Starting Your Campaign - Running RPGs
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12 tips for making a great opening scene to your game. How do the Characters meet? Where do they meet? What are they doing? What should you avoid? And why starting out in a tavern isn't bad, but might not always be the best.
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#ttrpg #DnD
Guest starring Mike, Todd, and Dweebles.
00:00 The Tavern Skit
00:53 Intro
02:08 Starting in a Tavern
03:53 How You Taverns
04:33 Give a Quest
04:55 Inciting Incident
05:32 Other Gathering Places
06:15 Introduce the PCs
09:30 Make them Coworkers
10:02 Meet in Jail
10:33 Shared Interest
11:02 Meet on an Adventure
11:57 They Already Know Each Other
13:39 Start in the Action
17:08 Don't Worry About Tropes
17:59 The Opening Doesn't Really Matter
19:37 Shameless Self-Promotion
20:42 Outro
@jeffreyadamo 2 жыл бұрын
I think Seth is the best RPG KZfaqr hands down. I'm always shocked at how much exposure he gets compared to some of the bigger names.
@dirus3142 2 жыл бұрын
You are right. He is easy top three of the rpg channels I've seen. I've even seen non rpg channels reference Seth and made Scott Brown apart of there world.
@markusnixon3156 2 жыл бұрын
He's amazing, but I can see why he's not as popular as some, he's not quite as flashy as other KZfaqrs, he's more like you're favorite uncle to me, awesome, but not necessarly as crowd pulling.
@rpeterson9182 2 жыл бұрын
@Jeff Adamo Are you “Jeff: The greatest dungeon master of all time?”
@samsampier7147 2 жыл бұрын
Best videos. I come for the funny skits and for stay great content.
@jeffreyadamo 2 жыл бұрын
@@rpeterson9182 No I'm Jeff the worst DM of all time lol
@Pile_of_carbon 2 жыл бұрын
Seth's banter with his characters is so on point I almost forget they're the same guy.
@oz_jones Жыл бұрын
I mean, the DM is also a charcater
@03dashk64 2 жыл бұрын
“Maybe they’re all Juggalos” I can’t stress enough how you just described my absolute nightmare of a party.
@thebolas000 2 жыл бұрын
On a quest to discover how magnets work.
@oz_jones Жыл бұрын
@@thebolas000 i laughed way hard at this
@solouno2280 Жыл бұрын
God sometimes is chaotic... deal with it
@zombifiedoll1388 11 ай бұрын
There's an official Insane Clown Posse TTRPG
@TalonBrush 2 жыл бұрын
Things I appreciate in Seth's videos: * The gang * The insightful tour of our common tropes, misconceptions and the pitfalls in RPG gaming. * The unsung Photoshop skills. * Seth's awesome advice and suggestions. * The gang! * The sharing of experience from a veteran Gamemaster. * Jack * Seriously, how does he even get the GM screens into some of those pictures * The realization that Mike ate Dwibbles' character sheet all along (ah, the classic adventure, "Betrayal at the Tavern!", where one of the PCs was eaten... By another PC!) * Seth Skorkowsky * THE GANG! * The little "...You know..." segments at the end
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
I eagerly watch for the "You know..." segments.
@Jasonwolf1495 2 жыл бұрын
My classic for a good surprise to a group is "You are in a tavern. It is on fire." It starts us off in a dramatic moment and we quickly see character's priorities. Some will try to help other patrons, some may try for the gold behind the counter before they run out, others will just leave caring only for their own safety.
@NoizeViolation 2 жыл бұрын
My last one started with a cannonball crashing through the roof.
@thor30013 2 жыл бұрын
Love that. Might have to use it at some point.
@procrastinatinggamer 2 жыл бұрын
That sounds like a cool way to do it. Though I’d extend it to “You are in a tavern. It’s on fire and it’s not your fault.” Mostly as a reference to how the opening line of one novel in *The Dresden Files* was “The building was on fire and it wasn’t my fault.” Yeah, the protagonist of that series has something of a reputation.
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
@@NoizeViolation Change that cannonball to a ship, and you have a VERY interesting open.
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
@@procrastinatinggamer Man, I love those books and the characters.
@mathsalot8099 2 жыл бұрын
I love tropes. When introducing a group to their first DnD campaign, I try to cram as many tropes as possible into the first couple sessions because 1. They haven't played before so they arent sick of the tropes yet. 2. I believe EVERYONE should play the tropes at least once because they are part of the shared experience that all RPGers get to have, and 3. Tropes have been around so long and used so often for a reason... namely because THEY WORK. Tropes are often the easiest, most reliable way to tell a story and that's why they are used all the time. Dont make it harder on yourself... use the formula that works: Tropes!
@spacedinosaur8733 2 жыл бұрын
“The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.” ― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
@hangarrat 2 жыл бұрын
I cannot fault you. I’ve got some newbies starting out on their first adventure and they WANT that well worn fantasy experience. I’m happy to oblige.
@Chuckler127 2 жыл бұрын
Eating the character sheet had me laughing out loud for real. Way to commit to the joke, my man!
@oz_jones 2 жыл бұрын
Seth is method, gotta respect that.
@tunkatodd4539 2 жыл бұрын
I would have to ditto this comment. 😂🤣😂
@kirkkerman 2 жыл бұрын
@@oz_jones How is it that I keep forgetting that all of those characters are just Seth in different outfits?
@fallocritico 2 жыл бұрын
@@kirkkerman dude, i got the same problem D:
@smeefman6923 2 жыл бұрын
One of my players died in game so he just decided to eat his character sheet
@goofygoober9719 2 жыл бұрын
I started my current campaign by having a zero one on one session, with every player having their own small stories, related to their background. The trick was that they all have gotten a reason to go to a hospital, or were taken there by the end of each session. That way i had time to make them feel special, introduced NPC's and i dropped hints and easter eggs for the keen eyed one's. Luckily my players are a great bunch, so i had no problem with them interacting with each other, especially when cancer patients went berserk and started swarming them. And yes, i forced my players to beat the cancer patients to death in self defense
@JamesSkemp 2 жыл бұрын
What system? Call?
@TheDarkOne629 2 жыл бұрын
Doing the reasons for each to be there in session zero is a great idea which many DMs forget.
@goofygoober9719 2 жыл бұрын
@@JamesSkemp No, Unisystems, more specially Witchcraft. It's a d10, skill based. All the players were new to it, so i decided to ease each with a session zero. Best decision i ever made. Got to see their play style, evaluate their weaknesses, see where they excel and tweak the gameplay to make sure they didn't die, while had challenges. Also tested traps i designed in a controlled environment, since it's easier to see how an unconventional trap works mechanically one on one. I honestly want to start all my campaigns like that, but the biggest downside is organization, which is a pain
@goofygoober9719 2 жыл бұрын
@@TheDarkOne629 it also allows for spreading of clues that can be called upon in later session, making the players who paid attention in their zero session feel important, without taking spotlight away from others
@kevinsullivan3448 2 жыл бұрын
I have a session Zero with each player for character creation. I guild, not railroad, by players in creating a character that is both optimized for the rules AND that meshes with character background. To often players who are left to their own devices pick abilities that don't work they way they think they work and I help them craft a backstory with goals and motivations that will suit the game world and upcoming campaign. I also do not run D&D so players need help to not create munchkin characters.
@ForeverYoungKickboxer 2 жыл бұрын
I spent over 15 years working as the head of security in a seedy nightclub along with my right hand man, best friend, and long time companion at the DnD table. Seth, you hit it on the head, as usual. All of the necessary elements are there; locals, out of towners, people with hidden agendas, people on missions, people with secrets, and various substances on hand to loosen tongues and lower inhibitions are a good recipe for excitement.
@OgamiItto70 2 жыл бұрын
Plus, medieval taverns (or at least their fantasy/sci-fi world counterparts) are/were more than just "bars." They were hotels, restaurants, local meeting-halls, conference-rooms-for-rent, stables, assembly points for local guards and militias and more.
@Atariese 2 жыл бұрын
@@OgamiItto70 Good point. The friendly local tavern tends to be one of the safer parts in a seedy city. Many travelers end up there out of necessity, no matter their business or social class. Modern day this is true as well.
@oz_jones Жыл бұрын
@@OgamiItto70 taverns arent inns
@DrFranklynAnderson 2 жыл бұрын
I’ve been struggling with this idea for years, so I’m gonna leave it here in case someone with actual writing talent comes across this comment and can make use of it. A Cheers-style story about the regulars who patronize the tavern where all D&D adventures begin. They generally look down on the revolving door of heroes who only visit their local pub to start quests, until one day the heroes fail to defeat the BBEG and it’s up to the regulars to save the world.
@EpicFailLawlKat 2 жыл бұрын
One of my groups did something similar to this. The adventurers made a specific tavern/inn their base of operations, eventually having to rescue the place from some loan sharks snd practically owning it outright after. They didn't want to deal with running it themselves, so they handed it back to the original family running it and basically got free and permanent room/board for the rest of their careers.
@dutch6857 2 жыл бұрын
I really dig this. "Any minute a barbarian, a priest, and a warlock will come through that door so we can tell them about The Souleater." "They haven't come yet and it's been days, Cliff." "Well crap. Do ya have any spare knives, there, Sammy?"
@Atariese 2 жыл бұрын
A few years ago we did a short commoner campaign (like 5 or 6 sessions.) I was a door maker. My entire profession was just making good solid doors. And i loved adventurers, they kept me in business with all the doors they break down. I would brag about making 14g last month.
@DjigitDaniel 2 жыл бұрын
I don't care how great this video turns out: best intro in ages. ❤
@FuriousJorge 2 жыл бұрын
I love the Traveller method of tying in back stories. Makes for a great way to build stories around how they know each other!
@ljmiller96 2 жыл бұрын
I started the current D&D campaign with a kind of connections montage that built a connection between each character and two others in the group, as well as allowing the players to narrate what happened in a kind of "tall tale told after a few beers in the bar with friends" style. They rescued a hound from 40 goblins who were tormenting it, explored a haunted house, fought a huge giant rat that was raiding a bakery's basement, catapulted a bunch of drunken goats over the city wall and so on. And they loved it!
@NefariousKoel 2 жыл бұрын
For other systems without such extensive background building in character creation, I'd also recommend the Year Zero method from the Free League games. Having each player describe how their character is connected to one or more of the others from the past. Collecting the listed options and letting them choose and do a short elaboration on whichever sounds good to each of them.
@davidwright7193 2 жыл бұрын
That works but “you were just hired on to this ship as pilot/navigator/engineer/super cargo/target in a red shirt” is almost as cliché as the D&D “you meet in a tavern”
@dutch6857 2 жыл бұрын
Monster of the Week also has a baked in backstory mechanic.
@AGrumpyPanda 2 жыл бұрын
I co-opted it into an L5R adventure, it works great.
@plastickhero 2 жыл бұрын
I've always been a sucker for the group-of-prisoners beginning - probably The Elder Scrolls' fault. It has the added "benefit" of not needing to worry about starting equipment. My most successful instance was a low fantasy game that began with the PC's shackled to each other behind a caravan a la Mad Mardigan. When they made their escape each PC was shacked to a "partner," with one being shackled to an ill-fated NPC who caught an arrow and then had to drag the lifeless body into combat. I also love a good in media res. Last week we kicked off an Alternity (sci-fi) game the PCs starting in a standoff - pointing weapons at each other in the middle of a terrace restaurant; while security drones are bearing down on the whole group and the NPC they're all after making a run for it.
@TheSmart-CasualGamer 2 жыл бұрын
So, the Gang managed to get through Mike's cheating phase, Todd's overly edgy characters, the debate about Kirk and Picard, basically everything from the "annoying player traits episode", and THIS is what crosses the line?! God, I love this series.
@foxross 2 жыл бұрын
I once had a game where the whole campaign was set in a tavern. It was a lot of fun.
@alejandrorivas4585 Жыл бұрын
Oooooo tell me more
@foxross Жыл бұрын
@@alejandrorivas4585 The House of Mystery is the setting of a dream. The dream belongs to one of the characters and the others are all bystanders from different settings and eras who are caught up during moments of confusion and strife. The House lies in a forest but all roads lead back on themselves. The creepy fey bartender is just as trapped as the party but the patrons come and go through their own dreams as they please. Throughout the campaign the players explored the House and its backrooms, antechambers, cellar/attics and twisting book-lined corridors piecing together clues as to what exactly they are dealing with andhow to escape. As the party delve deeper into the weird regions of the house, the architecture gets more abstract and dreamlike and the rooms turn into a puzzle-filled nightmarish labrynth. Eventually, each member of the party solved their own personal problems and found their own unique exit. All of my games that I have run since have been built on the backstory of one of the characters of that game.
@Rodrigo_Vega 2 жыл бұрын
I use festivals and public celebrations a lot. Wherever the players arrive there's a big party going on in the streets. There's all sorts of reasons a character might be there, It's the perfect chance to bump into strange characters from all around the world. There's all kinds of curious items for sale, and a bunch of things that can go wrong. From pickpockets, to brawls, to t3errorist attacks, riots, assassinations of a public figure making an appearance and the reason for the festival or celebrarion itself is a great way to introduce the basic concepts of the settings, like maybe it's religious, or a coronation or the return of a triumphant army.
@MindOfGenius 2 жыл бұрын
And hey, don't forget free food and drinks from shops giving out free samples! players LOVE free stuff.
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
@@MindOfGenius Pickpockets, grifters and whores, oh my!
@MindOfGenius 2 жыл бұрын
Another thing to add- games of chance or skill are ways to introduce skill checks to the players, and how the difficulty influences the roll/result.
@Rodrigo_Vega 2 жыл бұрын
@@MindOfGenius Yea! I've done that! High striker for str. ring throwing for dex. shell games for wis. etc. Players have a lot of fun and they love winning make-believe prices that don't even give them much mechanical advantage. It's all just wholesome fun.
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
@@MindOfGenius Ooh, yes!
@quarkinjapan 2 жыл бұрын
Great advice as always ! I like to begin my games / campaigns with the players already knowing each other, or being given a job and being introduced to the other team members. And then, an action scene ! One introduction I liked was for a Star Wars game where we were tasked with extracting a noble from an Imperial base: half of the team was the extraction team, and the other was the noble in question and his bodyguard. What a great way to team up !
@toko099o 2 жыл бұрын
Sowing a false history in a session 0 is always a good idea. I do love the idea of the first mission being to protect one of the other PC's. The 2e dnd DM in me wishes they did that with a level 1 magic user (wizard) because of the d4 of hp.
@jackmalin2528 2 жыл бұрын
Depends on the system, in most games action= combat and combat in those games is a tarpit of waiting rather than excitement.
@quarkinjapan 2 жыл бұрын
@@jackmalin2528True ! I like games where the action is rather fast-paced, but that would not be a good solution if it was slow or boring
@nolgroth 2 жыл бұрын
My favorite start, to any campaign I've ever run, started on a space station that was intentionally struck by an incoming ship. The characters were all in a "tavern" (more like a USO-ish club for spacers) and had to team up in order to escape the de-orbiting station. Along the way they had to fight a team of operatives that crossed paths with them and wanted no witnesses. Another one was having the tavern be one of the mission locations where the priest and fighter characters were going to meet with members of resistance movement to pass on some strategic plans. The other characters were part of the resistance. Of course the meeting was interrupted by the security forces of the tyrannical regime that the Resistance was fighting. Both good starts. Strange that neither campaign progressed along the way I had planned. The first one saw the player characters hugging the frontier worlds of the setting. The second became a more traditional "murder hobo" fantasy game with occasional appearances of the tyrants agents.
@mrprogamer96109 2 жыл бұрын
The first one sounds like a thing that would happen in SS13.
@nolgroth 2 жыл бұрын
@@mrprogamer96109 SS13?
@PuzzleHeaded_Dust 2 жыл бұрын
Every @sethskorkowsky video, summarized: "Be excellent to each other... and have fun." Like a dice-rolling Mr. Rogers.
@vanessaeve925 2 жыл бұрын
Taverns are great for first time DMs or players. Makes it super easy to get everyone together. One of my favorite campaigns I've ran started by all the characters waking up on an island after a shipwreck. They are the only survivors, but they weren't alone on the island... 😏
@telemarkaeology 2 жыл бұрын
Roll Perception. (consults notes) You wring salt water from your sodden socks, staring forlornly at the wreck half-submerged on the distant reef. The hairs on the back of your neck begin to prickle, and you slowly crane your head around to look at the hazy dunes behind you. Suddenly, throwing sand in every direction, a Dire Tavern bursts from its hiding place, foamy slobber flying from its fanged maw, and bounds down the dunes toward you and the other survivors. Roll for Initiative!
@kasane1337 2 жыл бұрын
So, you're saying that they wake up on an island, and there are no coconuts left...?
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
@@telemarkaeology Bard: I try to enlist the aid of the gazebo on the overlook.
@sindarpeacheyeisacommie8688 2 жыл бұрын
Seth, you rule. The eating of the character sheet was funny stuff.
@larsdahl5528 2 жыл бұрын
Trust me on this one: A character sheet is a dry food. You better have some liquid to wash it down!
@zenovkayos5811 2 жыл бұрын
You can start the game with the characters already on their first quest. Like Phandelver starts with a transport quest
@shaddonon Жыл бұрын
10:50 just choked on my coffee at Seth casually slipping in “MAYBE THEY’RE ALL JUGGALOS” among a bunch of innocuous backstories. Imagine a troupe of juggalos bumbling around Walter Corbitt’s basement, or gathering at Rupert Merriweather’s hospital room to hear his last words? Could make for a fun Halloween one shot!
@GhostWolf743 2 жыл бұрын
I remember my character starting out trekking through one of the largest deserts in our game's world, and he ran out of water and was found by another member of our party who dug him out of the sand and game him some of their own water... ahhh memories.
@Fuzzy_Barbarian 2 жыл бұрын
One of my openings was the players all arriving in a town separately during a festival and trying to get INTO a tavern (to establish what their character is like and show off skills) for the different plot hooks I made from their backstories. That's how much I don't mind taverns.
@damienblauwald 2 жыл бұрын
I agree with you on the tavern. Especially if the characters are the types to ever go in a group to a tavern, certainly seems reasonable to start off a story at one.
@MrSadness_ Жыл бұрын
I appreciate the attention to detail on both character sheets. Poor Willer Blufed, he was eaten before his time.
@mishmashmedley Жыл бұрын
I was recently part of a very sad group of D&D players. The DM had us "meet in the tavern" and one by one, each character came in and "sat at a table by themselves, back to the wall, watching others" and my character came in and looked around and said "Damn! Not enough corners for everyone! Guess I'll sit at the bar!"
@Lcirex 2 жыл бұрын
One of my favorite game openings I ran was a funeral for a Dwarf were I asked all the players to tell me how they knew him and why they all came to this small personal funeral for a group of 10 people.
@Atariese 2 жыл бұрын
oh... im stealing this one!
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
@@Atariese For legal reasons, I can only say that my client is inspired by the funeral for a dwarf, and if my client ends up running a 75% similar campaign opening, it is only a matter of homage, not theft.
@ArcNeoMasato 2 жыл бұрын
Okay, for real though, I could NOT keep such a serious face while shoving paper in my mouth like that. I had to re-watch the opening skit here about 6 times before actually watching the video. Major kudos!
@RoninRaconteur 2 жыл бұрын
This video is spot on! When dealing with new GMs I explain the same thing. So many of them come with the, "I don't want to start it off at a tavern I heard its just too played out." Then you explain the fun of a tavern and why they can be some the best places to start. But after many years of running games of different types I found for me character creation is where I start forming things for the story along with my players. They can help each other and it feels like everyone ends up wanting to know one another in some way and it really helps with the introductions. There's something to be said to having a similiar destination, being hired by a mystery host, or them already a group who were on their fist mission at the start of it all. Watching Dimension 20 and Brennon Lee Mulligan has done different types of getting to know the players while each intro leads to the other characters it gives each individual an interesting start. It helps the players see who they are as well was a small bit of their backstory so they can feel connected to the other players characters. Some have relationships some don't but ultimately he brings them together with a need waiting in the wings and they were all brought there due to some connection. It's not easy but it is brilliant. Just have to figure out what kind of starting point works for you and don't listen to reddit or facebook groups that try to tear it down....same with splitting the party, it's just a saying and a good GM can handle it and it can make for interesting play.
@XcrismonP 2 жыл бұрын
The first campaign i played (and ever got to experience) started in a tavern, and i thought that was so clever. Today I see that it wasn't that special, but I still think that unless you are starting the game in the middle of the story, starting in a tavern is still very clever. It makes room for the players to get to know each other, and it is also a good way to introduce them to roleplay. Maybe the bard is playing some music and the fighter and the wizard is playing some game or something. Also I think that hating on the tavern introduction is very unhealthy, as it sets a higher standard to the introduction, making the GM spend a lot more time and energy on the introduction that could have gone to plan the rest of the session. Once I introduced the campaign with a combat against a small dragon. After the fight the characters went right into the tavern to tell about their encounter, and the real introduction of the campaign happened in that tavern.
@cameronjohnson918 2 жыл бұрын
This channel is honestly one of the best for RPG stuff around. Seth knows what he's talking about, and knows how to present these ideas with enough elaboration that you know why something is important, without dragging down the length of a video. Excellent stuff
@CommadoreGothnogDragonheart 2 жыл бұрын
I once started a campaign with the characters regaining consciousness in the ruins of a tavern surrounded by dead and wounded patrons. They had no memory of what happened, how they came to be there. They didn't even remember each other. All they knew is that they were sitting at the table together with a locked coffer of gold, and that the explosion originated on the far side of the tavern.
@robwalker4452 2 жыл бұрын
Oh Man! I concur; do not let your characters wander into a bar separately and have them roleplay meeting the other players! That can and will NOT go as you hope. Definitely have them start already knowing each other.
@punishedwhispers1218 2 жыл бұрын
It depends
@RobKinneySouthpaw 2 жыл бұрын
The meet in a tavern "in the action" bait n switch: "You four notice each other in the tavern. You notice each other because you are the only ones moving, surrounded as you are by dust, debris, collapsed beams and mangled bodies. Your ears still ringing from the blast, see the broad back of a hobgoblin dragging the limp form of the proprietor out the door."
@dirus3142 2 жыл бұрын
It can work of the players have a connection to the plot hook that starts in the tavern.
@Quandry1 2 жыл бұрын
@@dirus3142 that Connection is why even if i start them in the tavern I give them a reason for being there. Word of work to be had. A Town meeting being held there that sounds important, A Contact they need to meet. Or various other things based on how much the party might know each other.
@MemphiStig Жыл бұрын
Even Gygax suggested you start the adventure after the characters have already met, just before they stock up and head out to the dungeon. I like in medias res, personally. A lot of tv shows and movies have used this as a hook, especially the ones that have a serial vibe to them. Like Sliders: they start near the end of some adventure, there's a quick resolution, then they slide into this week's episode, and have to figure out the new world from there. Hit the ground running.
@grizzlednerd4521 2 жыл бұрын
Just a note on meeting and introductions. I've noticed in the recent games I've played in that players fail to have their characters introduce themselves to NPCs. I *suspect* this is a carry over from PC gaming where you left mouse click on the NPC to start the ball rolling. I've even had DMs often fail to have named (or a have a list of names) for their NPCs and frown when I have my PC introduce themselves and ask the NPCs name. It feels like a slide from role playing to tactical simulation. As a DM, my favourite opening was tied into one of the PCs backstory where they and their brother were ambushed on the way to a meeting in a tavern. It was a small game (just two PCs at that point) but I could have involved additional PCs by them witnessing the ambush and having the option to get involved. The players were introduced to combat, and the party were now (in some way) comrades in arms.
@ratholin 2 жыл бұрын
one of my all time favourite game hooks was in a shadowrun game. All the characters were in a street gang together as teens the player character all moved on to get the education and experience that made them full on shadowrunners. College, magical initiations, military, or corporate service, joining the mob etc. But they all get a message from a former gang comrade that another member of their gang who never left the hood has gone missing. So these big guns come back to the slum they all started out in which has gotten much worse since they left and they're working to find her. It was a total blast.
@larsdahl5528 2 жыл бұрын
In this case, it is a "mission from the beginning" start. As you have experienced: It can be a great way of starting out. The tough part of such a start is on the GM, as the GM has to figure out that starter plot, that works. The easy part is to look at the characters and then use what they have in common. The hard part is (in far too many cases) to (not) run what the GM wants to run. At least it is a quite common reason why campaigns die at the start-up phase: The GM wants a wargame (thus being a DM instead), but the players want to role-play.
@NoizeViolation 2 жыл бұрын
I like to start a lot of games in the middle of a heist, either as the crooks or the ones trying to stop the crooks. I think the most important part is to have a situation where the characters get to showcase what they can do, that way everyone is jumping into what they want to do off the bat. This also helps weed out problems a character build might have in actually being able to do the thing that the player wishes to do with that character, rather than finding out 3 sessions in.
@leerv. 2 жыл бұрын
As a Texan, I heard you say "trying to pill a cat" as "peel a cat" and was wondering what dark roads we were about to travel! The Traveler character creation being also a vehicle for the party knowing each other is great! But wow, Alien giving you initial relationship dynamics seems very smart. Gonna have to tell my GM to steal that!
@user-hd1ul6od2x 2 жыл бұрын
the kind of meeting I did for my cyberpunk 2020 campaign was like this: Each character drinks alone in a bar across Night City, after another complete job. None of them know each other. However, one day, a man dressed in a black suit sits down across each of their tables, puts down an envelope and leaves. Inside the envelope are pictures of their families or things/people dear to them, taken from the viewpoint of a sniper, and an otherwise blank piece of paper, with a date, time and set of coordinates, printed out in its centre in Times New Roman. Obviously, they show up, and the guy that holds their families hostage forces them to take a job, poisons each of them and tells them to work together.
@thor30013 2 жыл бұрын
I started GMing a few years ago, and I've run a few campaigns (many of which fell apart, but that's neither here nor there), and by far, my *favorite* opening has to be from the 5e campaign Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. It starts in a tavern, but it's an *adventurers'* tavern, which I felt was the perfect excuse for the PCs to have met and know each other - they're all starting adventurers, and this is the place where adventurers hang out. I even decided there was a "Looking for Group" board in one corner.
@jamestanzer9188 2 жыл бұрын
I prefer the "You're locked in a dungeon together" approach.
@michaelramon2411 2 жыл бұрын
My general theory is that you should give the players the first plot hook during character creation, so they can build in motivations to team up then. For example, I had a campaign where a meteorite crashed into a nearby island, and Session 1 started with all the PCs standing on a dock waiting for the one ship that is willing to take people to that island to get ready. Each PC already had a motivation to go there (wanting treasure, wanting knowledge, rumors of monsters, concern about someone from that exploration team that hasn't come back...) which could also be spun into a longer-term motivation, and they all had an obvious incentive to work together. I think it's much better to give players something to latch onto to start with when they are designing characters, rather than say "make whatever you feel like playing and we'll figure something out." One campaign opening I really want to use someday but haven't yet is a cold open where the PCs are raiding a nightclub that's a front for crime. The enemies are way underleveled, so the actual encounters should be a cakewalk, but the point is the presentation style. As the GM, I first show the charismatic PCs entering the club, then "MEANWHILE" to the sneaky ones breaking in the back, and then, once goons inevitably confront one of those groups, the strong PCs kick down the door. The implication is supposed to be that all of the PCs had this elaborate, A-Team like plan, and the audience (the players) get introduced to all the characters by seeing it unfold. There are definitely some ways it could go wrong (if the players get too confused), but I think it could be a really snazzy opening. I have another variant for a particular campaign concept where the PCs are individually wandering around this small town's fall festival, and after a PC interacts with an NPC or plays a festival game or buys something, the GM says something like "you don't see any sign of the target" or "this area looks clear" and things like that, to slowly reveal that the PCs are there not to have fun, but to track down a bad guy.
@Tecmaster96 10 ай бұрын
I’ll be honest, I usually don’t love the skits, but the opening one here was so hilarious.
@catyear75 2 жыл бұрын
Maddox Blackhammer is a pretty Badass name ...!
@martialartess Жыл бұрын
Starting in the action is an even better idea for one-shots or convention games. One of my favorite con games to run, a _Trinity_ game, involves all of the PCs being on a shuttle to the moon. They're all just out of basic training with their Orders and are on their way to begin their first jobs at a Lunar base. They think the adventure is waiting for them after they get to the Lunar base and they're always surprised when the adventure finds them in the form of the shuttle being hijacked by terrorists. Thus PCs, as green as they are, have to band together to save the other passengers and deal with the hijackers and get the shuttle safely to the moon. Once on Luna, because they worked so well together, they're assigned to the same troubleshooting team.
@MarSprite 2 жыл бұрын
I didn't realize you were an author. Then I was surprised to realize I'd already read one of your books.
@mikegould6590 2 жыл бұрын
There's lots of "system neutral" starts, and I've used a few. Having the players split off into groups of two, each "pod" knows their buddy. One of each "pod" either knows or is at least acquainted with one other of another "pod". The grants enough familiarity to hold a group together while still allowing for the freedom to have inner party drama. Weddings and funerals are also great starts. As guests or mourners, they have shared reasons for being there. Simply place the PCs at the same "table" and let them improv how they know the wedding couple or deceased. Then endangering the happy couple, or solving the mysterious death of their lost lived one sets the tone of the adventure. I've done the "hot start" as well, having them transported in boxes as slaves under magical stasis. The vehicle carrying them crashes, breaking open these crates and releasing the captives in a pile, awakened. Now they're figuring out how they were captured in the first place, where they were going and why. Having them as the last survivors on a bus, train, sailing ship or plane is also good. They might awaken aboard a sailing vessel and everyone else is gone...no bodies, no signs of violence. The ship flounders in the wind, with an island in the distance. Now they have to band together to survive and solve the mystery. Its imperative that you make sure at least one player knows how to operate the abandoned craft during character creation, especially if this craft is a flying vessel. This translates well for Sci Fi settings as well. A transport floating aimlessly with no escape pods and a missing crew as the PCs awaken from hypersleep. A "Mary Celeste" start makes the vehicle the first dungeon, so to speak, and sets up the campaign as a mystery with any sort of antagonist force from something magical to disease, to murdering creatures or more. In fact, my next campaign will start this way. Too many options not to. :)
@magosdominusplutos5131 2 жыл бұрын
Telling the players that the characters already know each other is something I always use. They can know the members from past adventure - "We killed rats in the sewer one time", or the classic "We are childhood friends". Communication is the key for a good start.
@kevinkrueger7479 2 жыл бұрын
I love this shit! As a grognard, I absolutely love an "in situ" beginning. Put them in a moving scene where it's easy to get them going. I like the idea of the PC's knowing each other for various reasons, and possibly being part of one of my canned adventures or being together, whatever it may be. They're in a slave pen, at a party, or a festival, in an arena situation, anything that will make them natural allies.
@RAD-ju1ru 3 ай бұрын
Started my most memorable campaign as a GURPS GM in a tavern. It was a festival day celebrated with traditional drinks and wild stories from the crowd. The stories involved numerous adventure hooks and the PCs even joined in with a few tales of their own. Fantastic and still talked about 20+ years later even though the campaign ended in a TPK. LOL
@rogue109 2 жыл бұрын
I did exactly as you suggested when starting my first Traveller campaign a few weeks ago with Flatlined as the start. We haven't played again yet (hard to get everyone together at the same time) but I'm thinking of running Death Station next, then Islands in the Rift, then High and Dry (to finally give them a ship). But I love how Flatlined starts out with the players waking up from low birth hibernation on a wrecked ship with claxons going off and water seeping in. I really played it up with the ship shifting and groaning once in a while to keep them moving and eventually the lights go out. It was a fantastic start to a campaign, so thanks for the suggestion!
@bensaylor9093 2 жыл бұрын
Ok pointing out that A Clockwork Orange starts in a tavern was the coolest thing. So well done.
@zenovkayos5811 2 жыл бұрын
Yes. I had that scenario where a player actually conflicts with another player at the beginning of the session. It is both the responsibility of the players first and then the DM to establish cohesion and comraterie
@craigkuhlman6869 2 жыл бұрын
I had to look super close, but Mike really did have Dweeble's character-sheet in that intro-skit. Joke's on Mike, though. Dweebles can get the Omicrons and Scott Brown to repossess Mike's place.
@chromeego7903 2 жыл бұрын
Beyond the Wall RPG has a cool 'call to adventure'. As low level adventurers you all start out from the same village and one of your back story rolls is directly linked to the person/player to your right "When we were 12 You saved my life when I fell into quicksand (gain 1 Strength & the Quick Thinking trait) ..." Everyone then has a reason to KNOW and OWE each other. Also the GM builds the adventure with reference to the rolled backstories - gets the players invested right away by building on what they know of the world which is meant to be a close knit fantasy village best by troubles.
@boris2342 2 жыл бұрын
Nothing scarier than a Juggelo druid you meet in jail
@DjigitDaniel 2 жыл бұрын
I know I'm not alone or at the forefront in saying this video is one of Mr Skorkowsky's finest, despite this channel objectively providing some of the best RPG content on the internet since its inception. Bravo, sir. Mandatory viewing for anyone in the hobby.
@charlesmartinez5869 3 ай бұрын
I like the idea of a prompt based start. I've always wanted to start a game with the first encounter. "A small village tavern is attacked by a trio of minotaurs. Four people stand up from their tables and leap into action."
@TheRealCHIMShady Жыл бұрын
My personal favourite is making the players be part of a caravan either as guards, passenger, fugitive or anything else they can come up with. You can use it for pretty much anything as it gives the characters a reason to talk for a little bit before the caravan arrives at the destination where the adventure starts
@Spark_Chaser 2 жыл бұрын
Great start I had in a pirate campaign that I cribbed for a later group: You hired on as an exploratory group to the New World. After A too long trip to an allied nation to pick up needed supplies, and almost a year on ship in port with no port leave, you've received word your boat, as well as yourselves, have been sold off to the nation you're in port of, and your fates have been left in limbo. It's at that point you decided to mutiny. This is also how the pirate Henry Avery got his start as a pirate in 1694.
@moodymac 2 жыл бұрын
I started the game at a festive hurley match between two neighbouring villages, where the characters could get a good chance to ask questions about the villages, meet local people, get a look at the local environment and get a first glimpse of the antagonists. One of players didn't get the odds he wanted from the local bookie, so they all went to the nearest tavern for a beer.
@Deveyus 2 жыл бұрын
I admire both the writing commitment and the physical commitment to the eating the character sheet gag. While I"m under no illusion that you swallowed an entire character sheet, I enjoyed you eating it WAY to much. Made me laugh.
@bigteej5821 2 жыл бұрын
I deeply appreciate the commitment to Mike's Character devouring.....
@TotemStorms 2 жыл бұрын
I haven't seen bad openers for campaigns that I've played. I've seen bad openers for one-shots though. One GM started with us walking into a village and being randomly accosted by the mayor, recognised by sight as adventurers, and basically told "this caravan has been attacked; go and ask the villagers for more information." We were then expected to go and randomly wander around the village to interview people. Perfect opener for a campaign, because it threw us straight into things (aside from how we were targeted), but not good for a mid-evening one-shot that ended up finishing a couple of hours late due to filler material. The other one (same random-party RPG group) by a different GM started us in front of a jobs board. One of the jobs mentioned a dragon. Then we get told that there’s noises off in the distance and guards running in their direction. But there’s this thing talking about- Basically, the plot hook was “you suffer from morbid curiosity about the sound of disasters happening nearby, and the shopkeeper will recognise you as adventurers and hire you solely on that basis.” From there the plot was great and it was a good adventure, but my character didn’t tick either of those boxes, and so I was purely meta-gaming the opening section. Far better (for both of those): “This situation has occurred. The city guard are unable to deal with it themselves and have hired you, either as individuals or companions, based on your wider skillsets. For your own reasons you have agreed to the job for payment of 25 gold (it’s a level 1 game) plus up to 80 gold in goods, services, information, contacts, skills, or materials that you are unable to get otherwise.” Mission briefing, and then straight into the action. I know: “you’re here to play, you should be willing to join in.” But if the opener for a one-shot with a fix time limit is going to require that much meta-gaming to get started… There’s willing (which I was), and there’s having to abandon role-playing because there is genuinely no reason for a character to be part of the adventure. Worst part about the opener of that second game? It ended with everyone congratulating the GM for not opening with “you meet in a tavern,” so I couldn’t even point out that it hadn’t been that great.
@lucas23453 Жыл бұрын
I love starting my players miles away from one another, and gradually guiding the party together.
@violetsunprops 2 жыл бұрын
Some great tips. Thanks Seth! The end skit made me laugh a lot, poor Dweebles 😂
@alancramer1980 2 жыл бұрын
you are going for it in the public rec room at madame ichybals's brothel. at a most inappropriate moment the door is kicked in...
@gossamera4665 2 жыл бұрын
On the topic of starting campaigns. My planned setup is that about HALF or 75% thereabouts of the PCs are all bailed out of prison into servitude by the adoptive son of a noble house, the noble in question is now indebted and the house in question lost its noble status during his adoptive father's reign. The rest of the PCs are retainers, allies/loyals of the nobleman, basically specialists that it wouldn't make sense to start out imprisoned with. His reason for the bailout is to create a team of monster hunters, as his house was famed for, but basically the new monarch didn't believe in monsters and thought it was stupid to pay someone for that service. ANYWAYS, the first mission that I've planned, will be to infiltrate a feast, and through various means sway or falsify in writing the nobles present to support the restoration of noble status to the house of the PCs benefactor. About half the PCs or thereabouts will start on the inside, having either infiltrated the noble house throwing the feast as temporary serving staff, or arrived as guests pretending to belong to the retinues of the other invited nobles. The other half will skulk about outside, trying to discreetly find their way into office chambers and try to find documents and signet rings in order to falsify letters of approval. The inside PCs will have to help the outside ones by unlocking doors, causing distractions etc. Meanwhile, the noble house throwing the party is currently in a feud with another house, whose agents have also infiltrated the feast, and during the night will set off an event that lets that house attack this one in retaliation. So the PCs path to victory will be; -Talk to nobles and sway them to your cause, this in itself could be a huge thing, like that noble won't talk to you but maybe if you bring him cigars or what not, noble A will not support anything that noble B approves of, you can't bring up the subject because this noble has different woes, you learn from noble A that noble B is really into jousting etc, one big social puzzle -Falsify documents to make it seem like unwilling nobles approve of your cause -Find material to blackmail with - Manuever the manor successfully, cause distractions, sneaky sneaky -Decide on how to deal with the agents of the attacking house, preferably discreetly -Deal with or escape from the attacking house, which will likely be the end result no matter what, the only difference will be if they're at an advantage or not (not dealing with them could result in supporters dying) I would welcome any ideas or pointers, as I feel like I'm either trying to do too much or too little, not sure how to tie everything up neatly so it becomes playable.
@EryxUK Жыл бұрын
The best campaign start that I run was a homebrew campaign from several years ago where their coach had been stopped by a highwayman and his bandit minions. I set the map up and their mini's and we started with a "roll initiative". The players and their characters both learned who each other was and what they could do. Worked so well.
@drakevegas7073 Жыл бұрын
I flipped the tavern trope on its head by having the players decide why they were a traveling band of adventures before session one and have the tavern be en route to their initial discussed objective. It let us play up every strength and skip the weaknesses. Fun game!
@real_mereghost 2 жыл бұрын
The opening with the ongoing encounter is usually pretty cool. I started a couple of more pulp-y games with the classical Indiana Jones opening scene: "You folks are on a car fleeing from a group of mobsters that are firing machine guns towards you all. What do you folks do?" No time to answer questions, just survive this piece and then we can get to the explaining/investigations/more shenanigans.
@rdmrdm2659 2 жыл бұрын
A sci-fi game in my own world I have started in a tavern - gathered around watching a newscast which was the opening ‘exposition’. I’d already written it up and sent it to them the week before the game so it wouldn’t be an in game exposition dump. It gave information regarding the civil war breaking out between the inner and outer worlds and set the frame for the campaign among the players, let the primary fault lines be exposed in the reactions of the other bar occupants, with a brawl soon breaking out among partisans of each side … and then the players being approached by a government official in the aftermath of the brawl.
@maproomgaming6886 2 жыл бұрын
My current fantasy game had the party meet in a tavern but with a catch. They had been called their by a friend, Irvold, to whom each of them felt some kind of loyalty or indebtedness and he had left a quest for them. It worked out really well and now I have a patron character to pass intel or resources to the party as needed.
@adrianwebster6923 2 жыл бұрын
the movie Centurion has a situation similar to Vultures of Shem. A bunch of legionaires all meet as survivors of a battle in hostile territory and need to rescue their commander and escape to friendly territory. Good fun.
@MindOfGenius 2 жыл бұрын
The Waterdeep campaign starts in one of the most famous taverns in D&D, The Yawning Portal. Thankfully, when I ran it I had done a Session 0.5 (3 mini sessions between 2 pairs of players, with the third group being a solo player getting an inside-scoop on the Noble [Background] PC). Two of the players had known each other socially; one was a Warforged Alchemist who was eating with his crew and his Goblin boss had invited the Warforged's friend, a Kobold Monk who was going for a rare meal here, and was having a grand feast with his other construction company crewmates. Another pair of players were the Noble PC and his half-orc bodyguard with a heart of gold and fists of steel. The remaining player trailed the Noble PC, since the Noble PC was a bit of a recluse and didn't go out much during the day, what was he up to? That's when the attack came (no spoilers on what or how). After the enemies are defeated, the back door opens to see the constantly half-drunk Volo come from out back, tightening up his pants. "Ah! [Noble PC]! I see you've gathered yourself a group of capable fighters! Ahh, I knew I could count on you for this task. Listen, I'll pay each of you *very well* for this little thing I need help with. Come, come, let me get some more wine..." Still my favorite intro yet.
@ts25679 2 жыл бұрын
Okay, so here's a setup I'm considering. Your group of childhood friends have all enlisted to join an exploratory mission to newly discovered lands with the aim of establishing a staging ground for a new colony. There are a lot of interested parties depending upon your groups classes and moral leanings it is possible that the organisations your players belong to will be at cross purposes. You start by introducing characters one at a time with a vignette or scene of them interacting with their factions and suggesting the motivations and potential secret agendas. Those players who love to have some dark secret or intricate backstories have this scene to get the rest of the group as interested and excited as they are about their character. Think of it like a solo Marvel movie before the big team up. This way when they meet at the tavern, docks or caravan before they head off we know a bit about each of them, how they know each other and what some of their motivations and potential conflicts are. You could also let them decide as a group things about their shared history and about the setting as they introduce their characters.
@TheDarkOne629 2 жыл бұрын
Sounds interesting. I just hope that you planned the session length right. Giving any player out of 4 more than 30 minutes is not good if the session is only 3-4 hours long. Good luck either way!
@tafua_a 2 жыл бұрын
I remember how my favorite campaign I ran started: I gave a private session to each and every character of how they arrived to the exact same tavern to do the exact same job. Some arrived that very day, others had fun the night beforr, some came in secret, some came very publically. Then they all sat at the same table the tavern keeper told them to sit at, and the adventure began.
@ScottRKrol 2 жыл бұрын
I agree the opening of the campaign isn't important in the overall arc but I do feel that any beginning, whether a novel, a movie, a song, works best when you are able to immediately command everyone's attention. My favorite intro is one that you've mentioned; open up in the middle of some sort of action or danger. A great bond of brotherhood is survival, so take five strangers, mix in lots of death and destruction, make them the sole survivors, and you should have a great origin.
@scottplumer3668 2 жыл бұрын
I started my current campaign in a tavern, but with a twist. I have eight players. The bard was playing in the tavern to earn some coin. The dwarf barbarian was earning coin at the "Friday night fights" bare-knuckle boxing matches in the tavern, and the ranger was there to get in from the woods for some R&R. The rest of the party were rescued slaves that were dumped on the dock in the nearest port. They were each given 10 copper and 1 silver piece and directed to the tavern. It was great seeing them keep track of the number of copper pieces they had.
@kevinsullivan3448 2 жыл бұрын
When I'm starting a campaign I encourage the players to have their characters at least know about each other. Having them all start in the same hub community works well, or be members of the same guild or professional organization.
@skylarking12 2 жыл бұрын
I had one of the character meet-ups actually happen *outside* the tavern: One was inside getting his rear handed to him by an NPC, the PC was running out of the door, pursued by a much bigger foe... and one of my PC's is near the door, sees the predicament, and trips the bad guy into a face-plant at full-tilt, effectively stunning that guy. The other PC's are either outside having a smoke, or walking towards the bar. You could also play the bar staff to open with, instead of patrons. Young Jim Hawkins meets Blind Pew this way in Treasure island, and that encounter leads to more and more party members getting added to the adventure as you go. If the players can be patient enough to wait their turns, this could seem very organic. The way I open Death Station, the team selected to fly up to the lab ship are basically conscript workers in a planetary gulag, who hear there's an "audition" for players to go do an assignment that gets them off planet... but they each have to fight other "applicants" for the job slots first, while the guards lay bets...
@antieverything1 2 жыл бұрын
Taverns are a great way to start a sandbox campaign. The trick is to have almost every single NPC they interact with bring up a quest hook or information relevant to one or more quest hooks right off the bat. Hell, have the NPCs talk about the hooks amongst themselves before the PCs even have to engage them in conversation!
@ericwhite1942 Жыл бұрын
In the pathfinder adventure paths they usually have really good openings. Rise of the Runelords starts off at a town festival that's attacked by a Goblin raiding party and in The Mask of the Pharaoh opens at a mass meeting of adventures at the start of a huge organizational exploration of a unearthed old city ruins
@oldsoul3539 2 жыл бұрын
One version I like is all the adventurers turn up outside an adventure location like a dungeon or evil castle, all holding help wanted parchments to meet a guy there. Saves a lot of time and you can get to know each other in an area where you can demonstrate your skills instead of just talking about them.
@jts8053 2 жыл бұрын
PC1: "Greetings! You look dangerous and heavily armed. What say we rob tombs and camp together for the rest of our lives?" PC2: "Verily!"
@richmcgee434 2 жыл бұрын
Note the distinct lack of time frame reference for how long "rest of our lives" might be. :)
@mrtin9128 2 жыл бұрын
my last campaign as gm as for Legends of the Five Rings and it started in a tea house, the twist though was the PCs were all old and retired and were here to recount the tales of their youth and so the whole campaign was one huge flashback
@MaxWriter 2 жыл бұрын
I started my most recent Down Darker Trails game on the stagecoach on the way to the village of Saltmarsh, Washington Territory. The players got to get to know each other a little bit before they got to the town. They've spent a lot of time at the hotel and saloon since though. These are all great ideas. I think I need to watch again and write them down. I prefer to have the characters meet and get to know each other at the beginning of campaigns, personally. I like the role play and seeing how they get along. I usually don't skip the "meet" part myself.
@chillhalvarsson5057 2 жыл бұрын
It's early morning and in the middle of Red Ditch lies the tavern 'The Golden Griffin". It is an old rustic tavern with a stables attached. And it's very much on fire. A voice echoes from behind you: "That's them, Justicar! I saw them set fire t'the place!"
@joehonan1773 2 жыл бұрын
0:35 the constant eye contact really makes it
@Fredministrator Жыл бұрын
Man the sketch intro/outro where just gold. I would like to add one point to starting in the action. You should be careful that whatever leads to the action doesn't seem much more interesing than the adventure itself to the players.
@originaluddite 2 жыл бұрын
My last campaign started in a tavern at which the PCs met an NPC with a job offer. I wound the game down four years later when one of my players moved interstate, but we later played a one-shot while she was visiting. That reunion session was set on an ocean beach and started with the PCs witnessing a shipwreck. However, the venue at which we played was a booth in a pub, so I feel like we never really got away from starting in a tavern. :)
@BillHaworth 2 жыл бұрын
I like patrons in 5e - found in Eberron originally, and now in Tasha’s Cauldron - as you can use a little action scene to introduce each character into the organization and the rest of the table, then the organization provides the actual PC introduction to each other, and then provides structure for the remainder of the campaign. Or at least a method for the DM to give direction to the party towards the next arc of the campaign without feeling too railroady. I also like the Traveller method of each PC makes a connection with 2 other PCs as part of their backgrounds. That is an easier way of getting the party together - one of the party gets a job, messages their 2 contacts, they message... and so on.
@abelsampaio389 2 жыл бұрын
The last time I started a campaign it was the funeral of a noble friend in common of the party. However, apart from the weeping wife and child of the deceased nobleman, and the clerk doing prayers, they were the only invitees to the funeral, and the noble lying on the coffin looked a lot older than he should be, from what the party knew of him from the last time they saw him. It was nice.
@cadenceclearwater4340 2 жыл бұрын
You meet in a tavern. NO You meat in a tavern, you're the main course. Like lobsters in a tank.
@SSkorkowsky 2 жыл бұрын
There was a Goodman Games Cthulhu adventure that was kind of like that. It opens as the PCs wake up hanging from a cave ceiling, then some monster comes in, devours an NPC, and leaves.
@cadenceclearwater4340 2 жыл бұрын
@@SSkorkowsky Sweet, wampa vibes.
@JungleRice 2 жыл бұрын
@@SSkorkowsky which adventure?
@harmonlanager2670 2 жыл бұрын
I like to use what I call “The Usual Suspects” set up. Think of a singular event like a job gone wrong or an attack in public that’d result in the PCs getting arrested (only for questioning so they get let out easy). But don’t start at the event, open with the aftermath. The arrested PCs are questioned by an investigator - allowing them to give their name, some backstory, and general deal over the course of the interview. Follow this with flashbacks to what got the PC there then finally show the event itself. I did this a few times with different groups and it works pretty well. The one time I had a PC die in a flashback (bad luck), I explained that the investigator was interviewing him via a Speak with Dead spell.
@MonkeyJedi99 2 жыл бұрын
This mechanism was used pretty well to "narrate" Dragon Age 2, given that it was one NPC interrogating an NPC you get in your party. I think it helped deepen the connection of the story. Sure, the game had repetitive use of the same maps, but so what. I enjoyed the game enough to play it through at least three times.
@gnarthdarkanen7464 Жыл бұрын
Worth telling... About 8 or 10 years ago now, I was "the new guy" being introduced to a group that had quite recently taken a 2-week hiatus from RP because of a Player who had a total meltdown. It had been toxic awhile and just came to a head, as it were... SO they'd agreed to take a long-break, during which one of the Players that knew me had brought me up to the GM, who also knew me (some coincidence, but nothing serious)... SO I was given a chance to throw together a Character and try their "play style" on for size... AND for S&G-factor, I did exactly that... SO the GM met with me after only ONE week, and we RP'ed my Character through a couple levels since they'd played the Campaign long enough to get to 3rd, but the GM didn't like dumping the WHOLE of that sized backstory on a "New Player" to his Table. We obviously accelerated the whole idea, while he worked out a clever intro' for my Character, and then arranged "the crossroads meeting" as he put it with his other Players. It was a crossroads, because that meltdown had been really something, and there were questions whether any of them would even want to continue playing at all, let alone complete the Campaign... AND if things were that far off the rails, the GM wanted a relatively easy alternative to railroading an adventure onto anyone, so I was already in the thick of my own adventure, and they were dubiously "finishing and cleaning up" from theirs at the time of the meltdown... such as it was. ANYWAYS... I get to the Game Session, and everybody's calmed down and processed the situation to date. One Player's officially gone (banned for the meltdown) and I'm "The New Player" coming to replace them... AND the GM simply explained that as I was being chased into town and found a building up ahead for cover (all while pausing mid-step to take the occasional shot behind me) I'd taken cover in the Tavern where the rest of the Party was apparently drinking their last toasts to a fallen comerade... AND with Orcs and Gnolls teaming up after me, it was already summing up to a knock-down, drag-out, barn burning fight... That was clever and slick, allowing the purposed uses of NPC's to aid us while we tried desperately to hold off the approaching mob, and allowing us just enough time to "quick intro" ourselves along the way, while the conflict played itself out, and we could test and exhibit our own Character's abilities for the Table to see and at least try to work with. The pace was 0 to 100 in a heartbeat, but it was "the right kind of jarring" to offset the shift in Campaign tone and bring us around to the new directions. It's also one of a VERY FEW Campaigns where I can actually remember how we met and started as a Party... bonus that the memory's not for a bad reason. ;o)
@gutterkrawl153 2 жыл бұрын
Monster-of-the-week has a very interesting method of everyone creating their own link to the other players. So when your session zero you dictate how you know each of the other people. And they in turn dictate how they know you. It went over really well in that particular session. We've transferred it to other games. Everyone seems to enjoy it
@TheParagade 2 жыл бұрын
My favorite campaign start was a Traveller game on board a passenger ship that crash landed 5 minutes into the game. The characters formed a bond pretty quick as they tried to find a way off the planet they were stranded on
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