Do you "tease" your players?

barsoomcore

Unattainable Ideal
Hey folks

I've started writing "Episode Teasers" for my Barsoom campaign. There's a discussion group for the players and before each game (usually a day or two beforehand) I'll post a "Teaser" for that episode -- something to set up the game session and give us a good, quick kind of opening so that as soon as folks sit down we can get started -- the players immediately have something in-game to talk about and focus on (I usually print it off and have it on the table before they arrive).

I find it's A) lots of fun to write them, and B) really helpful in getting game focus happening faster. It makes it easier for me to jump in and get things started (especially when the teaser ends with, "And then the castle starts to collapse around you").

Here's a couple of examples of what I'm talking about (there are minor spoilers for readers of my Barsoom Tales Story Hour, but nothing super huge):

Episode 95:

The two Lohanese women sit crumpled against the wall, one with her face buried in her arms while the other eyes you suspiciously.

She takes the skull from Elena and drinks, nods at the effect and holds it for her companion to drink from. Warily, she hands it back and takes off her helmet.

She looks like a teenage girl -- not more than seventeen or eighteen. Her eyes seem haunted, nearly empty, as she studies you.

When she speaks, her voice is soft but with a strong accent. She is obviously unused to speaking Imperial Kishite.

"Morisawa-sama... She is dead."

Their armour carries not only the scratches and dents of combat, but burn marks, as if streaks of fire had poured over the red lacquer, blackening and peeling it away.

"She gave a message. For you."

"The demon that bring you here is bound to serve another. We do not know who, but you will not be the last to come from... Kiriku. Barsoom's long peace will end.

"This is the message of Morisawa-sama. I am finished."

Which, of course, is when the castle gives a massive jolt and the cracks appear in the ceiling. It appears the entire place is about to come down.


Episode 101:

The wind, painted white by snow, curls off the surrounding cliffs in long, undulating banners against the pale pink of the clear sky.

It howls. And it bites.

The trail is lost under heavy drifts but the landscape is easy enough to follow; go straight up over the ridge ahead and down into what must be Lost Pine Valley. It's farther than it looks, however, and getting to the top of the ridge requires strength: shovelling aside packed snow and dragging half-frozen feet step by step up the snowy slope, hissing with ice particles. Without snowshoes, it would be impossible.

At the top, everyone is exhausted, puffing and sweating in their heavy robes, looking down.

The valley looks as though it's been scoured clean by the shrieking winds. No trees (pine or otherwise) are visible, and the only evidence of buildings are the faint ridges of rooftops, barely poking out of the drifts that span the valley from one side to another. At the far end of the valley, nearly a mile away, a single conical peak rises, its bare tip higher than all the other mountaintops around. At its base, a dark mist circles, seemingly impervious to the winds.

Nearer at hand, just down the other side of the ridge, a dark patch turns out to be two bodies. Blood Council women, in keen red winter clothes, frozen solid, lay half-buried in snow. Closer examination reveals one woman's robes have been torn open and terrible wounds, congealed with icicles of blood, tear across her back. One of her hands clutches the hilt of a dagger that protrudes from her comrade's side. The other woman's face is drawn back in a horrible grimace. Her teeth appear lengthened and grotesque and her eyes still burn even in death with a foul radiance. Blood has frozen on her chin.

A eruption of black mist nearby blows snow in heavy chunks across the slope. Where the mist came swirling up, a Lohanese woman, dressed in elaborate (if somewhat tattered) robes, appears and stumbles forward.

"Help me... It's eating me... Help... "

Downslope from the crest of the ridge, the bite of the wind is lessened.

But it still howls.


Episode 102:

Doing its best to ride the icy winds, the lone crow flaps in weary strokes through the pass, keeping as close to the crust of the snow as possible, squawking as the gale snags it from one moment to another, still pumping its wings as it descends into the valley where the mist-ringed mountain looms over the ruined village.

The black bird pays no attention to the half-buried buildings and only pauses a second on the edge of the dark mist, plunging in with an angry cry, darting into the long hall filled with strange statues, through an open stone door and spiralling down a dark, icy shaft.

Far below, faint light glimmers up, and the crow plunges downward, circling once over a number of not-quite-completely frozen corpses before, with another angry squawk, lifting up and continuing deeper into the cavern.

The crow flaps past tall columns, a strange rotunda of some sort, through open doors, down a long hall lined with floating corpses and into a vast chamber with tables, bodies, a massive grey pillar and and four weary-looking people. It calls out loudly a few times, ensuring it has everyone's undivided attention, and settles on the lip of a basin.

And speaks.

"I am Kuro. Message from Nakayo. Do you have the weapon?"

What do you do to get your game going with a strong start? Do you provide your players with "extra-curricular" materials between games?
 

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I've done it a few times in the past, but since we are starting an Eberron campaign, I plan on doing it a lot more. Starting with this weekend, I plan on beginning each session with a "teaser" (ala James Bond) also. I would let you know about this week's teaser, but Dagger75 and MEG Hal are everywhere. Let's just say it involves "teen angst" taken to a new level... :cool:
 

Post 'em after you're done! I'd love to hear about it.

Starting sessions strongly is a real weak point for me, so I'm always looking for new ideas and ways to put a little zip in them.
 

barsoomcore said:
Post 'em after you're done! I'd love to hear about it.

Starting sessions strongly is a real weak point for me, so I'm always looking for new ideas and ways to put a little zip in them.

I know what you mean. I have only begun to think of starting games like this since I've been working on an Eberron campaign. I can't believe I didn't do it before.
 

Hey, Corey, how do you use these? I mean, is this supposed to happen right before the session starts, or be more like an actual teaser; i.e.; are you trying to guess what might happen in the session and preview a brief snippet?

I'm intrigued by this idea; I've done a teaser for a "module" in my current campaign, but that "module" lasted for almost six sessions, and I haven't really given any thought for doing something like that again. That time, though, I gave the players some disposible NPCs, stuck them in a weird spot and then killed them all in a weird way, previewing one of the recurring villains (or is she an ally? hard to say...) Only a session or two in could the players start to see the relevance.
 

I do major teasing in my PBP western campaign. Two months ago I began doing foreshadowing about a module that will be kicking off in the next few weeks and I've just started laying the groundwork for one much much further off. I feel it's good to let players know that there's more than just what is currently going on while still not giving away anything major.
 

I do my teasers short and sweet for the current D20 Modern campaign...enough to whet the appetite and establish the mystery and the crux of the plot. Fr'ex:

In 1931 an unidentified corpse is discovered downriver from the Boulder Dam construction site.

In 2004 a disaster unparalleled in modern times threatens the Hoover Dam.

In 2471 the story begins.

That's a fave.

On the 360º viewscreens, U.N. Elite Security Force troops carefully place bundles of C-4 around the TARDIS entrance, while in the background Nodwells and sandbag emplacements bristle with weaponry. Jason curses softly and flips through the TARDIS manual.

"The good news," he announces, "is that those explosives won't be able to tear through the timeship's hull. The bad news is that a good portion of the shock will likely be transferred to the interior." He looks back at the screens, counts two, four, six pounds of explosive.

"In other words, we're about to be liquefied."
 

Bar Paper

I once ran a campaign a few years ago that was based in the Known World (AKA Basic D&D). As I cut my teeth on that world, I have often gone back to it because I really enjoy it, particularly since there was a lot of development for the world and since it was so easy to do mass combat there (In fact I liked the old Companion Box mass combat rules and country management rules up until I purchased Fields of Blood just recently).

I had each player starting from a different country and gave each of them their own knowledge of that country, it's lore as well as holidays, prejudices and so forth. It was by far one of the best campaigns I ran. It had the most depth and the players took to the world since they knew so much about it as I provided almost 20 pages each to them (which was data cropped from the Gazateers of each country). It was something special to have the party doing a dungeon crawl and after a night of rest in some stinky room a player would say "Well guys. Got to stay here today. Can't adventure. Don't you know it such and such day?" It just added that much extra realism to the game.

Anyways, to get to the point of this post there was a point in the campaign where the characters had the opportunity to create a barony based on land granted to them by their leige in a remote part of the world (Anyone who has played Basic through Immortal Boxed Sets should be familiar with this). Each character loved the idea and began buiding their own barony. As their lands were being developed we hit upon the idea that communication was needed between the baronies. Thus we created a circulating paper that was sent to each of their lands. I went so far as to have each player provide me with an article either based on things in their own lands or rumors that someone would hear in a tavern or even posters that could be found just about anywhere. I had the players provide this to me a couple of days in advance and then I would compile it into a "newspaper" and everyone started arriving to sessions early just so they could read the combined effort of the paper.

The plot hoooks were great as I could weave the ideas into the adventure I had in mind and the players were thrilled as they now contributed to the direction of the campaign. This worked out really well but it took the entire group to commit to it. If your players are into something this I really suggest giving it a try. When they see their own stories coming in to the game it makes them want to do more!
 

This is such an awesome idea. I'm definately going to start sending these around before each game.

How about this for a starter:


Ramus halted midstride. Something was wrong.

Up ahead, Azin and the others were negotiating heatedly with the caravan masters, their voices carrying easily under the sun scorched sands of this desert city. Dart was nowhere to be seen, itself quite a feat for the brightly tattooed thrall. But what was it that unsettled him so?

His eyes narrowed. Maybe it was just this city. Something about the endless rows of windowless towers, or perhaps it was just the miserly attitude of its wrinkled denizens. Or perhaps it was just a feeling, that all was not quite as it shold be.

Shrugging, Ramus approached the others. It was time to press forward into the Wilderlands. At long last, revenge seemed possible, and the demons in the Jaspar mountains were someone elses problem.
 
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I try to have my Story Hour current and end with a cliffhanger.
And I try to start the session with a little summary of what happened and end right in the action. For example, if the players last game decided to go to sleep when we made a cut, I might go back in time a little and end with them coming home to see a stranger sitting in their living room.
 

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