Game 1 (0) advice?

[Chibbot]

So, I'm preparing to run an ongoing game, beginning about a week from today. I have a lot of the plot, setting, villains, etc planned out.

This won't be the first game that I've ever run, but the number is quite small.

Whenever I am prepping a game, almost every time my biggest stumbling block is the very beginning.

How do the players stumble onto the plot in the first place? How do they meet each other? Where did they come from and why are they conveniently at X location when Y event happens?

Yeah, a lot of that can be determined by the characters' histories, but not all of it.

Some of the various things that I've done (and remember) are:

-none of the characters have met, and you're all hanging out in a bar. something happens, and the characters react, which causes them to band together. (this is somewhat convoluted, because it forces players to do something they might not otherwise do)
-the characters have never met and are all at a royal wedding. something happens, etc (see above, basically)
-the characters have met before, and they are recruited into the town service
-the characters are in the employ of a merchant, escorting goods when something exciting happens
-the characters have met before, and are hanging out in a bar when something happens

So it basically boils down to one of two formulaic situations: the players know each other and "sit around" (where sitting around could involve walking through the woods, hanging out in a bar, etc) and wait for something to happen, or, the players don't know each other and "sit around" () and wait for something to happen.

I was wondering what other lead-ins to stories you folks have used, either "stereotypical" or off-the-wall, and what seemed to work well or not work well?

 

[Serensius]

My most recent campaign was started using your second "stereotypical" beginning: The PCs all started in a wagon together with their rather unsympathetic, mustache-sporting noble employer (who was later going to turn into a villain, he he). I think having this common figure that they all disliked helped band them together. Another tip would be to have your players design their characters together; they might not all know each other, but having, say, two groupings of people team up seems more likely than five individuals randomly meeting up.

 

[Asmor]

My advice is two-fold.

First, force the PCs to already be established together. Leave the specifics up to them, or come up with a reason on your own. As long as you're not too specific about the important bits, it should be okay.

Second, start in media res. Don't even give them a chance to miss or ignore the hook. Start them on the path to adventure, explaining to them what quest they've just accepted and where they're headed to. Heck, don't even tell them that much right away. The first two words out of your mouth should be "Roll initiative" as you set up a simple fight just to get the ball rolling. After the fight, explain to them that the reason they're trekking through this gods-forsaken, stirge-infested jungle is because they've been tracking their missing friend and they got a lead that he was seeking out the Lost Temple of Amonchuchu deep in the Sweltervine Jungle.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I agree whole heartedly with Asmor's advice on using media res. I find that is extremely useful for beginning a campaign (especially one that is plot-heavy).

 

[MortalPlague]

Asmor has an excellent point there, beginning with a fight is always a good plan. If you're in a tavern, have a brawl break out. If you're on the road, it's an ambush. This leads the characters to band together naturally (most of the time), and after the encounter it gives them an easy topic of conversation to break the ice.

For my campaign, starting next week, all my players have been asked to roll up young, naive characters from the same small village, so their 'group' element is already enforced by the fact that they grew up together. The game itself is going to kick off with a festival; a natural event to get characters talking.

 

[LostSoul]

• Have the players make the characters together.
• Get them to create goals for their characters. Long-term, short-term, it doesn't matter. Make this a Quest for them.
  • Make sure that at least one goal binds the party together.
  • Other goals can be individual ones - these are your subplots. Minor Quests.
• If a player doesn't have much of a goal point at him and laugh. Then have ninjas jump him. Give him a Quest: "Find out why the ninjas wanted to kill you."

This is also known as "let the players do the work."

 

[Peni Griffin]

In Media Res may work for certain kinds of players; mine would resent it. Know your players! All else comes from that.

In our group, the DM tells the players the gist of the situation and they make characters to suit. "You are all from the same small (under 800 people) town. A situation will arise right around harvest time and you will be the volunteers who deal with it." "You are all on a ship headed from Point X to Point Y." "You will be part of a colony to settle a new land discovered in the west. Your base sociey is similar to feudal England." "You will form the confidential troubleshooting staff of a wealthy Roman-type senator." "You are ordinary villagers and the campaign will start on the day your world ends in disaster."

This leaves us a lot of autonomy in motivation and history, but ensures that we all have motivations that are compatible with the campaign set-up and with functioning as the kind of team that the DM envisions. In the senatorial campaign, for instance, we had three people who hired on solely as gainful employment, the senator's impoverished niece, and the ambitious son of one of the senator's old family retainers. The employees had different ultimate motives and different ways of interpreting their jobs than the characters with the family connections, but these motivations pointed us all in the same direction, most of the time.

The players are going to take control away from you anyway; begin as you mean to go on and let them do the heavy lifting from the start.