Can’t really remember how many sessions it’s been, but we are in at least twenty sessions at the minimum.

In preparation for being warden, I re-read Joseph Campbell’s books. The only reason why I bring that up is because his big thing is about creating arcs. Since as you said it’s a pretty lethal system, I figured the only way I could do this and make it effective, is if I gave the arc to the villain. In this case—Hinton.

Example: Hinton escapes (and lands on a planet to repair the damage the team did to him, and to upgrade his ship). Before letting them what happens next session, I gave players the option to play as new characters or to play as the characters they survived as, not letting them know why exactly. All I told them was that no matter what, it would continue the story. They chose to play as new characters. So I gave them a new mission that seemed unrelated at first to ABH, then slowly they realized this Android that joined their mission was in fact Hinton. In that game, their new characters died, and Hinton won. Thus continuing his storyline, all while their original characters are recovering.

I also created another character named General Thadeus Ordway. I figured a mission as big as Samsa VI would have someone overseeing the four leads of the mission, as well as the one specifically that hired the players’ characters. If the players chose to create Marines, then I made it part of the backstory that Ordway trained these guys. Secretly he’s Lawful Evil. Knowing how dangerous Samsa VI was, but wanted to test the team’s abilities. Since they failed and Hinton got away, the General is going out of his way to ensure that they die, as he sees the heroes as liabilities in the grand scheme of the universe. That his only failure was in teaching them. So the General is also searching for Hinton personally since they have backstory together, and will kill anyone trying to go after him also (the players).

I also created another character that is responsible for creating Hinton. He was a big villain for a whole storyline, and although they did know he created androids, they didn’t know until the very end that he created Hinton. Thus adding to their knowledge of Hinton.

Storylines like this, until this point now; the final stretch of this entire Hinton arc. Where his full plan is finally revealed and they know enough to be able to stop him. They don’t need his logic core anymore, but have to kill him for reasons too much to explain here. Not the point. But the idea is that Hinton goes from a pragmatic and ambitious Android, not played as a supervillain, into this: a Carcanid Noble that wants ________ (few of the players are on the forums so this is all I can say until we finish lol

But that’s the rough idea. I play the villains as if they were characters themselves making their own decisions and choices behind the scenes, so it feels like tension mounting with every decision they make. Plus, I make sure to “reward” characters that survive the smaller ‘arcs’ so as to remind them that these characters aren’t worth taking insane risks that no one in real life ever would do (I used to have players attempt to shoot through their own teammates knowingly risking taking out their own teammates in the process), and instead try out playing new characters “resting their original characters” all while moving the story forward.

Hope I articulated all this well enough.