Today on SuperIdols! RPG, we continue where we left off as our heroes follow the last piece of the puzzle and (hopefully?) meet their club president. However, not everyone has been enjoying this game thus far. Tensions are starting to run high. And when you add superpowers to the mix? Things can get real dicey, real fast
Today on SuperIdols! RPG, we continue where we left off as our heroes follow the last piece of the puzzle and (hopefully?) meet their club president. However, not everyone has been enjoying this game thus far. Tensions are starting to run high. And when you add superpowers to the mix? Things can get real dicey, real fast
Episode Transcript: https://superidolsrpg.wordpress.com/2020/06/20/episode-2-transcript/
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Cast:
- Dana Lexa (she/her, @AuthorX) as Valerie Pearce / Violence Violet
- Tea (they/them, @Nonbinaritea) as Evangeline "Angie" Blake / Bane Raven
- Michelle (they/them) as Synthia Knight / Symphoria
- ErynCerise (she/her, @eryncerise) as The GM
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NPC Name Spellings:
- Emily
- Karen
- Diana
- Amberlee Sonnenfeld / Solara
- Aunt Theresa
- Ms. Doyle
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Logo Art: Prissmbell (@Prissmbell)
Character Art: Onsta (@onstamonsta)
Opening Theme: "Le Chevalier Noir 'version_instrumentale'" by Cyborgjeff (used under license from Jamendo Music)
Ending Theme: "Born To Drive Me Crazy - Instrumental Version" by Lance Conrad (used under license from Storyblocks.com)
Vivi's Transformation: "Gothic Dark" by Peritune (https://peritune.com/)
Fight Music: "Wing It" by John Bartmann (https://lavidalocal.bandcamp.com)
This episode uses various other royalty-free music tracks licensed from Storyblocks.com. For inquiries about specific tracks, please contact the GM on Twitter @eryncerise.
This campaign is played using Masks: A New Generation, written by Brendan Conway and published by Magpie Games, with custom moves by ErynCerise and Zak P.
SuperIdols! RPG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Eryn: Previously on SuperIdols! RPG:
Valerie: Uhh, oh, you heard about the, you know, the Idol Club?
Synthia: Yeah, I saw the flyer. I’m interested in checking it out.
Angie: I’m holding a clipboard. Who knows where I got it? But I have it now.
[Quick Whoosh Sound Effect]
Amberlee: If you can find the real meeting spot, that totally must mean you’re serious about this and are ready to commit to the club!
Angie: I’m not happy with this either, but this is our first class. I’m not sure how much practicing you were expecting us to do.
Diana: It’s so hard to win these competitions. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.
Angie: We all have.
Mr. Pollock: Oh, hey, uh, Synthia, right? Miss Knight?
Synthia: Yes.
Mr. Pollock: Your aunt stopped by earlier. I think she’s waiting for you outside.
Eryn: And what you see is basically just a photo of the school with sky above, and there’s a big yellow arrow pointing to the roof.
[Opening Theme Song Plays (Adventurous Techno Music)]
Michelle: So I’ll just put all the pieces together and kind of leave it on the counter so everyone can take a look.
Angie: Oh, it’s on the roof.
Emily: I guess that makes sense. There’s lots of space up there. We could practice in the sunshine and it would be so good! Oh my god!
Eryn: And Emily seems very excited at the idea of practicing on the roof.
Dana: As soon as she says, you know, "in the sunshine", Valerie’s like,
Valerie: Ughhh.
Dana: An extra, extra tired sigh.
Eryn: You're going to have to invest in a parasol.
Michelle: I guess it’s not February, huh?
Eryn: So yes, anyways, you have your map and you can follow it if you want. And Diana’s just murmuring to herself, like,
Diana: This is so stupid, this is so stupid. Why are we doing this?
Angie: Uh, Synthia, do you need to talk to your aunt before we go?
Synthia: Yes, I should probably go talk to her real quick, and then we can head up there, if you like. If you guys don’t mind waiting. Or I can just catch up.
Angie: Um, let’s go up there together.
Eryn: Alright, I’m going to take control just a little bit here. Synthia, you’re going to head sort of towards the front – you’re near the front of the building anyways because you’re at the office, so you just head out the front doors. You know where your aunt wants to meet you. There’s an area where cars can part in front of the school. It’s a little off to the side, there’s a little collection of trees nearby that you can conveniently sort of stand behind if need be. And, sure enough, you see an old station wagon outside and an older woman, maybe in her, like, early 50s, tight curled graying hair. And she smiles very wide and waves at you and gets out of the car to meet you.
Michelle: Okay so I’ll walk over.
Eryn: So you all see Synthia walk off.
Michelle: Just get some fresh air.
Eryn: [laughs] What are you all doing while she’s doing this? Do you want to be good and stay put or does anybody want to try and get closer and listen in?
Tea: Can I, like, look over and make, uh, pointed eye contact with Valerie and be, like,
Angie: I have to go to the bathroom...
Tea: And then I just leave?
Eryn: Sure.
Dana: As soon as Angie says that I, without breaking eye contact, say,
Valerie: Yeah, me too.
Eryn: Diana joins in with you as well, like,
Diana: Um, I think you’re right. We should just go freshen up for a moment.
Eryn: And she knows what you all are on about.
Michelle: And then you walk outside of the school.
[All laugh]
Eryn: Yeah. You all, like, Scooby Doo-style, like, creep towards the cluster of trees and try not to be seen.
Tea: Do we do that thing where we all, like, peek around a corner and it’s all our heads on top of each other?
Dana: Yes. Please.
Eryn: I’m going to say there’s a little, like, I don't know, an electrical shed by the front of the school that you can call hide behind as well, just so we can get the shot. So, Synthia, you are meeting with your... your aunt, whose name I will say is, um, Theresa. Whom I definitely just didn't just name right now. So – so Aunt Theresa waves at you and goes,
Aunt Theresa: Hey honey.
Eryn: Very, very, very wide smile. Like teeth, pearly whites showing.
Aunt Theresa: How was your day at school, honey?
Synthia: Hi Aunt Theresa. Um, I’m just signing up for the Idol Club right now, like you... suggested to me. So, uh, we have our first meeting up on the roof. Is there anything that I should know about?
Eryn: And a flash of concern crosses her face, um, and she – she looks left, she looks right. Y'all pull your heads back behind the shed and she doesn’t see anybody watching or listening. She pulls you in a little closer towards where the trees are and leans in and whispers,
Aunt Theresa: Are – are you sure that’s the safest place? There’s lots of people that use drone cameras to watch people. Are you sure that’s the safest place you could be practicing? Is there any way could get them to move to another location?
Synthia: Well we haven’t met the president yet. We, uh...
Aunt Theresa: What?
Synthia: ...are about to go meet them. So I’ll talk with them about that.
Aunt Theresa: That seems like a very unprofessional way to run a club.
Synthia: I’ll let them know.
Aunt Theresa: Wherever you need to practice, it needs to be either inside or somewhere where it’s harder for prying eyes to get at you. You know how important it is. It’s bad enough that we have to meet like this out here. Like, who knows who could be listen—
Synthia: Yes, I understand.
Aunt Theresa: Alright, I just want to make sure everything is going according to plan and that you’re still okay. You’re still on board?
Synthia: Everything’s okay.
Eryn: And she sort of frowns.
Aunt Theresa: You don’t seem very enthusiastic about that.
Synthia: I’m just a bit hungry.
Aunt Theresa: Well, yes, it is important to keep up your nutrition levels.
Eryn: She still gives you a bit of a suspicious look. She knows that you’re not super psyched about this, but she knows better than to push at this point.
Aunt Theresa: Alright, well, as long as everything is still going okay and nobody’s asked any probing questions so far? You’ve been able to keep people at bay?
Synthia: I haven’t really met too many people yet. I mean, we’re just starting out the school year. So, I’ll keep you posted.
Aunt Theresa: Yes. The fewer people you can get involved with, the best, I think. The Idol Club is necessary so, of course, you need to get in with them as best you can. But any excess friendships, keep those to a minimum.
Eryn: Um, actually, this feels like a label shift. I’m going to quickly look at your labels and see what makes sense here.
Dana: Ooo...
Eryn: It feels like she’s trying to tell you who you are and how the world works, so let me just see here. So I’m going to say because she’s trying to tell you to keep your social life to a minimum and keep focused on what your mission is, she’s trying to lower your Mundane and raise your Superior. Are you going to accept that or do you want to reject that?
Michelle: I think I’ll just go with it at this point.
Eryn: Okay, so you can change that on your character sheet. Your Mundane would be -1 and your Superior would be +2.
Michelle: Yes. Yeah, I think at this point I’m just trying to keep them happy and go along with things.
Eryn: So she leaves you sort of on that note. She gives you a nod and gives you one last, if everybody’s nearby,
Aunt Theresa: Well, okay. Make sure that you come home soon, sweetie. See me sometime. I just wanted to make sure everything is going okay at school, and I’m glad that it is. So, good luck out there, kiddo!
Eryn: She gives you a very awkward thumbs up.
Synthia: Thanks Aunt Theresa.
Michelle: I give her an awkward smile and a thumbs up.
Eryn: And she gets back in the station wagon and drives off. So Synthia is probably going to start heading back to the school. So y'all probably want to hustle.
Tea: Yeah, I absolutely hustle.
Eryn: I’m going to say, uh, Michelle, why don’t you roll Assess the Situation to see if you notice anything’s afoot. Is that – is that the right move, Dana? Sorry I’m probably going to ask you a couple things as we go.
Dana: That’s fine. Yeah, I think that works.
Eryn: Okay.
Michelle: Watch out, ohhh!
Eryn: Ooo.
Michelle: Kapow. 14, just underneath the Kapow.
Eryn: So you’re not fooled for a second. You see this group of, like, five other girls rushing like they weren’t just hiding behind the electrical shed. What do you do with this situation? I know that’s not one off the list of questions, but there isn’t really another mechanical way to do, like, a perception check.
Michelle: I’m panicking a little bit in side and I’m wondering what they heard. I guess I’ll just follow them in and kind of see what happens.
Eryn: [laughs] And because your rolled so well, I am going to give you a +1, it would be when acting on answers normally, but I'm going to say it’s a +1 if you’re faced with any confrontations with this from the others.
Michelle: Okay.
Tea: Just to reiterate, out of that conversation, what did we hear? Because I know there were parts when her aunt was whispering to her. But I just wanted to know if everything else was just lay low, blah blah blah, we all heard that?
Eryn: You didn’t hear all of it very clearly, but you definitely heard, like, whispers of words like, “Don’t engage unless necessary” or “Stay low” or “Drone security” that kind of thing.
Tea: Okay thanks. Drone security?
Eryn: Yeah she was talking about like she was afraid of drone cameras flying overhead on the roof and seeing people.
Tea: Yeah, no I just meant, like, I feel, like, Angie would not get what they mean by drone security. Like who cares? In this school?
Eryn: So you all book it back to the front atrium area, where the office is, like you weren’t just doing what you were doing. Synthia makes her way back in behind you.
Tea: I think I would first be trying to look totally natural, which isn’t that natural at all. A really obvious lean on the desk or something. Like, I’ve totally been standing here the whole time!
[Eryn laughs]
Dana: Yeah, Valerie has her phone out. She’s just staring at her phone. Her phone screen is not on if one looks closely.
Eryn: Emily looks, like, extremely nervous. Like, she’s visibly shaking. Like, "we did a bad thing..."
[Dana laughs]
Eryn: Diana’s playing it cool pretty well. Like she has a pretty neutral expression most of the time anyway. And then, Karen says,
Karen: So what was that?
Michelle: Okay. Are there any teachers around or is just us.
Eryn: There’s no teachers in the atrium. There’s just the office nearby. But it is an atrium, it’s fairly echoey, so you could be heard from further away if you’re staying in here.
Michelle: Okay. Can I herd everyone into a room somewhere real quick?
Eryn: Sure, let me just see what’s nearby. There is a trophy room right off to your right where there probably wouldn’t be anyone because there are very few trophies in there.
Michelle: Alright. So I’ll say,
Synthia: Everyone, let’s go talk in the trophy room real quick.
Angie: Sure, it’s not like there’s any trophies in there.
Valerie: Yeah, okay.
Eryn: And it is afterschool, so there’s not anyone monitoring that room very closely. So you all can head in there and just sort of shut the door behind you. Be fairly confident there’s no one here listening.
Synthia: So what did everyone hear?
Angie: Uhm, some stuff about drone security?
Synthia: Was that it?
Diana: Um, and stuff about you avoiding people and getting in with us?
Eryn: Diana looks very suspicious at you.
Tea: I also look equally suspicious.
Dana: I kind of shrug and say,
Valerie: I mean we’re all just here to, you know, be idols, right? I mean, that’s what we’re here to do, right? Is to do the job and, like, be successful.
Angie: [gasps] Oh my god! Are you a secret celebrity?
[Game Show Music Plays]
Angie: Are there cameras in here right now?
[Eryn chuckles]
Synthia: There are not cameras.
Tea: And then I start looking around and waving.
Michelle: I don't know how I should react to this.
Eryn: I guess I’ll as you a question. Do you want to reveal anything right now to them, or do you want to give them a complete fabrication?
Michelle: I don’t really know them at all right now, so I probably shouldn’t say anything.
Synthia: Okay, well you know how aunts are. She’s really into her Netflix shows.
Angie: Oh, I get it. She’s just really paranoid, right?
Synthia: She’s a bit eccentric.
Angie: Oh I get it.
Valerie: Mm-hm.
Angie: I had a maid like that once.
Dana: Valerie definitely shoots her a look like "A maid? Really?"
Eryn: Diana give you the same look, the "A maid? Really?" Look.
Synthia: I’m just looking to the side and hoping everyone bought it.
Eryn: Karen stares off into spaces and goes,
Karen: Hm, maids are cute.
Valerie: Yeah.
Synthia: Okay.
Eryn: So you give them this BS story about your aunt's Netflix shows. And how much would you say everyone’s going to buy this story for now? Actually, here’s a perfect opportunity to Pierce the Mask. Would anybody like to Pierce Synthia’s Mask?
Tea: I’m going to say Evangeline buys it just from her, um, past of already feeling like she was, um, better and above most of the small-town folks. So for her, it was totally believable that Synthia has a paranoid aunt. So she’s not suspicious at all. She’s all like, "Oh yes, that makes sense."
Eryn: She’s legit.
Tea: Yeah. Say no more!
Dana: I think Valerie is going to try to Pierce the Mask just because I think it would be interesting and also because, you know, she does have a “secret celebrity” persona. So she’s like, "I don’t think that’s going on here." So let’s see.
Eryn: Okay.
Dana: That is a partial success. So, 7.
Eryn: Okay. For Pierce the Mask, you’re basically trying to see a person’s true intentions with this move. So you got a 7 with your +Mundane and a -1 from Synthia on it. Um, and on a 7-9, you get to ask one of the following questions: what are you really planning? What do you want me to do? What do you intend to do? How could I get your character to blank? Or how could I gain influence over you?
Michelle: Do I have to answer honestly?
Eryn: Yes.
Dana: Yes. So What I’m trying to figure out is what do you intend to do? But all I’m really trying to figure out is if you are actually trying to join the Idol Club to be a successful idol or make the group successful, or if you have some motive that would actually interfere with the group.
Michelle: I want to join the Idol Club and be successful.
Dana: Alright, then I kind of relax. Because I'm like, "Whatever your secrets are your secrets as long as we’re on the same page."
Eryn: Yeah, Valerie, you give kind of a once over to Synthia and study her body language and decide that she seems like she’s being honest. Maybe she doesn’t want to tell everything right now, but she seems like she genuinely does want to be a part of the club.
Michelle: I’m going to try and change the subject.
Synthia: Hey, should we go to the roof and meet the president?
Angie: Oh yeah!
Valerie: Yeah.
Eryn: Emily goes,
Emily: Yay! I’m excited.
Eryn: And Karen goes,
Karen: Woohoo.
Michelle: I’m relieved.
Eryn: And Diana says,
Diana: Ugh, yeah let’s just get this over with. I am going to give this president a piece of my mind when we get up there.
Angie: I’ll leave it to you.
Eryn: Alright, so...
Tea: And then up we go.
Eryn: You head to the roof. I’m just going to say there’s an access way somewhere nearby. It doesn’t really matter. So you make your way up there. There’s not much up here other than the structure that houses the stairway entrance. But there’s not much else up here. There’s no one up here in fact. Um, and I’ll give you this one for free, just because I want to keep this moving along. As you look around for anything that might indicate something, one of you spots on the back of the door that you just came through one more piece of paper with handwriting on it.
[Dana laughs]
Angie: Ugh!
Valerie: Ugh.
Dana: I grab the paper and I’m just going to read it out loud as I read it.
Eryn: Sure. As you grab it, Diana just, like, shouts to the heavens,
Diana: Are you fucking serious?
Dana: Like, I’m too tired to try to be, uh, conniving or secretive at this point.
Eryn: So, the paper reads:
[Jaunty Music Begins]
Double surprise!! Bet you thought it would be cool if club meetings were on the roof, right? I wish!!! But school policy says we can’t be up here for long periods of time. Boo. So the real location is actually in an extra special super-secret place. You are so close! Just one more puzzle left to solve. On the back is your final clue. Again, best of luck Idol Hopefuls! See you real, real soon. ~Amberlee S. Fort McNally Idol Club President.
Angie: Seriously?
Eryn: She wants to make sure you’re really committed.
Valerie: Ugh... Let's...
Synthia: What do you want to bet it’s the room we started out in?
Valerie: Oh my god.
Tea: [laughs] Maybe just go there first.
Eryn: So there’s one more clue on the back of the page. You flip it over and it says:
Oh no! We forgot one of the most important parts of being an Idol!!! What is it? If you think you know, head to the part of the school that you think represents it better than anything else.
Synthia: Music?
Valerie: I mean, I already went to the auditorium. Oh, you mean, like, the music room?
Angie: Music doesn’t seem to be the one that we actually touched on yet for the themes. Does that make sense to everyone?
Synthia: Yes.
Valerie: Yeah. Yeah, alright.
Eryn: Everyone nods in agreement.
Tea: Room 264...
Eryn: Alright, let’s fast travel to room 264.
Michelle: I’m relieved we’re not practicing on the roof.
Eryn: So y'all take your time to get there. But you get there just as a woman with a brown pixie haircut, kind of a shorter lady, maybe about like 5’, is just starting to walk out of the room. She’s just got some stuff in her arms like she’s just packed some stuff up. Um, and she sees you approach. And people who have been to this school already would know that this is Ms. Doyle, the music teacher. And she goes,
Ms. Doyle: Oh, hey. Oh I was think- thank goodness. I was thinking y'all would never show up.
Angie: Yeah, gosh. Here we are!
Ms. Doyle: Oh thank goodness, I did have to get home at some point. Ugh.
Synthia: I wonder what took us so long.
Ms. Doyle: I know that Amberlee can be a lot sometimes, but this seemed like a fun activity for you all for your first day, so I gave her some leeway on it.
Valerie: Can we just—is she really in there? Or just tell us if it’s going to be another clue.
Ms. Doyle: No...
Eryn: Ms. Doyle knows that you’re probably exasperated at this point. She says,
Ms. Doyle: No, I’m just here to point you to the actual, real location. Because a responsible adult should know where you all are meeting. Your actual club meeting location for the year, and I am your teacher supervisor for your club activities, is room 283, Conference Room C.
Eryn: Which is just down the room from the music room.
Valerie: [sighs] Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Ms. Doyle: Yes, I apologize if this took longer than you anticipated. But I do hope that you all had a fun bonding exercise with this at least. And I hope to get to know all of you throughout the rest of the year.
Angie: Okay, thank you! Guess we’ll just go to Conference Room C.
Eryn: Diana doesn’t say anything, but she’s got her arms crossed and she’s very clearly just, like, seething.
Tea: Anyway, I start marching over there and I stomping. It's a shock that my heels aren’t breaking the floor.
Eryn: And that you’re not breaking one.
Tea: Sorry, stomping in a way that would not damage my shoes, let’s be real.
Dana: Valerie is also following angrily. But if Angie is, you know, obviously, visibly upset then Valerie has to be doing the opposite.
[Eryn, Tea and Michelle laugh]
Eryn: Of course, it just makes sense. So you all, in various levels of stomping, make your way down to room 283. It’s a disused kind of conference room. There’s a couple of conference rooms next to it that the staff and students tend to use, but more often, this is kind of the redheaded stepchild of the conference room area, I guess. And you can see that chairs and desks and whatnot have sort of been moved off to the side of the room so there is space in the middle of the room where practice can happen. And in this room, you see very chipper looking girl. She’s a short, fat girl who is just bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement. She has, sort of, natural orange hair done up in, like, fluffy pigtails. Kind of like Harley Quinn pigtails. She’s got round glasses. She’s dressed in a lot of, like, pink and cream and florals and kind of just simple jewelry. And she looks overjoyed to see all of you. And she goes,
Amberlee: Hi! Oh my god, you all made it! Oh that’s so good! Oh, I’m so relieved. I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t find me! But you did and now I know you have the commitment to take over this club from me. I’m so happy! Ahh!
Eryn: And she goes over to, like, try to basically shake all of your hands, like,
Amberlee: Hello! Hello! My name’s Amberlee. It’s nice to meet all of you. What are all your names?
Angie: I’m Angie.
Amberlee: It’s nice to meet you Angie!
Valerie: Valerie, Valerie Pearce.
Amberlee: Valerie, oh you’re so – oh you’re so cool! Oh my god! I can’t.
Angie: Yeah she’s cool I guess.
Valerie: Ugh, yeah, yeah I am.
Eryn: And then she says hi to Emily and to – uh, she tries to say hi to Diana, but she, like, jerks her hand away like "No, I’m not doing this." And Karen, she actually says.
Amberlee: Oh Karen, it’s so nice to see you again! You’re back for another year I see. Oh that’s great! We always need your infectious cheerleading spirit!
Eryn: And Karen gives her, like, a slow thumbs up. She pulls Karen kind of next to her and says,
Amberlee: Everybody, this is Karen! She’s a veteran member of the Idol Club! I sent her to meet all of you to make sure that if you somehow didn’t work all this out, she’d be able to lead you to the right place.
Angie: [sighs] You knew where the practice room was this whole time?
Eryn: Karen shrugs.
Karen: It was more fun this way.
Valerie: [sighs] Whatever. We got here. Are we actually going to do any practice?
Amberlee: That would be ideal. I know we don’t have much time left. But I figured today would be more about bonding and about getting you all to do your first exercise together, which I so important for bringing the team together—
Eryn: And in the middle of all this, Diana just puts her foot down and she has had enough at this point. She clenches a fist at this point and says,
Diana: Do you know—do you have any idea how much time you’ve wasted? We—you just said! We don’t have any time! We could have been – we could have been warming up. We could have been picking songs to cover. We could have been brainstorming routine ideas. Anything useful instead of you having us run around the school doing sweet fuck-all!
Eryn: And Amberlee just shrugs and goes,
Amberlee: I don't know. This seemed like a pretty good warm-up to me. You all look like you worked up a pretty good sweat.
Angie: Angie just looks unimpressed.
Eryn: Diana continues then, she says,
Diana: Well what good is that if we can’t work on our performance skills? We need to be working on our techniques from day one. I was saying to these – to all of you earlier how competitive the interhigh circuit is. It’s not a joke. Oh wait, I forgot, that’s fitting 'cause your club is a fucking joke, isn’t it? McNally has never won anything in any live competitions. God, can’t imagine why that might be.
Valerie: Maybe they should enter the puzzle competition instead, since that’s apparently what the club is for.
Eryn: And Amberlee actually laughs at that. Like, she knows that, like, this isn’t the most serious Idol Club out there, but she does enjoy a good bit of fun.
Amberlee: I don't know, man, I don't know what to tell you. Like, I’m not really a fan of the big, super serious, "oh we have to be super perfect" approach to idoldom. Like, what’s the point of winning competitions if no one’s having fun. Isn’t that was idols are supposed to be about?
Angie: Uh, did you say someone was going to take over being president of the club?
Amberlee: Um yeah, yeah! I was hoping that through all of this, you all might have worked out, like, who you think might be a good leader. I’m not even – I graduated. I’m going on to college. I just wanted to make sure that whoever was taking over for me was someone who was really dedicated.
Valerie: Ugh – you – you don’t – ugh, she doesn’t even go here.
Eryn: [laughs] I’m so glad someone took the bait.
[Tea laughs]
Michelle: I was going to say it if no one else did.
Angie: Well, I think I would be a really good president, soooo...
Eryn: And at that, Diana says,
Diana: Oh you, the one who tried to fake her way into president? Yeah that puts a lot of confidence in your abilities as a leader.
Valerie: I mean, I found, like, half the clues just on my own, so I don't feel like I—
Diana: If anybody’s going to be the leader, I feel like it should be me. Like, I’ve been telling you all from the start, we need to start practicing right now. I can – I’ve studied this stuff. I can set us up a schedule. We can get some routine ideas going, we can start practicing even, if we have a little time.
Synthia: You don’t seem able to handle stress very well.
Diana: I am handling it very well!!
Angie: ...You seem a little tense.
Eryn: And Amberlee is looking at all of this and looking a little uncomfortable, like,
Amberlee: Yeah, like, I just said. I wanted to make sure whoever’s going to take over would be, like dedicated. But, like, you seem a little, like, unable to handle things right now.
Dana: Uh, actually, can I do something terrible?
Eryn: Yes, please do.
Dana: Uh, I would like to basically try to Provoke Diana into just, like, not joining the club.
Eryn: Yes!
Valerie: I mean, it sounds like you don’t even need this club. You’ve got everything figured out for yourself.
Eryn: Alright, I love this. Definitely please roll for this. So you provoke someone susceptible to your words. Say what you’re trying to get you to do. And roll +Superior.
Dana: And I’m going to do my favorite thing, which is roll my worst stat.
[Eryn and Tea laugh]
Eryn: Oh dear!
Tea: Oh no!
Dana: That’s a two, which is an abject failure.
Eryn: But you get to mark potential. So that’s a step towards leveling up, maybe.
Dana: Mm-hm.
Eryn: So on a miss – is there even an option for a miss?
Dana: Basically whenever one of us rolls a miss on a move, you get to make whatever GM move you want, as mean or as hard as you want.
Tea: Yeah, it’s up to you.
Eryn: All right... Okay, I think I have something. So, why don’t you say what you’re going to say to Diana, first? And I’ll tell you how she reacts.
Valerie: I - I don't know, it seems like you have everything figured out. It seems like you don’t really even need to be a part of this club, since you’ve got it all figured out for yourself.
Diana: Well, I would prefer to have everybody here on the same page with me. Because what’s worse than being an idol in a group that doesn’t know what they’re doing? Being a solo idol because the crowds are sick of that. So I’m going to take over this club, by force if need be.
Eryn: And what the consequence of this is going to be is actually, um, Diana’s going to transform.
Dana: Ooh.
Eryn: And she is going to—uh, she transforms. Before she had kind of, like, dark hair and a ponytail and just kind of, like, an oversized sweater and jeans. When she transforms, she becomes almost an androgynous figure with a blue, kind of almost, like, Ramona Flowers type hairstyle.
Dana: Hm, mm-hm.
Tea: Mm-hm.
Eryn: And she’s wearing a white outfit that looks kind of like a ranger outfit from D&D edged with silver and has a lot of, like, crescent moon and star insignia all over it. So she transforms and she raises an arm and forms a glowing white bow in her hands. And she pulls out of a quiver on her back what looks like a silver arrow tipped with a microphone head instead of a point, and she’s aiming it at Amberlee.
Diana: Now, what was that about who you were going to hand the club over to?
Dana: I’m going to transform in response to this.
Eryn: Alright, so, since this is the first time y'all are doing this, I’m going to explain this for the audience, because even if you know Masks you don’t know this. This is a homebrew move that we’ve added for this campaign. It’s called...
Dana: Yes, I like this homebrew move a lot.
Eryn: It’s called Transformation Sequence. And this is a dice-less move, so you don’t have to roll for this. It’s when you begin your transformation, you say what it looks like and what drives you to enter your empowered form. You gain access to all of your powers and you get to shift any two of your labels, one up and one down. You cannot transform if you have four or more conditions marked. And while transformed, add the following option to the 7-9 choices on the “Take a Powerful Blow” basic move, and that option is: lose sync with your powers, you transform back to your regular form. The GM shifts any two of your labels. And you cannot transform again until you either clear two conditions or a new scene starts. So basically the way we’ve set up this SuperIdols campaign is it’s not a typical superhero story where everybody has their superpowers all the time. It’s a magical idol, magical girl situation where you only get your powers if you transform to your magical idol form first, and this is how you get that. So, Valerie, why don’t you tell us what your transformation looks like?
[Gothic Rock Music Plays]
Dana: So Valerie plants her feet apart and raises her right arm above her, making a grasping motion and a purple saber appears in her hand. She brings it down in front of her, and it looks like a tear cutting through cloth or a curtain and black and white ribbons pour out of that tear in space and wrap around her and sort of cover her body and then slide down and they sort of turn from undifferentiated ribbons into an elaborate gothic lolita outfit with frilly sort of black dress with white trim and frills underneath. And as her face is revealed, her skin is more pale and sort of porcelain doll-like, and her hair grows from her short bob down to her mid-back. And as it completes, a few more ribbons come from this sort of tear in space she's created, and purple ribbons come out and sort of tie around her waist and tie her hair, accenting the outfit.
Eryn: Ahhhhh, this is so good. Alrighty. And which two of your labels are you going to shift?
Dana: I’m actually going to shift my Savior up and my Freak down.
Eryn: Ohh, interesting. Well, of course, I guess I get your intention in this encounter for sure.
Dana: Mm-hm.
Eryn: Alrighty, is anybody else going to follow suit, or do you have other ideas in mind?
Michelle: I’m going to stay out of it, because I don’t want to be the president.
[Eryn and Dana laugh]
Dana: Fair.
Eryn: And at this point like, Emily has been very unsure about herself for this whole thing and she’s very scared. And at this point she’s going to yell,
Emily: Um, uh, you know, I wasn’t super into the whole idol thing to begin with anyway. Um, bye!
Eryn: And she leaves.
Dana: [chuckles] Aw.
Tea: Uh, yeah, I’m going to transform.
Eryn: Alright, so what does your transformation look like?
[Mysterious Techno Music Plays]
Tea: I feel like it’s actually one of those things where it happens really quickly. Like she has the fireworks going on, and they kind of just pop, and then she’s in her outfit, essentially. I see her, she goes down and she punches the ground, and then, you know, everything splinters out. And then it’s like fireworks. And then it’s just her in her outfit. Which, she’s essentially wearing a snapback hat with her ponytail through the, you know, the little hole in the back. And, uh, the beak is kind of down. And then she’s got a kind of bomber jacket on with a tank top crop top. And then leggings and kind of sports runner sneakers. But the sports runner sneakers are really, really sparkly. But it’s pretty much designed for being really good with movement and stuff like that. And she’s wearing gloves. Just... just gloves. And really fierce makeup that just appeared there. So, like, red lipstick and, like, really dark shadow makeup and stuff like that. Yeah, but she wasn’t going to, like, sit out of this particular battle.
Eryn: Awesome. And I should clarify, like, whereas most people's transformations for these sorts of things make them look somewhat different from how they look in their mundane form, like Dana described for hers, your alternate form isn’t that different from your mundane form other than the fact that you look, like, much flashier.
Tea: Exactly. And that’s what she wants. She wants the whole both sides of it, no secret identities for her.
Eryn: Right. It’s not uncommon for that to be the case, but most people's alternate form looks a little different, I just wanted to make sure that it was clear that yours was outside the norm there.
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: Alright. So the two of you transformed. Synthia, you’re hanging back a little bit, sort of trying to make sure you know what’s going on, I guess, and not get involved if you don’t need to. Um, Karen sidles up sort of beside you, and she pulls out, like, a bag of popcorn. You’re not sure where she got it. And she passes you one, like, she offers it to you.
Michelle: I’ll take some popcorn.
[Eryn laughs]
Michelle: I’ve always liked Karen.
[All laugh]
Tea: You’re both, like, the chill ones of the group.
[Eryn and Tea laugh]
Eryn: So yes, Diana has her arrow pointed at Amberlee and Amberlee’s got her hands up in front of her like "Woah now, we can talk this out." So what are y’all going to do about this?
Dana: I’m going to try to Defend Amberlee.
Eryn: Alrighty. Oh yes, sorry to interrupt you, Tea, I forgot to ask you which labels you were shifting.
Tea: Oh, um, I guess it would be Superior and uh... I’m going to do Mundane.
Eryn: Alrighty.
Tea: So that puts me at a -2 for Mundane and a +3 for Superior.
Eryn: Sounds good, for this situation at least, anyway. Alright, so yeah, sorry to interrupt you there. So Valerie can roll to Defend at this point.
Dana: And what I’m actually doing, or attempting to do, is create a, like—so I have this, um, sort of energy construct sword in my right hand. And I’m going to raise my left hand and try to raise a wall between the two of them, between Diana and Amberlee.
Eryn: Alrighty, so when you defend someone or something from an immediate, roll plus Savior. So roll them beautiful bones... Very nice.
Tea: Nice.
Eryn: So you got an 11 on that. On a 10+, you keep them safe, you get your wall up, and you get to choose one from either add a Team to the pool, take influence over someone you protect, or clear a condition.
Dana: That’s interesting. I think...
Eryn: And I’m going to—you have zero team, so you could add a single team to the pool.
Dana: I think the obvious thing would be to take influence over Amberlee, but at this moment, Valerie’s concern of, like "Hey, this is escalating way too much" is genuine, so I’m going to add a Team to the pool.
Eryn: Alright, that sounds good.
Dana: This is not actually Valerie going like, "Hey, I'm going to impress the old head", this is thinking, like, "Hey, no, this is—we need to put a stop to this."
Eryn: That makes sense. And just to clarify for anyone listening or playing, I don't know how much you know about Team, it’s basically just a collective pool of points that you can pull from to add a bonus to your teammates rolls if you’re able to. So, say, if someone rolls, I don't know, a 6 on a move and they’re going to fail, but you’re with your teammates, one of your teammates can add a Team point and make that roll a 7 instead, and they can explain how they’re helping you to do that. Alright, so anyways, you have successfully put a up a glowing purple wall between Diana and Amberlee. And Diana is like,
Diana: [scoffs] Well you have powers at least, I’ll give you that. That’s more than I can say for some people entering the whole idol thing. I don't know about these losers over here.
Eryn: She jerks her thumb back over to Synthia and Karen. And Karen waves.
ViVi: Okay, well let’s just calm down and discuss this. There’s no need to start pointing weapons at people.
Dana: I say, pointing my energy sword at her.
Diana: I don't know about that, I feel like if we want to decide who’s going to lead this fucking club, then somebody needs to show some gumption. And this—the powers side of superidol-dom is part of idoldom. Like, if you can’t defend yourself in a fight like this, whether it’s, like, a real fight or just a concert, then what are you even doing here?
Tea: Um, I’d like to do a move.
Eryn: Oh sure.
Tea: Yeah. I’d like to Provoke someone.
Eryn: Sure. Alrighty, so you can roll your Superior on that.
Tea: Okay.
Eryn: You guys are rolling hot today except the one miss that we got!
Tea: Wow.
Eryn: That is a 15.
Dana: That is the maximum roll without, like, a +1 from somewhere else.
Tea: Yep, that’s it. Um, I want her to drop the bow. That’s my intention to get her to drop the bow and to concede, in a way.
Eryn: Okay, well she’s going to do that for sure, because part of the 10+ is they do what you want. So what are you going to do to get her to drop the bow?
Tea: Um, I’m just going to launch some fireworks.
Eryn: Sounds good.
Tea: Like, I think she’s looking at, now, Violence Violet, ViVi.
Dana: Mm-hm.
Tea: And, um, I use this moment to try and shock her into dropping the bow. Because I also acknowledge that’s the immediate danger and, you know, hurting each other isn’t going to solve any of this. And yeah, that’s my intention is just to get her to drop the bow.
Eryn: I think that makes sense.
Tea: Yeah. And she literally just does some flashy fireworks. Enough to be like,
Bane Raven: Drop it, now!
Tea: And I think, like, uh, I guess everybody else doesn’t know, yet, but the fireworks are a visual effect. They aren’t really dangerous in any way. So she probably aims them in a way to, like, be around her hands as they’re holding the bow to get her to drop the bow.
Eryn: Right. Like, they’re basically Jubilee sparks is how we’ve thought about them.
Tea: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, like, really mostly theatrical.
Eryn: Basically just a fist of sparklers. But I think that works to a tee. She’s focused on this exchange with ViVi, so she’s not seeing your approach. You rush in there and sort of grab the energy bow, which is surprisingly cool to the touch.
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: And you fire off a flash of sparks and that surprises Diana who goes,
Diana: Ah!
Eryn: And lets go of both the bow and the arrow. Actually, as she drops the bow, it just sort of dissipates and the arrow clatters to the floor. And she goes like,
Diana: God dammit.
Eryn: She tries to scramble to get the arrow off the floor, but it’s kind of, like, awkwardly weighted, so she, like, doesn’t quite get it at first. Especially because she’s got all that flowing cloth she has to, like, move around in.
[Tea and Dana chuckle]
Eryn: She’s trying to be cool.
Tea: Yeah I’m going to be very practical. Very practical nylon for the most part.
Eryn: This is very much like an Edna Mode no capes thing. So yeah, she’s fumbling there. And she sort of is feeling a little embarrassed and goes like,
Diana: Ugh! You don’t understand. It’s got – ugh! I’ve got to do this. They’re going to – if I don’t–!
Eryn: And she stops because she realized she’s starting to say too much.
Bane Raven: They’re going to what?
Diana: None of your f—None of your business!
Eryn: And she tries to grab and just, like, smack you in the face with it because she’s not thinking right now.
Tea: Yeah, can I just kick the arrow out of the way?
Eryn: Sure. So this sounds like Directly Engage a Threat. Because when you’re defending yourself you’re just Directly Engaging a Threat, you’re not defending someone else.
Tea: Okay.
Dana: Mm-hm.
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: So you get to roll Danger on that.
Tea: Roll Danger. Hmm. Let’s see if my good luck stays. [laughs] Could be worse, 9.
Eryn: Alright. Does anybody want to use the Team point, or do you want to save it for now?
Dana: Uh, yeah. I’ll use that Team point.
Eryn: Awesome so I can bump that up to a 10. So that means you get to pick two off of the following list. You can resist or avoid their blows, take something from them, create an opportunity for your allies, or impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition.
Tea: Um, so the first one is going to be take something from them. And, um, I’m going to create an opportunity for my allies.
Eryn: Okay. That’s interesting because you didn’t choose resist or avoid their blows. Okay, so what are you taking from them?
Tea: Well I thought she was just, the way I saw it was she was bending down to grab it, and I just wanted to kick it out of the way.
Eryn: Oh okay.
Tea: Yeah, I thought she was just reaching down to grab something, or grabbing the arrow, and I was just going to kick the arrow away.
Eryn: Oh okay, no, the way I had described it, sorry if I wasn’t clear about this, she had already grabbed the arrow and she was, like, swinging it towards your face, like, the mic end first.
Tea: Oh! Yeah, well yes, then I would resist the blow.
Eryn: Sorry yes, if that clarifies the situation you might want to do that.
Tea: Yeah, it does, it does yeah. I would resist or avoid the blows and I would take the arrow from her.
Eryn: Alright, that sounds very fair. And ViVi what are you doing to help her achieve this?
Dana: I think as Diana is reaching for the arrow, it just glows purple for a moment and jitters away from her hand.
Eryn: Ooh, nice.
Dana: So I try to grab it telekinesis and maybe don’t quite succeed but move it out of the way.
Eryn: Oh yeah, that’s a very small use of telekinesis so there’s no need for you to do anything extra for that, that just works.
Dana: Mm-hm.
Eryn: Alright. So yes, you manage to avoid her hitting you and you grab the arrow from her. And she’s clearly, like, this is not going how she planned. She was already, like, more worked up than she wanted to be when she started whatever she was doing right now. So she’s not having a great time, like, maintaining her façade of superiority here. She’s just – she’s kind of breathing hard and she says,
Diana: Ugh, this was all such a bad idea to start with. I really shouldn’t have even bothered. Ughh...
ViVi: Alright. Well, hold on. If there’s something, like, seriously wrong here maybe we can help. I mean it sounds like – it sounds like you’re in some trouble. Some of us maybe have trouble of our own, but we can try to help, okay?
Eryn: And at this point Amberlee tries to come around the all as well and is like,
Amberlee: Yeah, like, I know that you’re upset. But, like, yeah, it sounds like there’s something wrong. Is there anything we can – I’m sorry to say I didn’t think you’d be a great president for this club, but I don’t think that means we can’t be friends or help you.
Bane Raven: Um, Amber? You don’t even go here.
Amberlee: I like to think I know a thing or two about running an Idol Club at least.
Bane Raven: ...Yeah just maybe get behind the wall right now and let us figure this out.
Amberlee: Alright. Alright.
[Dana chuckles]
Eryn: She moves back behind the wall
Amberlee: [somewhat muffled] By the way your outfits rock!
Eryn: She yells from behind the wall.
Tea: I do a little toss of my ponytail and I say,
Bane Raven: Thanks!
Tea: And then I put my hands on my hips.
Amberlee: What are your idol names?
Bane Raven: Amber, not right now!
Diana: See, this is exactly what I’m talking about.
Eryn: Diana says, like, exasperated.
Diana: See, she has no idea what she’s doing. Like, this is a dangerous situation that I am admittedly pushing upon you, but she does not know how to act when under pressure.
Dana: Quick question. So there’s like, actual protections in place to protect our identities as part of this club. Like, this is something we would know going in.
Eryn: Yeah, like the fact the room was on the flyer to begin with should have been a tip off because no body’s supposed to know where teen idols practice.
Dana: Okay. Then, uh, then ViVi, like, leans around to look around the wall that she created and says,
ViVi: Uh, it’s Violence Violet. I don't know, I’m pretty new to the scene, so... Uh, ViVi for short.
Amberlee: Oh my god, I think saw something about that in, like, the idol forums? People have been talking about you a bit!
ViVi: Yeah, yeah. You know, I’m trying, maybe she’s right. This isn’t the time.
Diana: It really isn’t!
Eryn: At this point she, like, tries to get another arrow out of her quiver and she tries to reform her bow.
Bane Raven: Uh, ViVi, we’re in the middle of something here. Bane Raven, by the way.
Tea: I just do, like, a little finger wave.
Bane Raven: Um, stop that. Stop that, whatever you’re doing with the bow. We’re having a conversation. You put that down.
Eryn: While all this is going on, Synthia, Karen kind of gives you a look. You guys are kind of situated behind all of this. You can see Diana’s back as she’s just yelling at everybody. And she pulls out, like, a slingshot. Like an old school slingshot, the kind you would see in a Saturday morning cartoon. And she sort of just nods her head in that direction and gives you the slingshot.
Michelle: I’ll take it and I’ll ask her,
Synthia: Is this a regular occurrence?
Karen: Mm, it happens. Rivalries and such.
Michelle: Alright, I’ll take some popcorn and I'll slingshot it over towards the group.
Eryn: This doesn’t need a move. You flight some popcorn over and, are you going to say anything with it as well, or are you just trying to, like, distract them?
Michelle: Um, I’ll say,
Synthia: Are you guys almost done over there?
Eryn: And Diana has kind of gotten her bow together at this point, and she’s still very much on edge. And she’s like,
Diana: No! No we are not done!
Eryn: And now she’s pointing the arrow at you.
Bane Raven: Why are you doing this?
Diana: Because this was all supposed to be so easy! It was just supposed to be – I was supposed to come in, I was supposed to join the club, become the president and... stuff!
Synthia: If you want to be the president, maybe you should be nice to people.
Diana: Niceness doesn’t get you anywhere in this racket. Skill does.
Bane Raven: That is not true. When you have an idol group, it takes group chemistry. We have to work as a unit. It is not all just about you being mean to us and ordering us around. We’re supposed to be in this together.
Diana: Well that’s not how they do it at McArthur.
Bane Raven: I don’t give a shit about McArthur!
Eryn: Actually, I’m going to give you an opportunity to Pierce her Mask here, because she just let something slip.
Tea: Okay, yeah, uhhhh... Ohhh. Mundane!
Eryn: Yeah.
Tea: Alright. It’s an 8.
Eryn: 8’s not bad.
Tea: Yeah, it’s not bad.
Eryn: It’s still a partial success, which means you get to ask one off the Pierce the Mask list. It’s, what are you really planning, what do you want to do, what do you intend to you, how could I get your character to blank, or how could I gain influence over you.
Tea: Okay, I’m going to ask,
Bane Raven: McArthur? What are you really planning?
Diana: It’s, uh, oh god. There’s no point anymore. Fine. Guys, I don’t go here either. I... [sigh] I was supposed to come in here and become the president of your stupid little club so I could dismantle it from the inside.
Bane Raven: Why are you so worried about our club?
Diana: I really shouldn’t be, to be honest. Like, you guys have never won anything. Like, under this character’s leadership, nothing has ever happened. But the leader of the McArthur club is very paranoid and, rightly so. Like, you really need to be able to make sure you’re on top of all of your competition. And the sooner we can take out one of our rivals before the competition starts, the better.
ViVi: Yeah, this seems like way too much effort for you to go through.
Diana: ...It kind of does, doesn’t it?
Eryn: And her shoulders kind of slump. And she does start to lower the arrow at this point.
Michelle: ...I eat some more popcorn.
[All laugh]
Eryn: Karen smiles and takes a handful as well. And, also, she, like, raises the popcorn bag and offers it to Diana as well. Diana hesitates and then walks over and grabs some.
Diana: [sighs] I – I didn’t... [popcorn crunches] They said that this was worth doing. It really – this has just been such a frustrating couple of days overall. Can I – let’s just be done with this. You – you know what I’m up to. I know that I’m not going to be successful at this point. Let’s just be done with it. I’ll go. Fine.
Dana: I’m going to, uh... ViVi walks over and says,
ViVi: Look, this whole plan was... really, really stupid. But I know it’s hard to get ahead. Maybe, just, like, stop wasting your time on elaborate schemes and just, you know, focus on trying to be a better idol?
Diana: Ugh, that’s what I was trying to tell our club president! Like, I wasn’t lying when I was telling you that we should be focusing on practice and honing our skills. Like, I didn’t want to be here. I just wanted to practice and get better. But they insisted, like, it’s important that you make sure that you take care of the competition.
ViVi: Yeah, just do all the stuff you said. Just, you know, do your practice, and your songs. And just fuckin' tell her to get over it.
Diana: I wish it were that easy. She’s so... controlling. I don’t know if I can do that without really upsetting her. Like, the fact that I didn’t do this, she’s already going to be super upset.
Bane Raven: Well you could just... infiltrate over there and dismantle it from the inside. In other words, maybe you just need to... perform a coup and make somebody else president.
Diana: I mean, if I do—if I play my cards right, maybe... oh...
Eryn: And you can see, like, the meme with the math equations going in front of her face. Actually, you can literally physically see that. It’s, like, glowing energy in front of her face.
[Dana and Tea laugh]
Eryn: It’s the same energy that he bow is formed out of.
Dana: I’m going to say,
ViVi: Honestly, it sounds like you’re way more serious about this than you president is.
Dana: And I’m actually going to try to Comfort or Support Diana.
Eryn: Aww! So when you comfort or support someone, you get to roll Mundane. And on a hit, they’ll hear you.
Dana: My Mundane is zero, but I suspect that’s the highest in the group at this point.
[Eryn laughs]
Tea: Yes, yeah.
Eryn and Tea: Ooh...
Eryn: And you used up your team point earlier.
Dana: Yes.
Eryn: Okay, so unfortunately no, you won’t. You won’t hear her.
Dana: I will say, a thing that sometimes comes up in Powered by the Apocalypse games is a miss doesn’t mean that I failed. It could also mean that I succeed and that’s bad.
Eryn: True. Hmm... Okay, yeah. I think I’m going to go with what you said. I’m going to say she – she seems like she hears you. She’s sort of nodding in agreement like,
Diana: I think – I think you’re right. I think I need to do something. Like, I’m not on board with what our club president is doing. And I guess you’re right, like, I do seem, like, a little stressed right now. Maybe if I work on that and manage it maybe, maybe I could do a better job of getting in power over there. Yeah. I think that’s what I’m going to do. You know what? Thank you. I think I will – I think I will do that.
Eryn: And she sort of, she actually sort of smirks a little bit, and I’m going to have you mark afraid, because you don’t know what she means by that, but it doesn’t seem good.
Dana: Perfect.
Eryn: But yeah, at this point I think the situation is winding down. People can detransform now if they want. Diana’s going to detransform. Um, there is actually a Detransform move that we can do as well.
Tea: I’m going to say after Diana detransforms, I’ll wait a few moments, and then, you know, when it seems like she really has calmed down, I’ll just do the same.
Dana: I will as well, after Diana does.
Eryn: Okay. So when you two Detransform, this is a formal move, you transform back to your regular form, you lose access to your powers while you’re in your regular form, and the GM may shift any two of your labels. This is basically my way of making sure that you don’t, like, you know, mold your characters and Min/Max them through the transformation move.
Dana: Mm-hm.
Eryn: So I’m probably just going to, if I can remember what you changed, just change your labels back to what they were before. There we go. I’ve changed those back for you. Okay. So you all just kind of hang out in the room for a bit. And, like, obviously no practice is going to get done today, but maybe that’s okay for today. You really did have a great team bonding exercise.
Dana: Yeah.
Eryn: So you all sit around, you share the popcorn bag with Karen. Like, you play with the slingshot. You fling some popcorn around in the air, you make a mess of the room. But you know that you can clean it up after, so it’s fine.
Dana: Uh, yeah. At this point Valerie is definitely too tired to keep up the too cool interact act. And is just, like, at the level of tired where you actually are more relaxed because it’s too much effort to be on guard all the time.
Tea: Yeah, and it’s one of those things where it could have gone really bad, and it didn’t. So I think for Angie, she just feels a bit relieved...
Dana: Yeah.
Tea: And is like,
Angie: Let’s just worry about the president question another time.
Eryn: Karen shrugs and is like,
Karen: I could do it.
Angie: Wait, what?
Karen: I’ve been around. I could be president.
Synthia: It does sound like Karen has a lot of experience.
Valerie: I mean, you just kind of watched while that was going down. That wasn’t really leadership, I would say.
Karen: Well that’s what I do. I’m your cheerleader.
Eryn: And then Amberlee chimes in,
Amberlee: Yeah, this is literally what she does. She’s been here for, like, the last three years that I’ve been here. Maybe four years?
Eryn: And Karen raises a hand up like she’s got a light stick in her hand, but there’s nothing there. And she goes,
Karen: Go team.
Angie: Okay. Well it was Valerie and I that deescalated the situation.
Valerie: Mm-hm.
Angie: But maybe we don’t need a president. Maybe we’re just fine figuring out all the shots as a group.
Eryn: And Amberlee smiles and says,
Amberlee: You know what? I think that sounds really good. Like, I love this collective spirit that you all are building. That sounds really encouraging to me. That’s kind of what I wanted to see from the group coming up under m—
Angie: Okay, anyway, yeah Valerie, what do you think?
[Eryn laughs]
Dana: Uh, I kind of look Angie up and down a little incredulously and say,
Valerie: Uh, yeah. I think that makes sense. You know, we did fine.
Eryn: Karen shrugs.
Karen: No president sounds good.
Eryn: And Synthia, what do you have to say to that?
Michelle: I don’t have anything to say. It’s been an experience and I’ve taken it all in. I’m not super convinced that we don’t need a president, but I’m going to see what happens.
Eryn: Amberlee says,
Amberlee: Oh yeah, you do need to at least put a name in the president’s spot on the club formation form at the office, but it doesn’t have to be the person you actually listen to, like...
Valerie: Oh, uh, you know Angie, why don’t you just put your name there then. You know, it will be fine. We don’t – we don’t...
Amberlee: It just needs to be someone the teacher can contact if you all get in trouble or something.
Valerie: Yeah. Like you said, we don’t need to listen to her or anything. It can just be, you know, your name on the sheet. Then everyone’s happy, right?
Angie: I mean, yeah, I can put my name on there, sure. And then if anything comes up, I’ll tell everyone.
Eryn: And Amberlee smiles really wide like,
Amberlee: Ohhhh I’m so excited for all of you! This is going to be beautiful. I’m going to leave you all to your own devices at this point because I really should go at this point, I think. You’re right, I don’t go here. But I really wanted to make sure I sent everyone off into the new year right at least. So I hope for the best for all of you.
Angie: Thanks!
Synthia: Thank you.
Valerie: Thanks.
Eryn: And here she pulls out of her, like, very cute, like, anime Sanrio purse, um, she pulls out a set of, like, pink glittery business cards that have her name, her cell number, both her real name which is Amberlee Sonnenfeld and also her idol name which is Solara, uh, so you have a way to contact her if you need her for anything.
Tea: Okay. I guess I’ll take her card.
Dana: Yep. I will too.
Michelle: I will take a card. I’m just writing down her info here.
Eryn: Alright. So Amberlee waves you all goodbye and wishes you well and that basically just leaves the three of you and Karen are the Fort McNally School Idol Club.
Synthia: Hooray.
Eryn: And Karen puts her hand in the middle like you’re going to do a group thing.
Tea: Yeah I put my hand in there.
Michelle: I’ll put my hand it.
[Valerie sighs]
Dana: And then I’ll put my hand in.
Tea: I feel like we all look up at Valerie and just wait for her.
[All laugh]
Eryn: Alright. And Karen says,
Karen: Fort McNally Idoooolllls.
Eryn: And slowly raises her hand up.
Angie: Yay.
Valerie: Yay.
Angie: I think we need to work on the cheer.
Valerie: Well we’re not a cheer club, so...
Angie: It doesn’t sound, like, I don’t get excited by hearing that. Like, when we’re going to do a performance, we need to come up with a better chant.
Synthia: Yeah, we’ll work on the chant.
Karen: I thought it was pretty good.
Angie: It’s a work in progress.
Eryn: And that’s where we’re leaving things. We pull out back through the window as you discuss what you may or may not do for team cheers in the future. But yes, we have – we have our Idol Club formed, yay!
Tea: Wa-hay!
Dana: Yay!
Michelle: Yay, we did it!
Dana: Genuine yay.
Eryn: And also, uh, as a stinger, we’re going to pan back over to Aunt Theresa. And you can see her on a very, like, official-looking black cell phone talking to someone. And she says,
Aunt Theresa: Yes, yes we confirmed that she is joining the Idol Club as expected. Yes. No... yes, we confirmed the room. Yep. They did have an encounter, but it seems that her new associates have taken care of it. They do seem to have some powers of their own that may be worth taking into consideration. Alright. Yes. Yes C-SHARP will be keeping an eye on the situation very closely. Alright. Goodbye.
Eryn: And as that scene fades out, we get one last continuation of a character introduction started earlier...
Michelle: So Synthia is actually a top-secret government agent from a military background. One of her grandparents is a decorated army veteran, and her parents are both high-ranking military officials. Her parents encouraged her to get involved in the military from a very young age, especially once the government started recruiting superidols for various projects.
As she grew into her rebellious teens, she wanted to be an idol. But she wanted to do it on her own terms. So for a while, she pursued her own dreams of stardom, building up an image of herself as an 80’s glam rock diva called Symphoria.
However, before she could gain much traction, her powers awakened. And unfortunately for Synthia, the powers only made the military even more interested in her. The superhuman branch of the military, C-SHARP (or: Canadian Super-Human Activity Response and Planning), was awed by Synthia’s unique abilities. As well, their internal algorithms suggested that she had the potential to become one of the strongest superpowered people on the planet. So, under intense pressure from her parents, Synthia agreed to join C-SHARP and train with them to hone her powers.
Now, after having trained with them for some time, Synthia is more used to her role in C-SHARP, but still not psyched about it. She kind of dreads what might happen if she continues down the path but stays in line out of a sense of duty to her parents—and the faint hope that maybe she can become the idol she wants to be.
At this stage in her training, the branch has just relocated her to Fort McNally High. A school this small and out of the way? It’s the perfect place to hide such a powerful Soldier from prying enemy eyes.
Eryn: Hey there everyone, Eryn here! I'm just coming in from the editing bay here to say thank you so much for listening to the first two episodes of SuperIdols! RPG. We've all been planning this for a very long time now, since at least December of 2019, and I'm so glad we're finally getting to premiere the show now. There are just a couple things I want to go over here before the end of the episode, so please stick around for a few more minutes if you have time.
First I want to give a quick disclaimer: I am very much still a baby GM when it comes to Masks, and I'm still getting a handle on all the rules. I know for these first couple episodes, I for instance leaned a bit too heavy on Assess the Situation at first and didn't use it correctly in every instance, so that's something that'll hopefully be ironed out in future sessions. I think one of the Provokes in this episode was also slightly incorrect — that's supposed to be more of a move to use your words to press someone's buttons, not to physically surprise them. Most of us on the podcast are new to playing the game, so please forgive us if we occasionally get something wrong, and let us know when we've messed up so we can do better in the future. That should all improve as episodes progress.
Second: these first two episodes covered our first session, which was recorded in early February 2020. This was of course before all the coronavirus stuff really kicked into high gear in March, and it was also before the big wave of police brutality protests and Black Lives Matter activism that started in late May, so... Yeah, none of us really had any idea just how turbulent a year this would end up being. So just to clarify regarding the fiction of this story since it does take place in the year 2020: SuperIdols! RPG takes place in an alternate universe where there was no coronavirus pandemic in 2020, but the Black Lives Matter protests did still happen. It is not my place to make up too much speculative fiction about that since I do not want to diminish the efforts of the real, living, breathing people who are fighting out there for a better world right now. But by that same token, I don't want to erase that from the timeline either, because that likewise sweeps those efforts under the rug.
Given that, I think it needs to be stated clearly: the official stance of SuperIdols! RPG is that Black Lives Matter, All Cops Are Bastards, and law enforcement will never be glorified on this show. Even if #BlackLivesMatter has stopped trending by the time you listen to this, I urge everyone to continue donating in support of racial justice and signal boosting Black voices and art however you can. One very relevant Black artist I can mention that you should definitely go check out is Onsta, who is the title card artist for Mahou Profile and also did our lovely SuperIdols character portraits! You can find her work over at onstamonsta.weebly.com, or on Twitter @OnstaMonsta. She is always a super joy to work with and brings so much life to every piece she makes, highly recommend going and commissioning her if you can, if she's got slots open. She's just a bundle of joy in this world, oh my god.
Also, I am aware that so far we are yet another white bread RPG podcast. And while that will start to improve beginning with episode 4, there's still a lot more we can do to increase the amount of diverse talent that we feature on the show. I plan to start having guest players on the show once we get into stuff like rival idol groups and the CING Star Tournament, or even just random encounters with supervillains and the like. I am also very open to expanding the rotating cast with more regular members over time as the story evolves. So if you are a POC — especially if you are Black or Indigenous —we would love to have you on the show to play with us and to promote your work. Heck, I'll promote your work just 'cause, even if you don't want to play with us. So, please reach out to me on Twitter @eryncerise if you want to participate in the show in some way or have a promo that you'd like us to share.
In any case, thank you so much again for listening. Definitely be sure to leave us a comment on YouTube or a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or wherever else if you can. That sort of word of mouth is especially helpful for podcasts since they're a lot less viral than, say, a video or a social media post. Also if you like the show and want to support it with your dollars, you can donate to us on Patreon! I have my ErynCerise Patreon set up now so that you can choose a tier based on the project you want to support, so you can go there and pledge whatever amount you want to support for SuperIdols, and you'll know that that donation will go towards stuff like commissioning art for the show, transcripts, domain costs, and all that good stuff.
All right, that is all from me. Our regular release schedule for SuperIdols is going to be one episode every three weeks, so I'm very much looking forward to bringing you our third episode in three weeks' time! I'll leave you all to regular outro Eryn now, have a wonderful day or night, wherever you are, and g'bye~!
[Ending Theme Song Plays (Upbeat Rock Music)]
Thank you so much for listening to SuperIdols RPG. Our cast for today was Dana Lexa as Valerie Pearce, Theawinde as Evangeline Blake, Michelle as Synthia Knight, and ErynCerise as the GM. This campaign is played using Masks: A New Generation, written by Brendan Conway and published by Magpie Games, with custom moves by ErynCerise and Zak P. Our opening theme is "Le Chevalier Noir (Instrumental)" by Cyborgjeff and is used under license from Jamendo Music. Our ending theme is "Born to Drive Me Crazy (Instrumental)" by Lance Conrad. This song and all other music for this episode are royalty free tracks under license from Audioblocks.com, with the exception of "Gothic Dark", a Creative Commons track by Peritune.
If you liked this episode, please consider liking and commenting on the YouTube upload, or leaving us a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Thank you again for listening, stay well, and goodbye until next time.
[Pause after credits end]
Tea: It's actually, I guess, not to her liking very—[soft booming sound] Sorry I just hit my mic, oops.
Eryn: That's okay.
Tea: I'm a gesture'er when I talk.
Eryn: It's okay, I am too.
Tea: I have to avoid—[laughs]
Eryn: What do you mean they can't see me moving my hands on a podcast?
[Dana laughs]
Tea: [laughs] It's very important!
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Transcription by Cassie Hauschildt: https://www.chtranscription.com/
Proofreading by ErynCerise
To donate towards transcription costs, you can either pledge a monthly amount on Patreon or make a one-time donation on Ko-Fi! For Ko-Fi, make sure to say in your message that it’s for SuperIdols.