Mercy of the Icons feels big enough that the whole story should not unfold before a single group of characters in the setting. And that was before adding in the additional scenarios into the story. Enter troupe play.
Troupe play is something that Free League has included in another of their games, the dark fantasy RPG Symbaroum. The basic premise behind troupe play is that the same group of players will play multiple characters based in different locations. That may well experience different parts of the overarching campaign. Symbaroum has an epic campaign called the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns, which at the current count has five campaign books to it.
Given the scope of the Mercy of the Icons campaign, I felt that it made sense to have a certain TV/cinematic/ensemble experience where different parts of the story are played out with different characters, and the players are the audience. They will get to experience the whole plot, but the characters don’t necessarily get the whole picture until the end. They may cross paths with some of their other characters at different points in time too. This I feel, will make the running and playing Mercy of the Icons much grander.
For example, though we are only into the second scenario according to my order, our player group has 2 groups of characters – those who experienced Last Voyage of the Ghazali, and those who are following the leads of the missing Emissary on Coriolis station in The Wake of the Martyr from Emissary Lost. Already we’ve had one character crossover, where one of the characters, a mercenary, who was on the Ghazali is a hired gun to help the investigating characters on Coriolis station as they descend into the Cellar.
Perhaps it’s my limited experience of RPGs (I played my first game with LRC back in 2017 and have basically become a part of the furniture since), but it seems to me that troupe play should be found in more RPGs than there are. It could just be my preferred style of play, but let me explain…
Mercy of the Icons feels big enough that the whole story should not unfold before a single group of characters in the setting. And that was before adding in the additional scenarios into the story. Enter troupe play.
Troupe play is something that Free League has included in another of their games, the dark fantasy RPG Symbaroum. It is by no means their own invention, but the basic premise behind troupe play is that the same group of players will play multiple characters based in different locations or that are able to specialise or perform specific tasks, meaning the characters will experience different parts of the overarching campaign story, while the players experience the whole thing. Symbaroum has an epic campaign called the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns (see LRC’s Ruins of Symabroum rendition), which at the current count has five campaign books to it.
Given the scope of the Mercy of the Icons campaign, I felt that it made sense to have a certain TV/cinematic/ensemble experience where different parts of the story are played out with different characters, and the players are the audience. They will get to experience the whole plot, but the characters don\’t necessarily get the whole picture until the end. They may cross paths with some of their other characters at different points in time too. This I feel, will make the running and playing Mercy of the Icons much grander.
For example, though we are only into the second scenario according to my order (see blogpost “At the Mercy of the Icons, Part 1”), our player group has 2 sets of characters – those who experienced Last Voyage of the Ghazali, and those who are following the leads of the missing Emissary on Coriolis station in The Wake of the Martyr from Emissary Lost. Already we’ve had one character crossover, where one of the characters, a mercenary, who was on the Ghazali is a hired gun to help the investigating characters on Coriolis station as they descend into the Cellar.
We’re still early on in the campaign, as it has been run infrequently and in shorter than normal sessions – it also doesn’t help that we’re on hiatus while I continue to adjust to life as a new father – but the prospect of this campaign is very exciting and I look forward to returning to Coriolis station with my players.
You can find out more about Mercy of the Icons campaign here. The campaign is semi-closed, in that each scenario within the campaign will have a designated PC party and while the characters rotate the players will largely remain, but that does not exclude anyone from asking to join the occasional scenario.