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[KandarianDemon]

And just in case...
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I'm really interested in running this campaign, and was wondering if anyone who has run it in its entirety had any hints and tips that they wish they would've known at the beginning.

I think more importantly though, I'm struggling with the twist in Book 5.
I mean on paper it's an amazing twist.
But I single handedly know many people who would be absolutely furious about the clone plot twist and not want to continue playing. Ruining their backstory or player agency since I'd be changing a major part of their character they didn't know. Has anyone modified this twist successfully?

Thanks!

[SpiderOrc]

KandarianDemon wrote:

I think more importantly though, I'm struggling with the twist in Book 5.
I mean on paper it's an amazing twist.
But I single handedly know many people who would be absolutely furious about the clone plot twist and not want to continue playing. Ruining their backstory or player agency since I'd be changing a major part of their character they didn't know. Has anyone modified this twist successfully?

Thanks!

I have not modified the twist. Building on the writers' suggestions in Books 3 and 4, I spaced out several doppelganger situations (a holo-guide by a famous athlete, a cookbook by a celebrity chef, a glimpse of a doctor on a holostream from a government hearing, etc.) to seed the twist.

Even before that, though, so much is dependent on making it clear what "style" of adventure this is, so players are more primed for the twist. Those who start to have issues with the X-Files type story will have more of a chance to jump ship before the twist.

[Nullpunkt]

I love the plot and the twist in theory. But I'm really struggling to make any meaningful connections for the players, though.

One of their clones' identities will get to actually matter in book 6, of course. But the rest won't, right? So I find it a bit unsatisfying to just throw in these random revelations that never go anywhere.

So far one of the characters was approached by his clone's former lover in Howell and I just had another one glimpse his clone on a canceled cooking show (an Ysoki chef).

But what to do with it? Just leave it at that? Unknowable plans of the Gray? If the players ask questions after the campaign, just grin knowingly and hum the X-Files theme?

[CorvusMask]

I think main thing to do is to play up the alienation of knowing "okay first you have no legal papers to speak of, no apartment, no wealth beyond what is on your person, no family, friends or any kind of relatives AND no real history"

[Nullpunkt]

Yeah, but I just find the whole mystery pointless of there's no revelation. Maybe it's just my personal taste. But I know my players are going to expect some kind of answer at the end and I find it very unsatisfying that the AP doesn't provide any.

[Yakman]

I dunno how it is going to play out (we just started Book 3) but I hope that the players are going to enjoy it.

[ImortalGuardian]

Well, my players started thinking they are clones at the end of book 2 and started off Book 3 with extreme distrust of the Shez and Narla, to the point of starting the fight with the Gray ship early, before the sleeper cell incident and are now systematically going from room to room killing the guards as they realized that they were replaced with Reptoids.

I have found that with some really engaged characters, the writing storyline falls apart real quick. I had similar issues while running Signal of Screams. Once stuff started happening, they started moving and moving fast.

[Dargoth876]

Threefold Conspiracy is a great module for begining or casual players. They wont have all the history to make a complicated background, so the punch line won't be too hard.

If you have one or two player who are more background savvy, you can still keep the clones of the other players, and make them still be there in society but replaced by a clone or a reptoid. Or they are more successfull clones with copied memories.

Also, the gray experiment on the player character could be something else entirely.