starting a campaign

[rokar4life]

so, as some of you may have notciced im starting a campaign next week(RL, sorry) and i was just wondering how effective(cinematically) would it be to start out the campaign with

"You duck just in time to see one of the crude spears from the kobolds that had been chasing you through their tunnels fly over your head."

perhaps a bit more after that, but you get the idea.

[Kaun]

didnt you have another thread asking the same thing a few days back?

in answer to your question .. yes it can work but its often best to make sure the following combat runs at a fast paced.. Give your players 30 seconds to declare there actions and if they are unable to then move on to the next inline. If they sart asking questions about where am i ? or how did i get here? avoid answering those till the combat concludes. You have to make sure your descriptive about there surroundings because they will be slightly confused at first and need slight prompts towards posative actions that can be taken. That opening bit of flav text should probably include something to give them more of an idea of where they are..

like ...

"you dive behind the building just as the crude spear thrown by the kobold...."
ot.

"You throw youself into the ditch just as the kobold's crude spear goes...."

this may help to quickly establish the enviorment they are in to some level for instance urban or country side ect ect.

[BigPapaSmurf]

It won't work if your PCs are good players, good players need to know where they are and how they got there. Where is the entrance? how far in are we?, what did they do to the kobolds, is this a dragons lair or ten kobolds in a cave?

I would be annoyed.

[CheshireCatAW]

I think it would be fine, especially coupled with "you cannot remember how you got there", or "the last thing you remember is some dancing gnomes". If you make it into a mystery, to explain why your characters don't know what's going on in game, I think it's fine. I would consider it kind of cheap, however, if my characters should know that there's a safe shed ten feet away, or that the entrance to the cave is right behind me. You know, just stuff the characters might know.

Maybe finish that first line with something like "And as you hit the bottom of the ditch, the jostle and the rush from the near miss give you a start that clears the muddle in your mind a bit".

[Kaun]

It won't work if your PCs are good players, good players need to know where they are and how they got there. Where is the entrance? how far in are we?, what did they do to the kobolds, is this a dragons lair or ten kobolds in a cave?

I would be annoyed.

annoyed because the DM made you deal with something you wernt expecting?

yeah that defines a good player.

Another point is its good to make sure this first encounter isnt overly lethal and a bit diffrent from your average encounters, a chase does sound like a good example of this.