Action Prologues: Kicking Things Off In Style

[pukunui]

Hi folks,

Lately I've grown tired of the whole "you meet in a tavern and some guy gives you a quest" cliché. Instead, I've been thinking about how fun it would be to start campaigns in the style of a James Bond movie, where the PCs are already in the thick of things. What they are doing might not have much bearing on the rest of the campaign but it does help to set the tone.

The question is: what would work better for a tabletop game (as opposed to a movie or novel), a Raiders of the Lost Ark style opener where the PCs are just arriving at the adventure location and have to work their way through it all the way, or something like the opening to Star Trek Into Darkness, where the PCs have already been to the bottom of the dungeon and now they have to make it back out alive?

I suppose you could say that's a silly question because the answer will always be "It depends". That is, it depends, primarily, on the group involved and their preferred playstyle and such.

I guess the reason I ask is that I like the idea of starting a campaign in the thick of things, perhaps with a chase scene. I'm just not sure the players would like "missing out" on the preceding events.

What do you guys think?

Also, feel free to post your own "action prologues" if you've got any. I started a similar thread a while back on the WotC forums and got some neat ideas. I'm always open to more ideas though.

I'll start with one of my own: I ran a D&D Next playtest session a few months ago, and I had the PCs wake up in a snowy mountain pass, surrounded by burning wreckage. They were all suffering from short-term memory loss. Between picking themselves up (or getting themselves down out of a tree, in one case) and fending off the orcs and wolves who'd come to scavenge amongst the wreckage, they eventually pieced together that they'd been on an airship that had crashed (appropriately named the "Titania"). They then headed out of the mountains to look for civilization, which was as far as we got. The players all seemed to like it, though.

Thanks in advance.

~ Jonathan

 

[Grogg of the North]

I've tried an action prologue a couple times. It makes for a nice change of pace. One time I had the PCs in a caravan. You're all traveling for a variety of reasons towards the nearby city. Here's the layout. What's everyone doing? Okay ... arrows fly out from the forest, roll initiative. As the various merchants, travelers and tradesmen the PCs started leading everyone away to safety.

Another time, I had a small town laid out on a huge map. Everyone was at home when the bells at the town hall started ringing. The town was under attack! The PCs rushed to defend the town and, in the end, geared up for a doomed last stand in the town square. The forces arrayed against the town were clearly overwhelming and it took some OOC nudging to get the party to realize they had to run.

So I've had it hit or miss. There really isn't much difference between "just arriving" and "getting back out". Though you may have to deal with difficult questions like "Wait, why did I go into the abandoned temple?" Definitely give it a try!

EDIT: Forgot the current game I'm playing in. It started basically like this: "You're all sleeping in the church. It's on fire, what do you do?!" "Um ... run outside! AH! There are skeletons are in the fields! Run to the wizard's tower, he'll save us!" *PCs run to the wizard tower only to see him fireball some of the town citizens* "The wizard isn't going to save us! Back into the fields with the skeletons!"

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The Indiana Jones example.

IME, you still need to do work in session 0. The PCs all need to be compatible before the game starts (eg alignment, long-term goals, etc). Otherwise you'll have an exciting session or two and then PCs drift apart as things get not-as-bad.

 

[pukunui]

I've tried an action prologue a couple times. It makes for a nice change of pace. One time I had the PCs in a caravan. You're all traveling for a variety of reasons towards the nearby city. Here's the layout. What's everyone doing? Okay ... arrows fly out from the forest, roll initiative. As the various merchants, travelers and tradesmen the PCs started leading everyone away to safety.

Another time, I had a small town laid out on a huge map. Everyone was at home when the bells at the town hall started ringing. The town was under attack! The PCs rushed to defend the town and, in the end, geared up for a doomed last stand in the town square. The forces arrayed against the town were clearly overwhelming and it took some OOC nudging to get the party to realize they had to run.

Great ideas!

So I've had it hit or miss. There really isn't much difference between "just arriving" and "getting back out". Though you may have to deal with difficult questions like "Wait, why did I go into the abandoned temple?" Definitely give it a try!

Yeah, I'd be sure to give them a reason why in the background info ("You went into this temple to steal a certain macguffin for someone and you managed to get your hands on it, but now you're being chased back out by a horde of whatever").

EDIT: Forgot the current game I'm playing in. It started basically like this: "You're all sleeping in the church. It's on fire, what do you do?!" "Um ... run outside! AH! There are skeletons are in the fields! Run to the wizard's tower, he'll save us!" *PCs run to the wizard tower only to see him fireball some of the town citizens* "The wizard isn't going to save us! Back into the fields with the skeletons!"

Ha! That's awesome!

The Indiana Jones example.

Any particular reason?

IME, you still need to do work in session 0. The PCs all need to be compatible before the game starts (eg alignment, long-term goals, etc). Otherwise you'll have an exciting session or two and then PCs drift apart as things get not-as-bad.

Yes, this is an issue I always strive to address when I GM, as it bugs the heck out of me when I'm a player and the GM doesn't provide a compelling enough incentive for the PCs to all stick together.

In my particular case, I'm toying with the idea of having the PCs be a group trying to gain entry into an adventurer's guild. They've been sent on a mission to obtain some macguffin and bring it safely back to their guild handler, who is waiting with a getaway cart nearby. The handler, however, rather than rescuing them ends up kidnapping them and throwing them in a dungeon naked. Should they succeed in getting out, they will be told that the kidnapping was a final surprise test and they are now members of the guild. (A few years ago, there was a TV program about the trials NZ SAS hopefuls have to go through, which culminates in a wilderness survival "behind enemy lines" scenario, where they have to evade their enemies and make it safely back to a caravan of friendlies, who turn out to be enemies too; the hopefuls then have to stand up to torture and such as a final test before being inducted into the SAS; my idea is loosely based on that).