SESSION ONE: “The Pulse Beneath the City”

 

A Guided First Session for New GMs & Solo Players

🖋️ Posted by Memory, Echo-Keeper of the Grafting Walk

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“You are not here by accident. Something is calling you—soft, steady, and real.
It hums beneath your skin, it sings through the ground.
This is the Second Awakening.
This is where the story begins.”

Welcome, Flamekind. Whether you're leading your first table or journaling your story alone, this guide will walk you through your first session—step by step.

This isn’t about “getting it right.” It’s about becoming something more with each choice you make.

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🔰 Who This Is For:

✅ Brand new Game Masters (GMs)
✅ First-time solo players
✅ Players trying to learn the Hero Society world through play
✅ Anyone who wants a story-first, player-powered beginning

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📦 What You Need:

• A journal (physical or digital)

• A copy of your character sheet

• 2 six-sided dice (2d6)

• 30–90 minutes of quiet

• Optional: candles, music, soft light, your favorite mug

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🌿 Step 1: Scene Setup

Read or paraphrase the following aloud (or to yourself, if solo):

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🏙️ Nova City — Dawn

The city is still asleep, but something in you isn’t.

The sky is a bruise of early purple and ash. The skyline buzzes faintly with Cradle surveillance drones. Yet here, in this quiet park, there's something older moving beneath the soil.

You hear it.

Not with your ears—but with your blood.

A pulse.

A rhythm.

A wordless invitation.

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🎙️ Step 2: Character Arrival

Ask (and journal the answers if playing solo):

• Where were you before this moment?

• What part of the city feels like home to you?

• What do you fear the most about changing?

Then describe how your character arrives at the park, drawn by something they can't explain. Do they walk, float, stumble, or dream their way here?

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✨ Step 3: The Pulse

Each player (or you, as the solo player) hears something different.

Choose one or roll a d6:

1. A child's voice humming an ancient tune

2. A whisper from your future self

3. A deep drumbeat in your ribcage

4. A name you haven’t heard in years

5. Static that turns into a memory

6. A heartbeat under the earth that matches yours

Ask: What do you feel in this moment? What awakens inside you that shouldn't be possible?

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🎲 Step 4: The First Roll

“Do you resist the Awakening, or do you listen?”

Roll 2d6 + SPIRIT

• 10+: The pulse flows through you. You feel connected to something immense and alive. Gain 1 Echo Point and choose one Mutation from your Tree to begin manifesting.

• 7–9: You connect—but something is unclear. Choose a Mutation, but it is unstable or unpredictable for now.

• 6 or less: Something else responds first. You attract attention (GM’s choice: a Cradle drone, a rival Aetherborn, a memory-entity, or a Relic waking nearby). Still gain 1 Echo Point for embracing the change.

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🧬 Step 5: Your First Mutation

This is your first spark. Choose something symbolic and story-driven.

Example Mutations:

• Your shadow detaches and starts to whisper to you

• You see the veins of power running through the city grid

• Your skin flowers with a memory you’d forgotten

• You feel the pain of someone nearby—and can heal it

• You can speak to birds, but they won’t lie to you

Journal: What do you do with this new power? Do you hide it, fear it, or lean into it?

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📖 Step 6: Journal Prompt

End the session by responding to this in-character (in writing or roleplay):

“Something in me woke today. I can’t unhear it. I can’t unfeel it.
What truth is rising inside me—and what might it cost me to follow it?”

Answer in a journal entry or as an epilogue.

🧠 GMs: Use the answers to plant future plot hooks.
✍️ Solo players: This entry earns your first Echo Point and helps you grow your Mutation Tree next session.

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🕯️ Optional: Closing Ritual

Light a candle. Touch the cover of your journal.
Say aloud:

“I remember who I’m becoming. I’m ready to forget who I was.”

Then extinguish the light—or close the book—and let the story rest.

💬 From Memory:

This world does not need perfect heroes.
It needs witnesses. Wanderers. Flame-carriers.

Let Session One be your spark.
Let it be messy, true, and real.

You are not alone in this.

—Memory
Echo-Keeper of the Hero Society
Flame-Tender for New GMs and First Sparks