Today on SuperIdols! RPG, our heroes get a good night's rest after their hectic first meeting and then wake up to tackle a new day.
Today on SuperIdols! RPG, our heroes get a good night's rest after their hectic first meeting and then wake up to tackle a new day.
Episode 3 Transcript: https://superidolsrpg.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/episode-3-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
NPC Name Spellings:
- Karen
- Alice Pearce
- Frederick "Freddie" Blake
- Reginald Frederick Blake
- Thomas Knight
- Sofia
Today's Featured Patrons!
- Blake1995
- IciclePrism
- Nerine
- Rain Crystal
- Sedric And Charlie
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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)
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.
[mysterious music]
Aunt Theresa: The Idol Club is necessary but any excess friendships, keep those to a minimum.
Michelle: Yeah I think at this point I’m just trying to keep them happy and go along with things.
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.
Tea: Yeah, but she wasn’t going to sit out of this particular battle.
[Fireworks explode]
Diana: Let’s just be done with this. You know I’m not going to be successful at this point. Let’s just be done with it. I’ll go.
Angie: But maybe we don’t need a president. Maybe we’re just fine figuring out all the shots as a group.
Eryn: But yes, we have our Idol Club formed, yay!
Tea: Wahoo.
Dana: Yay.
Michelle: So Synthia is actually a top-secret government agent. One of her grandparents is a decorated army veteran, and her parents are both high-ranking military officials. Synthia agreed to join C-SHARP and train with them to hone her powers. A school this small and out of the way? It’s the perfect place to hide such a powerful soldier from prying enemy eyes.
[Opening Theme Song Plays (Adventurous Techno Music)]
Eryn: Alright and welcome back to SuperIdols RPG. I am your GM ErynCerise and with me, as always, we have…
Dana: Dana Lexa playing Valerie Pearce.
Tea: My name’s Tea and I’m playing Evangeline Blake.
Michelle: My name is Michelle and I’m plying Synthia Knight.
Eryn: And welcome back for our next session. It’s either episode two or episode three, I don't know if I’ve split session one into one or two episodes at this point. We’ll see how it shakes out. But I’m very excited to move on to your first activities as a real Idol Club. Yay.
Tea: Yay.
Eryn: And before we can do that, though, we do have to do a little clean up from last session because I had to leave in a bit of a hurry at the end of the session, so we did not get to do our end of session moves. So we’ll make it a start of session move instead.
[Relaxing guitar music plays]
Eryn: Basically at the end of every session in Masks, every player/character gets to decide how close they were to the team at the end of the session and choose one of three moves based on that. You can either grow closer to the team—you can explain who made you feel welcome and give that character Influence, clear a condition, or mark Potential. You can grow into your own image of yourself—you can explain how you see yourself and why and shift one label up and another one down. Or you can grow away from the team—you can explain why you feel detached, take an Influence away from another character. So I will start with Dana. How did you feel about the team by the end of session one?
Dana: I think I actually ended up growing closer to the team, surprisingly.
Eryn: Fancy that.
Dana: To Valerie’s surprise because we actually did sort of work together when Diana got aggressive all of a sudden.
Eryn: She turned up the aggro.
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: Who do you think make you feel the most welcome?
Dana: Again, very unexpectedly, that would be Angie because, despite our bickering back and forth, she backed me up. So yeah, that gives Evangeline Influence over Valerie.
Eryn: And Angie is already going to have Influence over you, so that means she would have Influence twice. And when that happens in Masks, rather than having double Influence, that means the person who gains Influence over you again gets to shift your labels, one up and one down.
Tea: Wow.
Eryn: Angie, you get to shift any two of Valerie’s labels. One up and one down.
Tea: I feel I would raise one to ViVi’s Savior and maybe a minus one to Mundane.
Eryn: I think that makes a lot of sense. ViVi was, like, the first to transform and move to defend Amberlee in that situation.
Tea: Yeah I guess that’s what I was going on. And also, I guess, from Angie’s perspective, since Valerie came back to school this year, she’s looked really cool and really stood out. She’s not really somebody who blends in. It seems Mundane would be the…
Dana: That makes sense.
Eryn: I think that makes sense.
Michelle: Yeah.
Eryn: Alrighty then. Same question for Angie then. How does Angie feel about the team now that it’s together?
Tea: I feel like we, well we have a team, so I would say that the team grew closer.
Eryn: Yeah but you can also say that you grew into your own image of yourself if you don’t feel particularly close to them yet.
Tea: I feel like she saw a conclusion that the team was formed and the fact that we all agreed to kind of share the presidency kind of thing.
Eryn: Makes sense.
Tea: Yeah. That she kind of saw – and I think at least how it panned out in the session before she really wanted to collaborate with everyone. I guess from her perspective, there’s no point in – there’s no Idol Group without having a group of people.
Eryn: There’s an I in Idol but there’s no I in team – however that works out.
Tea: Yeah. [laughs]. Yeah, exactly. So I feel like since there is a team now and there wasn’t before, I would say we grew closer together so that’s where I’m at with that.
Eryn: Awesome. And who made you feel most welcome on the team?
Tea: I’m going to have to send it back to Valerie because we worked together to protect everyone against this threat.
Eryn: That makes sense. Oh right, I forgot to say by the way for Valerie, in addition to the Influence and shifting, you also get to either clear a condition or mark a Potential.
Dana: Oh yes. I actually think I do have afraid from my last move.
Eryn: Right. Because Dana gave you a menacing look that you weren’t sure about.
Dana: Yeah, I’m still going to mark Potential…
Eryn: Did I say Dana? I meant Diana.
Dana: Diana, that’s, yeah.
Eryn: So you’re clearing Afraid?
Dana: Yes.
Eryn: Okay.
Dana: Oh, no. I’m keeping Afraid and I’m marking Potential.
Eryn: Oh okay. Yeah. So, um, Angie. So you’re giving Influence to Valerie. And Valerie, again, would already have Influence since she is your rival.
Tea: Mm-hm.
Eryn: So Valerie gets to shift any two of Angie’s labels.
Dana: I think I will actually shift your Danger up and your Superior down because you were quick to act to disarm Diana but it really seems like the entire session you were trying to take control of the situation and not really doing so.
[Eryn laughs]
Tea: Yeah there was a lot of that.
Eryn: I like that. I like that a lot.
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: Alrighty. And are you going to clear a condition or mark a Potential?
Tea: I don’t have any conditions so I’m just going to mark a Potential.
Eryn: Okay. Alrighty. And last, but not least, Synthia, how do you feel about the team?
Michelle: I’m going to say I that I grew a bit into my own image.
Eryn: I think that makes a lot of sense.
Michelle: I had that conversation with my aunt and I’m looking into, um, the Idol Group and seeing what it is and how to navigate it. I don’t think Synthia feels particularly close to the group yet. She didn’t participate in the fight. She’s just watching and learning, assessing the situation and trying to figure the whole thing out.
Eryn: If anything you grew closer to Karen maybe.
Michelle: Exactly. I was thinking that.
Eryn: Sadly, Karen is not an option.
Michelle: Aw.
Eryn: But you can shift your own labels. You can shift one up and one down. The only one you can’t looks like is Savior which is currently +3 unless you’re moving it down.
Michelle: I think I’ll move Danger up and I’ll do Superior down.
Eryn: Sure. I’m curious, what’s the reasoning on that?
Michelle: I didn’t have – I had a -1 for Danger, so I just wanted something a little bit higher than that.
Eryn: I will say that for these label shifts, generally the way the shifts represent something in game is they’re supposed to represent a change in how your character is seeing themselves. So in this case, if Synthia is feeling like her Danger is going up, she’s feeling like she is more dangerous, more of a threat, more of the big dog in the situation. Whereas Superior is trying to be the clever one, the smartest one in the room, that kind of thing.
Michelle: She saw that brawl go down last time and she didn’t get involved. But she’s kind of thinking she may have to next time.
Eryn: Oh okay. Were you trying to, like, maybe hold back because you were maybe not sure what you might do to these kids if you got involved?
Michelle: That’s what she did last time. So now she might have to get involved. That’s the reasoning behind that.
Eryn: Cool cool. So that is out of the way. And I guess I’ll make my actual start of session move which is to add one team to the pool. You are a team now so you do get a team point, yay.
Michelle: Yay.
Tea: Yay.
Dana: Yay.
[All chuckle]
Dana: I did notice another thing at the end of session specifically for the Doomed.
Eryn: Oh, that’s good to know.
Dana: It’s at the end of every session answer the question: did you make progress on defeating your nemesis?
Eryn: Oh.
Dana: If the answer is yes, mark Potential. If the answer is no, mark your Doom Track.
Eryn: Good to know. So did you make any progress on defeating Mary Rain who is your nemesis?
Dana: I think – I guess the question is what would be considered progress towards that? I think I did in terms of just making a name for myself and trying to get some fame independent of her. I did that by joining the Idol Club.
Eryn: I think we can be pretty open to interpretation of what defeating means in this context. It can either be getting big enough that you can get out of your contract or that you can stay with the label but dress Mary down a bit and make it like you are more of an equal or something like that. Whatever it ends up being as long as it’s not like you’re on the bottom of the ladder forever and possibly kicked out of the industry.
Dana: Yeah so I mark Potential for that and wanted to make sure that was brought up.
Eryn: I don’t think anyone else has a special end of session move. I think you’re the only one, right?
Dana: Yeah.
Eryn: So I think we’re good. Okay so with everything of that out of the way, we can finally do a little bit of roleplaying. So for today I have a little bit more of an open-ended session in mind, and some of it is going to be more one-on-one play, I’m going to do more of GM and solo-player for a little bit for each of this because I want to take each of you through a typical morning before school just to get a sense of what your home or your social or your working life might be. Whatever your situation is. So I’m curious, the day after the first meeting of the new Idol Club is finished and you’ve all gone home and had some sleep or whatever and you’re getting up in the morning to go to school the next day, what does that look like for you, Valerie?
Dana: I was kind of, since you asked before the session to think about our daily lives, I think Valerie has an older sister who is maybe going to a local college.
Eryn: Oh.
Dana: And so her sister knows all about the specifics of the contract and how Valerie is about that and the Potential for all that to get taken away.
Eryn: Oh my god, good sister relationships. I like it a lot. And what is her name? Do you have one
Dana: How about Alice?
Eryn: Sure.
Dana: I think I’m pretty much the opposite of how I act at school. When I’m actually getting ready to go I’m very – Alice is helping me. Like I’m showing clothes and makeup and she’s like yeah, that looks good, looks fine, you’ll be good. But I’m very nervous.
[Soft music plays]
Valerie: I’m like, you know, everyone thinks that I’m cool and aloof now and I have to keep it up.
Alice: It will be fine Valerie. You are cool. I promise you are. You have been the raddest person in my life since the day you were born. I promise you will be fine.
Valerie: Okay. Oh – okay.
Alice: Especially if you wear this top.
Eryn: And she passes you one of your mesh t-shirts with a particularly unique and fancy kind of design printed into it.
Valerie: Yeah, yeah okay. Okay, thanks. This is a good top.
Alice: You’re going to do great. You’re already doing great. It sounds like you’ve already been doing some pretty freaking cool stuff based on what you told me last night. Like, you’re already, like, having freaking superidol battles on your second day? That’s so cool.
Valerie: I didn’t expect people to actually start fighting. I just thought we’d get together and practice and I tried to, like, I don't know, I didn’t really want to be president but I want to be, like, the top Idol there and everyone was just like, I don't know. There’s a rival club now that I don’t know what was with that girl. But I told her she should go deal with her own stuff. It was kind of scary the way she reacted.
Alice: Yeah. I remember those McArthur kids from a few years ago. They always think the sun shines out their own buttholes, god.
Eryn: Alice tries to avoid cursing whenever possible, I think I’ve decided.
Dana: I love her.
Valerie: Yeah, oh – yeah that – who – who sends someone to another school to try to infiltrate their club? Like who even does that?
Alice: Like, I know that, like, supervillains are literally a thing now but that doesn’t mean that you can just have carte blanche to do that kind of stuff. Like, oh my god, they’re a little, like, Lex Luthor or something over there it sounds like.
[Valerie laughs]
Alice: Tell me if they bring out the Kryptonite eventually. That’s the right term, right?
Valerie: Yeah.
Alice: I stopped reading comics when I was, I don't know, 12.
Valerie: Yeah, I’ll let you know. Thanks, thanks.
Alice: Yeah. And if I see this Diana person around then I will be sure to flip her both of the birds.
Valerie: Right.
Eryn: Which you know is significant for Alice because she would avoid doing that otherwise.
Valerie: Thanks. Yeah. Thanks Alice, I feel better.
Alice: Thanks. I’m glad to hear it.
Eryn: And after we have this little scene, do you interact with your parents at all? What is your parent situation?
Dana: I have a mother and a father and I think I’m going to dip into a little of my own high school experience here which is when I did join a club, my mother was just ecstatic that I was actually meeting people and making friends. And I think that’s the attitude that Valerie’s mother has is I don’t understand all of this superhero idol stuff but the fact that I’m making friends is just amazing and fantastic, finally.
Eryn: Do you think you told her about the confrontation or did you only tell that to Alice.
Dana: No I only told that to Alice. I said,
Valerie: Yeah I joined the Idol Club and I met some other girls there and I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun together.
Eryn: Alright. I imagine this being over a quick breakfast in the morning. By the way is your household cereal, pancakes and waffles, eggs, and bacon? What do you think? Or does everyone just get their breakfast on the way to wherever they’re going?
Dana: You know that Valerie has to be, after taking so long to get her clothes and makeup, has to be quick hi, quick bye, and running to school with toast in her mouth.
Eryn: Yes, perfect. Especially with the goth girl look. The goth girl running to school with toast in her mouth.
Dana: Yes.
Eryn: That’s a wonderful image. Give me a slice of that real quick as you run by your mom, grab toast, and go.
Valerie: Oh, hi mom!
Valerie’s Mom: Oh hi honey.
Valerie: Just heading out.
Valerie’s Mom: Oh honey. Oh you’re going to crush it today. That’s what they say, right?
Valerie: Uh, yep, that, you got it. I, uh, running late though, bye.
Valerie’s Mom: Go! Go! Go Valerie! I know you can do it!
Tea: Oh a supportive mom.
Eryn: And your dad waves. His face cannot be seen from behind the newspaper.
Dana: Actually I was thinking that my dad was stuffing a bagel in his face and putting his jacket on because he’s also in a hurry and has to run out to his car with a bagel in his mouth or something
Valerie’s Dad: [muffled] Gotta go honey. Don’t worry about me, I gotta run, bye.
Valerie’s Mom: See you later sweetie.
Eryn: That’s all I got right now, sorry.
Dana: Yeah. That’s perfect.
Eryn: Okay that’s very sweet. Alright, do you make any contact with the agency on the way or is that more of a thing you save of the weekends and evenings and whatnot?
Dana: I think that’s a check in in the evening and on the weekends.
Eryn: Okay so in that case I think we can move to – well we’ll move to school proper once you all get there. For now, let’s move back to Angie. How does your typical morning tend to go?
Tea: Okay, well I figure Angie’s probably got a little brother that’s 10 and it’s a permanent thorn in her side. But I think she gets up early so she can do her makeup and pick out her outfit and all of that stuff. It’s not like her family is sharing a one-bedroom apartment between them. They have a pretty modest house. They have jobs, they just don’t have the jobs that they did before. They’re not rich anymore.
Eryn: Right. I imagine one of them is like an accountant or something that’s working for a firm that’s not the greatest but it’s the one that would take them after what happened.
Tea: Exactly. And her mom’s trying to make it as a financial advisor but it’s not going so well.
Eryn: She’s like working for one of those like scam operations like a pyramid scheme or something.
Tea: Yeah probably. And she’s not even succeeding at that because they were already arrested for stealing. Yeah. So I feel like that’s her morning is picking out her outfit. They don’t have a cook any more so her mom’s doing the cooking and she’s getting better at it. But she’s not as good as they’re used to.
[jovial orchestral music plays]
Tea: But you know, it’s fried eggs and toast and bacon.
Eryn: You can smell a little bit of burning coming from downstairs as you get dressed, but it’s not as bad as it’s been.
Tea: Yeah, like, she’s getting better at it. But I just don’t know why she turns the heat up so high on the toaster every single time and burns it. We just don’t get why she’s doing that.
Eryn: You can also hear muffled cursing downstairs too because she’s getting frustrated too. Like…
Mrs. Blake: [distant] Why does this always fucking happen? God dammit shit... Fucker! Motherfucker!
Tea: Yeah. And then probably as she’s going to the hallway down the stairs that’s when her brother I don't know shoots her with a bow and arrow or with a Nerf Gun or something.
Eryn: Yeah if he wasn’t going to do that it was either going to be like coming to your door and like
Freddie: Angie where’s the PlayStation controller? Do you have it?
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: Or something like that. But I like shooting with the Nerf Gun. So he like snipes you from the top of the stairs as you’re going down and he giggles. Gets you in the back of the head.
Tea: And she’ll do something like.
Angie: Ugh! Mom!
Tea: And then stomp downstairs.
Eryn: What is your little brother’s name by the way?
Tea: We’ll say Freddie.
Eryn: Sure.
Tea: That’s the first name I came up with. Freddie Blake.
Eryn: Sure. Your proper names are Evangeline and Frederick but you’re Angie and Freddie.
Tea: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Frederick Reginald Blake.
Eryn: Yes.
Tea: Named after his grandfather or his great grandfather.
Eryn: Of course. Of course. His father is Reginald Frederick Blake.
Tea: Yeah.
[both laugh]
Tea: Back when they had a legacy.
Eryn: Alright so Freddie shoots you in the back of the head with a Nerf dart. You yell Mom! And Mrs. Blake yells from the kitchen.
Mrs. Blake: [distant] Freddie, for the last time I fucking told you, don’t do that. Now go get ready for school.
Eryn: Your mom is very bad about cursing around children.
Tea: Great. Yeah. And I do feel like her dad would be the kind of person that has the newspaper in front of him at the dinner table.
Eryn: And he would go…
Mr. Blake: Honey we talked about this.
Mrs. Blake: You know how I get when I’m stressed when I’m sorry honey.
Eryn: She rubs her temples as she puts another batch of toast in the toaster.
Tea: Yeah. I would sit down and I would try to eat breakfast and I would probably finish half of it because I like runny eggs, not hard eggs, and I’ve told mom that so many times. But I don’t even bother complaining anymore.
Eryn: She gave you three hard boiled eggs. She’s lost all her patience this morning on the toast. It’s amazing she can do hardboiled eggs.
Tea: Yeah, and I definitely do that thing where I roll my eyes and sigh really dramatically but eat it anyway because it’s morning and I’m hungry.
Eryn: Mr. Blake doesn’t move the newspaper. But he somehow still says…
Mr. Blake: Angie, I know that look. Don’t give your mother the rolly eyes.
Angie: Whatever.
Tea: And she eats.
Eryn: First, did you tell them that you entered the Idol Club?
Tea: I feel like she wouldn’t tell them actually.
Eryn: Okay that’s good to know.
Tea: I think that she’s still mad at them about what happened and they’re a bit estranged. So they have domestic family life and stuff but she probably doesn’t want to talk to them because she thinks it’s up to her to save the family now and she can’t count on these two.
Eryn: Alright so you just eat breakfast awkwardly in silence with your mom occasionally cursing in the background with the smell of burnt toast continuing to waft through the room.
Tea: Okay.
Eryn: And eventually your dad does peek out from behind the newspaper a little bit and say…
Mr. Blake: So, how’s school been?
Angie: Fine.
Tea: She gives that look like why are you even asking with her fork in her hand and then goes back to eating.
Mr. Blake: Just asking. Just want to make sure that our pumpkin’s doing okay.
Tea: Yeah. She doesn’t answer. She’s just eating.
Eryn: And he knows better than to press at this point so he’ll leave it at that. Alright so you finish up your breakfast and out you go, I suppose. Do you get a ride to school or do you make your own way somehow?
Tea: Probably busses to school I would say.
Eryn: Ooh. How uncouth.
Tea: Ugh, that’s what bankruptcy will do to a family. Have to take public transportation.
Eryn: Have you gained a new respect for the people who have to rely on public transit all the time?
Tea: No.
Eryn: Okay.
Tea: They all suck.
Eryn: Well we’ll get her there someday.
Tea: She’s still at that, like, you know how some people have that sense of I’m going to be a millionaire eventually and I’m better all these people?
Eryn: Yeah.
Tea: So for her this isn’t like her reality now, this is just a temporary setback until she can have her life go back to normal.
Eryn: In that case, you head out. I think Freddie has to take the bus as well so he runs out after you and he’s definitely snuck the Nerf gun into his bag. As you get to the bus stop you can feel a couple little more darts hit you in the back of the neck.
Angie: Freddie! Mom!
Eryn: Mom is back in the house. She can’t hear you.
Tea: Just reflex.
Freddie: Hahaha, mom can’t hear you.
Angie: Just you wait Freddie.
Tea: And she stomps away probably because he probably gets on a school bus.
Eryn: And you are on your way in which case we can probably go and have a check-in with Synthia. Now I’m curious about your current living situation Synthia. Are you currently still living at home or are you living on base with C-SHARP right now do you think?
Michelle: I’m living with my family in our house.
Eryn: Okay. And you’ve got your – we’ve said your parents. You’ve got a mom and a dad I’m guessing. They’re very gung-ho about the military. They’ve both been involved themselves at various points.
Michelle: Yeah they’re both currently involved in the military and they’re very excited that their daughter is involved in such a significant way. And we also live with my grandfather and my little brother, he’s 7 years old, his name is Thomas. He’s very happy, he’s helpful, he’s a nice little kid and he looks up to me as his big sister. He wants to be like me.
Eryn: Aw that’s sweet.
Michelle: Yeah he’s really sweet.
Eryn: Alright then. How does this morning look to you do you think then?
Michelle: It’s like any other morning in the Knight household. We’re in a two-story, five-bedroom house. It’s simple but it’s large because we have a large family.
[Soft morning music plays]
Michelle: Everyone gets up around 5:30 am.
Eryn: Of course.
Michelle: So Synthia usually goes for a run and then does some weight training in the mornings.
Eryn: Yeah them sick gains.
Michelle: Yeah. Thomas has a dance game that they have him doing for exercise and to help his energy levels.
Eryn: Like a DDR or something like that almost?
Michelle: Yeah like Let’s Dance. He loves that. He plays that for a bit. And then when Synthia gets back they both make breakfast together. That’s a concoction of very healthy, high-nutrient breakfast shakes.
[blender roars]
Michelle: And their family has that every day, every morning for breakfast.
Eryn: Oh my. That makes sense but I definitely would not want that for myself.
Michelle: The get the family lunches together too. That’s for everyone in the house. It’s usually probably he leftovers. I’d say they make dinner too most times. Or sometimes grandpa will help make dinner. The parents doesn’t really interact with them. They just say hi good morning. Everyone’s cheery and they grab their shakes and their mornings and leave.
Eryn: Do they ever try to do a mock good morning soldier and salute or something like that?
Michelle: Maybe sometimes jokingly.
Eryn: Not really as a regimented thing.
Michelle: No. They’re not super strict in the household. Just with training and stuff. Make sure you have to do your training.
Eryn: Good good good. It’s a fairly typical morning for the Knight household. Synthia you’re doing your weight training. Where did you say you do this? In your room or do you have a special place for it?
Michelle: I go for a jog around the neighborhood and then the weight training is back in the house.
Eryn: Okay.
Michelle: Probably the basement is a whole training area.
Eryn: Do you think you told your family – well of course you would have told your family you joined the Idol Club because that’s part of your training, right?
Michelle: Yes. So my parents and my grandparent are always informed, my parents because they’re directly involved and then my grandparent is my confidant so I tell him stuff. If I have worries I’ll go to him.
Eryn: So actually as you’re doing your weight training, your grandpa actually comes down the stairs and gives you a wave and says…
Synthia’s Grandpa: Hey kiddo, how’s it going this morning?
Synthia: Good morning.
Synthia’s Grandpa: That’s very formal.
Eryn: He gives a chuckle as he comes down the rest of the stairs, careful to treat his old bones with care. And he says.
Synthia’s Grandpa: Oh you’re lifting some pretty big ones right now I see.
Michelle: It’s unusual for him to come down while I’m training because it’s quite serious.
Eryn: Right.
Michelle: So.
Eryn: Right but he knows that you just joined the Idol Club and he knows what that means for you. So he’s going to come down and say,
Synthia’s Grandpa: I just want to say that I’m very proud of you for joining the club. You know I have my worries about all of this. But I do think that a group of friends and fellow music enthusiasts will be good for you.
Synthia: Thank you.
Synthia’s Grandpa: How are they? Are they good people do you think?
Synthia: I’m not sure. They both want to take a leadership role.
Synthia’s Grandpa: Oh well how, I Suppose, yes responsible of them. That’s encouraging. And how do you feel about leadership? Are you feeling like you might be a follower to them or a colleague of sorts?
Synthia: I’m just keeping my head down like they want me to.
Eryn: He frowns at that,
Synthia’s Grandpa: That doesn’t sound like the Synthia I know. The Synthia I’ve seen on stage singing her heart out, telling the world her passions. That seems like a bit of a waste.
Synthia: Well that’s what the organization wants so I have to do that now.
Synthia’s Grandpa: I don't know about what the organization wants, but if that’s what they want then I do think they are wasting a lot of your talent. You are a talented singer. I know this.
Eryn: Actually as he’s talking to you about this, I know that you’re the only other person I’ve done the Influence thing with again, but actually I am going to try and shift your labels again with your grandpa. Your grandpa is trying to raise your Mundane and lower your Soldier. Are you going to accept that or do you want to reject that?
Michelle: It’s kind of confusing. She feels like she’s supposed to follow the orders in the organization, her parents are really pushing her towards that. So I don't know, she really respects her grandpa though. I guess she’ll just let it go for now because she’s tired and she’s training and there’s a lot going on.
Eryn: In that case you can raise your Mundane up 1 and your Soldier down 1. You’re not exactly for this but you do respect your grandpa’s opinion and take it into account as how you see yourself as someone who does have a more human side. A less militaristic side.
Michelle: Yes.
Eryn: Okay. So during this, your grandpa gets the sense that you’re getting a little uncomfortable. He sighs a bit and goes,
Synthia’s Grandpa: Well anyway, uh, I just wanted to give you some encouragement and remember, this weekend we’re going to the karaoke bar again, do you want to come with?
Eryn: We should say that Synthia’s grandpa is a karaoke legend by the way. He does have superpowers and developed those powers on the karaoke circuit after retiring from the military.
Michelle: Yeah he got really serious about it after he retired. That’s what he lives for.
Eryn: That’s how he knows that Synthia is a good singer.
Synthia: I’ll have to see if anything comes up with Club or Training.
Synthia’s Grandpa: Oh yeah.
Synthia: But otherwise, I’ll see you there.
Synthia’s Grandpa: Of course. Your club with definitely come first, but if you’ve got the time, you know you always like to come see your old man ripping a good tune.
[laughter]
Eryn: Old people say things weird.
Michelle: They sure do.
Tea: Looks like we’re going to have to look up some old person slang.
Michelle: I think ripping a tune’s pretty good.
Eryn: Come down to the hootenanny!
Dana: I guess the question is does he actually call it ripping a good tune or does he think that’s what the kids call it?
Eryn: I think the latter.
Tea: That’s a good question.
Michelle: How about both?
Eryn: A lot of these moments of hesitation come from the fact that Eryn the GM doesn’t know what kids call things.
Dana: Entirely fair.
Eryn: So you may get a lot of NPCs who seem slightly out of touch. Anyway, so, your grandpa lets you be and finish your practice. I think the rest of your morning goes relatively smoothly after that. So we’re just going to say the day goes by fairly blasé. Typical school day. Again this is the first week of school. There’s not much actual real work or cool stuff going on yet, which is kind of good because nobody wants to do real work just yet anyway. So we’re going to hop to the end of the school day. Your regular club meetings, I think you don’t have one every day but just for the first week you’re going to have one most days to get everything set up. You’re going to head to conference room three that you ended in last time. Once you get there you will find Ms. Doyle waiting. Because again, she is the teacher advisor responsible for overseeing your club activities. Are you all arriving at once or is anyone doddling for any reason? Just kind of all show up I suppose?
Tea: I feel like I would try to get there on time. Probably head to the room right after class.
Eryn: Cool. Actually, as you head towards the room Angie, you’re approached by, I’ll establish someone that I Want to bring in. You’re approached by someone you know. She kind of tries to hang in your social circles. She’s borderline acceptable in your eyes, perhaps.
Tea: Okay.
Eryn: She’s fashionable enough as the school goes. Her name is Sofia and she is a big Idol fan. She’s trying to run up to you after class and she says,
Sofia: Oh my God Angie did you go yesterday. Did you join the Idol Club? I know you were in dance before but I heard you were going to join the Idol Club. Oh my God that’s so cool.
Tea: She’ll probably do that non-chalant shrug and she’ll be like,
Angie: I might be checking it out.
Eryn: Sofia goes,
Sofia: Ooh! It’s so cool that you think it’s not cool.
Tea: I do a little hair toss.
Sofia: So do you have, like, a theme picked out or do you know what songs you’re going to sing. Do you know if you’re going to meet anyone cool? Oh my god. Oh my god you could meet so many cool people.
Angie: You know, it’s just starting out and we’re just seeing how it’s going. So we haven’t made any decisions yet.
Sofia: Well definitely tell me how it goes. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the idols at this school develop because let me tell you, they’ve been kind of crappy the last couple years and I really hope you guys do an awesome job. It’s going to be great. I just know it’s going to be great because you’re involved in it.
Angie: Well thank you Sofia.
Eryn: She waves you off as you sort of near the room because you don’t want her to actually know what room you’re meeting it.
Tea: Exactly. I was just going to stand there waiting for her to walk away.
Eryn: After a moment she starts to get the,
Sofia: [whispered] Oh right, I’m not supposed to—oh!
Eryn: She gives you the finger between the two eyes I know you know. Shh.
Tea: Yeah. I do a really awkward couple of finger guns. Just be like, that’s right. Caught on. Off you go now. Forever maybe.
Sofia: Oh remember, remember! We have that thing, we’re going to go down to the club and see Physicians Unknown sometime. Let me know if you have time for that. Text me!
Eryn: And she runs off.
Angie: Bye.
Sofia: Bye!
Eryn: Sorry. She means like a nightclub in town.
Tea: Yeah, I figured. Like The Bronze in Buffy?
Eryn: Yes.
Tea: That one club in town that all the teenagers can go to.
Eryn: Exactly. So Anyways so you all show up at the room. I don’t think anyone else is accosted on the way. I think you’re safe for now. Although Valerie I think you also, throughout the day, been fending off questions from people like you have been the last couple days. Like where did you come from or where are you where’d you get that shirt? The shirt, by the way, that Alice helped you pick out is definitely on point.
Dana: Of course. And I just sort of go,
Valerie: I’ve been around.
Eryn: And Synthia you got one more request from the track club to join. But I think at this point they’re starting to get the message that you’re not going to join the track club.
Synthia: Yeah. I mean already do a bunch of running in the morning and then after school so I’m not really looking to do more running.
Eryn: Exactly. Why would you do more running when you don’t have to.
Michelle: Exactly.
Eryn: Anyway. Everyone shows up.
[piano plays]
Eryn: Ms. Doyle is there. She’s got a stack of papers and whatnot and a smile on her face as she waits for all of you and says,
Ms. Doyle: Hello, hello everybody. Welcome.
Eryn: Karen comes in with you as well and raises her hand up and says.
Karen: Sup?
Angie: Oh you’re back.
Eryn: Is this to Karen or is this to Ms. Doyle?
Tea: To Karen.
Eryn: So Ms. Doyle hands out a couple of handouts and calendars and whatnot. It seems like this is just a checklist of stuff to do for getting the club in order.
Ms. Doyle: Alright, I’m not going to stick around for most of this. I’m pretty sure you don’t want an uncool adjust harshing your buzz or anything. But I do need you to go through this list of your scheduling and your budget ideas, setting officers for the club, all of that boring stuff in order to get everything ready for the school year. So just let me know when you get all that ready. I guess if you have a name for your Idol group, that would be cool too. Just let me know how everything goes.
Eryn: And she leaves you to do what thou wilt.
Tea: I walk over to the papers. And there’s a clipboard so I put them in the clipboard.
Eryn: You have a clipboard of stuff and you know what’s in there this time.
Tea: Yeah. It’s just like a random piece of paper from the last class this time, it’s actually our clipboard. But I make a note to get a cuter one because this is just one of those boring particle board ones and we should have a sparkly one.
Dana: I look over her shoulder at what’s on all the papers.
Michelle: I go look over the other shoulder.
Tea: I guess what’s the first paper that we’re looking at?
Eryn: We don’t need to go through it all in detail. It’s a lot of boring housekeeping stuff like setting on the calendar. The first page is the calendar and how often are you going to meet? When are you going to meet? Who’s going to be the president and the treasurer and the secretary and all that. There’s an abridged copy of Robert’s Rules of Order because of course there is. And also a sheet for filling in Progress Reports for Ms. Doyle as the year progresses. So you don’t have to do all this in detail. We can probably move more to the meat of you guys deciding what direction you want to take the club in right now. What are you going to do for this session?
Angie: It seems like we should have a discussion for our goals for the club.
Valerie: Yeah.
Tea: I’ll say I’m standing by a table so I just put the clipboard on the table.
Eryn: Karen sits up on the table cross-legged.
Tea: She gives her a look and has no more questions really. Karen’s going to Karen.
Eryn: Karen gives you a thumbs up.
Angie: I want to be famous and make money.
Valerie: Yeah, that sounds about right. I’ve got my own contract already with an agency but I need to build my own brand and the Idol Club is obviously a good way to do that I think. I don’t think that’s going to be at odds with all of us succeeding as a group.
Angie: Oh you have a contract already? That’s so great.
Tea: She says it in that way where she’s trying not to, like, keep her cool and not have a tantrum about it because she got a contract before her. Yeah.
Angie: Congratulations. What about you Synthia?
Synthia: My grandpa does a lot of karaoke and drives me out to perform with him a lot. So I discovered that I had powers when I was performing and I just want to get a hold of my powers and see where they go and be around other people like me so we can help each other with our powers. Grow and learn how to use them.
Angie: Oh cool.
Valerie: Oh yeah, okay. That’s nice. I guess our goal as a group is to succeed and be rich and famous.
Karen: And also karaoke.
Eryn: Karen says from behind you.
Valerie: Yeah… yeah.
Michelle: I smile at Karen.
Eryn: She gives you a finger gun.
Dana: I narrow my eyes slightly.
Tea: I give them an awkward thumbs up.
Eryn: She gives you the most self-confident thumbs up I’ve ever seen.
Michelle: That’s lovely.
Tea: Even Angie’s impressed.
Angie: Alright so we want to improve our abilities and perform in competitions. Does that sound good to everyone?
Valerie: Yep.
Michelle: Definitely.
Eryn: I’m just going to break in here for a sec and remind you all that the big thing that most school Idol Clubs are working towards is the Cadence Idol Newcomer Grand Star Tournament, the CING Star Tournament which is coming up in, let’s say, about six months or so. So there are qualifying rounds and preliminaries and such leading up to that which will happen in the intervening months. And there’s some information on the CING Star Tournament as part of your handouts.
Tea: Okay.
Valerie: Obviously, we want to join the CING Star tournament. That’s what I assume all of the Idol Clubs will be doing.
Angie: Yeah and for our goals, we don’t just want to join this competition, we want to win it.
Valerie: Of course.
Tea: She punches her palm very dramatically.
Eryn: Karen mirrors your motion.
Tea: She nods at Karen. She’s feeling Karen now.
Angie: Alright so we’re a new group and we have six months to do this.
Tea: I’m going to skip the when are going to practice?
Eryn: You can say that you’ve set all that. We’ll keep it fairly fuzzy for the sake of not pinning us down too much. You’ll practice every uhh for hmm long.
Tea: As much as possible is what we’ve decided.
Eryn: Everybody immediately decides that nobody’s following Robert’s Rules of Order because they suck.
Tea: Yeah. Actually we all stand around the garbage can and watch as I drop it into the garbage can.
Angie: Now that that’s out of the way.
Eryn: So we’ll skip the details that you guys go through here and go to like how are you putting your group together?
Valerie: So I’m more on the metal side. Sometimes I like to get more of an orchestral backing. I really put a lot of emotion into my singing is the thing. I feel it comes through that way. I don't know what your styles are.
Angie: I primarily dance. I’ve taken some vocal lessons when I had access to them. But in terms of choreography I think I could help with that the most.
Michelle: So my character is I think into the instrumental. She does a lot of the 80s synth, rock, pop. Like Prince is a good example.
Tea: So is it possible we could be that Idol group where you have a keytar?
Michelle: It’s possible. Definitely synth drums and electric guitar.
Tea: Just calling on Jem and the Holograms a little bit.
Michelle: Yeah I’m open to it.
Angie: What about you Karen?
Karen: I told you, I’m your cheerleader.
Eryn: And this time she does have a light stick, so she raises her light stick and she turns it on and the color is blue.
Tea: Okay.
Dana: Yeah we’ll really need that... energy.
Karen: Go "Group Name Here".
Angie: Group Name, right, we need one of those.
Michelle: Yes.
Tea: I’m trying not to laugh because that was so… okay, out of character, what does everybody think our group name should be?
Eryn: Well, are you even at the point where you would decide a group name? You haven’t really – you’ve gone over what everyone’s preferred styles are but you haven’t really decide how they’re going to gel and how that might contribute to what your name might be.
Tea: That’s true.
Synthia: What if we took one session in the upcoming weeks and we just focused on our individual styles and we all see how we work within that style?
Eryn: Oh that’s very good.
Valerie: Yeah, alright.
Angie: Yeah okay.
Synthia: Kind of see what we’re comfortable with.
Karen: I like this plan.
Angie: Thanks Karen.
Synthia: Thanks Karen.
Eryn: She gives you a wave of the light stick like yeah, let’s go.
Angie: Okay so we have a plan!
Michelle: Group high five?
Tea: Yeah do we do that thing where we all put our palms in the middle and are like go Group Name!
[all laugh]
Eryn: Yes. And Karen is down for this too. Somehow she seems to have moved from the table to down here.
Tea: I don’t question it. I’m just like cheer!
Dana: Valerie doesn’t hesitate this time but it’s very half-hearted.
Eryn: So everybody’s hands go in the center and Karen says.
Karen: Okay, on three. Gooooo Group Name!
Valerie: Group… Group Name...
Angie: Group Name.
Valerie: You... you didn’t count to three...
Tea: Okay just to paint the picture, Karen puts her hand on top of all of ours and she just raises it and we’re all just kind of like "Wait we weren’t ready!"
Michelle: So awkward.
Eryn: She just nods sagely and says,
Karen: The synchronicity will come with time.
Synthia: We’ll work on it.
Michelle: Yeah.
Valerie: I think that’s what the counting is for…
Angie: Yeah… counting helps with synchronicity.
[Ending Theme Song Plays (Upbeat Rock Music)]
Eryn: 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. Special thanks go to today’s featured VIP Patrons: Blake1995, IciclePrism, Nerine, Rain Crystal, and Sedric and Charlie. 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.
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.
Transcription by Cassie Hauschildt: https://www.chtranscription.com/
Proofreading by ErynCerise
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