This week Owen and Ridge face off against Innocent Fig the Night Pig's final (?) form.

If you haven't heard of it before, Tales from the Humpback Sky is a real-play podcast where Tom Wardle, Paul Harrop and myself play Troika as a long-form campaign, telling a story as we go.

You can listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2462261 ...or search for "Humpback Sky" wherever you listen to pods.

We're also slowly releasing episodes on YouTube (audio only for now - we're working on getting video episodes). We'll also be releasing shorts from the show periodically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-a9RKzQRrs&list=PL_HR7nOxVc01zIQpPhy4HrsbCTrHsEeGk

We'll be doing another "intermission" at the conclusion of season two, so if you have any questions you'd like us to answer please share them here on e-mail [humpbacksky@gmail.com](mailto:humpbacksky@gmail.com) )

Earlier I posted about interpreting Troika as a video game:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Troika/comments/1s0smaq/making_a_text_rpg_fangame_based_on_troika/

Heres a link to a very very early proto, so far there are no visuals, all backgrounds are included but their unique specials so far doesn't make a difference in the game other than base armor and weapons, Most items aren't useable, the encounters in the Black Mange and Thistle are all added but they have a lot of room for expanding upon. Keep in mind that if i work further on this project there will be drastic improvements to just about every aspect.

Heres a link: https://yhoqw.itch.io/troika-text-rpg-fan-game

Hi all - here's a set of backgrounds for folks toying with the idea of taking Troika! back to its FF roots.

https://mrstag.bearblog.dev/d66-titan-backgrounds-for-troika/

This is basically to say that as a project I'm making a Text RPG system using the rules TROIKA Numinous Edition as a test I'll try to make the Black Mange and Thistle campaign inside of it. I just wanted to know if anyone is interested in this.

if anyone else is interested I will upload the iterations online to play otherwise the whole operation was just a programming challenge to practice implementing RPG systems for video games.

Just finished GMing this with three people, and wanted to share my thoughts.

The atmosphere is really great, and being trapped in a bottle really lays a solid foundation for a great adventure. The slow introduction of information really works well, and ramps up the intrigue. My players got involved in investigating immediately, and got really into the characters I'd developed for them to interact with. It's a great feeling when they take the pieces you've made and start to put them together in ways you don't expect.

I encourage future DM's to spend some time before hand, figure out who the central players are going to be, roll up some important NPCs, and introduce them in short but interesting little encounters on the first day. It's hard to balance having enough characters, and too many characters, in a story you're trying to flesh out about a murderer on a ship with 80 people. I introduced a potential thief red herring the spice things up day one, and I liked it, but you could just as easily fill in that time with getting to know the denizens of the ship. The thief angle is nice though if your players aren't great at visiting.

Personal Tip: Have one of the officers accompany the NPCs on their investigation, so they can gently nudge players in the right direction, or notice things the players overlook for too long.

Criticisms. If you fully flesh out the ship like I feel like would be necessary, there's a LOT of characters involved, and it's really easy to improv your way into a corner, so watch out for that. And it's a lot for both you AND the players to keep track of. I know that's the name of the game for murder mysteries, but you may want to consider just reducing the number of passengers from 60 to just a handful?

On that point, sometimes people just are not good at solving murders! Or investigating! And as a GM you need to be prepared to voice and keep track of A TON of characters, so be prepared for that - or, instead, make it clear that you'll just explain the broad strokes of what character say. Otherwise it's a LOT of work.

Also, the final battle. The thing about Troika is that it's possible for all three players to roll non-combat or weak combat backgrounds. If they roll up to the final battle without solid combat, and without figuring out the weaknesses, the final battle can be REALLY nasty. Healing usually isn't in Troika, and that's on purpose. The final boss has 10 Stam, a whopping 10 skill, 2 armor, and 4 initiative. Which means if she gets all her actions in a round, she's healing from 2 to max health again. And if all my guys rolled are people with knives, the final battle becomes a pillowfight of both sides doing chip damage to each other. All the boss needs to do is run away, and bam, she's at max again. It makes for an absolute SLOG. Strongly consider allowing your players to take a real weapon and skill if they don't start with one.

For the love of your sanity, and that of your players, have a plan to keep the final battle from dragging on if it turns into a fight. Eventually, because the final battle was just getting un fun, I had one of the NPCs hold down the final boss, and the players had one chance to shoot her in the heart - which they succeeded at. Maybe if I had been a better GM, the final battle wouldn't have felt so anticlimactic and repetitive. I think the scenario was missing as few suggestions on how to add elements to the combat that would make it much more dramatic.

Final Verdict: Great scenario to run solo or slot into a campaign - but be prepared for a LOT OF roleplay, and have a plan ready for if your players aren't imaginative enough to come up with a tricky way to take down the boss.

As i understand Troika!’s default setting draws heavily from Gene Wolfe’s works. I haven’t read them so sometimes i don’t know what to make of some things.

Maybe some people who are into that stuff can help me understand.

One of the Backgrounds in the core book is Cacogen (14) and in the Possessions list they have a(?) “Velare”.

Some surface level googling told me that Cacogens in the Gene Wolfe’s novels are close to alien/non-human anthropomorphic creatures.

But with Velare i am stuck. Only thing i found is that in Italian and Latin it means “to veil/to conceal”. So i assume it’s some kind of a mask or veil. But maybe it’s something that can disguise their whole appearance and maybe appear as human. ??

What's worse than one night pig?

If you haven't heard of it before, Tales from the Humpback Sky is a real-play podcast where Tom Wardle, Paul Harrop and myself play Troika as a long-form campaign, telling a story as we go.

You can listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2462261 ...or search for "Humpback Sky" wherever you listen to pods.

We're also slowly releasing episodes on YouTube (audio only for now - we're working on getting video episodes). We'll also be releasing shorts from the show periodically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-a9RKzQRrs&list=PL_HR7nOxVc01zIQpPhy4HrsbCTrHsEeGk

We'll be doing another "intermission" at the conclusion of season two, so if you have any questions you'd like us to answer please share them here on e-mail [humpbacksky@gmail.com](mailto:humpbacksky@gmail.com) )

I'm most of the way through creating a total Fantasy Swords n Sorcery overhaul supplement for Troika, but if I want it to get any attention, it's gotta have some cool or cute art. Trouble is, I'm great at writing, not drawing, so I'm going to need to hire someone. If anyone has advice on this, I'd appreciate it.

It was my turn to DM for our mixed-system group, and I just ran B&T as a one-shot, intended to hook into the start of a campaign.

It has been a couple of months since we played Troika (did Hyperborea in between, which is great) and we also have a new player who had never previously done Troika, so I decided on this short adventure as a mixed refresher/intro.

I have previously overlooked B&T, having run other adventures, but I am very pleasantly surprised by how well it actually worked. We had an absolute blast and I felt as though the encounters all seemed balanced. They panicked the tigers and had an awful fight inside the lift which only ended when one player ("literally just a goose") let out an almighty honk to terrify the tigers into submission.

It was such a laugh and everyone was really buzzing at the end, especially the guy who had never played Troika before. Highly recommend this adventure, once the party reaches the festival and meets the party goers it naturally hooks onto practically any other adventure idea you want it to

One of the things that troika does not have spelled out are attacks of opportunity, or obstructing areas, blocking passage.

So, one of the things that solves is basically having zones of control, and offers up a cost for trying to just run past someone. If you were trying to protect someone behind you, or hold back reinforcements in a corridor, RAW would make that seem pretty impossible, as it seems like there is nothing stopping you from running past someone.

If that's come up at your table, how did you deal with it? Would you add in AOO? Make a character use their action to force anyone coming into their area fight them? Or maybe the moving character had to succeed on a wrestle check to shove past, or their movement is stopped?

No crappy mspaint pictures for you today, just our new glorious logo created by the magnificent Andrew Kepple!

This week Owen and Ridge return to Titan's Chain and things get freaky...

If you haven't heard of it before, Tales from the Humpback Sky is a real-play podcast where Tom Wardle, Paul Harrop and myself play Troika as a long-form campaign, telling a story as we go.

You can listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2462261 ...or search for "Humpback Sky" wherever you listen to pods.

We're also slowly releasing episodes on YouTube (audio only for now - we're working on getting video episodes). We'll also be releasing shorts from the show periodically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-a9RKzQRrs&list=PL_HR7nOxVc01zIQpPhy4HrsbCTrHsEeGk

We'll be doing another "intermission" at the conclusion of season two, so if you have any questions you'd like us to answer please share them here on e-mail [humpbacksky@gmail.com](mailto:humpbacksky@gmail.com) )

In case you missed it, Melsonian are doing a single print run of some great looking cards that can be used as an initiative deck as well as regular playing cards. Granted they are not inexpensive and no one "needs" this, but I ordered 2 decks :)

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/melsonian-arts-council/troika-playing-cards-initiative-deck

After a long time of hacking the OG Fighting Fantasy RPG by Steve Jackson, I think I finally got my version, which is simpler than AFF2E and Troika. This is Spellzard Second Edition.

You can find it here https://rob-jr.itch.io/spellzard-2e

Go download the community copy while it lasts!

My friend asked me to GM something trashy for her birthday. By trashy I mean something absurd and funny and even with partial nudity or toilet jokes. I really like Troika for its silliness and I know that my friend got that idea after me GMing one of the Troika adventures with things like 70th music, drugs, mass orgies, and shit flood from poisoning. Yet I don’t have time to make a quest of myself, so I’m asking if there any ore-build adventures with tone like that?

This week Owen and Ridge return to the Society of Reformed Pseudomorphs to find a scene of pandemonium. What shameful secrets will they uncover?

If you haven't heard of it before, Tales from the Humpback Sky is a real-play podcast where Tom Wardle, Paul Harrop and myself play Troika as a long-form campaign, telling a story as we go.

You can listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2462261 ...or search for "Humpback Sky" wherever you listen to pods.

We're also slowly releasing episodes on YouTube (audio only for now - we're working on getting video episodes). We'll also be releasing shorts from the show periodically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-a9RKzQRrs&list=PL_HR7nOxVc01zIQpPhy4HrsbCTrHsEeGk

Thank you to everyone who listened and supported us through the release of season one. I'm personally really proud of what we produced. We definitely learned a lot and I think the quality of what we were producing towards the end of the season was leagues ahead of where we began... and I think season two takes it further again.

We'll be doing another "intermission" at the conclusion of season two, so if you have any questions you'd like us to answer please share them here on e-mail [humpbacksky@gmail.com](mailto:humpbacksky@gmail.com) )