Need help with details for a theme.

[PrecociousApprentice]

So I am planing a D&D 4e PbP campaign. I have a few ideas, but I am drawing a blank on the details of a major element.

Here are the sketchiest of details so far. The game will be based on the idea that magic sealed away of a group of necromancers three milenia before when they almost took over the world. The necromancers started out as powerful healers, but their knowledge of life and death lead them down the wrong path. They thought that undeath was the way to defeat death. Since then, no one has trusted anyone that has used magic. Magic has become rare. In this campaign, divine and arcane magic are considered the same thing.

Now the seals a weakening. Undead are becoming rampant again. Magic is also on the rise.

I want the PCs to start at low level in a relatively rural area, similar to a mining town in Kentucky, only with standard D&D anachronisms. The PCs will be miners at first. I want the town to be controlled by a corporate Big Boss kind of guy. He is only motivated by money.

So here is the blank. I want to have the first scene result in a TPK. Sounds strange, but here is the key. The players should have motivation to fight the Big Boss, and lay down their lives doing it with no hesitation. It should be a heroic moment. A defining moment.

Afterward, the players can either create new characters, or use the stats of their first character to play as the grandchildren of the first PCs. At this time, there is a resistance movement/Bandit campaign against the Big Boss and his company. Concurrently, the Necromancers are awakening from their slumber.

So now the question is: How do I get the PCs to fight the Big Boss in the first scene, and how do I get them to lay down their lives in the process, with no regrets? Can I do this without telling them it will happen? What will motivate them in such a strong way in the very first scene of a campaign? Is there a set of backgound questions that I could send them to gather motivating factors that would guarantee that they would TPK themselves in a herioc way? What about having pre-gens for the first encounter, would that work?

Lots of questions, but I figured that asking a group of role players to come up with motivation instead of just trying to make it all up myself in advance would be the best way to go.

Thanks in advance.

 

[weem]

Hmmm... I'm not sure I would have a "group of roleplayers" work out their backgrounds, only to have you TPK them in session #1.

Is there a reason to have them fight and die right off the bat? Is it for the shock value?

What about making up these minors (like NPC stats) so you have them... then session 1, the players come with their characters and you say, "set those aside... here are your characters for now" (handing them the characters you made)... then explain, "you are all miners... you hate the big boss" (etc) - let them play, and die... THEN, let them take up the characters they made and go from there - let them know those were their parents or something along those lines.

You could even tell them ahead of time to "make up your backgrounds yourselves as you like, but you all have one thing in common... all of your fathers were miners and were killed on the job" - and that would be it - they would find out HOW during session 1 and it lets them do their own background working around that detail.

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

Nice, I like that. I still think that that I will need to come up with something to give them motivation to get killed over. If the character is only theirs for one game session, it takes some of the punch. I agree that creating a backgroud to just kill the character is not a good idea, I am just having a hard time coming up with s scenario that would compell the characters to lay down their lives, and make it mean something..

 

[Gilladian]

The one thing that makes most people make "the ultimate sacrifice" is believing they are protecting their children/families.

So if the PCs are going to ultimately play the children of those who die, the ones who die must do so to ensure the survival of the future PCs.

Maybe the kids are all at the mine for some kind of celebration or new mine shaft dedication ceremony or something. And while they are there, a tragic accident happens. Only some have a chance to escape, and the fathers/parents all choose to rescue the children instead of themselves.

Or, if there were an attack by evil creatures that have a future tie in to the game, and the children/mothers were only given a chance to flee when the miners make a last-ditch stand to hold off the enemy for a few minutes.

In either of these situations, you could rub in how evil/selfish the mine owner is by having him either abandon his own children, or force his way past the kids to be the first to escape.

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

This is also good, and was what I was sorta thinking, but I would especially like it if there could be a combat between the Big Boss and the parents/grandparents that is the heart of the sacrifice.

Having the PCs standing by and watching the battle between their parents and the Big Boss is great. If the threat of the Big Boss was toward the PCs as children, then the full gravity of the situation is highlighted, but is there a way that I could incorporate a sacrifice on the part of the parents tha would hit home to the players? Something that will mean a difference to the player?

I was thinking about inheritances. Children of outlaws do not inherit. That is important. Linking this to a cultural relavance of ancestry and descent would make it important to both the parents and the children. To have the dishonor of an outlaw relative would mean something for both generations.

I need to think about this, but keep the ideas coming! I really appreciate it.

 

[fba827]

I too was thinking of a family at risk reason. However, I couldn't think up a justified reason as to why the big boss would have access to all the families at once and put them in mortal danger, which led me to think of their fellow-miners. and I started to imagine a scenario such as ...

PCs are each, individually head miners for various sections of the mine. And they are each in the control room with the Big Boss to give their shift report on their section of the mine.
While in there, the reporting is interuppted by a messanger.

Messanger "Mr Big Boss, one of the carts hit a support beam, causing several to crack. You need to use your signal whistle to call everyone to evacutae."


Boss: We've only just stared this shift. I don't care to take time for your imagined problems. We are already behind from those sick miners and doing repairs would just put us further behind schedule.

Messasnger: But if we don't evacuate *now*, everyone down there could get trapped or killed any moment.. you need to use your whistle!"

Boss: (smacks messanger) I said hush you fool. (smacks messanger more until he's bleeding/unconcious). Boss approaches PCs still in the room: You want to finish your report now or just stand there?

PCs could attack boss (thinking they can get his whistle - boss kills PCs in fight)
PCs could leave and try and evacuate the mines themselves -- there is no way their voice would carry all the way inside so their friends working wouldn't hear them from out here, they'd have to go inside (mines collapse, they and die)

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

This is another scenario I had contemplated, but I was not sure how to get an assured combat that ends in a TPK that the players would be satisfied with. I then gave up on this angle and started thinking of how to invlove the families.

How about this for a fusion.

The mine scenario includes these additions. The temporary PCs are the parents of miners in the mines when the event happens. The PCs must fight the Big Boss to delay the Big Boss long enough for others to rescue their adult miner children that are stuck in the mines. The Big Boss will win, but the temp PCs will accomplish the rescue of their children and what will be the parents of the PCs.

What scenario would allow for a mine rescue that is dependent on delaying the Big Boss from doing something that he is willing to sacrifice the miners to accomplish? In other words, how do I set up the scene where the PCs can witness the selfishness and evil of the Big Boss, while sacrificing themselves to allow their miner offspring to escape a mine disaster? I know nothing of mines, so I am at a loss.

Do you think that I could incorporate a combined skill challenge/combat as this initial tone setting TPK encounter?

 

[Gilladian]

How about this?

The families of the miners are at the mine celebrating a grand opening of a new mine shaft. Rumor is that the first test drills on the new shaft indicate an incredibly rich vein, so everyone is happy and excited.

What they don't know is that the mine-owner has paid a price for the discovery of this rich vein - he has agreed to sacrifice ALL of his current mine workers and their children to an evil god/demon/something that has promised him the wealth in turn.

So, the temporary PCs and their children/future PCs are all at the mines, when suddenly a large number of evil creatures swarm in, seize many/all of the minters and their children, and begin to carry them away to be sacrificed. The mine owner shows up and for a few minutes it appears that he and his guards are there to rescue the miners, but then his guards round up and seize the last few escaping victims.

Only the PC miners manage to get away or are in a position to act. They are able to perform some action that causes a collapse of the whole mine, killing the bad guy's minions, most of the miners, most of the guards, and seriously endangering the mine owner (but he can escape by magic) but allowing the children to escape to become the future PCs.

If you like, you can thus have the miners who died become known as "dangerous rebels" who tried to revolt against the mine owner, thus leading to their own deaths; the mine owner of course paints himself as the innocent party, and the PCs are forever after stained by being the children of "rebels". Only they know the truth - that the mine owner was (and still may be) in league with SERIOUS EVIL...