Pre-Campaign Narrative

[Trasilor]

Before adventuring, I find most DMs set up their characters in some form of pre-adventure narrative.
"The King has put out a call to arms, and you and your friends have responded..."

In my next game, I thought it would be interesting if the pre-adventure narrative was a bit of a mystery.

Essentially, players wake up in a pitch-black room with barely a memory of how they got there. The last thing they remember was receiving a letter...

Each player would be provided with part of the back story:

One recalls meeting a strange man in a tavern...
Another remembers a handshake then a flash of bright light (plus feeling disoriented)...
A third remembers that they need to find somthing called "The McGuffin"..
etc...

Have any playgrounders played in such a game (or something similar) - if so, was this frustrating or enjoyable?

My fear is that players will not figure out the basic adventure arc (find McGuffin to save everyone) or they will take 45 minutes to an hour in what would take me 5 minutes of exposition.

Thoughts?

[LoyalPaladin]

This really depends on your players. I could probably hand this over to my players and they would be fine, but I have a very goal oriented group. Not to mention they are fairly well organized.

However, I've been a part of a group before where half of the players would have been totally lost by this.

[sakuuya]

Is there any reason why they wouldn't just share their information straight off? If not, it's just an unusual way to deliver exposition rather than a puzzle. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, since that kind of note-to-individual-PC-driven exposition always leaves more mental space for "what if this is a trick?/we don't know the whole story" than standard "you are summoned by the king" stuff does. If you want to get more complicated, you could have various PCs' information conflict somehow, but that runs more risk of derailing the adventure (as they try to figure out who's "right") unless it's very carefully managed.

[Trasilor]

Unfortunately, it's a mixed bag with one player I have never gamed with....

The other problem I see is that one player tends to over-analyze the situation. She thinks everything I state is immensely important and will have some future ramification later in the story - like the fact the tavern's daughter is the serving wench...(She really likes shows like Sherlock where this style of storytelling is the norm). And she distrusts everything they encounter (in her mind, said serving wench is actually the evil mastermind behind the party is trying to thwart).

[Extra Anchovies]

You'll want to still tell your players the game premise (e.g. undead hunting), or at least allow easy retraining. Otherwise you might end up running a game that one or more of them have no interest in (this won't be as much of an issue if you're good friends, though).

[martixy]

Bonus points for the blatant lampshading.

What you could do is make those eventual 45 minutes entertaining.

There's a whole plethora of other crazy shenanigans that might have happened to our hapless amnesiac heroes during that mysterious period.

Maybe a whore tracks them down and gives them an earful for some reason.
Suddenly a kobold is following them and giggling at every other thing they do.
The mayor's daughter is sending them roses.
Men of the village/town are lining up to challenge them to a duel.
There's grease all over the tavern room they last remember staying in - yes, even on the ceiling.

Or any number of other antics worthy of Monty Python.

[Trasilor]

Is there any reason why they wouldn't just share their information straight off? If not, it's just an unusual way to deliver exposition rather than a puzzle. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, since that kind of note-to-individual-PC-driven exposition always leaves more mental space for "what if this is a trick?/we don't know the whole story" than standard "you are summoned by the king" stuff does. If you want to get more complicated, you could have various PCs' information conflict somehow, but that runs more risk of derailing the adventure (as they try to figure out who's "right") unless it's very carefully managed.

Some of the players may not share all the information they know...not really sure why, it's just their playstyle to be jerks :smallamused:

I wouldn't have conflicting information for that reason - it would be impossible to determine who is right. However, I would have each player know incomplete data. For example, one would know that they are on a quest to find four artifacts. Then another would know that the names of the artifacts are...

The point was to engage the players in such a way where they build upon the story. Presumably, they would make assumptions that would partly dictate how the adventure unfolds. But that's part of the fun. :smallamused:

[Trasilor]

You'll want to still tell your players the game premise (e.g. undead hunting), or at least allow easy retraining. Otherwise you might end up running a game that one or more of them have no interest in (this won't be as much of an issue if you're good friends, though).

They are level 15, and there are 9 of them. So far, none are that hyper-specialized, but I am not really worried about it.

[Trasilor]

Bonus points for the blatant lampshading.

What you could do is make those eventual 45 minutes entertaining.

There's a whole plethora of other crazy shenanigans that might have happened to our hapless amnesiac heroes during that mysterious period.

Maybe a whore tracks them down and gives them an earful for some reason.
Suddenly a kobold is following them and giggling at every other thing they do.
The mayor's daughter is sending them roses.
Men of the village/town are lining up to challenge them to a duel.
There's grease all over the tavern room they last remember staying in - yes, even on the ceiling.

Or any number of other antics worthy of Monty Python.

Or finding a Tiger in their room and one of them has a face tatoo....:smalltongue:

Alas the game is not so monty python-esq :smallamused:

[LoyalPaladin]

They are level 15, and there are 9 of them. So far, none are that hyper-specialized, but I am not really worried about it.
Holy smokes. Nine level fifteen players?! I commend you.

[martixy]

Or finding a Tiger in their room and one of them has a face tatoo....:smalltongue:

Alas the game is not so monty python-esq :smallamused:

You can still do blatant-crazy OOC, while having it make perfect, serious sense IC and use that to guide the narrative to the more high-stakes plot. You just have to get creative.

[Trasilor]

Holy smokes. Nine level fifteen players?! I commend you.

yeah...it just sort of kept ballooning. Thankfully, none are extraordinarily optimized, so not to difficult on my part.

It also is a limited run game (1 to 2 long sessions) so I am focusing on making just a "boss" fights. I know these are not optimal, but again - low optimization - makes it a viable solution.

[LoyalPaladin]

yeah...it just sort of kept ballooning. Thankfully, none are extraordinarily optimized, so not to difficult on my part.

It also is a limited run game (1 to 2 long sessions) so I am focusing on making just a "boss" fights. I know these are not optimal, but again - low optimization - makes it a viable solution.
I'd toss for Varaags in. They'll cause a little mayhem, even for that many players. When I have to DM for a large number, I generally go for the varaags and rough terrain solution. Caltrops are also your friend.

[Trasilor]

I'd toss for Varaags in. They'll cause a little mayhem, even for that many players. When I have to DM for a large number, I generally go for the varaags and rough terrain solution. Caltrops are also your friend.

Not familiar with varaags. Where are they from?