Starting a new campaign, with new players

[fba827]

Thanks for the input, guys! I think I'll follow something closer to S'mon's example, though the other posts also helped with ideas The main thing I'm torn over now is whether to make the first session "part of the campaign," or just make it tangentially related to the plot. Hmm...

Why not make it a "prequel" -- though the players won't know it...

I.e. When you have the actual campaign (starting from session #2) somewhere down the line, maybe session 3 or 5 or 10, make the plot start to connect back to some event that happened at the prequel.
Maybe that was the day someone took power and the prequel PCs were there to witness part it, which led up to the eventual civil wars.
Maybe the prequel PCs were fighting some kobolds in the mountains.. and later in the campaign, the actual PCs find themselves in those same mountains with kobolds serving some draconic overlords, etc.

i'm a big fan of continuity, so something like that would be a 'hook' for me to see that the game is that involved and dynamic to account for what the players did during the prequel (did they succeed at something? did they set someone's plans back? etc - the actual campaign has the consequences of that as part of its history).

 

[fba827]

As an addendum to my own post...

i'm a big fan of continuity, so something like that would be a 'hook' for me to see that the game is that involved and dynamic to account for what the players did during the prequel (did they succeed at something? did they set someone's plans back? etc - the actual campaign has the consequences of that as part of its history).

(This is an *IF* ) ...
if the first session is a prequel and you are able to find a good way to tie it all together, when you do the actual campaign doc to hand out at session #2, maybe you can reference the prequel PCs in the relevant lore/history. Thus, if the players felt any connection to their PCs that day, they'll see the mark it left on this history to shape the world. But if you do this, you'll have to come up with some special highlight that each person did since referring to them as a group wouldn't have the same impact, or referring to some but not all would likewise not be inclusive.

So basically, if it can be done well you can tie the prequel actions into the campaign doc. if not, then never mind adding that to the campaign doc.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

(This is an *IF* ) ...
if the first session is a prequel and you are able to find a good way to tie it all together, when you do the actual campaign doc to hand out at session #2, maybe you can reference the prequel PCs in the relevant lore/history...

I like the idea of tying in a prequel session to the overall plot. If I go with a prequel (still mulling over my options at this point), I'll definitely do that! Tying it into the campaign handout sounds especially cool

I will say, everyone's replies have managed to give me a bunch of adventure and plot ideas...

 

[Rel]

Heya, MadLordofMilk! It was great meeting you at GenCon!

Most of the ideas that I was going to suggest have already been covered. In particular I too was thinking along the lines of having pre-gen characters but having the adventure be a sort of "prequel" that becomes part of the lore of the campaign. If the players want, some or all of them can make characters that are descendants of the original party you run for the intro-adventure.

One thing I'm unclear about is whether these players are new to RPGs, new to 4e D&D or simply new to your gaming group (or maybe some combination of those circumstances). If they are new to 4e, or especially if they are new to RPG's entirely then I would probably start them off with 1st level characters.

I have played a fair bit of 4e and ran a year-long campaign of it for other players in my gaming group. Last week another guy in our group started a short 4e game where we all started at 5th level. Even with our considerable experience there was some learning curve as we adapted to the synergies of our own powers, feats and abilities and especially how they worked together as a group.

Just like you don't want to throw too much information about the campaign setting at them all at once, you don't want to throw too much character complexity at them all at once. And 4e characters can be pretty complex (which is also what makes them interesting).

I don't think that 1st level characters means that your adventure has to be too much of a "kiddie pool". 1st level characters can do a lot of cool stuff. Plus everybody feels powerful when fighting a lot of minions.

Most of all just bring your enthusiasm. That's what will really hook people in and make them understand that there is a lot of fun to be had in this game.

Good luck!

 

[Ycore Rixle]

Dang, late again. S'mon and Rel have ninja'd me pretty well here. I'd just go with S'mon's great stuff and especially Rel's "bring your enthusiasm." I'll also add "Go with your instincts" because a) that usually helps you and therefore the players maintain interest and excitement, and b) I know you and you have good instincts.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Heya, MadLordofMilk! It was great meeting you at GenCon!

...

One thing I'm unclear about is whether these players are new to RPGs, new to 4e D&D or simply new to your gaming group (or maybe some combination of those circumstances). If they are new to 4e, or especially if they are new to RPG's entirely then I would probably start them off with 1st level characters.

It was great meeting you! Space: 1889 is one of my new favorite settings, now

As far as the players, it's hard to say actually. I'll be running things at a gaming club, so it'll be probably a bit of all of the above. Last year, I had only one guy with any real experience, and a bunch of people who'd never played an RPG in their life. Although I ran a game last year, I wasn't planning to until another GM was needed, so I can't really draw experience off of it as it was a bit of a cluster@#$% impromptu start-up rather than something exciting.

I'll actually be running D&D Basic/Expert (yes, the old box sets!) which should hopefully keep things simple enough for newbies in terms of game complexity Especially nice is that character generation is pretty quick, so we could probably even get away with rolling up characters (of course, I'll also bring a bunch of pregens)

Dang, late again. S'mon and Rel have ninja'd me pretty well here. I'd just go with S'mon's great stuff and especially Rel's "bring your enthusiasm." I'll also add "Go with your instincts" because a) that usually helps you and therefore the players maintain interest and excitement, and b) I know you and you have good instincts.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Rel]

I'll actually be running D&D Basic/Expert (yes, the old box sets!) which should hopefully keep things simple enough for newbies in terms of game complexity Especially nice is that character generation is pretty quick, so we could probably even get away with rolling up characters (of course, I'll also bring a bunch of pregens)

Thanks for the advice!

Holy crap! I completely missed that part! I totally love Basic D&D and have actually run several games of it over the course of the last year. Discard all that bit about how mid level characters are too complex for a one shot game!

For me, Basic D&D (and all "old school" gaming) is about the classic stuff. So, IMHO, the players should:

Meet in a tavern (or at least visit one at some point during the session)
Fight some orcs
Fight some kind of weird monster (like an Owlbear)
Encounter a trap
Pick the lock on a door
Fight an Evil Wizard
Get some treasure
Rescue a prisoner (who may or may not turn against them later)

...not necessarily in that order.

If they aren't hooked after that then they'll probably never be a gamer.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Holy crap! I completely missed that part! I totally love Basic D&D and have actually run several games of it over the course of the last year. Discard all that bit about how mid level characters are too complex for a one shot game!

For me, Basic D&D (and all "old school" gaming) is about the classic stuff. So, IMHO, the players should:

Meet in a tavern (or at least visit one at some point during the session)
Fight some orcs
Fight some kind of weird monster (like an Owlbear)
Encounter a trap
Pick the lock on a door
Fight an Evil Wizard
Get some treasure
Rescue a prisoner (who may or may not turn against them later)

...not necessarily in that order.

If they aren't hooked after that then they'll probably never be a gamer.

I would like to mention that this post just made my day.

Also, I suddenly want to run a really, really cliche "meet in a tavern, grizzled old veteran gives you an adventure hook, go out and kill kobolds and goblins and orcs, BBEG is an evil wizard/necromancer/magic-user" sort of adventure now. That'd actually also give me a chance to test out some house rules before running things at the game club...