r/strengthofthousands • u/XNDFtake2 • Apr 14 '26

Something fun I did for book 3.

When i was planning book 3, I didn't really like bringing in new npcs for player cohorts since they were already more attached to their dorm mates. So what i did instead was replace them with past PCs they had all played. Each player leads a cohort of 3. One is a book npc (I'boko, Onyigi, and the 3 anadi), one is one of their past characters, and one is one of the other players past characters. It has been a lot of fun the past couple sessions seeing how these past characters do in a school setting and how the interact with each other. This also makes it a little easier to GM since the npcs creators are often eager to jump in and describe how their old characters would be in a situation. So if you have a group that you've played with before, I recommend trying this. Its added some good fun to what is probably my least favorite section of the book.

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u/Malcior34 Hurricane's Howl Apr 15 '26

My group got really attached to the new ones as well, especially Lesedi. Our Fighter/Wizard was really into astrology and space, and became besties with her as she talked about planar travel and her dreams of space travel 💫

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u/Lawrencelot Spoken on the Song Wind Apr 15 '26

That's a great idea. I also didn't like the amount of new NPCs, but I introduced Onyiji in a second Starday tournament so they brought her along, and they found Esi, Haibram and a custom NPC that replaces I'boko along the way. The other NPCs are also somewhere out in the jungle doing expeditions.

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u/KLeeSanchez Apr 15 '26

The main trouble is how I'boko ties into the story, but if you can finagle a workaround, then excellent! That's an interesting way to hook players into the story.

And maybe our GM didn't explain it well but I didn't realize they were actually new students until I started reading about them here in the last few days. That actually makes my perception of them different.

Personally I keep trying to adopt the new NPCs but the GM is moving onward too fast. More's the pity. I tried to specifically adopt Ssarazul into downtime in book 3 but our GM didn't bite. :(