Hjorimir
Adventurer
The great experiment: To start a campaign where the PCs are children.
This is something I’ve been thinking about for well over a year now and I have had more than a few conversations about the idea with a few of my friends. The feedback was usually along the lines that it might be “neat to try” but more than likely “doomed to fail.” So, it came time to start a new game and I mentioned that I was going to be starting the characters as children. This declaration was met with more than a few groans.
My players tend to really delve down into the mechanics of their characters, which is not to suggest that they don’t appreciate the role-play and background fluff along with their crunch. To deny them the crunch as we start is a pretty risky endeavor to say the very least. The only thing I handed them as far as a character sheet was what their starting ability scores were and that’s it. No class, skills, feats, saves, equipment, hit points, ac…nothing. I also handed them each a family tree that explained who was who along with a very short description of what each NPC did for a living (e.g. Brynn, your mother is a midwife). The characters all started being anywhere from 8 to 11 years old. I also provided them a little information about their friends. Silas is the odd boy who lives in the bell tower with his dimwitted father, Wilk. He is weak and gangly and says weird things. As a result, Silas is often the brunt of jokes, insults, and is beat up quite often by the other kids.
So roll forward. We played one session and the gang was very, very receptive to the entire experience. Pretty much everything was narrative; we maybe rolled d20s three times to check perception results. Much to my delight, the players really dove into the child mentality (over half of my group are fathers as is). The twins, in particular, had us in stitches with the way they constantly were in competition with one another, “two for flinching!” WHACK! WHACK!
The only downer was that one of my five players in the game couldn’t make it to the first session. He’s been working a stupid amount of overtime as of late and just couldn’t make it.
So, session two was last night. I got the call from the same player – my own brother, he’s lucky I love him – who couldn’t make it again (he worked 18 hours on Monday and 15 on Tuesday and Wednesday was shaping up to be another spectacular day). Needless to say, this wasn’t going to plan. As the first sessions of the campaign are really meant to help forge the ties that bind amongst the PCs and set the tone and tempo for the game as a whole, I consider them to be amongst the most important to attend. It is one thing to miss a fight here and there, but to miss huge amounts of content and backstory can really make a player confused.
So, as we all sat down last night to play I suggested that instead of the freeform role-playing that we take the opportunity to talk about some of the mechanics for the characters (something that will have to be done as they grow older). This is when they hit me. “You know, I’d rather keep role-playing. Just make the decisions for me and hand me a character sheet when you think you need to.” What? “Yeah, I was originally thinking about one idea, but the way the story is unfolding I think my character may grow up to be something else completely. Just let me know what it is as the story develops.” Excuse me? Who are these guys at my table?
These are the same players that usually chart a characters skill and feat selection out to twentieth level. With the hands of surgeons they carefully craft the most mechanically capable characters they can within the context of my game. Granted, they don’t break the rules and their characters are never cheesy, but they do maximize to the VERY best of their abilities. To instruct me that they are perfectly comfortable with anything I hand them is incomprehensible.
Anyway, we played the second session and it turned out to be even better than the first. It was 10 PM before we knew what hit us and everybody is very excited about the next session. I was originally going to do maybe three childhood sessions, but the story is going so strong and the players are enjoying things so much I may try and toss a few more in. I really think the campaign will develop into something special. I love my players and I’m damn lucky to have them.
So, my question to you: Have you ever come at the game from a different angle and found the results surprisingly good or bad? I’d be interested to hear of other ways to revitalize a tried and true gaming experience.
This is something I’ve been thinking about for well over a year now and I have had more than a few conversations about the idea with a few of my friends. The feedback was usually along the lines that it might be “neat to try” but more than likely “doomed to fail.” So, it came time to start a new game and I mentioned that I was going to be starting the characters as children. This declaration was met with more than a few groans.
My players tend to really delve down into the mechanics of their characters, which is not to suggest that they don’t appreciate the role-play and background fluff along with their crunch. To deny them the crunch as we start is a pretty risky endeavor to say the very least. The only thing I handed them as far as a character sheet was what their starting ability scores were and that’s it. No class, skills, feats, saves, equipment, hit points, ac…nothing. I also handed them each a family tree that explained who was who along with a very short description of what each NPC did for a living (e.g. Brynn, your mother is a midwife). The characters all started being anywhere from 8 to 11 years old. I also provided them a little information about their friends. Silas is the odd boy who lives in the bell tower with his dimwitted father, Wilk. He is weak and gangly and says weird things. As a result, Silas is often the brunt of jokes, insults, and is beat up quite often by the other kids.
So roll forward. We played one session and the gang was very, very receptive to the entire experience. Pretty much everything was narrative; we maybe rolled d20s three times to check perception results. Much to my delight, the players really dove into the child mentality (over half of my group are fathers as is). The twins, in particular, had us in stitches with the way they constantly were in competition with one another, “two for flinching!” WHACK! WHACK!
The only downer was that one of my five players in the game couldn’t make it to the first session. He’s been working a stupid amount of overtime as of late and just couldn’t make it.
So, session two was last night. I got the call from the same player – my own brother, he’s lucky I love him – who couldn’t make it again (he worked 18 hours on Monday and 15 on Tuesday and Wednesday was shaping up to be another spectacular day). Needless to say, this wasn’t going to plan. As the first sessions of the campaign are really meant to help forge the ties that bind amongst the PCs and set the tone and tempo for the game as a whole, I consider them to be amongst the most important to attend. It is one thing to miss a fight here and there, but to miss huge amounts of content and backstory can really make a player confused.
So, as we all sat down last night to play I suggested that instead of the freeform role-playing that we take the opportunity to talk about some of the mechanics for the characters (something that will have to be done as they grow older). This is when they hit me. “You know, I’d rather keep role-playing. Just make the decisions for me and hand me a character sheet when you think you need to.” What? “Yeah, I was originally thinking about one idea, but the way the story is unfolding I think my character may grow up to be something else completely. Just let me know what it is as the story develops.” Excuse me? Who are these guys at my table?
These are the same players that usually chart a characters skill and feat selection out to twentieth level. With the hands of surgeons they carefully craft the most mechanically capable characters they can within the context of my game. Granted, they don’t break the rules and their characters are never cheesy, but they do maximize to the VERY best of their abilities. To instruct me that they are perfectly comfortable with anything I hand them is incomprehensible.
Anyway, we played the second session and it turned out to be even better than the first. It was 10 PM before we knew what hit us and everybody is very excited about the next session. I was originally going to do maybe three childhood sessions, but the story is going so strong and the players are enjoying things so much I may try and toss a few more in. I really think the campaign will develop into something special. I love my players and I’m damn lucky to have them.
So, my question to you: Have you ever come at the game from a different angle and found the results surprisingly good or bad? I’d be interested to hear of other ways to revitalize a tried and true gaming experience.
Personally one of the most intense games I've ever played was the first Vampire game I played... It was many many years ago when the White Wolf was never heard of and the first edition of The Masquerade was published. The game itself wasn't actually even Vampire - it was a prelude to the campaign and we played timeline from characters' ages 6 to 10 years.
