How did this happen?

[Starbuck]

I want to start a new campaign that begins with something really out of the ordinary. I like the following idea, which I got from Dragon Annual 5:

The PC's wake up in a lone tower in the middle of a desolate marsh. They have no personal memories of themselves or each other but still retain skills, feats, and other class-related knowledge. There is equipment suitable for them to use and enough food to last for months. If they leave the tower, they are stuck with crippling nausea which gets worse the farther away they get, so they can't leave. In the lowest basement level of the tower is a heavily barred and chained trap door. It's barred from the tower side, as if to keep something out.

My problem is that I'm having trouble coming up with how they wound up in this situation. How did they get there and for what reason? How did they lose thier memories? What's under the trapdoor? I thought that I would create backgrounds for their characters and reveal them to the players bit by bit somehow. I love the sense of mystery that this campaign would start with but am kinda stuck on what comes next. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[starwolf]

Try this on for size......

In reality the PC's are actually only the remnants of their former selves.....or should I say the PC's represent that small bit of good that was still left in a party of some of the evilest people to darken the world. A god of redemption or some force of the universe extracted this small essence and is giving the PC's a change to "remake" themselves. In each ones past when faced with a decision between what was "right" and what was "convienent" they obviously took the wrong path.... So now they get to retread those steps....and hopefully make the "right" choice this time.

So what is locked behind the door? Simply put...."themselves"

So as they travel lower and lower through the underground each step of the way they encounter some "test" as each encounter progresses they either pick up a "bad" trait or a "good" trait.....until in the end they face their former selves.

 

[perivas]

Rather than figuring out how this happened to the characters, you might want to ask yourself whether or not your players are okay with this type of scenario. Some players really hate things like this, even if you have a "legitimate" reason. Remember that for plans like this to work out, the players have to accept it.