Hey, y'all!
HoD is awsome but it can also be a bit challenging to run, so threads like this are very useful. I voiced some thoughts and analysis and personal plans for running
HoD in another thread a few months ago (
Heart of Darknes prep and GMing discussion), but that one sank into obscurity (probably since the box wasn't out yet). Instead of re-posting it all here, I'll just refrain a short summary and link to that thread (see below) in case some of you guys are interested in having a look at my thoughts on running that story (primarily an analysis on the characters).
Very short summary:
Priority characters, IMHO, are..
TOP TIER (=Characters important for the story)
Cpt. Lugar (central to set-up and backstory, plus she's perhaps the most proactive character in the set)
Prof. Hedenström (useful skillset and a walking plot engine)
Col.-Doc. Drabikowski (only important if you don't drop the Ironfist thing; you could drop that plot entirely, and Drabikowski & Navarre along with it, if you wanted to streamline
HoD).
MID TIER (=Characters that would be very fun to play)
Sgt. Sajaad (huge roleplaying potential)
Dr. Lark (again, huge roleplaying potential)
LOW TIER (=Characters with little to work with)
Dr. Ejiri (a motivated good buy, but otherwise just a mission coordinator)
Prof. Navarre (he's there only to be a complication for Drabikowski, and as such, he's really an NPC)
Adrien the Cat (a novelty at best... if you're going to use the cat as a player character, you need to also give the cat something to do -- i.e. you need to write more story/events for them)
That's the basics, but there's a lot more in the other thread:
https://forum.frialigan.se/viewtopic.php?t=9868
[/b]1. Hedenstrom and Lugar work best if their players have taken part in at least one of the earlier adventures. This isn't essential, but their agendas are tied to those stories. Having Lugar in play also gives the players a slightly easier time interacting with at least one of the Perfected.
That's a very good point, @MutantFromMars. I would almost go as far as to advise people to wait running HoD till after they've gamed through
CotG and/or
DoW. There's not a lot of connective tissue there, but what there is, is pretty great.
In my running of
CotG, two Montero crewmembers survived and escaped with the Sotillo, +Lucas (Cham) managed to download himself into the Sotillo, and in the aftermath talk the players wanted them to go on and try to fight the Company and their vile Draconis Strain plots. When I ran
DoW, the Sotillo crew (who -- since they were already anti-W-Y -- had joined forces with the Montero survivors at a self-serving/mercenary level) showed up there trying to spy on the Ariarcus goings-ons. Also in my story, Clayton escaped the Cronos on the VIP EEV with black goo in her luggage, and I worked it into the
DoW backstory that this became Eckford's source of Black goo in that story. So there was a lot of connections there. When I run
HoD, I have a backup-plan for additional replacement PCs, in that
--a) Lugar have been in contact with the Montero survivors who were seeking to investigate what went down at L1113 all those 75 years ago, and hired Lugar to smuggle them in (remember, Lugar flies regular freight runs to and fro the system), and
--b) those Montero survivors (Miller & Rye) lies in cryopod-storage somewhere on Erebos, ready to "thaw" as soon as we need additional, well-invested replacement PCs in the game... and coming full circle for the players, those characters, and the Draconis Strain campaign itself.