campaign starter idea

[eleran]

Let me preface this by saying I may have been watching too much TV of late, and LOST in particular. But, I was trying to think of some non-standard ways to kick off my upcoming 4e campaign. I haven't DMed in a couple of years and I want this to be memorable because of my return to the DM chair and our groups launch of 4e.

I was thinking of starting by describing a scene the group sees as they approach their destination along a road. The destination is another point of light area. As they get within a couple of miles of the place they see a couple of farmers on a wagon being attacked. I want to play up the scene...and then switch to a flashback of them being hired to go do whatever it is that they are there to do. And then roleplay that to the point where the attack happens and finish up the session with the fight to rescue the farmers.

Here are my issues.

1) At first blush it sounds like railroading and I don't want to do that. But, I think if it is done right it doesnt have to be a railroad. As long as they end up on the road to that place and come across that scene everything else is up fro grabs. There could be lots of divergence as far as clues, equipment, goals, motivations, etc leading up to the scene as described.

2) How to pull it off without confusing or boring the players. In a tabletop game, unlike in front of the telly, if I start them on an obvious flashback they will know that whatever is done they will end up back at that scene.

But, I really think if it can pulled off it will be a very memorable campaign start.

I would like to hear some opinions, both of the idea itself, and some thoughts on how best to try to carry it off. Especially if anyone has already tried something similar.

 

[invokethehojo]

I've tried things similar to this before and my advice is this:

1. tell the PC's ahead of time your trying something new and they should go along with it and give it a try.

2. Make it last only one session

3. Afterwards get thier feedback and base further experiments off of that

My players have always been open to new experiences and ways of doing things, even if there is some railroading, as long as they know it's not gonna happen every week and that I will take thier feedback into account.

I dont know how you could (or if you even should) do it without the players knowing its a flashback from the beginning.

I would like to hear how it turns out when your finished

 

[eleran]

I've tried things similar to this before and my advice is this:

1. tell the PC's ahead of time your trying something new and they should go along with it and give it a try.

I did plan on this, but thanks for the suggestion.

2. Make it last only one session

I should have included that this would be only for the first session of the campaign, after that we proceed normally.

3. Afterwards get their feedback and base further experiments off of that

My players have always been open to new experiences and ways of doing things, even if there is some railroading, as long as they know it's not gonna happen every week and that I will take thier feedback into account.

I dont know how you could (or if you even should) do it without the players knowing its a flashback from the beginning.

I would like to hear how it turns out when your finished

If I go ahead with the idea I will definitely post how it went in here. We won't be starting the campaign until about July 1.

 

[marune]

Let me preface this by saying I may have been watching too much TV of late, and LOST in particular. But, I was trying to think of some non-standard ways to kick off my upcoming 4e campaign. I haven't DMed in a couple of years and I want this to be memorable because of my return to the DM chair and our groups launch of 4e.

I was thinking of starting by describing a scene the group sees as they approach their destination along a road. The destination is another point of light area. As they get within a couple of miles of the place they see a couple of farmers on a wagon being attacked. I want to play up the scene...and then switch to a flashback of them being hired to go do whatever it is that they are there to do. And then roleplay that to the point where the attack happens and finish up the session with the fight to rescue the farmers.

Here are my issues.

1) At first blush it sounds like railroading and I don't want to do that. But, I think if it is done right it doesnt have to be a railroad. As long as they end up on the road to that place and come across that scene everything else is up fro grabs. There could be lots of divergence as far as clues, equipment, goals, motivations, etc leading up to the scene as described.

There is really two different kind of "railroading".

First one happens when the DM narrates the initial scene or the transition between the scenes where the players can take actions.

IMHO, this one SHOULD be used more, because during the scenes, the players have many meaningful decisions to do.

The second one happens when the DM describes a scene and waits for the players to find the rails for the next scene.

That is the bad one and the one you can avoid, even with scene framing techniques like flashbacks.

 

[marune]

Double post.

 

[invokethehojo]

I did a campaign that was very much like Lost; it took place on an island, had many different things (most of which were unexplainable) going on and didn't have many answers.

I haven't tried flashbacks before (excellent idea by the way) but I have done things with the PC's losing thier memories and having to figure out what happened or who they are... mixed results, but fun to try.

1 thing i learned in my lost-esque campaign, you don't always have to try hard to make things mysterious. Ex: my island was a jungle where slavers were digging into an ancient mountain... the whole thing had to do with dragons (As a DM I never use dragons so they didn't see this coming at all ). The best mystery for the players started with them running through the jungle after escaping from the slavers... and coming to a small section of jungle that was frozen. They were uber curious and kept talking about it, so I kept throwing it in at odd points

turns out that all it was was a silver dragons breath weapon. I put him in as a good NPC that kept an eye on the PC's and could potetially save them from a TPK if I wanted to.

Don't know if that helps you at all, it's a little off subject, but I'm always looking for ways to do things differently in D&D and you have given me a good idea, so I tried to return the favor.

good luck

 

[eleran]

Double post.

LOL wow, I have this thread set for email notification when a reply is made and I got this notification 4 times.

No harm done, but it was funny.

 

[eleran]

I did a campaign that was very much like Lost; it took place on an island, had many different things (most of which were unexplainable) going on and didn't have many answers.

I haven't tried flashbacks before (excellent idea by the way) but I have done things with the PC's losing thier memories and having to figure out what happened or who they are... mixed results, but fun to try.

1 thing i learned in my lost-esque campaign, you don't always have to try hard to make things mysterious. Ex: my island was a jungle where slavers were digging into an ancient mountain... the whole thing had to do with dragons (As a DM I never use dragons so they didn't see this coming at all ). The best mystery for the players started with them running through the jungle after escaping from the slavers... and coming to a small section of jungle that was frozen. They were uber curious and kept talking about it, so I kept throwing it in at odd points

turns out that all it was was a silver dragons breath weapon. I put him in as a good NPC that kept an eye on the PC's and could potetially save them from a TPK if I wanted to.

Don't know if that helps you at all, it's a little off subject, but I'm always looking for ways to do things differently in D&D and you have given me a good idea, so I tried to return the favor.

good luck

Great food for thought there, thanks. BTW, where in Indiana are you? I am originally from Kokomo.