How to start the Game? Help me with the hook

[Yair]

On saturday I'll be running the first session of my next campaign, and I'm not sure how to start the thing (the old "you are all in an inn, when..." problem). So I thought maybe the great minds of ENWorld could help me out here.

The campaign is based on the idea that the PCs are gods incarnated into mortal form (we use the powers of high-level D&D characters to mimic their divine abilities, and the world is made up of human low-level NPC-classed characters plus monsters). The point is for them to remember their divine nature (rise to high-level), and defeat the Evil god that is orchastrating the apocalypse. They initially DO NOT REMEMBER their divine self (1st level in game-terms).
The first adventure will start off with them opposing an ogre which is terrorizing the local area. It then goes off to reveal their divine status to them, make them stop the (first of many to come) apocalypse, and lure them to the next adventures, so I got that covered, but how to start it all?
How to get the characters together, given their history-concept of being incarnated gods? And arrange for them to oppose the ogre?

The cast is:
Paladin, god of valor and honor (Human Paladin 1; must be a noble).
Druid, god of nature (Human Druid 1).
Dwarf, protector of the earth, patron of feudalism (Dwarf Fighter 1 - note that there are no dwarves in the world, he is seen as a stocky human).
Astral, the creator god, patron of artisans (Halfling Wilder 1, again he is seen as just a short child-like human).
Caprice, goddess of passions (Human Wilder 1, very beutiful).
Veckna, god of secrets, patron of sages (Human Telepath 1).

Their backgrounds are non-existent at this point, and I'm sure I can convice the players to put in certain elements in them if it will serve the plot, so feel free to invent backgrounds (within reason).

Thanks for any input,
Yair

BTW, I am using Goodman Games' The Lost Vault of Tsazthar Rho as the first adventure.

 

[Thanee]

I had a similar campaign run once... well actually quite different, but compareable.

It was an Earthdawn campaign following a Shadowrun campaign. The souls of the SR characters had been sent back in time (unbeknownst to the players... and the souls upon arrival) to inhabit and control physical bodies there to achieve a goal, which had repercussion reaching far into the future. Of course, not everything went according to plan, and the souls lost their memory during the transfer.

They started out like this...

You all wake up. You are in a room (the common room of a tavern). You see each other and there is this feel... some intangible familiarity. You are sure, you have seen these faces before, maybe you are even friends, but you cannot remember. You cannot say for sure. You look down and find you are dressed in travel clothes and you have travel gear. What might have been your destination? You simply cannot tell.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Uller]

Ask the players to provide the "hook". Give them a 1000-2000 word description of the local area including important NPCs, organizations, and important rumors and news of the day. Keep it short because most players won't read more than a page or so.

Ask them each to provide a background for their characters of ~500 words, including ideas for other NPCs and organizations and what the PCs are doing in the area. Do they live there? Are they passing through? Why? What do they do for a living? etc. It's a little hard to start off a campaign without knowing how the players see their PCs and what they think they might be doing. I often give the requirement that each PC must know at least one other PC and they must tell me how they know each other. Are they friends, relatives, associates, enemies? Give them a little freedom to be creative and offer a small reward for their trouble (some extra XP, a valuable item, some bonus points for point buy character generation, reroll of an ability score, whatever). Players will stand on their heads and bark like a dog if they think there is a reward in it for them. I've had some players come up with some really cool backgrounds for their characters and provide lots of adventure ideas by doing this.

Also...another point of advice: I've found that jumping right into the campaign's main story line in the first or second adventure is a bad idea. 1) Players feel like their being railroaded. ("But what if we don't WANT to do that?"). 2) If you are starting at 1st level, the first few adventures should be used to establish that the PCs are heroes of sorts destined for great things...let them establish that seperate from pursuing great things. I tend to make the first few adventures small things like Save the Village from the Ogre (sounds like that's what you're doing), Save the temple from the ghouls, Take a message to VIP X in Town Y. These are unrelated or loosely related to the main plot.

This allows you to establish the feel for the world, let the players flesh out their PCs and meet some NPCs and get to know their environment (maybe start to feel some love for the world your going to ask them to save). It also allows you to refine your campaign plot lines to fit the PCs and their motivations.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Geez... gods being incarnated as 1st level characters? I'd expect something a little more grand.

Stealing an idea from the Forgotten Realms Avatar Trilogy you could have had them cast out of the heavens by the overgod to teach them humility and to set them on a quest to recover something being guarded by an insanely powerful creature. They know that they don't have a chance as 1st level mortals and I figure that permanent death would be something that a former god would fear above all. Start the adventure with all of the gods gathered in the throne room of the overgod and have them cast out at the same time and find themselves in their new bodies on the Prime at the same location.

For what you are planning I'd REALLY suggest reading the Avatar Trilogy (it starts with the book Shadowdale). It'll give you a good idea of what can happen when gods are put in mortal form and cast onto the prime.

 

[Yair]

Thanks all.

Thanee: it is a possiblity, but I would prefer it if they were born as mortals, a la Jesus really. I may use it as a last resort

Uller: excellent advice, I'll have to think about it. The background won't work with my players though, I know them. Also, the players know where we are heading, I pimped the main story-line to them. So I am not sure if your advice would work for my particular campaign. As I said, I'll think about it.

Calico: I wasn't clear - the characters initially don't know they are gods or remember their past (I modified the initial post to explain this). The theme of the campaign is to save the world from the clutches of evil, not to be put in the punishment corner by the overgod. Oh, and we tried starting at 6th level - that didn't work due to the "not remember" part; for a campaign where they are aware of their selves - you are right, a higher level would be required. That said, thanks anyways.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I'd still use the overgod theme but change it around so that the overgod is sending them to deal directly with a threat as mortals. Perhaps there is some universe ending event to come and it was prophesized that a mortal, not a god would be the only being able to turn the tide. I'd role play through the meeting with the overgod but have their minds wiped when they come to in mortal form. Give them a feeling of familiarity with the other party members... as if they remember them from a reoccuring dream.

 

[Torm]

Have each of the characters have been born with an unusual and potentially identifying omen occurring. In the "prologue", tell each of the characters except two that at some point not long ago, they were taken aside by someone they've always known - someone who turned out at that point to be a monk of an ancient order who has been watching them because of a prophecy. To "dispose" of the monks, have two told on the monks death bed, have two attacked and killed in various ways, and in the case of the other two, instead of a monk watching out for them, have them attacked by someone trying to kill them. The "two by two by two" could play into the cryptic prophecy they've each gotten a copy of from these people. Part of the prophecy says they will meet their destiny or some such "in the claw of a dragon". And, of course, play begins in a tavern called "Thee Dragon's Claw".

Just an idea. Season to taste, or toss out, of course.

 

[Torm]

Also, for a touch of irony, have it turn out that it was Astral who WROTE the prophecy, and wrote it much more specifically, but for some reason (probably having to do with what happened to make them lose their deity) he couldn't control where it ended up in time, and so in the interceding millenia, it has been written and rewritten, mistranslated, "carried" by song, rewritten, etc, to get to what it says now.

Or maybe he wrote (writes? Willen have wroten?) the story of what happened after the campaign, and it somehow ended up in the past as described above?

 

[dren]

I would begin:

Darkness, heaviness and cold. These surround each of you. Alone and unfeeling.

If players ask what they see or sense...just say darkness: complete darkness. If anyone struggles or attempts to move:

Your tomb slightly shifts, suddenly as you reach out, a small bit of light pierces the darkness. You realize, you are buried!

Players must dig their way out, to begin their new life. Once they do, they are surrounded by others. None of them have memories of who they were...only of how each of them died.

Put them in a grey land; grey sky, with only one object visible (say a tower or other building). As they explore the building, each will find items that is usable for them. In a wonderous library they find scrolls, which cryptically hint as to what they are, and what they must do next. In the lower area, they find a one-way gate to a prime world. This is the begining of their adventure.

I would create the adventure so each of them must complete a task, and then once all of them have completed...they must find a way to return to this world to have their full powers. No individual can complete their journey until all of them have succeeded - thus they are linked until completion of the missions.

If any of them "die" they are reborn in the same dusty grounds, they must return to the tower, to teleport back to the others. There is a cost to them to travel (a magic item, wealth, a level, attribute points) so they do not treat this temporary death lightly.

Good luck with the campaign, sounds like lots of fun!

 

[artent]

well. if you want them to join the mortal coil by being born as humans and growing up as exceptional, but normal humans then it stands to reason they would be born in about the same place at about the same time and grow up as close freinds, easy enouph.

However, if you just want them to suddenly appear in mortal form, minus the memory. You could have it that each one actually possesed a human host, perhaps one who recently died. They could all, for instance find themselves lying amidst the ruins of a sacked caravan and find evidence of bandits, or perhaps the ogre did it. They would find arrow holes in their clothing, but they would all be undamaged, their godly nature having fixed up the bodies and transforming them slightly to their new form.

If they run into anyone who knew the corpes they might appear famlier, but different. You might also have some of the person's memory seep into the gods heads so they have a vague understanding of the sorounding area, and it might be useful for intro'ing adventure hooks later.


oh...by the way...my spelling bites.