Am I mean?

[Herremann the Wise]

Im starting a new campian with a group that has never played before, I plan on having them arrested and possibly beaten right from the start. Is this mean? I want to make sure I have their attention early on, possibly help them get into char. a little faster.

Yes you are mean. However, if revenge is the aim of the game, you are clearly providing these players with motive and direction. As long as you think the players will play along with this, Dannyalcatraz has highlighted an effective way of doing this:

The way I do it is to run the encounter- whatever its nature- in such a way as to let the PCs strut their stuff before being overwhelmed. It gets the blood pumping, it familiarizes the players with some of the in-play nuances of their characters in combat. That way, even though they end up in the cooler, disarmed and unarmored, they still feel like they've done something.

In my own campaign, I had a particular character imprisoned and put in the stocks for three days. His stuff was stolen by corrupt officials including his beloved masterwork staff. The staff was gifted to a nasty cult mage who magicked it up to a +2/+2 and thus when the party got around to snuffing out the cult, the character found a very nice surprise. The thing is though, the players have to trust you if you are going to pull crap like that and doing such things with brand new players may be a double edged sword.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Dire Bare]

Oh Gawd. I've had several DM's pull this crap on me at various points. I wasn't new to the game, but new to the campaign(s). I rolled up my character, and then promptly had him emasculated and have all his stuff taken away . . . often any abilities and powers were nerfed too. Each time this happened, it wasn't the whole party getting beaten and jailed, just my character to "introduce" him to the story. This ever happens to me again, I walk.

I realize what you are planning is somewhat different that what happened to me several times, but I do think it's a terrible idea. You want to do this to newbs on their first game? Mean? No. Bad idea? Yes. Good luck keeping them around to game some more.

 

[Pain Noodle]

Okay, for starters, Oryan77 had me in freakin' tears! God that's funny...

Secondly, I love the idea. But that's me. I don't know what your overall story is going to be but that's a pretty great and memorable start.

 

[Doug McCrae]

As a GM I wouldn't do it. Or rather if I was going to do it I'd either get player agreement beforehand or I wouldn't play it out, it would be something that had happened in the past.

Some of the most memorable and talked about (by happy, satisfied players) intros to campaigns I've run involved run-ins that end in incarceration or slavery.

I've experienced that as a player - my PC enslaved and tortured in session one - and I didn't like it. I was not a happy and satisfied player.

 

[Goonalan]

*Hands him a Ratbastard DM hat*

AN awesomer way to way to start a game would be with a TPK. Just to cut to the chase.


Sadly, unless you're setting up a humongous revenge epic, I'm not sure a first level arrest/beat down/defilement would play well with most players.

I did this once, Players rolled up (Norse-ish) characters- very pleased with them- I gave them each a magic item for free, first encounter deliberate TPK (although it was a staged end-of-level-bad guy fight, the Dragon- they didn't know this).

There followed a campaign in which the PCs had to get back from the dead, I can't remember where I got the idea, it was a 3PP D&D 3e thing- Asgard I think, the PCs having been killed wake up on the shores of... they needed to recover their remains and thieir spirit/soul etc.

Worked for a while.

Then again I am a mean DM.

Cheers PDR

 

[Minicol]

There was a Living Greyhawk adventure starting right like that.

It made me angry beyond belief, and it severely hampered my enjoyment of the game. And I am an experienced player / GM

Not a good thing.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Firstly, you havn't told us what system it is you are running. This would help put your "grande scheme" into context.

Secondly, do you really think this is a good way of introducing new players who hae never roleplayed before to the hobby? Is this really going to meet their expectations and allow them to ease into the system and help with any awkwardness due to have never roleplayed before?

I think not.

Even experienced groups might be upset at this approach unless it is an important pointer to the style and context of a story that they actually want to play. Again without sufficiant warning this strikes me as an indulgent and insensitive idea at best.

Just because something seems like an intersting idea or even a perfectly acceptable idea in fitting with a setting, it doesn't mean it is fun. This reminds me of a Call of Cthulthu game set in Arkham where early on half the group were set up for murder and sent to prison. A good chunk of the game was supposed to take place in prison but after the first session where those of us unfortunate enough to be locked up and subject to beatings by the other inmates and forced to eat a meal after glass had been ground up in it we had had enough and told the GM to move things on so we could actually play the game rather than suffer ritual abuse. I mention this because it fitted the grim reality of CoC and probably served a story purpose but it just wasn't in any way fun.

I think your proposed openning might disorientate and discourage your players in the same way. Perhaps even more so as they have no benchmark to gauge the event against, to them all roleplaying could be like that!

 

[Cor_Malek]

To summ it up - it can go both ways, but the best you can hope for is "OK" while risking ruined fun for at least some players.

I agree, that if you want to railroad them into prison as first thing - at least do it with a straight face and have them starting there, working their way out. This way you enpower their characters instead of making them realize that they're but paws in your story.

 

[Myke17]

Ok, I may not have them beaten. But it is very critical that they get arrested.
In the plot they come across a shakey looking elf that hands them a treasure map. This map happened to be stolen from the Queen. They are then arrested and the captian of the gaurd makes a deal with them to eliminate a Duke who has been causing trouble latley in exchange for the map, which will lead to their next campain.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Any plot that contains "it is very critical that..." has a problem in it. What if the players come up with a clever way to avoid the arresting troops? What if they just hand over the map, or toss it off a bridge, or roll Sleight of Hand to plant it on a nearby drunk, or eat it? What if they fight to the death rather than come along quietly? What if the group's bard rolls a 20 on Diplomacy and offers the arresting officer a share of the treasure from the map? What if they hand over a fake rather than the real map? What if they agree to the captain's deal but then bail on him and decide to instead try to follow the map from memory?

If a prior event is critical to the plot, either have a backup plan or begin the session with it having already happened. Otherwise players will find a way to go off the rails.