Does anybody have a collection of fun starting situations?

Does anybody have a collection of fun starting situations?

Does anybody have a collection of fun starting situations? I saw one once (I think maybe from Adam Koebel) that had a really interesting mix of starting questions and reversed expectations. I think it had to do with an overturned cart and protecting someone you didn’t think you would be. Any leads?

12 thoughts on “Does anybody have a collection of fun starting situations?”

  5. So you are all sitting in that lightningrail/train right? Well there is a short announcement about a short stop and then some ropes descent from the airship over you – a few shapes in crescent armor descent on them. Thief: why have you pissed off the order of the overflowing blood? 

  6. I basically want to run a game centered on a cool fantasy train. That is the only condition, the train must be important. Whatever else is up to the players. Are they robbing it? Are they taking it home? Must they destroy it because it spits in the face of the primal and elemental spirits? Whatever – will their lives with adventure. 

  10. “Deldrik, High King of the Realm, it is my grave duty to inform you that your father was a changeling impostor from the faerie lands. Your claim to the Throne is invalid. I’m sorry. Guards!”

  11. After they made characters and bonds and shared with each other (a wild elven wizard named Avon, a charming human bard named Quorra, and a wise halfling Druid named Ivy), , I started with a high level description of the main city. (This is from a map in which I left room, and used the drop map (http://www.gnomestew.com/tools-for-gms/how-to-make-a-drop-map/) technique and the steading creation rules.) The city is in the SE of our map, with a Fort to the NE of it. These places were the main locations from which human forces poured forth to fight the elves in generations-past. The elves live to the SE and things are still tense. The site of the greatest battle between them lies between these three locations, and is now a source of angry undead. Yet, people still go their due to the relics that can be still found amidst the ruins.

    —

    You stand before King Dunstan of Hammerford, the whole court shocked into terrified silence. The King himself is pale. Someone nearby coughs, and Knight Commander Xotoq, shifts, scowling, ready for action. Helga, the King’s Advisor glares at you with a strange look, as if ready to flee.

    Who sent you to deliver this foul message? Elf-King Medlyn

    What is the message you’ve delivered? Medlyn’s son, Prince Aelfar is gone missing, and the humans are suspected to have been behind it.

    Who will die because of this news? It’s likely that if Aelfar is not returned, the the elves will desire the the death of Prince Jocat of Hammerford, or in Knight Commander Xotoq.

    What can be done to save them? If Prince Aelfar can be found and returned, death and war may be averted.

    Someone in the crowd is a turncoat – who are they and what advantage have you just given them? Helga, the King’s Advisor, has something to do with Aelfar going missing. She now has time to try to twist things to her advantage and/or get away.

    What does the Knight Commander wish you would do? The Knight Commander needs all the rest of the information, from the Elves’ perspectives.

    Where is the High Priest? Why are they not present? High Priest Freya is actually on an expedition plundering artifacts from the undead-infested battle site.

    and, of course, what do you do? As Helga began whispering to the King, they tried to diplomatically avoid any rising conflict, while subtly implicating Helga. Their subtlety failed, and Helga and the King began to become more incensed, but the Knight Commander was swayed before calamity, and he demanded to get to the bottom of it in private. He suspected Helga, too, and through parley and smarts, they made an agreement to bring Helga to the Elven capitol for questioning, provided that they staked their good names and reputation on her coming to no harm. They also shared that prince Jocat and prince Aelfar have been seen secretly meeting and sharing parchment and quiet words. Xotoq’s people go to arrest Helga and bring her to the party for their mission.

    Avon beseeches a spirit of Order for help, and learns that not only do Helga and her ilk have something to do with the situation, but that Jocat and his retinue do, as well.

    For their trek, they try to recruit a protector and a scout, as well as get rations from Commander Xotoq and from playing music in an inn. One-eye, a mercenary soldier, is adequate, but Finbar is secretly a member of Helga’s network of spies.

    Their trip is interrupted one night as they wake to assassin vines snaking around Helga, during a time in which Finbar is mysteriously absent. They fight off the vines (in hilarious fashion, with the Druid turning into a beaver and biting through vines, then dragging Helga away from danger while the Wizard blasts vines with missiles and the Bard slashes away.) Finbar returns in the middle of the fight and helps.

    They begin to suspect him, and their demands during the fight cause him to make demands, as well. They have to come to a very uneasy agreement in order to get to the elven city safely.

  12. I have a favorite opener that I use in almost every game I run everytime we pick up a new player.   The players are in a bar/tavern/space hub.  All but two are in a booth drinking.  The other two are making their way through the extremely crowded room.  It’s loud and it’s ruckus.  I say that one player slips between two particularly large individuals when they hear.  “What?! My mother is a saint!”  The player is mistaken for someone else insulting the parentage of one of the large individuals and get’s punched in the face and sent crashing into a table and a bar fight erupts.  New players never expect it and old players just sit back and grin waiting for the antics to unfold. 

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