frame and tore through countless school walls to rush her to the nurses office before the neurotoxin could kill her.

The disguised player is being secretly cloned on campus and subjectivity synced back to the original boy student she killed (but using her genetic code) and we are now preparing for exams and some robot fighting after several months of visual novel drama

dark tusk
#

Okay lore question: What's the average number of students at the college for a given class year?

odd kayak
final frigate
# dark tusk Okay lore question: What's the average number of students at the college for a g...

Ive said around 2000-ish, with 3 years at the college per student.

So roughly 6000 people plus staff at any given time.

Which is part of the reason Kirionia in my game is having anxiety attacks; she is only just now realising her year was the only one in college history to have a single moulin clone, as all others have had anywhere between 4 to 12.

Its also part of the reason ive had Elsa like her, but ultimately view Kirionia as...a dime a dozen. She is exceptional, but she is not unique, being an above average example of her gene-line that is worthy of all the respect, friendship, affection and comradery due, but is ultimately a friend she has, not an alliance partner she is cultivating

quartz sentinel
#

I touch on it a little here (#1335142849754169447 message). TL;DR it is purposefully unspecified but it takes inspiration most specifically from the SFTI program (aka TOPGUN) which graduated around 50-60 students a year

#

if I were to attempt to rationalise the scaled-up number of 1500 (which is honestly pretty shaky as back-of-the-napkin maths goes) I would probably distribute it across the KCC's satellite campuses throughout the Concern to preserve the feel of it. The Throne Karrakis campus is the most elite and prestigious by a significant margin, so the 50-60 mark still feels justifiable.

dark tusk
#

Copy! I definitely inflated that number filling the duelling field with fans during a pankrati tournament maybe I can fudge that #.

The reason why I ask is because the tutors officiating every exam for pods of 4 students escalates to a hilarious amount of time very quickly if you get close to triple digits of students

quartz sentinel
#

Honestly you can go with whatever number you feel makes most sense for your version of the story

#

there's a reason I didn't put any numbers in the book, and that's because different GMs will want to take different approaches

dark tusk
#

Deffo, I get it! Good to keep it flexible and group dependent. I know my players are not gonna turn over this rock and try to count the bugs so to speak as they seem more invested in the characters than the internal logic of the school so I'll leave it vague and not push the point lmao

final frigate
#

It only really counts for the balls imo

#

Thats when you want a crowd.

#

But like, its flexible, and its good that its vague.

south violet
#

Just had my session zero of Shadow of the Wolf last night! We have in my party:

  • A Sparri warrior retainer of House Karri, working as their archivist while worshipping a syncretism of the Passsions and technoshamanism, currently seeking to become a noble.
  • A retainer of Lady Malia Igori, the House of Sand intelligence officer from the field guide, who has recently retired from Baronic intelligence and is currently working for her own aims.
  • The latest heir in a clone-line from the House of Remembrance, who is being forced to attend the KKC after a youthful stint as a juvenile delinquent.
  • A Harrison Armories super soldier, enrolled as part of an exchange program negotiated during the peace accords at the end of the Interest War.
  • WF Spoilers ||Played by a returning player from a Wallflower game of mine, a Hercynian Egregorian, sent by Solitude as part of an intelligence program against humanity, seeking to learn about mech warfare.||
#

WF ||Do I need to keep that character behind spoilers in this channel or is talking about Egregorians okay in here? Also, has anyone ever ran Shadow of the Wolf with an Egregorian PC before?||

quartz sentinel
#

that's awesome

#

I would ask that WF spoilers be kept behind spoilers in this channel, which I know is a pain

#

WF: ||For clarity it is not a spoiler that Egregorians existed, though it is probably spoilers to mention that they are still alive.|| I might go check with the mods
EDIT: Checked with the mods, yes please

#

Also to my knowledge I don't know anyone who has done that, but weirdly enough I did end up playing ||Tallgrass as a PC|| in our current home table campaign that started with Shadow of the Wolf. We took the same characters into Wallflower as a followup since a few players requested it (which gave the module a very distinct and hilarious flavour), and since I handed off the GM seat the party returned to the Concern

#

WF: ||I ended up sidelining them for an LL or two since I wasn't quite vibing with them, but when I switched characters I had them begin moulting to leave open the possibility that they might come back at some point as a warform||, which could be interesting

south violet
#

Not a problem to keep this behind spoilers, I figured it would need to be

#

That's a very fun coincidence! I briefly thought about using this as a sequel to Wallflower when I was running that, but I felt the jump would be too weird

#

Shadow of the Wolf into Wallflower feels much more natural, that sounds like a fun spin on Wallflower

quartz sentinel
#

It was a distinctly Karrakin campaign. For example, the PCs decided that they were going to exploit the way that manna valuation works for new colonies by building connections with the colonists and setting up a trade monopoly on Hercynian hooch - which they rebranded as extremely exotic alcohol only available to those nobles with the most refined palates and deepest of pocketbooks

south violet
#

Very fun! I did have two Karrakin players (playing a pair of clone twins) in my game, but their plot was trying to get out from under their father's influence, so they didn't get up to much Karrakin antics ||they also developed Witness and played into that primarily||

odd kayak
#

Hey Miss Kat is there a particular reason Imani's mech is called Chaos?

quartz sentinel
#

it's a reference to Ancient Greek cosmogony, in that Chaos is the formless void or primordial matter from which all creation springs forth; the thing that is separated by a creator deity to form the world (Imani, in this case, being the creator)

#

there's also the slightly more modern sense meaning disorder which evokes the havoc that a hacker might play on a mech's systems

odd kayak
#

I joke but I thought it was something like that going by Alecto

#

but then Castor had Jester so I wasnt certain

quartz sentinel
#

sometimes it's fun when names have multiple meanings 🙂

#

I do that a lot

#

Alecto and Jester are definitely more straightforward though

final frigate
odd kayak
#

I think callsigns are mostly a Union thing

#

and Kavaliers just use their name/title

final frigate
#

Oooh, I thought they were the callsigns of the pilots, not the mechs.

quartz sentinel
odd kayak
#

weird callsign but allright

graceful turtle
#

"Spoilers" as a callsign for a time fuckery mech would actually go so hard

dark tusk
odd kayak
#

Can someone name a slur/insult a ungrateful/republican would use against a noble

final frigate
odd kayak
#

yippie

#

tho I'd like another one

#

its hard to translate yuppie

final frigate
odd kayak
#

they guy from f:nv?

final frigate
#

Banny is a rude shorter of baron

honest holly
random mirage
# odd kayak I love this plot. Can I ask how ur planning to do the pankrati tournament? I was...

thank you!! i promise i have not been avoiding answering your question; i've just been trying to decide what the answer is for myself and for the last week i've kept changing my mind on what i thought i'm going to do lol. here's what i've settled on though:

i decided i'm still starting the semester off with combat 5, running it (and the preceding beat 7) in the normal order, since it seems like the tense atmosphere of the college and Throne Karrakis is a really important part of the back half of the module; i think beginning the semester with combat 5 is still the best way to introduce this feeling, even if i have to replace it with something else later for what will become Mission 3. i also want the players to really feel the impacts of their naming Harrison as the culprit during their interrogation with LeFleur, so the closer the interrogation and the introduction of the college's new focus on training against Harrison the better.

the tournament will be the rest of Mission 2, around 2-4 combats (plus its narrative scenes, of course). Mission 3 will begin with joint training with the Naval College, probably a space combat, and then will finish the last 3 combats of the module (and their surrounding narrative scenes) as written.

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on the topic of the tournament, if i can be a bit pretentious about themes and narrative purpose for the interlude mission, here's a general overview of how i'm using/running it:

thematically, the purpose i think the tournament will serve will be about use of popular culture to drum up support for war, something akin to the deals the modern-day US military has with the games and film industry that they use as highly successful recruitment efforts. in my game, this Pankrati tournament is a tool by the military and the hawkish to (A) firmly establish the romanticized picture of the Kavalier in the modern Karrakin mind as dashing and heroic, (B) paint the Kavaliers as extremely capable to build the kind of confidence in the military that takes one's mind off the risks in starting a war, and (C) drive recruitment efforts for the BUC and house companies. it's essentially a piece of propaganda, and hopefully i'll be able to communicate that to the players as they realize they are participating in it

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i have some more specific plans for the combats i was planning and their narrative/thematic purposes but when i tried to give a short summary i ended up typing wayyyyyy too much lol so i'll see if i can shorten it

random mirage
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i'm trying and failing very hard to keep this brief, so here goes my third attempt

there's two important teams i want them to face:

  1. the first is a team of celebrities, embodying that idea of pankration being very different from real, life-threatening warfare. while playing up their status in narrative scenes, during combat they should be initially scary but easy to strategize around (probably using a larger map and the Industrial template from Dustgrave for its powerful melee weapons but full action boost restriction to accomplish this)
  2. the second team will be genuine veterans, much more capable but critically still invested in the culture of Pankrati, to push back against the type of messaging that you often see reflected in popular media where the separation between the public's perception of war and the actual experience of soldiers is extended to justify or excuse any actions the military takes. (realizing the connection isn't as obvious in this shortened explanation... i can say more on it if anyone really wants lol.) in combat, this will probably utilize either a Mercenary, Spec Ops, or maaaybe Marine template, and a more competent team composition that gives them a solid strategy to use against the players. outside of combat, they will be using their military experience to elevate their celebrity status and contribute towards the propaganda the tournament exists to create
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as for the combat i'm adding at the beginning of mission 3, it mostly exists to fill the overall hole in the mission balance left by removing combat 5 to use in the previous mission. narratively, it will follow up on some background NPCs introduced in combat 5 just so they'll be recognized in some future post-module missions, but mostly try to bring the focus back to the college after the tournament's conclusion and reinforcing the atmosphere of combat 5

odd kayak
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I’ll read it

random mirage
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should be noted i type this all not as advice for what you anyone else "should" do or whatever but just because i like talking about my plans lol

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though on the off chance anything in that mess of ideas fits your game and you want to use it, all the better

odd kayak
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There will also be stands of the companies BUC like they have on America I think

odd kayak
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But that’s just our table humor

random mirage
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love that

odd kayak
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Btw, and this is my feverish mind talking after taking meds, lancer tactics is close to launch and they have some narrative elements in the code (tho I don’t remember if they will have a full narrative campaign or make them available), what if someone made a dating sim light novel shadow of the wolf there, with multiple choices and the battles and stuff

graceful turtle
clear nymph
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Harlequin's Knife tonight. One Sagarmatha has their core power left. No one is at full structure or stress. And no one focused on Engineering for HASE.

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Let Karrakis Burn

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Also, everyone is maxed on overcharge heat.

dark tusk
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Yooooo

quartz sentinel
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let's goo

graceful turtle
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"oh yeah, it's lancerin' time"

clear nymph
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On the player side one of them does have an expanded compartment and specializes in his Infiltration talent to hide everywhere. But he also only has 2 stress left and a heat cap of 6

tame mauve
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I'm interested in defining the heir-ship status of the Noble students
From what I can tell, all of them have stated or implied heirship excluding the Primors and Argo, which I've classified as "already inherited, or not directly in line to inherit" and Lady Kiriona, who I've tentatively labeled as Nobility but not inheriting a "governing" title, Inheriting a gene-line merit based title???

clear nymph
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Heirship in the Baronies is not based on birth order. Different houses have different standards. But most are based on how competent the current head of house perceives you. All heirships and inheritance is presumptive

dark tusk
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I've been playing with order of birth inheritance just to keep it simple and it makes the player whose family line is being gambled on by assassins more interesting than "dad can just outsource an heir"

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Starting combat 3 tonight finally ! (Hopefully).
They friended Kay so they have 2 extra repairs, but a lot of PCs burned all their repairs after fight 2 so that's all they'll have between 3 and 4.

2 Core Powers available, the chomolungma player is at max OC cost, one player got destroyed by hedros in fight 2 so they have currently after being donated some repairs by a player to recover 2 structure 1 stress.

odd kayak
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Even with the baronies being elective monarchies it made sense to me that he would have a big disadvantage in comparison to the others in line

clear nymph
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For sure. Easiest way to get attention of the house head is to be immediate family.

clear nymph
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Update on Harlequins Knife. First 3 rounds were brutal for our players. Almost every round at least one of them was taking structure or stress from the Operators and Aegises. Lady Vanessia's Chomolungma took a direct hit on round 1 from an Operator and with an unlucky save had their mech totalled, taking out the party's main tech attacker. She ejected from her mech and ran on foot to get to the Underbaron, protected by her cousin Aloysius's Dataveil. But this also opened up Aloysius for attack and they took a structure. Round 4 is starting with one Operator dead from Tempest Charge Blade to the face and all other enemies still up. The players currently have control of all three faculty but now the Hives and Pyros are showing up.

odd kayak
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talking about harlequins knife, I have a question. Is it fair if I make the enemies focus on killing/abducting the teachers or should I only do something like that if they fail to extract?

clear nymph
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I'm having them mostly ignore the teachers but not caring if they are caught in AoEs or self destruct blasts.

quartz sentinel
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the combat is designed assuming standard Lancer rules and attitudes to objectives, which is to say: it's really, really easy for the opfor to just straight-up kill the objectives if you try, so don't do that

odd kayak
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ok, thanks miss Kat

quartz sentinel
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I think the Extraction sitrep straight up says "Enemy forces will not willingly damage the objective"

odd kayak
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we are 2-3 sessions away from running it so I admit I havent read the details

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I was just curious on how hard saving them would be

quartz sentinel
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it's pretty tough even if you don't. In testing most groups attempt to rescue all three (even though they're told not to) which often leads to one or two PCs getting demeched. It's definitely possible though - one of my playtest groups pre-opfor-nerfs made it out with all three, another group made it out with all three using Power At A Cost, but in both cases the group had to lose mechs to do it

odd kayak
quartz sentinel
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SOTW's combats are designed to teach a lot of lessons; one of the lessons C4 teaches is that losing your mech isn't game over

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I forget exactly what they did, I think they used PAAC to eject the objective along with a pilot? Something along those lines

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the cost was a severe injury to the pilot in question if I remember correctly (I think ||she lost her hand?||, though I only spectated this one so I can't remember for sure)

dark tusk
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Innnnteresting, I'll let them know they can do that during harlequins knife

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Tactical question as I have a week before we actually start combat 3, we did all the set up and are hitting the ground running into R1 T1 next thursday.

If I place Iphianassa at hex X would she have LOS to hex Y? I assume she would not have LOS to Hex Z, due to edge to edge rules and the height 3 cliff face

Screenshot_20260327_112304_Chrome.jpg
final frigate
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Unrelated, but.

I do enjoy the fact my campaigns version of karrakis would have the greatest public transit system in the baronies, were it not for the fact the same tram tracks are utilised by the personal trams of nobles as well.

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Each minor house, provided it has significant enough presence on the planet, can have one if they can afford to keep up with the taxes.

Except for minor order houses, who get an exemption:p

clear nymph
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I've been having Iphianassa drill a mantra into the students that "Kuirassers follow orders. Kavalieres accomplish objectives."

final frigate
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I dont think ive utilised the teachers all that well unfortunately 😔

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Mainly been focusing on student drama.

dark tusk
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I would agree, my players wanted to focus explicitly on girl kissing more than school and ya give em what they want

quartz sentinel
# dark tusk Tactical question as I have a week before we actually start combat 3, we did all...

This is going to depend primarily on how you run cover. The answer is rooted in whether or not you consider a character on X to be capable of shooting over or around the cover immediately to the left of that hex. If yes, then you can ignore it and it's possible to draw uninterrupted LOS between some part of the two spaces. If no, then no because there's no other way to draw an uninterrupted line.

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I know some tables model large multi-tile objects like that boulder as multiple smaller objects (so the far side will block your shot), others will model it as a weirdly shaped single object (and therefore you can ignore the whole thing)

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you might want to ask in rules-questions if you want a more in-depth analysis

dark tusk
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Thank you for the small thesis on the question! I run peek around cover and treat it as a single object- I want players to have more excuses to shoot safely rather than less- even if that means they still have to shoot through hard cover.

final frigate
dark tusk
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I've gotten everyone to think the admin won't do anything about Argos or Praya because of their power right or wrong early on and that the school is a panoptic hellscape so they are very much on a "we gotta survive and handle this shit ourselves." They like Imani and Castor and I wish I handled Iphianassa better honestly

final frigate
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My current angle is "these two kids are the heiress to the house of stone and an extremely well connected sandman. If an overt move is made against them without evidence, or the situation isnt handled with subtly, the arch Chancellor may end up being replaced, and she doesn't want that."

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The pcs, Chancellor and some others know there is a conspiracy, but not what its about.

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Theyre playing a political chess game, and they are important pieces being moved by the Chancellor right now.

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I think i need to start embracing the idea of them taking moves against the PCs now, as opposed to just passively existing.

random mirage
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halfway through combat 5, pausing for now since it's a shorter session. Rawan's mech got destroyed ("destroyed") on, not kidding, turn 2. sometimes your players just roll max damage and your npc rolls a 1 on the structure table. absolutely got them when she revealed Feign Death though lmao

clear nymph
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That's one of the things I'm looking forward to. Helps hint at her true identity. Unlike all the other students, Rawan fights dirty

final frigate
odd kayak
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Next Session will be Combat 3: Trial By Fire

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Does anyone have tips for running it

clear nymph
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The teachers have a very commanding position on the central cliff. And Alecto is a monster when fully buffed by Jester and Hesketh. Keep Chaos back to chain people and bring in Saber on whichever way they look to be taking the objective

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That said, opfor doesn't have that much offensive punch, but what they have is very reliable

final frigate
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Imo, the grunts are definitely worth considering how best to use.

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Being able to slow people in this OpFor is big when preventing people from scaling the walls, so maybe consider having the bastions deploy early in the fight so they can use their graviton lances to prevent that.

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Pair that with Saber acting as a sort of deterrent, with her running along attacking anyone who climbs up top, and you've got a nice way of ensuring the squad has to either push through the hail of gun fire, or force them to slow down and try to push through that hell to get up top and chew through enemy positions.

final frigate
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You can also be a real asshole with Chaos and their chained option, since you can target whomever is about to push the objective forward with it, thereby cucking them on their options in future rounds.

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The thing you need to remember is that you don't have much in the way of forced movement.

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you can grapple taxi, sure, but only fellow size 1s ||don't try to grapple taxi with the grunt bastions, this will not end well||

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So you wanna focus on denying movement, as opposed to forcing them into positions.
Making them stay in vulnerable positions, or making them get into them is the play.

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Alecto, the two grunt archers and Saber are your only real sources of damage, so you wanna keep the archers ability to effectively shoot people on their off turn in mind, while also making sure they don't die

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If you have to spend a turn move, boost and hiding with the grunt archers, that's far better than leaving them somewhere a player can casually take them out with a stray quick.

dark tusk
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Honestly my players havent had to deal with amy real heatcap issues and we have one left with 1 stress left so I am going to spend so many turns full teching with chaos and jester after setting up the investiture

soft elbow
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Being left with 1 stress sounds like heatcap issues? Excessive overcharges or something?

dark tusk
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They were destroyed during combat 2 by hedros so they reset with 1 structure 1 stress after repairs

dark tusk
random mirage
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i waited to deploy them until my players were towards the back half of the map, worried that putting them out too quickly would get them destroyed before they could have any sort of presence

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i don't know if this is actually best practice though, i'm not very experienced

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i think destroying grunts is such an efficient use of actions that putting the option to do so in front of players generally leads to them doing it immediately

because of this, i try to avoid deploying them in early rounds, when the players are probably too distant from the IZs for my grunts to do much, and deploying them would let players with long range or high movement take them out immediately without much opportunity cost

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if i field them halfway through the fight, the players are probably closer to the IZ and are already engaged with enemies and trying to accomplish the objective, making taking out the grunts still a very good use of their actions but giving some breathing room to the rest of the NPCs as the focus is taken off of them

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oh wait i fully misread your question

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Escort rules say you can either deploy 4 grunts or 1 regular NPC per round, so you're forced to stagger them at least a little

i waited to deploy Achilleia until after the grunts iirc, but it was probably a mistake and i probably should have put her out a bit earlier

final frigate
final frigate
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Going bastion and archer

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The bastion can deploy some cover, and also body block for the archer.

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Hell if the bastion dies, it also becomes cover XD

dark tusk
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I'm modelling out my player characters likely avenues as I am neurotic and they'll still be in the front quadrant of the map as they chose to start in the bottom left corner starting at round 2 which feels too early and my main 3 will still have a cemented position on the high cliffs. (I'm prolly having Iphianassa dive south toward the first rock and just prepare an action to shoot the first one she sees come out of cover and into range.)

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Also also, characterization question re:Eligor
Eligor in my game has been this kind of panoptic passive aggressive enforcer. I had a PC who wanted to come back cloned after she got caught as an infiltrator. So the guy she killed was subj synced into her body using her DNA the school had in like a grand archive/vault.

I had him joke when she was arrested how he hates dealing with anxious nobles and just wants to turn the school into a productive war machine of cloned student bodies.

I'm thinking about the terror attack on exams and Eligor's role here and I'm thinking of playing him as an accomplice who is ultimately betrayed when Praya and Argo blow up the school and it gives a chance for a funny little about face when he helps the players.

What do others think about this? Would there be ways I might be missing to bring this thread into the arc for act 2 that I might not have thought of?

final frigate
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That and i tend to find that lancer gamers thrive under pressure.

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The grunts arent much pressure, but, its enough to cause problems and make them think.

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Plus you can always be a massive asshole like me and have bastions run off the side of the cliff and in front of the objectives path, dying and becoming an obstruction.

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That said, I suppose it depends on how violence prone your squad is.

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If youre dealing with a bunch of controllers, supports and one damage dealer, none of whom have much hull investment, easing up on deployment until later rounds is fine.

That said, id be more tempted to keep saber or chaos in reserve and deploy the grunts in their stead if that's the case.

dark tusk
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We have one chomolungma and a buncha dps- sagar with a tcb, anti-materiel sniper, and someone doing baby's first infiltrator before finally getting a hecaton for mission 2 after bullying aloysius

final frigate
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Ok yeah you can afford to throw the grunts at them early.

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Im half tempted to suggest deploying both bastions, on either side of the map, at the end of round 1 so they can start printing cover before they are in range of the PCs...

dark tusk
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I thought barricades printed cover

final frigate
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....

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Im a fucking moron who got the two confused.

graceful turtle
dark tusk
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If I had the time I really wanted to do smaller classwork exams for each of the syllabi and I wanted to just play "Who's that pokemon" with chassis

karmic hedge
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i ran the rebake versions of argo and praya and it was still very funny. Argo became the bane of everyones existence because he was just an annoying shit

odd kayak
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their strenghs and how to deal with them etc

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it was before combat 2 (I ran it as end of trimester fight instead of immediately) so it was a lil foreshadowing

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they looked Iphianesa straight in the eyes and said "Cataphract is the scariest guy I fucking know ma'am"

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because they are traumatized after we fought one a year ago in the main table

carmine trench
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Big news for Argo fans everywhere, he did not break his sword in Enter Sandmen 🙏

graceful turtle
silver vault
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argo looking at his intact blade like

final frigate
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One of my players has been coerced into planting a bomb on the private tram car of the pimors

She sabotaged the bomb tho, so it'll be fine.

sullen harness
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Lmao, why is it always bombs. is it a KTB culture or noble thing? What ever happened to good ole fashioned poison or guns or knives. We also had an extra bombing outside of the two in the module

rustic peak
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we had an attempted poisoning in my game. the person who wound up taking it is a genetically enhanced supersoldier so it just gave her a tummyache

graceful turtle
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Assassinating a rival noble by dropping a grand piano on them like the Ancient Cradle tradition outlined in the text of Loōn Îey Tünes

rustic peak
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Argo getting killed by slamming his mech at top speed into a wall painted to look like a tunnel

graceful turtle
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Lycan frame peeling off the carapace on the outside of its arm like "WHY I OUGHTA!"

clear nymph
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The traditional declaration of a state of conflict between Nobles: "Of course you realize, this means war."

graceful turtle
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Come to think about it, paracausality is just the no-nonsense older brother of cartoon physics

final frigate
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The players re-wired the bomb, and made sure that the Primors were safe and sound while everyone had fun at the bar.

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However.

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They failed to stop the second bomb.

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Pour one out for Aloynius Flyte; he is among the devils burning in tory hell angels now.

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The campaigns tone has officially shifted.

The bombing is going to be blamed on ungrateful dissidents for killing the promising heir to house flyte in a terrorist attack.
The bombs themselves will be claimed to be repurposed roller bombs (barbarossa 1 option) that 'somehow' got under the carriages despite there being evidence to the contrary.
One of the players took 4 stress to the face as they were near the edge of the incendiary blast and were slammed back into a wall, only barely avoiding a break.

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I got as much use as I could have out of him, and i'm glad to have had the opportunity to have a Jacob Rees Mogg stand-in within a campaign.

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I've thoughts on Aloynius as an NPC, after having wrung him for a lot of narrative worth, but, generally, I do think he rounds out the student cast really well. How you interpret his plight of effectively being forced to shoulder the burden of keeping his entire house conservative, lest he lose all his privileges and noble status, along with his emotions regarding this, makes for an inherently rich character that can be pitiable, hateable and charming in his own way.

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I'm glad I was able to use him for as long as I did, and I'm gonna miss him.

quartz sentinel
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he's very directly inspired by a Type Of Guy I knew at university, and "young conservative" was literally part of the art brief

final frigate
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Amazing.

odd kayak
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I like to see him as "the median noble", not really malicious or evil, not particularly chivalrous and good, interest at keeping his confort and inheritance at any cost payed by his "lessers"

sullen harness
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Ive had so much fun torturing that man. I love making him think about how the only person who finds him tolerable still thinks his politics are a fucking joke

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The line about hagiographs targeting young nobles in Smoke really inspired me to have this man fully pipelined and then realized it when the bomb plot at the end happened.

dark tusk
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I made him a podcaster abused by our resident house of sand player- as part of their crash out to pay gambling debt they turned his show into a farce with a rigged "date auction" for who would take said player to the cadenza.

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He's also the cousin of a republican house of smoke player and they haven't chatted in a while. Now that she's been poisoned during the prom when the school tightens up after exams it might be good to give him a chance to speak up again.

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I think I overplayed his cruelty a little but in session 1 because he was talking with the house of smoke player seeing the house of sand street rat shove forks and quail in her pockets and after scraping scraps off his plate said "Let's save some food for the dogs, hm?" Which made him infinitely less likable lmao

sullen harness
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Absolutely insane line

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Ive given him pro republican parents he ostracized to assure inheritance from his uncle and ive been having lots of fun with it. Ended up digging into his stuff because of a sponsorship request from Remembrance to make sure Smoke wasn't going too republican. Kid looked at Aloysius and said to himself "I dont think that's the problem here" and decided to root around in the guys politics for fun instead.

dark tusk
rustic peak
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Aloysius has been scheming in the background for my campaign cos the players dismissed him as boring and sketchy

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I've had him feuding with the twins and losing, but mostly played for comedy

empty flame
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God running bit I had with Aloysius is that he generally kind of hates podcasts (just the format and the culture around them), but also knows that they're a good way for a young noble like him to advance his political career. He's also popular enough in those circles that he keeps getting invitations that are too good for him to justify passing up, so he's like an unwilling podcaster

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It's getting his ratings up soooo high and he's quietly seething

odd kayak
odd kayak
clear nymph
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So while upgrading my PC, I managed to bork up and lost the Foundry world for my campaign. While they were in the middle of Harlequin's Knife. I have no clue how damaged everything was or where they were. So my players get a reprieve and restart the combat due to a glitch in GalSim

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I remember most of what stuff was destroyed on their mechs throughout the mission, so I'll start them all on 2 structure and 2 stress. Full HP.

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Aloysius has actually played a fairly large role in our game as a distant cousin to one of my player's character, a more Republican leaning Smoke noble. The relationship is tense since both think the other is a fool. But Aloysius is also willing to stick their neck out during Harlequin's Knife for them. If he survives, will probably have him do a "told you" thing about his cousin's sympathies for Sanjak

graceful turtle
graceful turtle
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@quartz sentinel I'm so glad you're making a sequel, but honestly, I'm not a fan of the writing. Like, the main villain turning out to be Mecha-Argo, really? I was willing to let it slide when it turned out that the twins were actually just one person using tech stolen from the Voladores to move around really fast, cause that was genuinely interesting, and Praya actually being Praya Harrison and planning to crash Creighton's World 2 into Sanjak with a giant rocket was like, okay I guess, but Mecha-Argo was totally contrived and it broke my immersion. Totally ruined my otherwise great April Fools' Day, I hope you're happy >:[

tame mauve
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Yeah, the quality of the writing definitely took a nosedive. I could get over the fact that Rawan was a clone of Calendula who was awoken by Ungrateful agents crawling around a Massif vault, but the section inside of Hollow Ras Shamra where Harrison II and Passacaglia kiss was way out of left field.

graceful turtle
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Pretty sure Hollow Ras Shamra is canon

sullen harness
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But was the kiss?

odd kayak
quartz sentinel
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(for clarity I've had no indication that Tom is looking for more modules right now, if this were ever released then it would likely be third party)

rustic peak
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Shockingly, Praya is not dead
But the ballroom sure got blitzed

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She managed to get off two devastating Short Cycle Lance attacks but other than that nobody on either side could roll for love nor money

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But she did almost kill Tomas which will be good for drama

dark tusk
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Okay wait dumb question: So for combat 4 it's assumed you're trying to save the 3 main tutors right? What do I do for 4 or 5 person sized parties that have Achiella or Hesketh show up?

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Also follow up: The PC deployment zone is also the extraction zone for combat 4?

north knot
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the sitrep already has extra npcs to make it harder and i don't think putting more objectives on the map will make it more challenging in an interesting or fun way considering how much of a grinder the rest of the mission is for most parties

dark tusk
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Oh yeah I'm not trying to put them there lol. I just need a narrative out. Cause they are in the valley evaluating the PCs with the main trio and if they can escape off camera why can't the other 3?

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Like in the 10mins before the attack happens do I just say "and they fuck off back to base camp with the rest of the students?"

north knot
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i think you can reason it out as the three syllabus heads are there to grade the performance and those two were free to leave after giving their comments

quartz sentinel
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there are a bunch of ways you could do it. You could do the above and say that Hesketh and Achilleia are setting up for the next test group or something, or you can have them manage to go to ground in a way that they're safe, or you can have them withdraw but be damaged or pushed back offscreen

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alternatively: even if the players refuse to follow orders when Iphianassa tells them to retreat and not attempt a rescue, the teachers will 100% follow those orders

dark tusk
rustic peak
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I'm in two minds how to handle Praya now
I never made it explicit in my plans if she was acting just with Argo or if she was being supported by the Stonelord

Though I suspect in both cases the Stonelord will try and have her killed off

random mirage
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but she was wounded in the oncoming fire, so she couldn't help the players in combat 4

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as for Hesketh, i entirely forgot that he existed and none of my players noticed. oops

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they were extremely focused on which of the npc students to contact for help (and i was rapidly trying to make an NPC stat block for one of the random NPCs i made up for a subplot necessity earlier that they of course immediately latched onto and made way more involved than i had ever planned for) lol

random mirage
rustic peak
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I am so doing that

odd kayak
# rustic peak I'm in two minds how to handle Praya now I never made it explicit in my plans if...

I made the conspiracy a way of her and Argos to rank up in their houses/orgs. In their ideal world, Praya gets the hagiographer extremists of her house on her side and take the house for herself (I had it in mind that her father would become prime baron but because of the new political climate the hagiographers would push reforms that weaken his position to his chagrin but now I dont know if that makes sense actually. Maybe she just kills him off idk)

glass prism
rustic peak
clear nymph
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My Praya is a suicidal nihilist who thinks this is the only way they and their clone line "sisters" can escape from their monster of a father and take a shot at the hypocrisy of the Baronies and Union on the way out. She wants the Stonelord to be forced to destroy her mirror creche and if her mech is disabled I'm planning on having her jump out to challenge a player to a duel to the death.

#

"Praya 9 made the mistake of trusting a therapist. Father found them. Praya 10's first memory is pulling the trigger to execute them. We didn't make that mistake again." - Praya 27

graceful turtle
#

The Prayas need to unionize, Jesus Christ

clear nymph
#

The goal for me is to explain the Praya's actions, not excuse them. I'm a big proponent of the idea that for the most part it is hurt people that hurt people. Monsters are made, not born. Even the Stonelord.

empty flame
#

I do think of Praya as also having had pretty limited autonomy in how she turned out tbh, her dad was basically able to quicksave and reset any personal growth she might've had that he didn't like

#

Some GREAT horror stuff to play with in the fact that she might not even know what number she is in all this. No idea how many memories were erased

final frigate
#

Its part of why the party accidentally causing her to be marked for death, only to help her escape before that happened hit so hard and remains a campaign highlight.

#

Now with 48 kicking around in her place, Praya is...intentionally stagnant on my part. The newest one is a blunt fist, devoid of all the nuance of her prior incarnation, because her father didnt want that, and in fact juiced the 48th to the point she looks like a gender swapped baki character.

#

Now its just Argo.
And my group wants him dead so so so badly.

#

Having praya 47 return later in the campaign as a potential ally will be hype though.

random mirage
dark tusk
#

I'm actually trying to still figure out my Praya characterization. She's been stomped at every turn, a school yard bully publically humiliated not just in Pankrati and the honor duel but by her father during the cadenza where I had the stonelord do a fascist little monologue after he went through and praised the teachers, diplomats, students, soldiers before saying "Lastly I'd like to praise my daughter Praya, I would like to, had she done anything worthy of praise..." and used that as a chance to complain about enemies from within and without being the death of the empire and why his daughter failed him so desperately, so abusing her as a cudgel to grandstand and I had her cry off screen.

I have a PC coming in who is one of Argo's supposed best friends along with Praya- they played videogames together, the story involves face/off identity swap murder shenanigans but the original person is back in the driver seat. They found out Argo planted the bombs before exams and defused it, and during the downtime I'm planning to have Argo host him with Praya at the stonelord's mansion.

This is all build up to say: I want her to have a "First Time?" Moment with this PC about being cloned to give her some humanity after just being a brute fist and an asshole for several months.

#

But otherwise I don't know what to give her to flesh her out and now I have to actually think about it in earnest as I get toward Mission 2

sullen harness
#

I love a good "first time". It's maximum backstory implications for minimum explanations. It's much more fun to know someone by a mismatch in what they think is normal/abnormal.

dark tusk
#

I had a friend who talked to some PMC war criminal fuck she met during a wilderness trip and she told me about this guy basically disassociating through his clear guilt for abandoning his family to train colonized militia's and the devaluation of his own life as well as others, the reduction of humans to base meat.

Kiriona is already kind of on a "I am a replacable fuse meant to burnout so no one should love me" angle, but I think making the process of active death and rebirth and military action might be a good base to build Praya on. She is lucky to have been around this long in this iteration, and eventually intrigue or battlefield happenstance will kill her and everyone else so why do anything except scrabble for power while clearly repressing the desire to be loved. As a failure, a soldier, a prisoner of history how can she be open to it when it is inevitable to lose it as so many other people have casually lost it at her hand and through the game of statecraft. You live for something bigger because you and all others are nothing outside the eternal trunkless legs of stone in the desert built for ozymandias king of kings.

I made her relationship with argo kind of sado masochistic as shown during a little tango number during the cadenza because they clearly go tete a tete all the gd time, and maybe by doing their little viriginia woolf games with a PC during down time there's room to humanize her monstrous indifference to herself and others

rustic peak
#

Kiriona is already kind of on a "I am a replacable fuse meant to burnout so no one should love me" angle
living up to her namesake fr

final frigate
#

I wish my group talked to her more.

dark tusk
#

I figure all 3 are going to have a sit down after campus life resumes in mission 2. I'm thinking Kir chooses happiness and tries to reconcile the trio by offering under the table polyamory which the ever presentable Elsa will be flustered by, incapable of making public because it's not a clear alliance to make a unified statement to others, and she's sure word's gotten out that her and the PC had a falling out over their mutual interest in Kir. So there'll have to be some way they present the narrative socially that they can at least be seen together in public.

silver vault
#

you know what might be a good place to mine for Praya vibes actually

#

Crimson 1 of Project Wingman

#

Ace pilot, thinks they're better than the protagonists, poster child for the hegemon they serve, plan involves exploding their own capital city

tame mauve
#

It fits like a glove. The only thing you'd need to do is rant and rave about how the PCs are responsible for her deciding to blow up half of Throne Karrakis.

silver vault
#

<<<YOU ARE A SLAVE TO HISTORY. THIS IS THE FUTURE.>>>

odd kayak
odd kayak
#

tho they decided to stay friends with them

rustic peak
#

and that's a wrap!
I had an absolute blast running this campaign and (I hope) my players had a great time playing it

odd kayak
#

Hey congrats!

rustic peak
#

managed to get in one last bit of emotional damage , naturally
my genetic supersoldier PC finally got faced with the truth that her mad scientist mother truly would not have cared if she'd died fighting Praya

#

but Tomas and the PC who was dating him managed to basically ride off into the sunset together, away from Karrakis

dark tusk
final frigate
#

I really do need to speed up my game, but, at the same time, the drama 😔

graceful turtle
burnt iris
final frigate
#

it's just...devious to the nth degree.

burnt iris
#

Cadenze was a success last night 😌

#

And I got to play this during the final dance:
https://youtu.be/80XAJKqRU9k

YouTube
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Ace Combat Zero Ost - Zero [Digitally Re-Mastered Extended Remix] [...

Become part of Team Ice Gaming!! Streaming NEW Ace Combat content and more!!!
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odd kayak
real robin
#

Wondering what this module is about? From what ive gathered its set in a college on a planet ruled by monarchs? Are there knights? How flexible is the story because my players tend to go off the walls a lot lmao

burnt iris
#

Assuming you have the paid version of the core rule book, I would start with the description of the Karrakin Trade Baronies on p. 392

#

And then if that sounds like your kind of thing, you could maybe get the KTB Field Guide for more details

real robin
#

I have the physical book i'll take a look

burnt iris
#

Oh and there's also the description of Karrakis on p. 387

#

In terms of flexibility, I'd say it's pretty flexible. The first mission is a lot of setup and acclimation to the school and the politics with a climatic end to lead into the second mission

#

But there's also a bit of a time skip in it to fill with whatever extra stuff you see fit

#

For example, I just wrapped up a tournament arc last night

#

The second mission is a lot more focused on the fallout of the end of mission one

real robin
#

Ooooo theres a tournament 🤔

#

Ahhh theres too many good campaigns out here

burnt iris
#

No no to be clear I added the tournament myself

#

Because there's a timeframe gap in the first mission

karmic hedge
#

question for folks here and @quartz sentinel (sorry for ping). Since I have legionairre and this book, would it be alright if I posted my guide to incoorporating NHP's and NHPS pilots into Shadow of da wolf

#

wanted to be courteous as it does include paid content made by you

quartz sentinel
#

As long as you're not copy/paste reproducing my content, if it's just a guide it's totally fine

dark tusk
final frigate
#

tonights session went well.

Squad was able to counter the narrative Argo was building regarding Aloynious's assassination (claim ungratefuls did it, improve security with stone soldiers, justify prepping for the mustering of military assets, which would later be re-directed to the dawn line later on), turning his death into a tragedy and casualty of house politics, rather than a martyr of heliographic causes.

Also managed to get the arch chancellor to crack down on potential threats inside the college, including having the dean commander fired since she has left too many gaps in security.

dark tusk
#

LOOK AT MY GRUNTS, WHAT THEY DID TO THEM! Combat 3 was a cake walk because someone rapid jump jetted up the cliff, and at the top of round 2 I deployed all 4 grunts, and this crazy woman with 4 structure and nothing to lose shot a mortar at her own god damn feet to blow them all up after getting blinded by Imani

image.png
#

Not a cake walk though, it was a lot of back and forth, Jester's Abjure did a lot of work

spice girder
#

my PCs' mechs going into harlequin's knife (after the mini-rest). yeah i think they might be cooked (sensors 10 = everest, sensors 15 = chomolungma)

image.png image.png image.png
dark tusk
#

Ack okay C3 into C4 question: One of our players was absent so we decided to just push ahead through the combat w/o her for pacing sake (we've been doing this game since august of '25 we gotta finish it sometime).
She will be likely available for C4. What are some ways I could narratively segue her back in and act like nothing happened?

final frigate
#

never underestimate the thrill of being told you fall through a ceiling punching a dude.

#

as the karrakian kids say "Tis most auspicious, very passionate, super manna wonga."

clear nymph
#

Harlequin's Knife restarted after rebuilding Foundry. Characters got a strange sense of deja vu that they had been here before (going to flavor it as an effect of taking the Blue Blood of Pangloss in the future). Start of round 4 we have one PC mech down, pilot having ejected to escort Imani in their stealth hard suit. 2 more PC mechs are having a reactor meltdown at the end of their next turns, one of those players has already ejected after having their Student Fragment NHP forcibly take control of their Sagarmatha and bully an Operator and Aegis off of Lord Castor and quickly hand him off to our only player who still has a flight system active. That ejected pilot is now 1v1 on foot against another Aegis standing over the Under Baron's unconscious body thats stuck inside the wreck of the destroyed PC mech. The Aegis was jammed and did an improvised attack to punch him. But his Heavy Hardsuit armor tanked it. He plans to Jockey the Aegis next round and use his omnihook, dataplating, and Hacking skills to try and disrupt its RPV signal.

#

No enemies are currently dead, though a bunch are hurt, jammed, or otherwise disrupted. It's absolute chaos

#

Everytime they take a turn, I'm also having the enemies broadcast lines from Tyrannocleave so the player characters, having Ungrateful sympathies, are super uncomfortable

dark tusk
final frigate
dark tusk
#

Alright ! I am slated to run Harlequin's Knife this Sunday ! Eep !

I'm using the rebake npcs so the pyro doesn't have siege armor, i was thinking of replacing it with Superhot?

#

Any tips for running it? The book does good work for tactics w/ the pairs of initial waves and screening with pyros and hives.

How do people generally fluff the extraction itself? I'm thinking most of their comms are immediately jammed for long range communique but there is a nearby patrol ship without any arms that they extract on to that can stay out of enemy mech firing range or w/e

#

I didnt do a great job characterizing the tutors during fight 3 so I'm thinking of front loading that before fight 4 and then having them split off to finalize their grades or w/e after "preliminary comments."

clear nymph
#

For running it, I recommend aggression. Have Aegis/operator combo come in near the north and south objectives and pop their defense net bubbles. They don't care if an objective gets fried by the Ring of Fire. Have the Operators use their teleports to take potshots at the players coming up and remember that teleport means they do not provoke attacks from being in threat range. I'm having the pyros and hives come in to the Ingress zones closest to the player deployment/ EZ to make the return trip just as difficult

#

Always be overcharging. Do not care about keeping anyone or anything alive.

#

If the opfor is jammed, run up and punch a player in the face or squat on an objective

dark tusk
clear nymph
#

Haven't needed to use it. With movement and overcharging you get an effective 17 to 22 range. My typical strategy was to start in the bubble, teleport out, lock on, fire twice with overcharge, then use the Skirmisher free boost to go back into the bubble

dark tusk
#

scribble scribble

empty flame
#

I was able to use the grapple/teleport pretty effectively on my past runs when the players have trended towards slower

#

I'm usually running that fight at LL0, so as long as no everests have a core power left then that can usually slow everyone's approach for those first few rounds

#

It does leave the Aegises pretty useless after that point, but that's not too big of a deal

crisp grotto
#

Just wrapped up Live Fire Exercise a couple of hours ago. The player characters are good friends with Tomas and Rawan, there was a lot of apologizing from both sides in between structure damage.

#

I had Rawan boarding leash the Everest and dragged them back right before the end of the sitrep, but the players cored Tomas' mech and won regardless. Puppet Systems and Ferrous Lash were used to get enemies off the zone after they had their turn.

#

This is the scrum corner. Three turns were spent here with folks ramming or knocking each other prone.

IMG_20260410_224606.jpg
odd kayak
#

Im running trial by fire in two days and hopefully harlequins knife in a couple more lmfao

crisp grotto
#

Oh boy, an urban map. Would be a shame if we filled the narrow walkways with size 2 cubes of flash printed polymer

IMG_20260410_184908.jpg
#

One of my players got the Hecatoncheires. They spent a while with Conscience just pinging each other for scratch damage and both ignoring each other's hidden/invis.

dark tusk
#

Okay last harlequin knife question before I enter the session prep hole:

I remember in the thread Kat or someone else talking about how a lesson of the fight is that you can do stuff out of suit in combat and be effective, like using power at a cost to help with extractions or whatever. Should someone be forced to eject because mech explode, I wont target them obvs, but what exceptions to normal strictly mech combat rules should I flag or ground once someone is blown up?

crisp grotto
#

When I put things down that haven't been fully painted I tell my players they saw the landscaping crew printing it last minute and rolling it out.

dark tusk
crisp grotto
#

Though my dismounted players were also dismounted when the bridge collapsed on them from the wombo combo of self-destructing Aegis into self-immolating Operator.

#

And they landed in a pile of rubble while taking extra hits to save the faculty (I ran it such that they could take an attack twice in the stead of the faculty if the faculty member was subject to an AoE effect)

odd kayak
#

Session canceled today sadcowboy I'll have to maintain the illusion they are one fight away from the end of the semester for a while longer (we would start combat 3 today)

dark tusk
#

Harlequin's Knife: 5.5 Hours Later in One Session.
JUST THIS ONCE
EVERYBODY LIVES

image.png
#

We had 2 Forced PC Explosions
They called in Kiriona to explicitly get everyone out because of raw base speed. Had to pull out every trick in their god damn box, and did not realize they could destroy the drone swarm to turn off the hives making that shit beyond obnoxious

#

If one of our PCs still standing didn't have an Expanded Compartment Castor-Eyros would have died

#

I am so proud of them for getting through this

#

Ended literally on Round 10

dark tusk
#

Lady Diana LeFleur token set (It's silence of the lambs jodi foster)

token_17.png
#

But after HQK I learned the following: The chomolungma is insanely strong and great at handling this sitrep. Self Destructing next to the teacher's is not a party fowl because people are clever. Iteration of the first point: Remind your players to hack the enemy, it makes this one in particular leagues easier

dark tusk
#

I thinking interview procedure during the talk with BI.

  1. Have everything they say on call for the duration be counted in character, uncompromisingly.
  2. Intentionally trying to pick at quieter people to find weak points or loose lips to give away unwanted information.
  3. An added question, "Is there anything you've observed at/around campus that you would like to report, that may supplement our investigation?" Since there has been so much intrigue lately.
quartz sentinel
#

The other good thing to do is to throw in a ton of questions throughout the interview process that Diana already knows the answer to, or thinks she does, and only drop in the hard questions here and there. Basic things like "who was present", "when did you notice the hostiles", "what was your response", "did any of you sustain damage", "did you at any point use/do X", "did you communicate with anyone before the attack", "did you communicate with anyone after the attack" which should be straightforward to answer but if the PCs lie about them it'll significantly undermine their testimony and set them up for a fall later

#

Curve balls to throw in include stuff like "why did you disregard orders", or "why didn't you [do X that would have been subjectively a better response]"

dark tusk
quartz sentinel
#

asking why they overloaded their reactor close to unshielded personnel is always a fun one

dark tusk
#

One of them had to commandeer a conveniently shaped trainer mech so that's another good curveball "Why did you crew a BUC training frame without authorization of a superior officer"

quartz sentinel
#

oh yes that's good

dark tusk
quartz sentinel
#

like, take everything they did during the battle and reframe it so it sounds like the worst possible decision, then make them justify it

#

people tend to let a lot more information slip than they intend to divulge when their competence and reasons are questioned

#

essentially you are trying to bait one or more of them into monologuing and saying something inciriminating

#

remember: all cops are bastards. Lady Diana is not their friend

#

if you really want to go hard, do some research on police interview manipulation techniques

dark tusk
#

Is there a way you would frame the expanded compartment optional rule as a slip up?

quartz sentinel
#

"why did you compromise your cockpit integrity" is one angle, another is "why didn't you hand control of your mech to your obviously-more-qualified teacher once they mounted"

#

to be clear, these questions are purposefully very unreasonable

dark tusk
dark tusk
quartz sentinel
#

also if they get riled up about the indignity of the questions, remind them that they are supposed to be kavalieres and should be capable of justifying their decisions under scrutiny

dark tusk
#

To save imani they at one point had Kiriona use her Lasso on them that's going to absolutely come up. I'm having her be interviewed separately so I'm not doing the scene from both ends so to speak.

quartz sentinel
#

that makes sense, and it's actually better because it allows you to lie about what Kiriona said

#

this is a thing that cops do a lot

#

it is worth noting, having said all this, that the purpose of the interview is not necessarily to have them incriminate themselves (unless it happens by accident) but to put them under so much pressure that they are forced to answer the questions more honestly

#

this is why you start with basic, easily verifiable questions

dark tusk
#

Yeah ease them in to it

quartz sentinel
#

you can even have Diana openly say "I know the answer to most of these questions already, I'm just getting you on the record"

#

that way the tension becomes obvious to them

dark tusk
dark tusk
quartz sentinel
#

yeah, that's great

dark tusk
#

And this makes sense

quartz sentinel
#

not because the device couldn't be hidden, but because the scene is much more interesting when it is extremely obvious to the characters that they're being recorded

dark tusk
#

I'll find a good click stock sound and play it over kenku that's very charming

#

Okay, add on to this- do you think it's fair to ask them why they prioritized whom during the encounter? Like one player races for Imani, one castor, one Iphi etc etc?

#

Like "fair" in air quotes

empty flame
#

One bit that I did in my most recent run was create a side voice channel called interrogation room and bring players into it for a one-on-one call for their individual interviews

#

So anyone trying to hide things couldn't be sure what the rest of the group was or wasn't saying

#

It was ultimately inconsequential in the overall story but the effect it had was a lot of fun

dark tusk
#

Another idea: One of the PCs didnt really escort anyone they just kinda floated through the bottom half of the map taking potshots and covering the girl escorting castor eyros in the exp compartment with some smoke- I think it's fair to ask why they didnt directly move to retrieve any personnel

odd kayak
clear nymph
#

I'm planning on having it be "group" such as all the players are in the same voice room to hear questions but their characters are all alone. Basically like a police procedural show flashing between different interviews

odd kayak
dark tusk
odd kayak
#

We’ll start Combat 3 today and god willing we end it this session so I can set us up with a cliffhanger and Harlquins Knife in the weekend

dark tusk
#

Okay so I'm floating a character beat and I'm curious what people think about it to tie some threads together in the module.

#

One of my PCs is a rei ayanami esque secret clone, a plant by a high up BUC general who wants to do a bunch of fucked up super science- cloning and nanites.

#

Following Combat 4 he sees BI sticking their nose into the attack as the pig getting into his truffles because this should be an internal BUC problem with nothing to do with them.

He can't tie any intel from broader pressures and ships and bases either from HA or sanjak rebels increasing following the attack or are mobilizing more than they were already.

#

So he doesn't have evidence but it's like swatting a bee hive without interest in the honey if HA or ungratefuls did it

#

So he doesnt have evidence but thinks it's manufactured and by way of BI would have something to do with Laurent.

Part of what gives BI motive is that there is an internal tension over the Hecatoncheries tech

#

Kay and Imani are working on it as BUC personnel reverse engineering the liturgicode for the nanites (hence why Imani the nanite guy was hired) and BI are trying to use the chassis specs as a honey pot for dopes to use without proper clearance to get blackmail. BI and BUC are basically fighting over who gets to use and lay claim to it, for funding, operations, w/e.

karmic hedge
#

alright currently writing my NHP's guide to shadow of the wolf, anyone have fun dieas for NHP centric classes?

odd kayak
#

definitely a "My stake is too juicy and my lobster is too buttery" moment

graceful turtle
#

Like - Advanced Gestalt Computing or something like that

#

Could also provide a simultaneously funny and horrific angle on group projects

karmic hedge
#

oooh! how about for naval applications?

graceful turtle
#

That sounds cool!

clear nymph
#

In the Noble Arts syllabus, maybe a class critiqueing NHP artists? Or have an NHP guest lecturer on something

odd kayak
#

“NHP art is not real art” -John Crayon Harrison

dark tusk
#

"Metadata and you: Art, Information Systems, and NHP culture"

#

I just remember some bit in the nhp book Kat made about NHP omninet dramas having encoded data accompanying the text necessary for comprehension and thus inscrutable to non-NHP viewers

silver oracle
#

it took a long time but we're finally headed for the final combat nyahu that said, does anyone have foundry grid setups for 8a ballroom blitz.... i tried the one i saw here last time and it wasn't working out for me catpoof

random mirage
#

8a required the least adjustment for me to set up; try this

image.png
silver oracle
#

Thank you!! Will try it

odd kayak
#

Hey guys, idk what to call it exactly but does Karrakis (as a whole) has a motto/battle cry? Like, in Fallout New Vegas the Legion spams “Hail Caesar” and in Code Geass the evil nobles have “All Hail Brittania!” So is there something that I can give at least for the Hagiographers?

#

At the start of Missions 2 I want to show that hagiography has become more popular with them listening more and more in the corridors and radios and stuff people saying “Karrakis Invicta” or some other facist shit

empty flame
#

Could go with the House Slogans for the House of Stone or Sand

#

If the PCs didn't discover the false secondary lead about the attack being carried out by Ungratefuls, I could see a push for support to the House of Stone especially, since they've been "on the front lines against Sanjak" for a long time

#

Stone: “Tieze l’ Spati” (Trust the Sword)
Sand: “Eterane. Ricere. Imene.” (Eternal. Precious. Vast.)

#

Also plays into the fact that this is ultimately a power play by Cannamos

odd kayak
empty flame
#

So there's always the House of Order's slogan, which might be seen as more neutral, but it's also probably more normalized in day-to-day culture on Throne Karrakis, whereas having someone who doesn't live on Khayradin spouting house of stone slogans is MUCH more concerning

quartz sentinel
#

I would do this in a way that feels more topical to real life at the moment - not have a slogan or anything quite so jingoistic, but a specific turn of phrase that's somewhat odious in its politics, but has nevertheless gotten traction in the zeitgeist

#

In the same vein as the US talking heads will discuss "illegals" or "religious freedom" or "welfare fraud", or in the UK references to "small boats" or "eurocrats" or "preserving history". Nothing about the phrases themselves are firmly established as a cultural movement (or even refer to real things that are really happening), but instead they're topical, temporary shibboleths that will be abandoned for new ones as soon as they start to become more widely understood

#

this might depend on what happened during the final beat of Mission 1 and what direction the module is taking (anti-Ungrateful, or anti-Armory)

#

if everyone in the College is suddenly talking about the "race for the Dawnline" or "Armory teleport strikes", or alternatively references to "tunnel-digging terrorists", or the "securing our orbital space"

#

a rhetorical shift that feels more pervasive and insidious than simple sloganeering

odd kayak
#

Thank you Miss Kat, I'll see how the dice fall after harlequin and think of something like this

dark tusk
final frigate
#

Currently working on a plan to rob the PC of access to Eligos, and I've been thinking about Begger One and Patience from Wallflower.

#

Specifically how ||the former is found eating the latter during the climax of the module for reasons not fully touched upon as far as i'm aware, and someone pointing out that maybe NHPs can gain each others abilities, or access to the systems the other has, via consumption.|| (wallflower spoilers)

#

I'm wondering if its worth having House Sand smuggle an NHP into the place Eligos is stored to ||let it devour him, or perhaps do so when Eligos goes to be cycled, or perhaps during the assault on the college?||

#

It'd make for a neat plot beat, and serve to further highlight just how far gone things have become towards the end of the module.

#

and explain why Eligos isn't just stopping this with college security systems.

#

Thoughts?

dark tusk
#

That could be fun to do as part of the bomb plot

#

My thinking is that eligos is the entity most likely able to do something about the campus being bombed

#

And so if they disable it because it are fighting another deimosian it can give some fun visuals of campus systems going on the fritz while the bomb is primed

gray magnet
#

eligos uses it/its pronouns fyi, also, the wallflower thing is implied to be something that doesnt usually happen. its been a while since ive read SotD but iirc it seems likely eligos just flat cant stop the attack easily

final frigate
#

I forgor....

#

I haven't actually looked at the module in a while since I've been running almost entirely off of my notes for the past few months.

rustic peak
#

With moderate success, ELIGOS did die but is also maybe walking around in Leontes' body now?

final frigate
#

Leontes?

rustic peak
#

I think he's named as one of the students who fight the party alongside Argo and Praya in combat 1

#

I don't believe he does anything else so I made him into a snob with a petty beef with a PC

final frigate
#

aaaah.

#

I didn't do anything with him.

#

I shoulda.

#

RN Praya and Argo are the only sand and stone students on campus with actual names.

odd kayak
#

Maybe it doesnt need to be NHP cannibalism directly, just a powerful virus that fucks Eligos' access to the Academy

#

and the virus can be carried by another NHP (say NHP are the only thing that can outcompete another one for command of the academy) to still have Eligos fighting another NHP for control

clear nymph
#

Finally finished the brutal combat of Harlequins Knife. For real this time. 4/5 player mechs down. Every teacher at less than half hp. All the ejected pilots injured. But everyone made it out alive

silver vault
#

that still counts as a win

clear nymph
#

It does! I'm super proud of them!

final frigate
#

My players may, or may not be doing an additional combat encounter playing as praya, argo and their entourage during the semi-finals of the pankrati tourney.

Im letting my players make their own PC mechs, but with some instruction on what the NPC typically fights like and what mechs they may prefer.

Argo is easy, praya ive got a homebrew mech that is well tested and can be used for her, but what about:

The Dean commander
Their goons

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Dean commander strikes me as a frontine support, while the rest of the goons are backline?

steel mortar
#

My players are enjoying Praya.

SPOILER_db6fcdad38004c9250e7efb48e6c7afe.png
tame mauve
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She's got that effect on people

SPOILER_rn_image_picker_lib_temp_5d5100cb-eca7-4c7d-8fcb-844b26b88989.jpg
graceful turtle
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lmao Argo's stink lines

rustic peak
#

well deserved

odd kayak
odd kayak
dark tusk
odd kayak
odd kayak
clear nymph
#

Remind them they can retreat at any time. Even on round one

odd kayak
#

I will

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Also because I’m pretty sure it will be hard for them to take more than one to the point

#

Even with allies

odd kayak
#

One of them has 3 repairs still but the other has none

#

None of them are particularly fast

#

They are without corepower

odd kayak
#

do yall think I should give them multiple allies?

rustic peak
#

I think I had allied arrive as reinforcements on round 2 and 3

empty flame
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My rule was that at the end of each round, i had them roll 1d6 to see if an ally showed up

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First round they had to hit a 6 on the die to get an ally
If that did get them an ally, it would be a 6 again on the next round
If that didn't get them an ally, it would go down to a 5 or a 6 on the next round, and so on until it was guaranteed. It would reset to 6 every time they successfully got an ally

odd kayak
empty flame
#

Having run multiple fights for multiple groups like that, it usually ends up being 2 or 3

#

Main benefit is that making that roll a player facing thing really sells that the possibility of backup in a chaotic situation like that is up in the air, not a scripted event

dark tusk
#

Okay did the interrogation and I gave them the full scan list of clues they got after a couple.hacks during the fight. Immediately called it a false flag operation.

dark tusk
#

Question: One of my players has a scene in mind basically affirming a group bond in the shower after combat 5, because I gave their clone self a relationship with the augur. Does it throw the pacing off wildly to have C5 occur before the bond reading? I don't see why it would but I'd appreciate feedback

odd kayak
#

I haven't got there but it doesn't seem bad to me

dark tusk
#

So I'm trying to figure out an angle, and could use some guidance.

I want to stretch the rp half of mission 2 a little to basically make the following point: leaking doctored info about the party was always in the cards, leading up to the bomb, but it's a desperation play, a back up because despite the attack nothing is changing except for hawkish discourse.

As a result the campus itself is kind of the middle of the overton window and who wins there in terms of campus culture, buc presence be damned, sets the tenor for advancing the war effort.

I had some stuff during mission 1 about stochastically amplified bullying leading to tomas and kay getting harassed, and want to think about how to thematize that during mission 2 in a way that doesn't eat up a lot of time, maybe like a session tops.

I'm thinking of Rawan trying to do like a campus protest style action that Hagiographs counter protest and it turns into a kind of public scuffle?
Some real Kent State kinda shit maybe if rolls go bad. I think I could set that up and pay it off in 3-4 hours with some foreshadowing prior to amp it up.

The failure of Hagiographs to win, or their victory to be historically significant, pushes Praya and Argo to say fuck it and do a bigger false flag

#

Is this smart? Are there any ways I could make it clear or levers I could pull to make it feel real?

#

Other avenues I could consider rather than this one?

#

I'm also thinking of smaller bits of Hagiograph repression like harsher enforcement of noble terms of greeting- imagine all the ignoble republicans having to call nobles "My Lord" in the lunch room etc

opal chasm
#

Finished Combat 1! They managed to take down Praya and win at the very end of Round 6!

broken mauve
#

harlequin's knife took 3 full 4 hour sessions but they got out with only (1) destroyed PC mech and 2 headmasters!! the Aegis + Operator thing is super super evil i love it

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i asked them if we could break up the social part (being interrogated after the combat) to next session; any advice beyond the book for truly grilling them?

dark tusk
broken mauve
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oh thats perfect actually, thank you!

dark tusk
#

Happy to help !

opal chasm
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Scheming and plotting for some roleplay in between Pankrati, Charge! andTrial By Fire. I want to run at least one class scene with all the heads of the syllabi to make the characters more attached, do a sponsorship ball to check in with parents, drive personal relationships more and see who sleeps with who and get into the complexity of Praya and Argo as the main villains more since right now they've only been assholes without much view into potential politics past beating on Rawan in the first session.

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My plan for before Pankrati, Charge! is to have Rawan offer to sleep with the player that took her to the infirmary and helped patch her up/flirt with her after the first session to "practice what soldiers do before battle".

If that happens, as she comes out of her room in the morning, Argo will be waiting to warn her about the potential loss of status for her house by fooling around with someone who is sympathetic to Free Sanjak. This particular character is a clone of her "mother", the PC being specifically genetically modified to be a perfect mech pilot. She has two "sisters", one made for diplomacy and one made for engineering, and so I want Argo to get a dig in about how he's unsure if the PC will be able to handle the other two syllabi since that seems to be what her sisters are for already, Argo having met the diplomatic sister at some other noble event in the past.

odd kayak
dark tusk
#

I agree I think more small time with teachers was really good

odd kayak
dark tusk
#

A small class segment that I did that got that engine spinning was having Castor's first class be flower arranging

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I turned my players loose in the garden with the goal of building a flower arrangement. I went to wikipedia and just grabbed the basic concepts for it, of like depth, fill, texture, shape and listed those as "content" to prime them in the right creative space

#

Some of the best rp I've seen frankly

opal chasm
#

I was planning on doing something flower related with Castor!

odd kayak
#

oh well there is a second missions still

dark tusk
opal chasm
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I will right it down for sureeee

dark tusk
#

Okay so I have some stuff worked out on my end for Mission 2.

  1. Brainstorm what questions PCs have about campus life or emotional loose ends and scenes they are desperate to have before the campaign ends.
  2. Downtime Scenes focusing on politics with sponsors/bad guys
  3. Come back to campus and do a class on espionage and cultural signalling to highlight the tenor change
  4. Signal they have a training bout scheduled for the evening but have time to do something, collective or separate w/e before hand.
  5. Do C5
  6. Show how tightening rhetoric toward war puts pressure. One PC gets bullied. Rawan and another PC are pulled aside for wearing "radical symbols making other students uncomfortable in a BUC institution" which pulls friendships and alliances in different directions.
  7. Do the Prophecy.
    8.Have campus tension reach it's interpersonal/political crescendo. Reveal that the government is in a deadlock on intensifying the war.
  8. Do the warning and the smear campaign leading into C6.
  9. Rest of the module
dark tusk
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My hope is that it foregrounds why the smear campaign is hasty, the difficulty of small groups to intervene in the war machine filled with singular instinct overloaded by competing demands, and show how Praya and Argo see themselves as the fascist desire to cut through red tape. It also helps give time for Praya and Argo to assemble a whole god damned bomb plot but make the smear campaign feel loose. They were expecting to not have to do this and are just as surprised by the grid lock.

#

What are fun bits of doctored evidence people used for their end of game smear campaigns? I have a bunch of real actions the PCs did I'll rub their noses in but like, what obviously fake stuff?

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I'm hoping to do AI deep fake equivalents of them like spraying graffiti, doing drugs on campus

graceful turtle
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Then the host plugs the gas station supplement brand that sponsors them or something, idk

dark tusk
#

I had him do Charleston's Dynamic Neutropic Synthelate as the product du jour

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Cause I wanted him to scheme a little more since he is the cousin of a PC but we just have not had the space or legwork to jam in the scene yet where he apologizes for all the shit she's been through to make it easier for her mentally to pivot to "defending my noble rights so I can be happy, my main motivation."

clear nymph
#

One of my player characters is a clone of a supposedly deceased BUC soldier who in fact survived their encounter with terra forming nanites and was recruited by Praya's people. He did the void rift to get the RPVs into the Hounds Teeth for the attack. There's video and transmission evidence of what appears to be the player's mech activating the teleport. Another player had their sponsor task them with stealing the Primor's teleport tech from their mechs. They haven't done it but the request was recorded. Another player attempted to hack into a BI mainframe to find out more about the Hecatonchiries. They didn't find much, but that was logged. Another has made a student group to advocate for a diplomatic end to the Sanjak situation. That's getting marked and the group sanctioned.

#

I just gave them shovels. They dug these holes themselves!

dark tusk
#

Fuccccck yeah

#

One of my players found out from Kay that Aloysius had something on the hecatoncheries tech and so they immediately used the social power I gave that player over him to bully the chassis specs out of him without realizing it's a B.I. honeypot

dark tusk
# clear nymph One of my player characters is a clone of a supposedly deceased BUC soldier who ...

Also the idea of a peace advocacy group to the conflict gives me the cinch I need as an idea to fill out my plans for M2 ! Rawan would totally push for a peace coalition and try to make a big public statement with all of them in the latter half to show that the Republican students and nominal pacifists aren't a security threat or isolated individuals to be harrassed scapegoats.

Then counter protestors show up, Unified Command guards the reactionaries and ends the presser, everyone's pissed- but nothing changes and then the PCs are slandered and everything goes to shit.

odd kayak
#

Harlequins knife was today. They left Iphianesa behind sadcowboy

#

She asked they got one of the other teachers and they got both so I guess she would be proud

#

Only one of their mechs is standing

quartz sentinel
#

that's a pretty good result all told, saving two is still tough

odd kayak
#

btw one of my players killed a mech with a melee weapon while they were dismounted

#

pretty rad

odd kayak
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Also, what did y’all do to players that couldn’t extract themselves?

rustic peak
#

I had a player stuck in their destroyed mech who got rescued by the RKN(?) when they arrived

#

(assuming you're talking about Harlequin Knife)

#

The RPVs didn't register the wreck as a threat so they ignored it

empty flame
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I T B E G I N S

image.png
opal chasm
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oh i need to go add them all in omg

quartz sentinel
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let's GO

clear nymph
quartz sentinel
#

yes

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v3 supports creating characters now

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select Narrative Elements from the GM Toolkit menu on the top left

#

I would dearly love at some point to produce a campaign LCP for SOTW with all this info preloaded for GMs, though that's going to need to wait until v3.1 before the campaign manager is fully supported

#

in the meantime I believe it is possible to export these characters as json files so if someone wants to handle this unofficially, do feel free to go ahead (just keep it to this thread for now unless I get word from Tom saying otherwise)

opal chasm
#

i was about to say if someone exports their neatly organized NPCs and shares them i'd be forever in their debt

odd kayak
#

I gave mine a burden and he decided it was from the stress of the event

odd kayak
odd kayak
dark tusk
#

I didnt have to cause my players got crazy lucky and skilled on it

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I'd do burdens, reputational damage, narratively have KAF storm the hill just after they get a big injury or are about to die

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And then as KAF crests the wood grove the opfor scatters/explodes

final frigate
#

I hate my players.

they're calling hitjobs carried out by sandmen 'sand jobs'

opal chasm
#

ready to roll for combat 2 😎

image.png
empty flame
#

Oh loving how buglike the larger frames are

opal chasm
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Phisly’s token set is the absolute best

prime kraken
#

Hi everyone, looking for some advice, about to finish combat 1 and looking for interesting ways to use manna in the kav college. My players a big lump sum of manna to get through the year, I have left the option open to spend all their mana at once but want it to come at extreme narrative cost.

#

a few ideas are daily costs to attend, course costs, printing fees etc

dark tusk
#

Illegal Gambling

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Aristocrats with nothing better to do love burning money. Had a Pankrati tournament and one of my players went full uncut gems during it, fantastic scene

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Mechanically I just made "A big pile of money" a reserve players could use to cover power at a cost to get things they wanted, and gambling debt as a tag NPCs could consume to extort favors- resisting extortion effects public reputation.

odd kayak
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Mine requested a truck of drugs in their first day

opal chasm
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Mine had shots of in-universe Pink Whitney that’s made by the famous Pankrati in the group called Blue Mav (his call sign is Maverick) after the first combat at like 7:00am

astral valley
#

just gonna fwd this question here, seems a more appropriate location to ask

opal chasm
#

I believe there’s a folder of GM resources on itch.io when you buy that has maps w the grids on there already

#

Hex and grid options

astral valley
carmine trench
#

Cool video that folks who have run SotW may find interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqb0Z0sM88U

YouTube
Curious Archive
A Weapon to Destroy a God

A Machine Built to End War, is always a Machine Built to Continue War. | Watch my exclusive video 'When a Weapon Dreams of Peace' by joining Nebula at https://go.nebula.tv/curiousarchive

0:00 A Weapon to Destroy a God
0:33 Mechanized Godhood
2:13 Evangelion and Fallen Angels
4:05 Towers of Babel
5:17 Atomic Gods
6:59 If War Bad, Why Robots ...

▶ Play video
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Focuses a lot on discussing (thought not necessarily agreeing with) the idea that any piece of media about war, even if it's saying war is bad, intrinsically glorifies it

#

It's very late for me so I definitely did not comprehend all of it, but I did understand enough to know it's relevant here lol

dark tusk
#

I also recommend Apocalypse Now if this is your cup of tea

#

Just replace helicopters with mech suits, and you still get to think about Harrison Armory loving the smell of napalm in the morning... smells like ||hercynia||

graceful turtle
# carmine trench Cool video that folks who have run SotW may find interesting https://www.youtub...

Random, sort of off-topic comment, but while this video is really cool, I feel like it puts too much blame on authors rather than the audience. Obviously the author has a moral responsibility to not glorify war and violence if they're going to portray it, since violence portrayed positively in media has real-world consequences, but if the author does all they can to discourage that view of their work and the audience still misses the point entirely, that shouldn't be seen as an automatic failing of the author

carmine trench
#

Like you can have a piece of media that is incredibly obviously anti-war, but audiences will misconstrue it because "robot cool"

#

I probably need to rewatch the video lol

#

Part of the reason I was sending it here is to get others' thoughts bc I'm not entirely sure what to think myself

graceful turtle
#

Fair enough, maybe as an aspiring author myself I'm taking the wrong thing away from the video, but at least to me it seemed strangely accusatory in its wording and tone, potentially for drama's sake. Maybe I'm reading too much into it and I'm doing the opposite of the "robot cool" meme

#

Particularly in how the narrator of the video seemed to fault Hayao Miyazaki specifically for depicting aircraft with beauty despite the destruction they cause. Like, to bring things back to Lancer for a second, I feel like it'd be in bad faith to fault Tom Bloom for making good art and then hold him responsible for the occasional fascist weirdo who comes into the discord expecting Lancer to be another "crush weaklings with big weapon" game

carmine trench
#

I need to rewatch the wind rises to see if that point he was making is valid lol, I think it's a very interesting question but I agree with you that that's not Tom's fault

graceful turtle
#

Yeah. I think the video's cool and relevant to Lancer's core themes, and I'm a big fan of that channel, but something about that video in particular also just rubs me the wrong way somehow

carmine trench
#

Though I will note I think the idea of glorifying the weapon is not necessarily the concern of fascist weirdos loving it, but the average layperson who, on average, does not have much media literacy to realize it's anti war? Like as an author it's incredibly important to make antiwar works, it's had a massive historical impact undoubtedly, but that to some extent it's a doomed effort because the average person/bystander will miss the point

#

Yet you must make that effort regardless because to not do so, would be to be a bystander

#

At this point I'm not necessarily saying that's what the video author is arguing, I'm making my own interpretation of the concept

graceful turtle
#

Fair, although I feel like that take has not enough faith in the average person. Not saying that people won't get the point, spend 30 seconds in any fandom and you'll see takes you couldn't even have imagined were possible, but I dislike the idea of making the average joe out to be some kind of moral failure simply for being average. In my opinion this is the sort of train of thought that leads to elitism

graceful turtle
#

But yeah, media illiteracy is a huge problem, but to say that it's the norm would be a bit of a stretch I think. Lord knows there's too much media illiteracy out there though

#

As a Chainsaw Man fan, if I see the phrase "themes and such" one more time, I'm gonna bite my own head off

carmine trench
carmine trench
dark tusk
#

Alright heading into Mission 2. I wanted to give my PCs the option of new chassis to play with and we have in the pipe.

Chomolungma --> Calendula
Sagarmatha --> Tortuga
Everest --> Hecatoncheries from intimidating Aloysius into giving it up, so 2 LLs in Gorgon
Everest --> Got Tagetes from Hedros, not sure but probably some sniper licenses

I did warn them about the attrition stuff and HP management so hopefully this goes well.

quartz sentinel
#

good luck to you and them!

clear nymph
dark tusk
#

Also gonna be liberal with reserves. They Rawan-maxxed so I'll give them the spare core power reserve before C5. I'm planning on them doing an amogus style minigame in class to show the tenor shift on campus giving them some optional enhanced combat reserves (3x pre-placed traps deployed as a blast 2 chunk of diff terrain as a quick action, or an extra reactor core to reset overcharge dice)

#

iirc C5 gives a reserve also

clear nymph
#

If they win. Or if they convince Rawan and Tomas

dark tusk
#

It says "if they are friendly with either" they offer and they are friendly with Rawan still, so it's not much work

odd kayak
#

Mine are all Everest and going for Monarch, Hecatoncheires, Tokugawa, and Dusk Wing

odd kayak
#

I think they’ll miss the Everest repair rate soon enough

clear nymph
#

My group has gone Balor, Lich, Swallowtail, Metalmark, and Monarch

opal chasm
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My group is going to end up as Blackbeard, Swallowtail, Saladin, Calendula and Metalmark

odd kayak
#

I wish mine all used karrakin mechs but im happy at least one of em did

dark tusk
#

Okay good news bad news.

Bad news - one player had to drop because of life stuff, sniper down.

Good news- the 3 remaining are excited about politics and did some good brainstorming stuff ! The group seems to be dividing into 3 stripes: Hagiographic, Federalist, and Ignoble Republican.

My question is, I can understand how to put pressure on the hagiographic player, I understand how to put pressure on the republican player as a victim of campus crackdowns and censorship.

I don't know how to pressure the federalist. She's playing someone intentionally kind of naive who is in a love triangle of sorts with Kir and Elsa.

The naive joy of centrism is not having to engage or think about values is because they are the values of the status quo.

Without turning it into too many sessions I don't know how to put pressure on her directly to make her have to take a stance and engage with the institutional tenor change.

Does anyone have ideas for beats I could use to put the screws to the centrist character as the call to war is louder?

odd kayak
#

the bane of every centrist

#

also F for your player

dark tusk
crude spruce
#

I just picked up SotW myself, and I have a quick question:
Obviously, this is LL0-LL2, and players can earn the Karakin Frames as reserves. But outside of that, is there any other way to get other base frames? With it only being two missions, they'll end the module at LL2 without having a combat in their chosen Frames.

quartz sentinel
#

Any character can use power at a cost to pick up a frame as an exotic, but it's intended that you move on from this module after you're done and continue into a longer form campaign

#

alternatively you can just run it at a higher LL, it still works just fine

crude spruce
#

Perfect, thank you! 😄

dark tusk
# dark tusk Okay good news bad news. Bad news - one player had to drop because of life stu...

Okay I think I figured it out:
Since we're early in Mission 2 I have to give the federalist player a clear sense of stakes of what it means to try and hold the center.

Dating Elsa and/or Kiriona entails trying to make the center hold, an impossible feat. So if I have them sit down and try to fix their friendship after a messy love triangle under the public facing idea of "building alliances" in case of war, they can talk about 3-4 core positions that need to be held between them for this to work.

This is to clarify stakes and what her camp entails concretely. If she becomes a reactionary to defend the inequality that federalism requires, or become republican for positive outcomes for everyone as is the presumed goal of centrist fence sitting, she loses her desired dating routes. If she holds the center somehow she may compromise on her morality and become other to herself.

This will be what bears out over the course of play before the smear campaign forces them to work together and save the city etc etc

empty flame
# crude spruce Perfect, thank you! 😄

I did also make one small tweak personally, which is that the frame an NPC gives to a player who's maxed out their clock can vary a bit
IE Hedros won't always uniformly hand out a Tagetes to everyone, but he'll generally be giving out stuff in the domain of common Karrakin military frames, while someone like Castor Eyros is generally more operating in the domain of fancier SSC frames, but the specific choice in frame depends on if he's giving something to a hacker or a striker player etc.

odd kayak
#

My players made a organization on Downtime called Black Knights with some NPCs (mainly Hedros, Kay and Rowan) to investigate the Conspiracy after Harlequin's Knife

#

that will also champion republican ideals when not investigating