I was wondering how everyone who has started GMing EP has begun the game. I would want to begin with the story of how the characters are recruited into the Firewall.
There's a wild variety of backgrounds and possibilities from what habitats they can come from.
So, I guess that my question is: what does an uplifted octopus from Ceres, a fall-evacuee infomorph, a Jovian, a Marsian socialite and Titanian Fury operator have in common and why they happen to be on the same planet at once?*
Of course they *absolutely* don't need to be in the same place at once. Firewall could pay for their egocasting, rent/buy a new morph and ship the original morph (which the players had bought with CP, I don't think that I'd have the heart to make the players design a morph, and when the adventure starts, I'd say: Say your morph bah-bye) to the location of their owning egoes. It's just that the shipping takes ages!
So, any good ideas how to start my game?
*These are not the characters, they aren't made yet and I'm just throwing something out of my hat.
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Starting a game
Tue, 2009-11-10 08:57
#1
Moracai
Starting a game
Sun, 2009-11-15 07:22
#2
standard_gravity
Re: Starting a game
One idea: Give them each a reason to attend a scum barge annual party (reasons could be meeting a friend/relative, bartering/trade, gambling, participating in the Solar Cup in snakemorph wrestling, hooking up with a famous morph designer or whatever). Having arrived, something happens that would interest Firewall in that particular part of space and the characters (who have been monitored by Firewall already) are the closest at hand to deal with the problem.
As for the resleeving issue, you could either have them resleeve into the morphs they created when making their characters, or simply give them standard morphs for this first episode of your campaign.
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"People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes." - John Dee
Sun, 2009-11-22 09:25
#3
7thSeaLord
Re: Starting a game
Have them all meet in a bar (or other public place of R&R), and then kick things off with a bar-room brawl versus somebody that they all can dislike. OK, it is a total cliche, but works for just about all genres. Plus, getting to crack a few heads straiight away never hurts a game start ...
Slight variant of above - have them all meet in a VR game.
The PCs are all in the same general area for different reasons, when Firewall suddenly puts them all together in an improvised team to deal with a sudden emergency of some kind.
The PCs are all in the same hab or spacecraft (again, for their own individual reasons) when something BAD happens to whatever they are in. Quite by chance, they all end up in the same lifepod or the same compartment, and obviously must work together in order to survive.
Something I have seen used in other systems. Build each Character with a "connection" to at least one (and preferably two or more) other characters in their backstories. Maybe the Titanian Fury did a stint bodyguarding the Martian Socialite whilst touring the Asteroids, which is where they met the Cerean Octopus .... Etcetera.
—
"Do it? ... Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome?
I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
Ozymandias, The Watchmen
Fri, 2009-11-27 14:03
#4
GregH
Re: Starting a game
How about it starts in a fantasy or pulp setting with characters using only their fists against the orcs or the nazis... after a few rounds SUDDENLY a series of alarms appear in AR to all the characters and they are dumped back into their morphs... at which point we learn that whatever will be connecting them to Firewall is currently attacking their station/base of choice. While they get their act together they get to meet each other and the NPC with the Firewall connections... he's going to be the first to die BTW and it's up to the characters to complete his mission...
Sat, 2009-11-28 04:25
#5
Wild_Cat
Re: Starting a game
When starting a campaign (for any game, really), I usually either:
- Tell the players the premise of the game (e.g. "you're all newly-recruited Firewall agents in a Venus cloud city") before they start creating their characters.
- Ask them to come up with connections to each others' characters.
In both cases, I make "why are you working together?" a question for the players to answer, the process of which often gives me ideas for plot hooks to be used later on. I've had zero complaints so far.
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Come baguette some!
Mon, 2009-12-14 11:20
#6
Iv
Re: Starting a game
I use a lighter version of what wild cat proposes :
"Let's make your background. One of the constraints is that you have to be at Olympus Mons for the beginning of the campaign. Either find a reason or I'll provide you with one you are not allowed to find illogical". Players usually prefer that to the GM forcing everyone to make Barsoomians anarchists...
Tue, 2009-12-15 09:25
#7
7thSeaLord
Re: Starting a game
That works well.
Though I would amend it to "... find a reason that I find acceptable, or .... ". Just to head off any potential funny business on that front. There is always someone.
—
"Do it? ... Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome?
I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
Ozymandias, The Watchmen
Wed, 2010-01-13 06:23
#8
Bloodwork
Re: Starting a game
I also use this method and it works fine. However many GMs have players that chafe under any form of restriction and that GM may not be able to boot them from the group for various reasons.
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That which doesn't kill you usually succeeds on the second attempt.