Adventure hooks and group signups
Hi everyone, here's what I'm leaning toward right now. It's subject to change if there's lopsided demand. I'm throwing in all 4 so there's more options, they don't all have to be filled.
Let me make very clear up front though: This is not a railroad campaign. All this describes is how your characters will be brought together, and the first adventure opportunity they'll have, which will probably lead to more. Once you guys are playing, if it turns out that it's not in character for you to take the adventure - or even to stick together as a party for that matter - I'm not going to force you. You're free to seek out other adventures, wander around and fight random monsters or use Profession for in-game weeks at a time, whatever you want. So don't feel, for example, like you can only get involved in political intrigue if you take hook 3.
Setup 1
Starting area: Small frontier town.
Hook: The players are called together by being named in the will of a complete stranger.
Player relations: Strangers to each other, called from distant regions to hear the will reading.
Future opportunities: Involvement in town issues, both adventurous and otherwise.
Recommended characters: Any. (A goblin is as likely to be named in the will as a human.)
Setup 2
Starting area: Small city that's part of a larger nation.
Hook: The players are drafted into quasi-military service as adventurous troubleshooters by the local government due to a depletion of genuine soldiers, due in turn to an ongoing war.
Player relations: At the discretion of the players, since they'll be from the same large nation and may or may not know each other. They'll need some reason to have not been drafted already, by the way, which we can discuss.
Future opportunities: Military/mercenary adventures, possibly large-scale combat down the road. (Or, if you really hate being drafted, you can form Le Resistance down the road instead. Or just go AWOL, I'm easy, remember.)
Recommended characters: Standard "city folk" probably a good idea, but not mandatory. The hook probably won't be too agreeable to chaotic characters, but that might be fun to play in itself.
Setup 3
Starting area: Large city in a civilized area.
Hook: The players are recruited by a local noble to handle some discreet affairs of an adventurous nature.
Player relations: Player discretion; they can call the city home or just be traveling through, as long as the noble has some reason to have heard of their adventuring prowess.
Future opportunities: Courtly intrigue and politics.
Recommended characters: Savage humanoids will probably compromise the discretion requirement of the adventure, although it's not totally impossible. Also, while this isn't necessarily an evil campaign, having something like a paladin along will definitely cut down on your options.
Setup 4
Starting area: A small group of racially varying settlements in a wilderness area.
Hook: The characters are sought out as mercenaries to serve a local band of savage humanoids, on the advice of a warlord trying to unite an army and his soothsayer, who has for some reason identified the players as necessary to the plan. (This hook will be the most attuned to the players' classes and races, as they have a lot of jobs that need doing and will try to find the one best for you.)
Player relations: Strangers bribed, threatened, or even abducted on the soothsayer's orders to appear before the chieftain.
Future opportunities: Flexible depending on what the PCs turn out to be good at and how they approach problems, but it will probably involve a lot of hack and slash.
Recommended characters: This hook is most hospitable to non-standard races, but it's not a requirement.
[Edit] I'll go ahead and keep a tally here. I'll just do it by interest, rather than as a priority queue, so we can figure out first what to eliminate.
Hook 1: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17
Hook 2: 1, 6, 10, 12, 18, 20
Hook 3: 4, 5, 9, 13, 16, 18
Hook 4: 1, 3, 11, 13, 17, 20
Please don't change your vote if there's already a bunch of people in a group. It's not impossible for me to set up a dueling wills situation or something like that :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:27, Sat 23 Apr 2011.
