The “first” session in my mega-dungeon Greyhawk campaign was primarily character creation. We had 5 of the 6 players free this day. While some people worked out fine detail, I started the introductory sequence for one of the players, then went to the next, and so on.
Campaign Date: 10th Goodmonth 576 CY. “Beginnings”
One player was chosen to begin with – we started with Lanliss, the Rogue. The player on one side of him picked a pre-generated 2nd level NPC from a group of ten, based on a summary of the character. (Name, race, class, align, HPs, AC, Saves, main weapon attack/damage and a brief list of class abilities.) Most of these were classes from the Advanced Class Guide or classes not frequently seen in our previous games. The next person around the table was handed a pre-generated 1st level fighter. Both NPC’s were considered friends of the PC. I then talked briefly about where they were in the Flanaess, and led them outside their hometown. In each case they ended up in some sort of combat encounter where (as the GM) I tried to badly wound or kill the 1st level NPC and hurt everyone else. The final part of each encounter had a NPC locating a chain with a silver disc – with the PC’s face on one side, and a rune on the other. The NPC read the rune and there was a bright flash.
Then I picked another player around the table, and NPC’s were chosen/handed out and we did the same again. Each final encounter gave slightly more information – like finding bodies of strangers, revealing that the PC’s face was on the disc, etc. The final PC encounter also found a note on one body stating specifically where the PC was to be found, that the disc would point in his direction, and that he needed to be killed by the 10th Goodmonth. Payment could be claimed by using the disc to return to “the Crimson Oracle”. We had time to run four of the players through the intro.
I got to run the intro sequence with one player (my wife) on a later day. (She’d been away when the rest of us got together.) This was good because I got her reactions to everything without her having player knowledge (that her character wouldn’t have) by watching others go through the intro. I also got her reaction to appearing somewhere different (teleport) and being partly surrounded by a bunch of other wounded people holding weapons and looking surprised, angry, etc. I’d almost expected her to simply start firing her bow, but (thankfully for the other PCs) she simply aimed at one and stepped back, waiting to see what they did.
Later, at our first proper game session with everyone, I ran the intro for the last player and went straight into the “your standing on a path, near a cabin and there’s X other people standing around with drawn weapons.” He thought quickly and reacted well… no-one attacked anybody else!
After each session I’m writing a diary to record what happened. Then I’ll post that on the blog and link the post to the FalsKrag Campaign page.
Dragons of Lancasm 