1st session start ideas, end of a battle?

[Hurske]

Hi everyone, always liked reading posts here, and now I got a question, I'm curious for some ideas.

I'm starting my 1st live session of D&D. (Been running online games for a couple years)

I didn't want to go through the trope of everyone starting in a tavern. So while talking with my buddy who is a player, I blurted out that they would be...

"Walking off a battlefield, head held down low. Over a hundred dead bodies littered around you. Others who have survived, also walking away, with a silence that can almost be tangible."

I'm curious as too what neat events can be had for a 1st game/adventure.

Who did the battle took place between, could have been two rival towns, perhaps a goblinoid incursion and the fair folk took heavy losses.

Although I'm thinking of naturally having looters, bandits and possibly goblinoids coming down from the mountains to take advantage of the situation.

[Avonar]

I'm always a big fan of the "You receive a letter asking for help. It includes a sliver of wood and a teleportation scroll."

Simple way to dump the players in the middle of nowhere. However I think Out of the Abyss has one of my favourite starts. The very first sentence is:

Spoiler

Show

"You are captured by drow."

So simple and you already know how ****ed you are.

[Jay R]

I like starting with an encounter, that each character gets to in a different way. I once started a superhero campaign by giving each character a different start for the same encounter.

To PC1: Listening to your car radio, you hear about a building on fire downtown.
To PC2: You see a column of smoke to your north.
To PC3: A couple of firetrucks drive by you will their sirens on.
To PC4: Relaxing at home with a good book, you say to yourself, "It certainly is warm in here."


But the most straightforward way to start (which I've also used) is to tell everyone, "You hear a woman's scream one block over."

[Coventry]

Who did the battle took place between, could have been two rival towns, perhaps a goblinoid incursion and the fair folk took heavy losses.

In the year of Three Red Roses, the mighty sorcerer Halkan Polonaise enchanted and enslaved thousands from the nearby countryside to use them up in an evil ritual of unspeakable horror. Divine omens given to temples around the world resulted in a team being sent to stop the ritual before Halkan could complete his dread purpose.

You were one of those thousands. You were there when Halkan began the ritual. You were there as many of the throng had their lives snuffed out to power what he was doing. You were there when the knights stormed the ritual on horseback. You felt the command to try to stop them, and although compelled, you were too far away to do anything about them. You were there when one of those knights charged Halkan, speared him with a lance, and continued on at full speed to slam Halkan between himself, his horse and one of the standing stones.

You were there when the ritual sputtered out and failed. Your mind is your own, again, as the enchantment placed upon you vanished when Halkan died.

Halkan's death has freed the minds of the other survivors of his failed ritual. The knights seems to be making sure Halkan is dead, and are tending to their own wounded and dead.

Some notes:

• Their homes are "nearby", so their gear is available
• You could easily justify many different races being in the throng of victims - and having a common bond might allow them to adventure together even if they would naturally hate each other.
• "Year of Three Roses" - Polonaise is a type of rose. There are two more significant "roses" out there to find
• The knights would know that there are two more threats
• A player could be one of the junior knights, instead of a member of the throng
• The knights are NOT here to take over - their mission was to squash Halkan

Opportunities:

• Locate lost relatives (not present in the throng)
• With 90% of the local population dead, invaders are possible
• Travel with the knights, escorting them back home
• Search for the other two "roses"
• Escort some of the throng survivors to their homes
• Escort some of the throng dead to their homes
• Is Halkan really dead, or was his apparent death by lance part of his plan all along?
• Who is looting Halkan's lair? (Answer: The knights, or the people that sent them)
• Loot the empty houses

[Bulhakov]

I like the end of battle idea, I'd make a few twists though:
- every survivor has temporary amnesia (a powerful mage/psion was killed in the battle and the psychic shockwave knocked everyone out)
- all party members have the same uniform and/or some distinguishing mark (handband, tattoo, decorative dagger) meaning they were all in the same squad (so despite not remembering anything, they're pretty certain they are on one team)
- a similar group of survivors recovers from the other side of the conflict (goblins/orcs?)
- I'd let the players defeat them, then notice a large group of enemy reinforcements coming in
- the players can be easily railroaded into running to the forest/mountains/nearest town (wherever you want to continue the adventure)

[Anonymouswizard]

I like the Shadowrun version, 'you have all been contacted by a person calling themselves Johnson'. Essentially the higher tech version of 'blah has asked you all to come to his castle for a mission', but makes a bit more sense because of the fact that almost everybody is connected to the Matrix in some way.

Other good ones I've seen:
-You are all playing Forks of the same person (Eclipse Phase)
-You have been working together to protect the city for some time, as established in session zero


Another thing I sometimes like to do is to tell the players they are in a scene and ask them why. 'You stand amongst the corpses from a battle to recent for the dead to have been collected, why?'

[Corsair14]

OK Im even farther ahead in the future(or a long time ago) with my Star Wars campaign. I am having them start in a random tramp freighter whose captain is aligned with the rebels(not the players who are just crew at this point) quickly contracted to join the Rebel fleet at the Battle Of Scariff to help recover ground troops. Basically its a way to get them to learn the system on training wheels in a familiar environment. The two nameless commandoes they pick up end up as contacts later in the campaign, on the exit they have to fly through a mass of TIE fighters, one character (TBD) will find out they are force sensitive(if there isn't one already on purpose) and they will passively feel the dark side from the Star Destroyer that drops in and ends the battle(from DV obviously) but one of the TIE pilots is secretly a member of the Inquisition who also detects them and becomes a campaign villain as they hunt them down.

The captain dies in the escape from a ubiquitous exploding panel leaving the players on their own in a beat up ship, hopefully someone took astrogation as a skill since that's the only way out. Leaving the episode with them 6 months later in their ship on the Wheel. It leaves them unaligned with the option to stay that way or join the Rebels or the Empire. A beat up ship that they owe quite a bit on to a loan shark. The force sensitive character has the option of pursuing the force or simply staying as is with the uncanny ability to know something is wrong and occasionally detect strong force presence while also being hunted by the Inquisition.

So yes, end of a battle works great.

[Glorthindel]

I started a Dark Heresy campaign mid-battle.

I had each character start off in his own "unit", and took it in turns showing off scenes from the battle, with the "real" player character in the unit being the star of his scene, and every other player playing a nameless mook in the characters unit (for bullet catching duty mostly, but it was also funny watching the players get attached to their temporary characters). Then as I switched between scenes, I would slowly bring the units together until the party was a rag-tag bunch of survivors from the multiple units, comprising the main player characters, and whatever secondary characters had survived the scenes.

The purpose was that the final scene would have the survivors observe an event, so the party would be cemented together by their shared experience (and would explain their recruitment after the battle for a special assignment as they would be the only survivors who witnessed the event)

[Rerednaw]

I like starting in media res.

Not the end of a battle...but at the start or mid battle. Action usually gets the players engaged. Why, how, can wait till you have survived...ditto for meeting at a tavern, crossroads, we all got the invite from Mr. X...so why are these guys shooting at us?

[The Glyphstone]

"[Random Character], you are on fire."
"[Random player of another character], why are they on fire?"

Improvise from there.

[dascarletm]

I once started a game with:

You all find yourselves being chased by an angry mob of villagers. The players have to make up why they were in that situation, and if they deserved it.

[Max_Killjoy]

I'm always a big fan of the "You receive a letter asking for help. It includes a sliver of wood and a teleportation scroll."

Simple way to dump the players in the middle of nowhere. However I think Out of the Abyss has one of my favourite starts. The very first sentence is:

Spoiler

Show

"You are captured by drow."

So simple and you already know how ****ed you are.

Something like that absolutely requires the players buying in before the game starts, even before characters are created really.

IMO it's not something you can just dump on the players without their agreement. NEVER start a campaign with the PCs captured, imprisoned, mind-controlled, enslaved, or otherwise stripped of control unless the players agree to it beforehand.

[Tinkerer]

I'm curious as too what neat events can be had for a 1st game/adventure.

Who did the battle took place between, could have been two rival towns, perhaps a goblinoid incursion and the fair folk took heavy losses.

Although I'm thinking of naturally having looters, bandits and possibly goblinoids coming down from the mountains to take advantage of the situation.

My biggest concern with your plan is that the PCs are most likely to be the looters in question. If you've got more mature players than that then great but a lot of PCs first reaction upon seeing a corpse is to strip it to it's skivvies.

And since everyone else is chiming in with their favourite way to start I may as well put in my 2cp. Generally I have the party know each other for years before hand since I've gotten so tired of "Oh hey random stranger whom I dislike, come and basically live with me until we die".

[denthor]

Different starting points:

Your boat just sunk swim to shore.

Battle field the war ends your forced service is over we don't want to feed you get out or die.

Patron sends a close cry you answer because you want the free soup.

You could always have them run session zero where they start from wherever with what ever and end up in the same place from a summoners spell. The high level cleric or wizard died fell and broke the circle so they can escape the circle. The lower level is in shock. Oh and they are both hated 1/2 orcs. Will the party talk or kill?

[dascarletm]

Something like that absolutely requires the players buying in before the game starts, even before characters are created really.

IMO it's not something you can just dump on the players without their agreement. NEVER start a campaign with the PCs captured, imprisoned, mind-controlled, enslaved, or otherwise stripped of control unless the players agree to it beforehand.

I think that depends on the level of trust between DM and players.

Would I spring this on a group I just picked up at the local gaming store? No.
Would I spring this on the group of close friends I've been playing with for 15 odd years? Sure.

[FreddyNoNose]

From Rec.games.ftp.dnd


Tired of trying to come up with a new and exciting ways to describe how
a party of adventurers meet? Don't sweat anymore! Below is a system for
determining how they met.

Part one: Each character in the party rolls once on one of the tables below.
The number rolled is recorded and saved as that character's working number.
Consult the charts for the appropriate character class. After each character
has rolled once, go to part two.

Cleric: Roll 1d10
1: Worked with a political party
2: Worked with a charity organization
3: Worked with a mortuary
4: Was an altar boy/girl
5: Worked with local government
6: Member of a secret society
7: Local hero
8: Worked with local military
9: Was a child prodigy
10: Embarassed in public

Fighter: Roll 1d10
1: Worked with a political party
2: Worked with a charity organization
3: Member of hunting club
4: Member of fighters guild
5: Worked with local government
6: Member of a secret society
7: Local hero
8: Worked with local military
9: Had a duel in public
10: Embarassed in public

Theif: Roll 1d10
1: Worked with a political party (and other criminals)
2: Worked with local mob organization
3: Member of thieves guild
4: Worked with a local fence
5: Worked with local government
6: Member of a secret society
7: Famous with your skills (prince of theives)
8: Worked with local military
9: Considered a philanthropist (false identity)
10: Suspect in a major theft

Mage: Roll 1d10
1: Worked with a political party
2: Worked with local church
3: Member of wizard guild
4: Member of wizards cabal
5: Worked with local government
6: Member of a secret society
7: Famous with your skills
8: Worked with local military
9: Won a wizards duel
10: Public fear (Rumored to have made pacts with demons)

Part two: In part one, each character rolled and recorded his/her working
number. Now is the time that we will use that number.

Using the written form for each character's working number (ten not 10)
count the number of letters in the word. This number now becomes the
new working number (ten would become three). Count the number of letters
in this word and consider this the new working number (three would become
five). Continue this procedure until the same number comes up three times
in a row. Using the final working number, look at the "Table of Destiny" to
determine how the party meets.

Table of Destiny.

1: Party meets at a political function.
2: Party is magically summoned from another demension.
3: Party meets at an interguild function.
4: Party meets in a bar.
5: Party members ordered to work together by the King.
6: Party members are all members in the same secret society!
7: Party is drawn together by mutual admiration and respect.
8: Party is shipwrecked together.
9: Party is brought together my their mentors/teachers.
10: Game Masters choice.

Hope this helps create new and exciting introductions for your player
characters! I know I am having fun with it.


Wayne J. Rasmussen

Copyright Wayne J. Rasmussen 1994 All rights reserved.

[Hurske]

Thanks for all the ideas fellas! I actually went with Coventry's idea, I really liked how it sounded.

The session I felt went over really smooth. Everyone said they had fun.

[Coventry]

The session I felt went over really smooth. Everyone said they had fun.

Sweet!

What kind of party make up did you end up with?

[Knaight]

I've had good luck with battle starts before - most notably in a sci-fi game which started during the very end of a battle, where it was clear that the PCs faction had lost and it was a matter of getting out before getting killed. That also instantly brought the group together. They were the survivors of Melted Field, hunted by the new government that had taken over, looking to get off planet as soon as possible.

Other fun starts have included a wharf fire (the PCs were agents of the alchemists guild, which meant they had a stall with several barrels of alchemists fire next to the laze), a steam/cyberpunk game where the players all owed medical debt to the same megacorporation and were tasked with paying it off through deeds, the PCs as survivors of a nasty plague that basically eradicated their culture, and the good old fashioned thing in the distance - which in the most successful case was a space ship that crash landed near the PC's wizard tower and surrounding region.

[Hurske]

I actually really liked how I started my online Star Wars RPG. All my players were heavy role players, and I knew going in that they would RP not knowing each other.

So the game started on a space station, everyone in different parts doing their own thing. I was able to get them to all travel to one section of the station, then have it get hit with a terrorist attack.

All the players watched out the window, as the entire hanger section floated away, the station being split in two.

They had to work together to survive, find a way to the ever increasing distance of the hanger.

Really wish I recorded the game.

[Hurske]

Sweet!

What kind of party make up did you end up with?

We got a dragonborn paladin, dwarf rogue, half elf mystic, tiefling druid, and a human fighter.

1st session was a good success. So much more enjoyable than online GMing, nothing can compare to the visual cues of players and myself, and just rolling ACTUAL DICE! plus I got to watch some turn into missiles as everyone rolled 1s that session at fun times.