Have you ever thought about how to start a story? Sure you have. But have you ever thought about how to start a quest, better yet, a sub- or even a side-quest?
Lately, I wondered how a game master would start a story if it weren't for the natural interest of his players. It is, quite naturally, the wish of any player to experience adventures, otherwise they probably wouldn't do RPG. (That this is not overall true I know; I'll post a rant about that later.) That particular interest causes them to merely ignore the beginning. Both players and the game master instinctively know that it is neither beginning nor the end that matters, but the journey, which is its own reward. Consequently, one keeps the introduction short: The evergreens of meeting in the tavern and having a more or less mysterious client accommodates that.
However, what were if the players didn't have that urge to go on with the story? I often face the problem when playing Vampire: The characters there loners, contact with another vampire, even if part of the same clan, can be problematic at best. The world of Vampire employs its very unique version of "Checks and Balances," where you better do not interfere with the matters of others lest they leave yourself at peace. The introduction of a Vampire chronicle, even a side-story, has to either wake the character's appetite or downright force them into action. Otherwise, a very unique part of playing a vampire is just lost.
Sometimes, players (and characters) have a very stark goal before their eyes. In some very intense situations people may decide to ignore the sidekicks, because they have better things to do. If that happens in one's story, the GM can very likely praise herself, because she made her story so compelling that her players ignore the very urge and instinct of every player: Curiosity. (Well, of course, that's not always true, but let's leave it at that.)
So when one has carefully designed some quest along the way, perhaps one that matters pretty much for the big picture, but the players ignore it just because the GM bet on his player's curiosity, it's sobering. It reminds us pretty much that high-quality RPG needs high-quality introduction, too.
I once started the story for one of my players, her character being a Gangrel from Vampire: The Masquerade with her finding herself trapped in a death-end alley with an armed and angry mob trying to lynch her.
Another player woke up in the pathology on one of those cold stainless steel examination tables.
Having a third character wake up on a shabby motel room with a dead body beside him in the bed, a painfully throbbing head and no particular memories about the day before and especially the night was something I really liked.
And about those tavern starts: Having the players caught up badly in a tavern brawl, that was fun.
And sometimes it's "you're out, wandering around, exploring the world," and yes, adventures do just happen.
How did you start your past stories? Was there some introduction you really liked? And how do you perceive the oh so carefully designed introductions our GM presents you?
Let me know in the comments, please.
I guess it totally depends on the type of story. Most of the time, characters are some sort of mercenaries, being hired for a job and the intricacies of the job become the story. Prime examples of this are classic D&D adventures (you meet at a tavern, a local guy offers you a job), or Shadowrun ...erm runs. These are essentially quests and the motivation of characters and players alike is very clear cut. The benefit of these intros is that even something like "bring me ten monster rat tails from the sewers" can be enough of an appetizer to get things started.
The other type of adventure is when the characters themselves are essential parts of the story from the start, or they get drawn into an unfolding scenario as self-motivated agents. That's a risky move for a GM, because so much depends on the individual characters' reactions and this method creates open-ended story lines.
Most appetizers tend to be on some middle ground between these two. Whether an intro is actually motivating players depends on many factors. Sometimes group-internal play can be enough to make even a flat story interesting.
The starter needed is very often a very shallow and superficial thing as said. Classicals like the tavern, the merchant in distress, or the hired guns to get paid to escort a caravan to a place which is whereever but get paid well etc. The group could spend weeks on horseback and with the other characters without actually playing that out - what you do play out is the first encounter, the introduction maybe, the first fight, the first problem they have to solve together. From then on the group is often established enough to go into adventures together - that the other NPC caravan guards are maybe just as well as buddies to go of on adventure gets neglected because it is what it is - a game for players!
The Self motivational hooks are fun - and very difficult and challanging. Sometimes we see that characters in a group don't get on well together because everybody wants to play his/her own charakter right. The Elf pushes the half-Ork and the Dwarf pushes everybody else kind off. If you have a task oriented group like the hired guns kept together for profit and skills this often gets neglectable. But when the Paladin comes along to fight evil and the evil Mage wants to destroy the same cult to steal the Timble of Ogre-intelligenz it will lead to frictions at some point. Building a strong past together is then often vital - especially if you want to run something self motivational!
I had a strong group of mid-level and wanted to do something new - something with self-motivation. So I asked the charakters if they'd be willing to let me free hand in things WITH their characters. All agreed so I took all their character sheets and gave them new characters - with new names and a background for each one of them. They all lived normal lives for 3 years in a small village - some more, some less successful but all commoners but not heros! We actually played out a lot the individual characters, some of the NPC's they learned from their background were actually player characters (I had the Halfling rogue marry the Halfling barbarian... which only one arranged and the other didn't like in the end:)). After two, three seatings of creating atmosphere a threat came to the village (an tomb at the old temple was opened during the excavations and an old vampire escaped) and they had to fight it of with the others. They then had flashes of memories when they were in moments of dire distress and danger remembering things from apparently their own past (another set of handouts and so extra work for the DM). Once they woke up they gained a level in a class… and only then the players started to realise that they actually still might be their old characters!
The threats triggered their old memories and partially broke the spell - they also took measures then to remember their entire past. Basically it was like this - all of them survived a great peril and only escaped with luck. An overpowering Evil had them captured, forced them to participate and witness great evils (killing of innocents etc.) and being locked up for month until near to death - only shear luck saved their sorry arses and as they were actually quite established beforehand they had enough resources and favours to get a great spell of memory loss and change their looks to cure their wounded souls and hide from the maybe still vengefull eye of the evil overlord. Once they were back established they were actually quite in safety - they knew the evil overlord thought them dead and what they wanted to do was do the right thing - kill the evil motherfucker for what he did to them and all the innocents. Purley self motivated Hatred and a very nice group aim. Well - they all died on the way on a fairly important sidetrack mission out of own stupidity but it was great hearing them talk about what they want to do to the evil guy and how they get to him etc.
I liked it a lot - and all of them as well but one who said that his Monk - a very spiritual character - would withdraw entirely and detach himself from earthly matter - which was a fair reason for making a new charakter! :) And even the good charakters / players were primed at revenge!
What my group now has to deal with is another classical motivation which is the: they have to do it because they are there and know whats the right thing to do. I think its fun as well as currently they are in an occupied city under lockdown, actually would love to flee to safer places but there are threats to people they know and like and that binds them as they find no time to run. But I would love to get back to this self motivated part again… in furture adventures! :)
The starter needed is very often a very shallow and superficial thing as said. Classicals like the tavern, the merchant in distress, or the hired guns to get paid to escort a caravan to a place which is whereever but get paid well etc. The group could spend weeks on horseback and with the other characters without actually playing that out - what you do play out is the first encounter, the introduction maybe, the first fight, the first problem they have to solve together. From then on the group is often established enough to go into adventures together - that the other NPC caravan guards are maybe just as well as buddies to go of on adventure gets neglected because it is what it is - a game for players!
The Self motivational hooks are fun - and very difficult and challanging. Sometimes we see that characters in a group don't get on well together because everybody wants to play his/her own charakter right. The Elf pushes the half-Ork and the Dwarf pushes everybody else kind off. If you have a task oriented group like the hired guns kept together for profit and skills this often gets neglectable. But when the Paladin comes along to fight evil and the evil Mage wants to destroy the same cult to steal the Timble of Ogre-intelligenz it will lead to frictions at some point. Building a strong past together is then often vital - especially if you want to run something self motivational!
I had a strong group of mid-level and wanted to do something new - something with self-motivation. So I asked the charakters if they'd be willing to let me free hand in things WITH their characters. All agreed so I took all their character sheets and gave them new characters - with new names and a background for each one of them. They all lived normal lives for 3 years in a small village - some more, some less successful but all commoners but not heros! A threat came to the village (an tomb at the old temple was opened during the excavations and an old vampire escaped) and they had to fight it of with the others. They then had flashes of memories when they were in moments of dire distress and danger remembering things from apparently their own past (another set of handouts and so extra work for the DM). Once they woke up they gained a level in a class… and only then the players started to realise that they actually still might be their old characters!
The threats triggered their old memories and partially broke the spell - they also took measures then to remember their entire past. Basically it was like this - all of them survived a great peril and only escaped with luck. An overpowering Evil had them captured, forced them to participate and witness great evils (killing of innocents etc.) and being locked up for month until near to death - only shear luck saved their sorry arses and as they were actually quite established beforehand they had enough resources and favours to get a great spell of memory loss and change their looks to cure their wounded souls and hide from the maybe still vengefull eye of the evil overlord. Once they were back established they were actually quite in safety - they knew the evil overlord thought them dead and what they wanted to do was do the right thing - kill the evil motherfucker for what he did to them and all the innocents. Purley self motivated Hatred and a very nice group aim. Well - they all died on the way on a fairly important sidetrack mission out of own stupidity but it was great hearing them talk about what they want to do to the evil guy and how they get to him etc.
I liked it a lot - and all of them as well but one who said that his Monk - a very spiritual character - would withdraw entirely and detach himself from earthly matter - which was a fair reason for making a new charakter! :) And even the good charakters / players were primed at revenge!
What my group now has to deal with is another classical motivation which is the: they have to do it because they are there and know whats the right thing to do. I think its fun as well as currently they are in an occupied city under lockdown, actually would love to flee to safer places but there are threats to people they know and like and that binds them as they find no time to run. But I would love to get back to this self motivated part again… in furture adventures! :)