So I've been thinking of alternate ways to start a game and bind groups together other than the standards of "you all are already fast companions" or "you all just met in a bar or prison". I want to run a scenario by you guys, and you tell me if this would be OK for a player.
You all, for one reason or another, found yourself lost in the cannibal mists. Be this because you were running from authorities and knew they would not follow, a drunken night out, trying to find treasure, scavenging, or just cluelessness. Whatever. You each are attacked by and partially maimed by said cannibals during your travels. Fortunately, an old man carrying a pickaxe stumbled upon each of you in your most dire time. He proceeds to dispatch whatever cannibals are currently eating you, and takes your half conscious form to a small settlement that exists within the mists. He purchases cybernetics to replace whatever limbs you have had eaten, and explains to you all that you are free to leave as soon as you've paid him back, and offers to allow you to join him on his errands to earn some pay. He also explains that you could sneak off with the cybernetics, but you would most likely be eaten, so you should probably stick around until he's shown you the basics.
Now, I plan on getting this through with dialogue, with the players talking to the man back and forth, but that is the gist of it. Players rescued by asshole martial artist old man, outfitted with debt, and stuck in a city of outcasts and runaways in the cannibal mists.
I like it. Nice and original without being too complicated 7.5/10
Mason Clark
An Oceans 11 style gathering of a team for a heist is something I want to try out someday. I wonder if you could theme character creation around it even.
At least one of these assholes is going to try and make a break for it without paying their debt; and when their stupid ass eventually gets eaten by zombies they're going to blame you for railroading and taking away their fun. So, y'know, prepare for that.
Unless you already have a group without one of these fucking self-masturbatory, edgelord, cry-baby, lone-wolf-wannabee assholes. In which case, y'know, it actually sounds like a fun premise and could lead to an interesting game.
Blake Perry
Sounds like a Powered by the apocalypse game. The History section of character creation would cover how the crew came together and they actual game would be planning and executing the heist.
Ian Richardson
Immediately throwing the party through some scripted ass beating only to be saved by some badass NPC might be perceived as DM-wank even if that isn't the intent. Also the "you are maimed and in dept" would leave a bad taste in my mouth personally. Some other ideas. >shipwreck with the PCs being among the few/most competent survivors. >some minor noble has a small problem or is funding some sort of expedition and sent out a recruiter to find some fresh adventurer types. >they are all going about their day-to-day life, maybe attending a festival or something when catastrophe strikes while they all happen to be relatively close at by.
Adrian Morgan
>superhero setting Millionaire in his 50's is looking to hire superheroes to form a team, since he is too old to be a hero himself Party answers a call for help every session.
Jacob Ortiz
Why don't you have the party determine why they're together?
If they can't pick and write down motivations to adventure and stay together, they legitimately do not deserve to play.
can't do that for every game, user. You gotta vary this shit up for everyone's sake.
95% of the reason I came up with this specific party gathering method is I keep gathering scrappy gangs of adventurers in a wasteland vidya I am playing, and I realized I am effectively producing and releasing adventuring parties.
Kayden Jackson
I'm glad it works for you, user.
Gavin Murphy
I don't know if it works. I hope it will work. It works in the vidya, but that's a single player game. You don't expect the little dudes in there to give a shit about metagame concerns like being railroaded when you are saving them from cannibals and buying them cybernetics. Hence the thread.
Dylan Lee
Yeah, I've been worried about these concerns. I think if I -do- do this premise, the players won't start getting their asses kicked, they'll start waking up from their various horrible injuries and having a talk with an old man.
Maimed and in debt, well, can't really get out of that one. Just gotta hope people are OK with it, and accept free choice of which limbs, and how many are gnawed off instead.
Gavin Parker
No one can say no to delta-ware.
Jaxson Williams
Well, it's not like they skimp on the cyberware.
Jonathan Johnson
I told my players they were starting in this town, come up with a reason, and what you were doing beforehand. Once I had those two, I came up with a mini adventure for each of them and ran them through solo sessions. They joined up in a caravan on the last leg of the trip, and then the plot kicked off. They all have their own reasons for taking the hook, and they don't really trust each other yet, but they know they're worthwhile in a fight. It's been pretty good so far.
Storm cleric who was the deputy of a small town, got exiled after picking a fight with a gang from the big city and winning. Wandered to the other side of the kingdom and seeks adventure as is tradition in his family.
A poor wizard who uses his abilities for less than lawful purposes. Approached by a secret society to spy on a powerful wizard and steal what knowledge he can for them. Was already a fan of the wizard, true intent unknown.
A bard travelling to find inspiration. She hopes to write an epic tail of heroes and monsters to secure herself a permanent place in history.
A tribal fighter from a faraway city, cut off from modern society. Has been having dreams and is overcome with restlessness. He left home with the blessing of the leadership and was told to take a fancy dagger that was left by a visitor from the outside decades prior.
Jaxon Diaz
I just did a gather a bit like this as an intro.
>PC is bored with life after a war. >a courier knocks on the door with a letter >**dear sir, upon reviewing your military record we would like to procure your services** >the other party members were similarly hired >they meet over the craft services table at the briefing
this has the added bonus of conferring some characteristics
Josiah Cook
I like the idea of everyone starting on the back of a flying creature that immediately crashes into a forest, giving everyone temporary short-term memory loss. What follows is them having to find their way back to civilization where they'll then sit down together in a bar.
This of course prompts the return of their memories of each of them accepting the quest to go kill that flying fucker and they have to play through the flashback. Then maybe they have to go track down the fucker who sent them on such a hard quest in the first place.
William Nguyen
i planned that too for one of my MAID rounds
Brandon Myers
Characters were thrown together in some sort of knightly trial
Joseph Wright
Kek got a story you want to get off your chest user?
Jaxon Lee
Seconded.
Jaxon Jones
you do know he will probably demand sex from the women right?
Pit together your ragtag team of murderhobos in a dice table at the local bar Let them actually bet their leftover chargen funds for a few rounds before the local gang crashes in and they're given a reason to shank them, and now you weave the story out of this incident, like letting a survivor escape and tell the boss he was defied
Zachary Kelly
I don't remember THAT from the movies. Explain more, user.
Camden Cook
How else does he train his balls to become invincible?
Jack Young
I like town or other area being unable to exited. Could be a surrounding army, could be monsters, or could be a natural disaster. Supplies and patience are running low, and the players were just approached with a possible solution or 2 to this problem.
Funerals are good. Players are at a funeral of some important dude, and at some point the GM asks them what they knew the dead guy for, or if they didnt then for what other reason are they here. You then can have a family member or trusted servant of the dead guy reveal some adventurey stuff to the pcs, some enemies crash the party, whatever.
Players have a disease or parasite They happen to come to the same area since they've heard that there's some herb/person/whatever here that can cure it.
They've all seen fliers or heard rumors that someone has a job for them, and to meet at x location. It's either an actual quest, or just an ambush.
Luis Taylor
I myself have tried something akin to compelled cooperation, something where the players from all walks of life meet in one place of their own accord, independent of each other, to fulfill a common goal and realize they can trust and depend on each other when they meet.
For example, in my game, there's a powerful wish granting macguffin that the king allows his people to make wishes from during a festival. During a raid in the middle of the festival, the macguffin breaks, and the players who wanted to fulfill their own wishes must find the remains of it.
Depending on what happens next, I'm going to have it so the players are cursed by an evil wizard to collect the macguffin pieces for him or be turned to stone by the end of [insert time period here]. The players, fueled by their common goal to fulfill their backstory plothooks AND prevent their deaths, will obviously work together after this.
Hudson Price
You don't, you basically suck them up into your body so there is nothing to grab onto. You don't turn the eggs into metal you just keep them from being cracked in the first place
