Starting a session with: Roll Initiative!

[TheWarBlade]

Heard this on the D&D podcast. A session starting with a fight should focus your group and draw attention away from pizza/books/teletubbies. Anyone got experiences with this?

[CrazedGoblin]

what do you mean?

[Talya]

It's called in media res, (literally, "into the middle of things") and is a storytelling technique used to great effect in many movies. There's no reason for it not to work in a game.

[KIDS]

It looks like it works but again, it depends on the players as many other things do. Perhaps if you slam your fist down on the table while you say that, it will work reliably.

[Ceres]

Whether this is a good way to start a session really depends on how fast-paced you are able to make your combat. If there are a lot of PCs fighting a large number of monsters, having everyone wait for their turn will often result in the players discussing pizza/books/teletubbies.

In a system like Feng Shui, you should always start your sessions with combat, but in the sometimes slow-paced combat-system of D&D it really depends on the combat.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

As a player, I know nothing gets me more excited than the prospect of combat and the delicious, full-bodied taste of D&D brand 'summer fresh' XP, with a burst of experiential flavor.

In seriousness; for the majority of character types, combat is a chance to flaunt their powers, and for the majority of players, combat is a chance to flaunt their build.

So let em' have it at the beggining, in media res et. al., and see how it goes. Should go well, if I know anything, and I do.

[Citizen Joe]

We just did this over on the PbP boards. I suppose it went ok, but there was a lack of coordination that nearly killed half the party.

[Fax Celestis]

We just did this over on the PbP boards. I suppose it went ok, but there was a lack of coordination that nearly killed half the party.

PbP is notorious for that, though.

[Inigo_Carmine]

I actually like starting some campaigns like that (after giving the backstory and the leadup to the situation of course).

Campaign beginnings are usually done really weakly and awkwardly (rare exceptions exist), and this lets the players start off on the right foot. Gives the characters some initial comradeship and something to talk about instead of "So Gaeleth....how bout this weather we're having. Really hope those goblins don't invade this year..."

Plus, combats at low levels tend to be quick and vicious, which is really good for getting everyone to focus on the game.

[Renx]

Start with all characters participating in a festival, unknown to each other. Then start the invasion. People around them start dying, they'll most likely end up grouping up.

[Citizen Joe]

I started an Earthdawn campaign on the assumption that all the party members came in second place in various contests in a Unity Festival. The festival had many cultures participating, not all of which are openly friendly to one another. Since the winners of the contest were too valueable to their various cultures, they were kept as defenders. However, second place people were 'expendable' and thus put together in a show of unity. On the eve of the last day of the festival, all the winners were found dead in their tents except for the windling champion (windlings are like pixies). As it turned out, the medals were actually deadly scarab beetles that transformed and killed the owner. The medal was too big for the windling so he wasn't wearing it that night.

That left the group with a mystery to solve.

[de-trick]

Initiative

[roll]1d20+2[/roll]

i had a funeral for a murder and party hired to make sure no one trys to resurect him. Then spiders started to come out then the body gets stolen and the party had to get the body back before he got resurected

[Laurellien]

I'm going to have to try this...

[Rad]

well, that depends on where you left over from last session
No, seriously.

As for beginning the campaign like that, actually that depends on what the background of your characters are. Even if the first thing you do together is a combat scene the PCs did have some story before.

[Kurald Galain]

Or, roll some dice behind the GM screen, ignore the results, and grin.

[asqwasqw]

It would be funny to do that in a PbP thread if you are a DM. just roll dice without any labels of what they are for. Watch em sweat.

[Thrawn183]

The thing is, its just so easy to set up this way. Party's in any kind of travelling? Random encounter. Party's sitting around in the inn? Have them harrassed (assuming they have some kind of actual consistant foe). Party's been flaunting their resources? Rogues try and steal it all (and have a least a decent chance of failing of course). Party's about to start travelling? Have a dragon attack the town. Waiting around in a town for some event x that happens y units of time later? Necromancer gets a little happy with the town grave yard. These can always be fairly simple and straightforward combat encounters that really help get people on the same page (especially considering how fast you can level and what new things characters become able to do).

The trick is finding a way of having fun with it. You know, a kid tries to grab a ball out of a storm drain in a big city and falls in. You hear screams. Turns out there is a beholder down there guarding something for somebody its made a deal with. There are umpteen bajillion things you could come up with. (I came up with all of these in like what... 5 min?)

[Matthew]

Star Wars D6 used to recommend in media res as the way to begin each Adventure. I had pretty much had my fill of doing that by the end of my Star Wars tenure. It can be effective, but just like 'the Old Man in the Inn', it can be easily overused and become tiresome.

(In fact anything can become tiresome if repeated too often. In the last long term campaign I ran, my players used to complain about the weather a lot. "It never seems to be a sunny day around here").

[Charity]

In the last long term campaign I ran, my players used to complain about the weather a lot.

You know that you're feeding steriotypes now Matthew.

I honestly wouldn't be too keen on the idea of starting in such a direct manner, I like a feel for the other characters to know how mine would react to their actions.

[Matthew]

Bah, it's my hard northern upbringing (I was running this game in Surrey at the time). I just used the 'normal' weather patterns that I was used to...

[Tallis]

I like the idea of doing this, my players often have a hard time coming up with reasons for their characters to work together and I think this would work very well. I have planned a campaign this way before, but unfortunately it fell apart before I actually got to start it, so I can't give you any tips based on experience.

[Diggorian]

I found this fun especially for the years I ran Star Wars, In media res is intrinsic to the saga as all the movies start this way (Ep. III being the best IMO). I tried to make each session start with this technique. It also helped to get the steamventing slaughterlust out of the players early.

[Fawsto]

Hehehe I started one of these... But was more like to "Your characters awake in a Burning Tavern, DECIDE FAST!"

I am planing to do something like that again, last time the palyers went nuts, mostly because 2 o' em were still finishing the sheets. >:).

As Borat would say: "Niiice!"

[PaladinBoy]

As an avid roleplayer, I certainly don't mind starting with meeting my companions in the inn. Or on the streets....... that was the way our current campaign started. I developed a friendship with a fellow half-breed, forced one of them to come along because I was interested in his past, and invited the third along because he seemed like interesting (if not congenial) company. I do really like that approach, because it gives us a chance to become a team before having to display teamwork.

That said, there's nothing wrong with starting a session (or campaign) in media res. It can be an exciting plot device, if you don't annoy them by telling them that they've done X, Y, and Z since the last session. Actually, that might work for some military campaigns. (You recieved new orders, left for X battlefield......)

[Grug]

Initiative

[roll]1d20+2[/roll]

i had a funeral for a murder and party hired to make sure no one trys to resurect him. Then spiders started to come out then the body gets stolen and the party had to get the body back before he got resurected

Sounds like an adventure from Dungeon. Hint: The body is in a slaughterhouse by the water. It's guarded by some undead, Four brothers that are Rogues/Fighter (all level 2), and the last boss is a lvl4 necromancer girl.

[Qooroo]

The sample episode in the Angel corebook started like this. There was just a little bit of boxed text describing a cult ritual, the the PCs kicking in the door and rolling initiative. It was great. I think part of why it worked was that it was a quick fight (interrupting the ritual led to the creation of the story's actual villain). Thus it thrust the characters into high adrenaline mode without delaying the plot-type stuff too long.

[TheOOB]

I definatly think its important to start an encounter out with action of some kind, not neccesarly combat per say, but something exciting that will make the players pay attention. My rule is that a player should be making a character based roll once every 5 minutes or so. The quickest way to get a players attention is to make them use the skills and abilities that their characters whom they spent so long making possess.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

Starting with initiative can be a good change of pace especially if sessions take a long time to get started because the players are not focused on the game.

My last session spend a lot of time in the introduction phase as the players took an eternity trying to clear up their book-keeping and inventory (several players kept non-corresponding entries of the same items) and sell their goods etc.

I could have used some heavy handed paraphrasing of events or even have sprung an encounter on them to speed things up, but they were having a good time making in and out of game jokes, so there was not any compelling reason to do it.

It can be a fun and exciting way to force the players to get serious fast but as has already been said; everything in moderation.

Bah, it's my hard northern upbringing (I was running this game in Surrey at the time). I just used the 'normal' weather patterns that I was used to...

Ahh priceless, I see images of the monk ending up as friar Tuck, the Dervish becomes a River Dancer as they figure out that the exotic and magical adventure takes place in good ol' Britain (during showers)

[Charity]

Ahh priceless, I see images of the monk ending up as friar Tuck, the Dervish becomes a River Dancer as they figure out that the exotic and magical adventure takes place in good ol' Britain (during showers)

*Will now be playing a Morris Dancing Dervish the very next chance he gets*

[BBEG]"Whats that jingly noise comming from the barracks?"

[Jack Mann]

*Confiscates all handkerchiefs and bells* That will be enough of that, thank you.