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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emberashh" data-source="post: 9026137" data-attributes="member: 7040941">Not that I disagree with the point, but I will note that bunless burgers are actually really nice. Usually when I visit other peoples cook outs I usually skip the buns and just go for a meat sandwich instead, as its better than having dry, untoasted buns that just fill you up. I think, particulary when it comes to opening a new game, that oftentimes this preference has to balance itself against the, in my opinion, much more unideal issue of repetition. The trope of the party meeting in a tavern is a classic of course, and absolutely follows the desire to want whatever conflicts that come be emergent, but it is also more or less a cliché at the same time. Changing up the circumstances to avoid the repetitive opening can be very worthwhile, and a in media res style opening is a great change of pace from the more idyllic. It also can often help to foster a more interesting origin for the groups comraderie. For example, my DCC campaign was opened with the characters being abducted by space pirates. I prompted the players to describe to me what their characters were up to prior to their abduction by, to them, unknown forces, and the first session started with them simply having to figure out what was going on. They were both literally and figuratively in the dark, and the proceding funnel that saw the group wittled down to the eventual party as they broke out and siezed the ship served as a nice mix of mystery and action to kick off the campaign. While this situation could easily have been gotten to by starting in the tavern, I don't believe it would have made for a better overall experience. I also think this question comes down to whether or not we're emphasizing sandbox play over a linear experience, and I don't think that there is an either/or between the two. Opening a sandbox with a slightly (if not overtly) linear experience is not uncommon, and its often a good idea if the players are new to the game, as the experience can easily sub in as a tutorial section, and this is the approach video game sandboxes often take with good success. Skyrim does this rather famously (as does its immediate predecessor) and it actually goes to prove my point, just the other way around. While Skyrim's and Oblivion's introduction dungeons are great and do a good job of introducing the player to the world and the story to be, they very, very, very quickly become repetitive on subsequent playthroughs, and alternative start mods were often among the first mods to be dropped for both games, with the best examples giving a wide variety of start options ranging from your simple tavern starts to exciting prison breaks and all sorts of other things. Interestingly though, Morrowind bucked the trend for TES games thus far by not doing an intro dungeon. You have a short controls tutorial as you go through character creation, and then you're unceremoniously kicked out of the Census office with a name and a package.This kind of start is actually quite brilliant, given that it plays into the atmosphere of Morrowind being this unforgiving place and you a worthless welp, but it does have the drawback of, well, not really being all that interesting from a story perspective. To the overall story being told in Morrowind, your specific start in Seyda Neen is immaterial. While that works for Morrowinds story, as the whole point of your characters origin is for you to be some unknown and unimportant person who only just meets the qualities of a prophecy, and can only become more through the actions of the story, it doesn't work for every kind of story, and it certainly isn't the way you'd want to begin every story.</blockquote>

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