Plots & PlacesPost your PCs and NPCs for others to reference and enjoy. This is also an alternate location for long-term campaign and plot development. These can be system neutral or relate to any game or system.
You start the sentence, "You all start in a...", then choose a location, and then choose a reason for being there. It can be a small paragraph or a page, but the idea is to share so that if we have about 20 of these, it can be the introduction for about 20 adventures in which there will be no excuse for you to say to your players, "You all start in a tavern..."
I will go first:
You all start in a fog-shrouded graveyard. The moon is completely covered and offers no light. The steel from your weapons is cold in the night air and in the distance you hear the baying of wolves. Was that a glint of yellow in the distance from your light source? Perhaps not. Maybe the glow of your light sources are playing tricks on you.
You thought the gold the merchant paid you to find the murderer of his wife would be an easy job, but dead-end after dead-end now leads you and some fellow investigators to search the graveyard about a rumor of a hidden ruin. Maybe you'll uncover the truth here and find that murderer....
Here's part of one I used some years ago. This is the initial event in a chain of events in which each PC gets introduced in serial over the course of an extende cinematic chase scene.
(To a single player...)
"You start off in darkness, with a raging headache, a swelling egg-sized lump on the side of your head, and the smell of mildew in your nose. The rounded floor below you rocks around...a boat? And that echo...and splashing...
The sewers?
You suddenly realize that you never should have tried using your own crooked dice at Manny's Bones-Toss table.
Thank god they didn't find your concealed dagger..."
As originally run, the PC escapes the bag in which he's being held, flees, and eventually finds an escape into a tavern's sub-levels. His emergence from the basement into the bar proper started a fight in which one of the other PCs became an ally of the moment...
The Watch, alerted to the brawl, burst in- the 2 PCs escaping out the back where they encounter PC#3 getting mugged. Their stumbling flight knocks the would-be thugs off balance, and the (now) trio has a clear path of escape...
Here's another:
"You dream, and in your dream, you hear the sound of your name being called...over and over...and then, a wrenching feeling...
You all awake to the sound of chanting. Each of you is on a slab in a huge, low-ceilinged circular room. Around the room are other slabs, just like yours, but empty...and the surrounding walls are dominated by torch-flanked recesses full of skeletal remains, each in unique attire- almost all some kind of battle garb. The skeletons are from all kinds of creatures, some you recognize, some you do not.
As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you realize that your slabs are actually mounted on a raised circular platform, surrounded by concentric stairs that descend about 10 feet. In that darker, lower level kneeling prostrate, are small but burly humanoid figures- the source of the chanting.
One of them, clearly a priest or shaman of some sort, raises his eyes to you. He speaks: 'We have called you, heroes. We have called you from across time and space. We have called you as our ancestors called others before you. We have called you because we need you and your protection from the foes that would wipe us from existence. Please, heroes, aid us.'
There is but one exit, a pair of doors- large, stony and rune-covered...and it begins to vibrate with the force of a battering ram being applied to its other side."
One of my last campaigns started as each member of the party "slowly openes your eyes and streches the stiffness out of your bones, as if they have not been used in ages. Around you you see several other people doing the same, along with other statues still frozen in time. Your mind focuses on the last image of the medusa that placed you here, how long has it been. Who are these others? As you shake out the last aftereffects of being petrified the door on the other side of the chamber opens"
"You start in your home in the forest. Your father had gone out hunting, but you decided to stay and work on your studies. Suddenly you hear commotion outside." I ran outside to find my father under attack by some unknown assailants. I failed to save him, but during the fight, another party member arrived - he had been sent here to find me by my father. We were the only two players during the first session.
"You awake from a dreamless slumber. Your senses are sharp, but your emotions seem flat...you care about nothing, not even who the others around you are, and why they look like they do.
All that matters is The Call...
You follow its pull, down the corridors of a castle- or is it a dungeon?- it doesn't matter.
Finally, you come to a massive pair of iron-bound wooden doors, which open smoothly and silently as you approach.
You enter the room beyond, a lab...a powerful Wizard's lab, filled to every corner with things arcane and profane.
Standing before a glowing mirror on the wall stands the Wizard who called you here. His clothing is ragged, moth-eaten and torn...
His back is to you, one whithered hand running over a bit of text in the tome lying open on the table next to him, syllables that emerge from his lips bounce off of your mind without your understanding them. The mirror clouds, then an image forms- it is a group of adventurers, picking their way through underbrush, finding a concealed door to an underground lair...
'They come.' the Wizard hisses, turning towards you, revealing the dessicated face of undeath and power, "They come to take and plunder my lair, to disturb me in my studies! Just like you tried before them...*cackle* Now, my thralls- the lot of you shall make sure that I am not disturbed. Go! Destroy them!'
Almost as one, you turn your backs on the Old Master, going forth to slay his foes...and by doing so, add to his kingdom..."
In this setup, the party is composed of undead in thrall to a Lich, Vampire, Ghost, Mummy or similar undead spellcaster whom they tried to defeat in life. They are fully intelligent and capable of using their abilities, but they are completely at his beck & call as undead servants. The overall object of the campaign is to cast off the magical shackles that bind them to the Old Master's will and defeat him...hopefully finding either true death (and the afterlife) or regaining the life they lost.
It's getting dark as you walk near the docks, the salty sea air kissing your face ...
Perhaps you work nearby, perhaps you are simply out for a stroll, or perhaps you are on your way to a tavern to look for strangers sitting alone in the corner... but, whatever the reason, you find yourselves walking near the docks late at night.
(the various PCs can be entering the scene from different angles/street directions/etc).
As you pass, you see a series of dark forms crawling out from the underside of the docks ...
__________________ If you're bored and like to follow links provided by random strangers, check out my ENWorld Blog http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/fba827/
It will have campaign logs and random thoughts...
Hmmm...
You all start in a tavern... well, within the foundation of what will one day be a tavern. You were all hired (along with others) to help construct the towns first tavern... there are of course bars here in town, however this fine establishment will one day be the place where adventures are begun... but for now, your adventure consists of digging and hammering... lifting and complaining... at least you had found work...
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Dark Water Campaign run in the Last Lands
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"You start to go to a tavern...but there is a private party being held inside, and you're not invited.
And if you have any doubts about that, ask the wall of meat named Tiny whose frame is overflowing the boundaries of the door.
So there you stand before the barred portal, seen only by the nighttime eyes of the heavens...and those who stand enshrouded by shadows.
And in this neighborhood, that means a lot of eyes...
Somewhere in the distance, you hear a scream!"
The exact wording of the scream sets the tone of the adventure- "Thief!" "Murder!" or "Rape!" or a general "Help!" will warrant one kind of response, while "Fire!" or "Raiders!" will initiate a different kind.
You were on your way back from market, pockets full of gold from the sale of your parents' grain. You are thus not prepared for the ruin / enemy army / whatever which greets you as you come in sight of the village.
This gives the PCs their starting money, a reason for sticking together, and a backstory.
You all start on a wide, sandy beach. Wooden debris litter the sand, reminding you of yesterday's terrible storm. The sky, however, is now perfectly clear, the storm all gone; your ship is also gone, sunk beneath the waves. You, the lucky survivors, find yourself among the ship's remains that have made it to the shore: many planks, half a mast, several torn ropes, a big barrel and a few chests. Beyond the sandy beach you can see the outline of unfamiliar trees, and you can hear the chirping of weird birds and, possibly other animals.
What do you do?
__________________ In space, everyone can hear you pump the 12-gauge.
- Korgoth about Classic Traveller
I'm a big fan of MM, and because most of my players aren't, I've been free to plunder his imagination to fuel FRPG games.
I've used a variation on his mist-shrouded Black Ship that appears on the beach to take the party to shores unknown; the Ghost Women searching for their mates; elements of his Bastable stories have graced my supers set in the world of Space: 1889.
Here's basically how I started my last D&D campaign. It was inspired by a combination of the cover art from a Stormbringer RPG supplement (Slaves of Fate) and Kodo's theme song to The Hunted.
"You're on the Isle of ________ for a great celebration- the wedding (admittedly, one of political convenience) of the children of two great warring nations, so to seal the treaty of non-aggression between them.
After days of feasts and fetes, the celebration winds down, and it is time to go home. Along with other celebrants, you board a ship to take you back to the mainland- the first step in your long journey home.
About midway on your 3 day voyage, the spy on the mainmast spots a storm on the horizon...an impossible storm, flickering from within with bolts of multicolored lightning. Covering miles and miles of sky, it roils towards your ship against the flow of the wind that fills your sails. Witch-weather! And at its fore, like the tip of an arrow, a ship. A mastless, black ship.
In no time at all, it is upon you, beside you...and its inhuman crew is launching grappling lines. You're being boarded!"
The raiders are large, catlike humanoids, like no being you have ever seen or heard of in the world. They launch wave after wave of attackers, and after a heroic struggle, take the ship. Those who surrendered are killed. The mortally wounded are toyed with, then killed. The ones who resisted but were ultimately captured are drugged, then dragged belowdecks.
"You wake, your head throbbing with the aftereffects of some drug. The sun is above you, burning your naked (!) flesh, and your back rests upon hot sand. Your hands are bound. The smoky smell of slow roasted meat wafts up your nostrils, origins unknown.
'Ahhhh...good to see you stir, pinky!' a growling voice says to you. Rough, furry hands yank you up from the ground without effort.
You look around- besides you stand several other people you recognize as fellow passengers, all in a similar state to your own.
'Pinkies! Because of your brave efforts, you have been granted an honor! You are to be set free on this island- the private hunting preserve of our Emperor. In 2 days time, he will arrive here, and will hunt you for his amusement. You will know the hunt has begun when you hear the drums. To be fair, and in honor of your bravery in battle, your gear has been scattered about the island. If you run and fight, you may even win your freedom. If you do not, your fate will be the same as his...'
His great, furry hand points 20 yards down the beach, where a small humanoid body has been placed on a spit over a wood & charcoal fire...
Behind you, a quick motion with a knife- or is it a claw- severs your bindings, and you are given a shove towards the treeline.
'Run, pinkies! RUN! Hah hah hah haaaaah!'
The PCs got to run into the island's foliage and I let the players discuss their options. Let them search for their gear. Let them find some of it.
Then, after a while, I hit the "Play" button on my CD player so that Kodo's theme from "The Hunted" burst out of my system's speakers. (It is a pure piece of drum music in the tyco style...very impressive and thundering. The players actually acted as if they were being hunted & under time pressure- voices raised and stressed, shorter tempers, and the like.)
Hmmm...
You all start in a tavern... well, within the foundation of what will one day be a tavern. You were all hired (along with others) to help construct the towns first tavern... there are of course bars here in town, however this fine establishment will one day be the place where adventures are begun... but for now, your adventure consists of digging and hammering... lifting and complaining... at least you had found work...
You start looking out into the city. From your view, you can see the splendors of the majestic city from the lowest quarter of the slums to the spires of the nobles who rule from their lofty towers. The only thing marring your view of the city is the heavy iron bars that block your way. It's been a few days since your arrest and being thrown in prison.
Trumped up charges, falsified evidence, and no chance to defend yourself. Such was your lot and the fate of others sharing the same cell with you. You, and the other unfortunates like yourself await the inevitable for your so-called "crimes"--death. Your execution is to be held tomorrow and you can hear the gallows being mended in the courtyard far below. You lament your fate and curse the gods for such terrible luck. As you move away from the view of the city, the door to your cell begins to click as the keys to the heavy lock turns.
Suddenly, your cell is flooded with light as a cloaked and armed figure steps in and......
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