Best way to start an "Adventure"

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

There are a more than a few ways to get the character involved in the story of the game (which is pretty important) which ones do you prefer ?

 

In no particular order (since I like examples) we have:

 

1. The escort - You are sent to meet and escort someone to some place or event. Invariably something goes wrong or the event isnt what it appeared to be.

The advantage of this one is that its very open and suitable for many different characters who will be doing it for different motives.

 

2. We are under attack ! - You start off having a normal day doing whatever people in that particular setting do. When out of the blue your town/villiage/castle is attacked by some outside force. Generally the rest of the advanture revolves around finding out who and why and getting strong enough for some payback.

 

3. The destiny - You have a destiny. You know what it is, everyone around you knows what it is and you cant escape it.

3a. The hidden destiny - As above only your in the dark about it and some of those around you know what it is.

 

4. I was walking in the woods one day - Just that, your in the wrong place at the wrong time and you end up involved in something that is way beyond your comprehension. Any time you attempt to get out something drags you back in. People you dont know are trying to kill you and you have no choice but to find out what the hell is going on and try to come to an "understanding"

 

5. Just something that needs to be done - The place where you live has a problem (or an ongoing problem). People are sent out to solve it (with or without your knowledge) but none have returned , now its your turn.

 

6. In at the deepend - You are thrown into a battle or series of battles (usually making up the tutorial) beyond fighting for your life and a few hints your not really sure whats going on. FFX-2 is a classic example of this.. Why am I fighting Yuna ?

 

7. Who am I - You wake up with a headache and no idea who you are.You find out about whats going on in the story at the same time as the character (unless your a clever sod).

 

There has to be more than 7 but you can probably place the majority of RPG intros into one or more of those.

[Volourn]

Doesn't really matter to me. I've played all types of opening on that list. Depedndng how they are crafted in the indivduual games; they can be enjoyable.

[Petor23]

Now for examples of all these beginnings

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Now for examples of all these beginnings

<edit > What the heck I'm bored...

 

1. Grandia II

2. Shining Force/Dungeon Siege

3. Summoner I/II

3a. Baldurs Gate I

4. Final Fantasy V

5. Fallout I/II/Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle

6. Final Fantasy X-2 (already did that one).

7. PST/KOTOR

 

Remembered two others as well.

 

8. Escape - You are a prisoner, the rest should be obvious.

 

Example Dark Sun (now thats going back a few years) Sword of Mana/Baldurs Gate II.

 

9. Just doing our job/looking for adventure - You/your party has signed up to do a job or is travelling to a region which you know should lead to adventure. Usually there is some deeper plot at work like that in the "escort".

 

Example IWD I/II

 

I'm in agreement with Voloun btw (watch as hell freezes over) I've played so many of these things how the character gets introduced into the story dosnt make or break the game.

 

However an introduction with some enigmas is much more likely to get me thinking. Losing an NPC character in the intro dosnt work on me. Losing a character that has been a useful and productive party member does. I almost shed a tear when I had to leave Marcie (MRC) behind in Sword of Mana because I couldnt have gotten through the area without it (Its a robot) and it tells you its got rocket jets so the girl character (you can name them) lets it toss her across as the tower collapses.

 

On the other hand the main characters parents being killed in the intro, nothing.Gorian in BG , nada.

[Gorth]

[kefka]

hmm, a difficult choice, but I think I'd have to choose option 1. The escort -- mainly because all the others have been done to death, especially options 2, 3 and 7.

 

PS:T & KotOR are obvious for #7 but Sanitarium is another great example. An underrated classic which you literally play inside your own tortured mind. I bet most people have never heard of this adventure game? It has some very devious puzzles and twisted situations that leave you feeling as crazy as the main character...

[mkreku]

I loved the nr. 8 opening of Gothic. You're a common criminal and you're tossed into a magic prison without a clue as to what is going on. I loved being able to find out everything on my own and the fact that an entire world was contained within that magic bowl.

 

So 8 is my favourite intro.

[Darque]

I think it's about time for something new.... most of these have been overused.

[Azarkon]

If you could determine the player's background/past actions, I'd say there's a nigh endless amount of ways you can start him/her off.

 

If you can't, the options are pretty limited. This thread has covered most of the popular ones - and they're popular for a reason, because they tend to work and mesh well without requiring much overhead on the PC's background.

 

Although I should say that the way Shadow Paladin has them listed, they're broad enough to be categorized as "archetypes" rather than specific beginnings - and there are only so many archetypes.

[HiddenAssassin]

I liked the beginning to super nintendo shadowrun and the sega megadrive one was pretty good too.

Your bro was killed in the megadrive one and your out to find who it is.

In the nintendo you've just been geeked by a gang and you wake up in a morgue wondering what the hell was going on.

 

I think you should be able to pick your beginning by picking your past. Say you pick that your bro was killed by brigands you will start off with his powerful friend showing you the ropes as he pities you etc etc.

[Enoch]

A large part of this depends on how inherently involved the protagonist is in the rest of the story. Is the main character somehow marked as special, or is he just some guy (assuming male for brevity) who has stumbled into something?

 

I very much prefer the "ordinary guy" protagonist. Whenever a game starts going into how my character is fulfilling some ancient prophecy or avenging the death of the father he never knew, I roll my eyes and sigh. That pretty much eliminates SP's numbers 3 and 7. (Torment overcame its opening because it never pretended that there wasn't something special about the PC.)

 

A further determination depends on where the story's going to end up. If the game doesn't allow much player choice in the direction of the story, you want the opening to give the character a goal to start off with. Numbers 2, 6, & 8 work well for this.

 

If, on the other hand, the story gives the player wide latitude in deciding his path through the game, you want an opening that isn't going to assume any kind of motive on behalf of the character. 1 and especially 4 are probably the strongest in this regard.

[Sebastian]

I don't think KotOR classifies as a 7. The identity of the character is used as a plot twist, not as an introduction. The game never centers around the question who the protagonist is, and once his/her identity is revealed there are no mysteries left.

 

Numbers 3a and 5 (before you find out about the PC's identity) better fit KotOR.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I also tend to prefer the character which isn's special, or isnt special in the way of inhuman abilities. Most SPESHUL character often are special in name only, and have barely anything special to their namesake. The main problem you get when you're given a special character from the beginning is that it's already been dictated in what he is special about, and most if the times, you just sit and watch him/her get special on its own (specially true if the story is enforced heavilly on players). The idea of beginning as a regular character in a more freeform game allows players themselves to become special in their own way.

 

PS:T & KotOR are obvious for #7 but Sanitarium is another great example. An underrated classic which you literally play inside your own tortured mind. I bet most people have never heard of this adventure game? It has some very devious puzzles and twisted situations that leave you feeling as crazy as the main character...

 

Liked it a lot when i played it some years ago. I felt the game was good, but too short. I heavilly disliked one or two puzzles, specially because i don't remember being any logical guidelines at the time. I remember the puzzle of the bug which crashed into some control panel and ou had to lift or rotate its parts to reach the controls. Probably i might find it easier if i play it today, but at the time it was hell.

[Llyranor]

What do people think about KOTOR's intro, where you where a soldier of the Republic no matter what you wanted? Did you mind this?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

^I did. O'course, people who just care about the story, usually don't mind gross assumptions made by the company on their behalf - such as, no matter what you want, your character would be depicted as a soldier.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

What do people think about KOTOR's intro, where you where a soldier of the Republic no matter what you wanted? Did you mind this?

It's very much a trade off.

 

The more control the designers have the better they can fit the story around the character and the more "alive" they can make the character without any work on the players part.

 

All games even PnP games have DM restrictions. It's not uncommon to start a SW RPG with everyone either looking to join the republic or already a member. The advantage a human DM has is they can adapt. Where as in a game all the possibilites have to be there before you even start.

 

If you allow the player absolute character freedom you are also placing the "burden" of roleplaying and character creation on the players shoulders.

Take IWD for example. You can treat it as a statististical hack and slash game. Or you can create 6 very unique characters of your own design and run them through the game. The tradeoff being that because the game cant possibly predict what your characters will be in advance it has to be very open (in order to accomodate all those possible characters). It would be impossible to write something like IWD with absolute freedom of character and give it the personalisation of BG.

 

Then you have BG where your character has a destiny that ties them into the story. It dosnt really matter what character class or race you pick because that destiny can apply to any of the possible D&D combo's

You still have a degree of freedom to create your own character. But with the proviso (some call it baggage) that you are a and always will be a Child of Bhaal and that will shape how the adventure progresses.

 

Because the designers know this they can tailor the adventure for a Child of Bhaal so it takes on a personal overtone than something like IWD.

 

Then at the opposite end of the scale you have the likes of PST where everything is written for one specific character. Stronger story again. But you are stuck with that one specific character. If you dont like them , then its too bad. The choices are illusionary because they all apply to the character. You might change the story in some way. But your not actually roleplaying as all the work is done for you. There in no challenge to stay in character.

 

In my experience most people seem to go for the middle ground of BG where you have something that ties you to the story, but without having to have a specific identity. Although the FF series which are basically stories with you doing the hard bits (like combat) are also very popular and the stories overall tend to be better and deeper.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Not so much of a burden, as its paramount to RPGs. More freedom is also hardly a burden, as its not mandatory, unlike story-driven games.

[mkreku]

O'course, people who just care about the story, usually don't mind gross assumptions made by the company on their behalf - such as, no matter what you want, your character would be depicted as a soldier.

Guess you'd hate Gothic then.. Not only were you forced into a role, it was the role of a petty criminal (you never find out what he had done to get thrown in jail).

 

I mean, as long as you start as a soldier it's ok, isn't it?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I'm guessing you didn't quite grasped what i said.

[Judge Hades]

The best way I start a campaign is the PCs are doing something ordinary, like going to the bank to arfue about an overdraft notice or something, then get in a middle of a bank robbery or the PCs are all friends and on a road trip during Spring Break and while driving through a forested area at night their tire blows. While changing the tire someone runs through the road screaming covered in blood and missing a limb then disappears in the forest. Take the ordinsary everyday and give them a nipple twist.

[Judge Hades]

Guess you'd hate Gothic then.. Not only were you forced into a role, it was the role of a petty criminal (you never find out what he had done to get thrown in jail).

 

I mean, as long as you start as a soldier it's ok, isn't it?

I know I hated Gothic.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Not so much of a burden, as its paramount to RPGs. More freedom is also hardly a burden, as its not mandatory, unlike story-driven games.

This assumes that everyone who plays CRPG's are PnP or former PnP players. They are not.

 

Without those character creation skills and experience something like IWD would be pretty empty and flat.

 

It also dosnt explain why people are willing to fall on their swords to defend something like PST which is little more than a glorified "choose your own adventure" book.

 

Characer creation is not player driven thing. Its a collaberation between player and GM. In the case of a CRPG you are simply playing by the rules the GM sets out for characters. That dosnt excuse pre generated characters though. I dont know anyone who actually plays PnP with pre gens. But they do make for good story casts if you use them the way Squenix does.

[The Situationist]

Here we go again.

[Judge Hades]

I hate Pre-Gens. I just can't get into a game's story with using a pre-gen. That was PS:T's biggest flaw and I think its rather stupid for developers to coninutally use the same flaw.

 

I like making MY characters for they are mine and I am going through the game through MY character's experiences and through that I get a connection to MY character. Without that connection there is no immersion and ultimately I feel like I am just playing an action game with added numbers and not a CRPG.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

The best way I start a campaign is the PCs are doing something ordinary, like going to the bank to arfue about an overdraft notice or something, then get in a middle of a bank robbery or the PCs are all friends and on a road trip during Spring Break and while driving through a forested area at night their tire blows. While changing the tire someone runs through the road screaming covered in blood and missing a limb then disappears in the forest. Take the ordinsary everyday and give them a nipple twist.

Actually the best way I find is to run mini adventures for the characters and then base the main campaign around things found out during the mini episode.

 

It's like the prologue they do in the storyteller games. It allows you to use things that are important to the character to motivate them. It brings the background of the character to life (no one is allowed to play in a campaign I run without a background).

 

The problem with the approach you outlined is your basically taking their motivation for granted. Smart people dont go following bleeding people through the forest they call the cops. In a bank robbery they keep their heads down and hope for the best.

 

But as a CRPG approach where you have the luxury of mandatory participation those sorts of events would work.

 

Most of the skill in being a good DM is how much you can convince the players that what they are doing is their idea when you have really had them on a tight leash all along (saves a lot of work).

 

TOEE actually had a nice idea with the opening vignettes but they ended up being totally crap and pointless.Rather than relating them to a specific alignment (works for D&D I suppose) It would be pretty good if you could choose from say 8 prologues.

Each prologue being related to a different sort of character background. So you simply choose the one that most closely fits your character concept and hope fate treats you well.

 

Depending on what you chose during the prologue the events in the main game change. A little like the Shining Force series (which used episodes)only not as grand.