D&D General The Great Railroad Thread

[pemerton]

There's a large old tradition of crooks gathering in the back room at a bar in film; I don't know I've seen an SF take on it, but then, there's few SF takes on what would consider freelance troublemakers anyway. When there is, its usually a group that's already together and often in a Traveller-esque ship wandering around (see Firefly).

Crooks gather in back rooms, sure. But they're generally already known to one another.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Crooks gather in back rooms, sure. But they're generally already known to one another.

Recruitement stories are not particularly common in fiction in general, but when I've seen it in film, the first meeting is still in that back room of the bar.

That's a big part of the gig, I think; in most fiction if you have anything resembling a PC group, showing how they got together is not something the author is going to think was a good use of space. If they do do so, they'll often do so in flashbacks or the like.

 

[bloodtide]

The only meeting in an inn, in LotR, is Strider meeting the Hobbits. And that is not a "quest-giver" looking for doughty adventurers.

My comment was for the more general "start the story/game with laid back fun is a safe place. Like LotR starts with the Hobbits.

Keep on the Borderlands is an example of a module where the intended play is pawn stance, and the starting point is low(ish) stakes. .

This might be D&D's "Ur one"

Even if the the likely outcome of the roleplayed scenes is that the characters pick up the quest and head to the dungeon/haunted castle/etc, I think that it is usually worth playing it rather than just skipping directly to the "adventure location." The roleplaying is important for establishing the context of the quest, creating emotional connection to the NPCs involved, and generally getting the players invented beyond "lets kill some monsters for XP." And yes, here some thespian skills on the GM's part certainly help a lot.

I think it is much better to role play during the quest adventure.