Author Topic: First Session-input sought  (Read 1874 times)

Offline Dger91

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First Session-input sought
« on: September 20, 2012, 10:31:08 PM »
I am running a new DFRPG campaign.  I've been trying to work on first session plots and keep coming up with ideas I want to save for later.  So I thought about how char and city gen works and thought to build the adventure similarly.  One problem I have with first sessions is strong arming the PCs just to be them together.
Idea- the session starts thusly (ish): "You are all in a warehouse.  Why? What brought you here?" <players reply> " Ok, there is an object on the floor in front of you.  What is it?" <reply>  "Alright.  On he other side of the room is another group o people, about equidistance from he object as you are.  Who are they?  What do they want with it? Who was here first?"
I've run "Night Fears" three times  ow and love the input the players have at the beginning.
Ideas?  Thoughts? Criticisms?

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: First Session-input sought
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2012, 03:46:05 AM »
If you do character/city creation together, you can set up a connection between the player characters before the first real session starts.

If they're all part of the same vigilante team or something like that, then you really don't need to strong-arm them at all.

Offline JDK002

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Re: First Session-input sought
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2012, 05:54:23 AM »
If you do character/city creation together, you can set up a connection between the player characters before the first real session starts.

If they're all part of the same vigilante team or something like that, then you really don't need to strong-arm them at all.
Take this advice!  I cannot stress how important making city and character creation a group effort is.  Having all the players talk back and forth as to how they know each other during the aspect creation makes your job as GM a lot easier.  City creation gives everyone involved a sense of cohesion in the setting, and takes some of the weight off you as the GM to be 100% responsible with coming up with settings and plot devices.

Offline Dger91

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Re: First Session-input sought
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2012, 07:29:50 AM »
We did and it was awesome.  Character ideas were generated that kinda amazed my players.  We have also done some basic city gen, but have already had three prep sessions and I don't wanna hold off the game any longer. 
As for the first session, the characters all do have ties, but that doesn't mean they are ready to work together.  So I thought I'd put that in their hands.  Thus in a similar manner to how city gen works, I'll have the players do a little "adventure gen."

Offline JDK002

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Re: First Session-input sought
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2012, 07:28:11 PM »
Using compulsions as opening hooks can work well too.  Most players won't turn down a fate point early in a story when things are still calm.  You can also make some important npc that would have reason to call them all together initially, Resivour Dogs style.

Offline Mr. Ghostbuster

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Re: First Session-input sought
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2012, 06:48:01 PM »
If you do character/city creation together, you can set up a connection between the player characters before the first real session starts.

If they're all part of the same vigilante team or something like that, then you really don't need to strong-arm them at all.

The group character creation process can lead to links between character without really having to work at it much at all. And our GM pointed out that everybody doesn't necassarily have to know everyone else, as long as they all have a reason to come together for the first adventure. The first player in my group wanted to play a psychic detective who was secretly an undercover agent for a government monster-hunting squad. This mad it easy to connect with my character who started out as a U.S. Marshal but was later recruited to the White Council as a Warden. Our next player wanted to play as a sort of Pyromancer arsonist drifter. Well, that's easy. He's run into the Warden in the past, maybe circumstances forced them to work together. And now that the arsonist is back in town, he's being hunted by the detective. The last player wanted to play as a Hacker Alchemist, who was being strong-armed into working for some sort of mundane criminal organization. Again, not hard. The Detective encountered him earlier in her career and tried to free him from his forced employment. She failed but now that Hacker is a secret ally who passes her information.
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