Perhaps it’s my limited experience of RPGs. I played my first game with LRC back in 2017. I have basically become a part of the furniture since. However, 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 enormous. The entire story should not unfold before just 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. The basic premise behind troupe play is that the same group of players will play multiple characters. These characters are based in different locations or are able to specialise or perform specific tasks. This means 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). It currently includes five campaign books.
The scope of the Mercy of the Icons campaign is vast. I felt that it made sense to have a cinematic experience. We should have an ensemble approach where different parts of the story are played out with different characters. The players are the audience in this setup. 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.
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. One group experienced Last Voyage of the Ghazali. The other group is tracking down the missing Emissary’s leads on Coriolis station. This takes place in The Wake of the Martyr from Emissary Lost. Already we’ve had one character crossover. One of the characters, a mercenary who was on the Ghazali, is a hired gun. They help the investigating characters on Coriolis station as they descend into the Cellar.
We’re still early on in the campaign. 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. The prospect of this campaign is very exciting. I look forward to returning to Coriolis station with my players.
This was originally written for London RPG Community
