When you first dive into Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, there’s a lot of scene-setting you’ll need to do first. After all, a Greek idol has just been murdered, and her power over song has transferred to you – that begets a little explanation in our books.
In this guide, we’ll help you hit all the major plot points of the first section of Stray Gods, covering your introduction to Calliope, Grace’s brand new power, and the panel of angry, terrified deities to whom she must explain herself. If you need help getting started with playing Stray Gods, read on ahead.
This guide contains spoilers for Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical.
Setting The Stage: The Introduction
Band Auditions At The Community Center
To kick off Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, you’re introduced to your character, Grace, and her bandmates as they’re auditioning new members.
This is your introduction to the game, allowing you a low-stakes chance to get a feel for the dialogue by talking with your bandmates – chiefly with your best friend and roommate, Freddie.
You’re introduced early on, but throughout the game, you’ll see a few different symbols next to dialogue options when speaking to other characters:
- A question mark icon beside a question or statement means this option will unlock further dialogue options.
- No symbol means that this option segues the conversation along into the next topic.
- A pink heart means this is a flirtatious option and leads toward one of the game’s four possible romances.
Regardless of which options you choose or how thorough you decide to be in talking, speak with Freddie until she leaves.
Calliope’s Audition
Song: «Adrift»
Once Grace is alone, she begins the first song of the game, «Adrift: Part One.» This starts as a solo, but you’ll gain an audience shortly, with Calliope, a girl who drops by to «audition for the band.»
It’s in this part of the game that you’ll choose a nature for Grace. Check out our guide to Grace’s natures for more info on what this decision impacts, but in short, you’ll choose either Charming, Kickass, or Clever to begin.
Throughout the scene, you’ll sing a song with Calliope, and you’ll be able to choose Grace’s general response in a song and watch her fill in with another song verse in that vein.
Each choice in a song leads to a different following verse, some of which will lead to lasting decisions with splintering paths, some of which bring you to major decisions throughout the game.
By default, you have a limited time to choose your response from three options, and you’ll notice that the colors behind each option match the colors of Grace’s natures.
These options are the ones that most align with Grace’s nature, but it’s important to note for storytelling purposes that you can choose any option presented to you regardless of the nature you chose.
That said, with every song choice leading Grace down a different path, there are dozens of ways these songs can all play out based on different combinations of choices.
Thankfully, the first one is something of an exception, as it’s introducing you to the game, but you’ll hear a different rendition of Grace and Calliope’s duet based on your choices as the two ladies sing, «Adrift: Part Two» together.
This will continue to be true throughout the game, but singing with Calliope is an introduction to the mechanic of singing songs to make Grace’s decisions throughout the game.
Following the song, you’ll have a brief but tender conversation with Calliope before the scene ends.
Calliope’s Death And Meeting Hermes
After a short transition, you’ll be at Grace’s Apartment after the auditions when you hear a banging at the door. Upon Grace opening the door, a mortally wounded Calliope falls into the apartment,
You have a couple dialogue options here as Calliope lays in your arms, but none of them change fate: Calliope dies, and when she does, a yellow glowing orb comes out of her chest and floats into Grace’s.
With practically no time to adjust, another stranger appears: Hermes, who’s here to bring Grace before The Chorus.
You can ask Hermes a few questions about what’s going on and where they need to take you, but regardless, after the conversation, tell Hermes you’re ready to go to end the scene.
Meeting The Chorus
Hermes leads Grace to Athena’s Office at Olympus, where she waits alone until four gods enter the room and introduce themselves as The Chorus. The Chorus consists of the leader, Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, but it also includes Apollo, God of the Sun, Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, and Persephone, the Goddess of Death.
As they talk, Athena fills Grace in on what’s happening: the yellow glow was Calliope’s «eidolon,» the thing that made her a God, which was passed onto Grace when Calliope died. This has fused Grace’s spirit into Calliope, the Last Muse. Because of this, Grace is now the Goddess of Epic Poetry.
Not only is this confounding to Grace, but it comes with a snag: Grace now stands accused of murdering Calliope, and will soon be killed.
Song: «The Chorus In Accord»
Time to sing a plea to The Chorus, in a song called, «The Chorus in Accord.» Throughout the song, you’ll have several choices to plead your case, but nothing is decided until Apollo speaks up to disagree with your sentence.
After accusations and explanations, The Chorus begrudgingly agrees: Grace has one week to prove she didn’t murder Calliope.
If you can figure out who actually killed her, you’ll be spared this fate and allowed to live, but if you can’t figure it out and go to trial without an answer, Grace will be executed for a murder she didn’t commit.
With the stakes of the game laid out clearly and Grace with Calliope’s powers now, Grace heads back home to begin her investigation – somehow.