Thanks Matt, had a blast — looking forward to continuing the story too!
As GM I would be hesitant to force a player into an obviously evil character by having his character do something he as player may not have done. As player I would feel violated. She was posessed? What about going on a quest to find the most powerful artefact in the universe in order to save her life?
One of the mantras of this game is to respect the players agency…
But if it worked for you guys, good for you!
Wynand Louw — an excellent point! In this case, the mage who did the killing was aligned to the Abyss, so death and the like. He also revealed during character creation that he was a good-aligned death mage who specializes in helping people die well when its “their time”.
I tried to give him a situation I thought would be reasonable for him to be in given the background provided. In this case, he had just helped user Matt Smith’s sister into the afterlife after a long possession by a terrible fire lord. So, it was not as pigeon-holing as you might imagine. =)
If I were Oswald I would kill the evil bastard on the spot.
I GMd a game recently where PCs turned on each other. It was fun but made a follow up advenure impossible. Even if your evil mage would have done the deed the player of the brother character could feel pressed into a roll he may not have wanted, having to choose between that and derailing the session by going PVP.
All Im saying is be careful.
Guess it’s just a question of whether you trust your players to write a story that’s awesome, and not necessarily their knee-jerk reaction. Could it have gone south? Sure, any story can. But I think the payoff from it holding together was well worth it.
That is a pretty awesome set up and kudos to the crew for crafting a kick ass story out of it, rather than saying it wS off limits and missing the chance to build something cool.
I can see how it was a dangerous line to walk. Being there, I can say it was done with a great amount of tact.
It took balls, and it paid off.
Interesting setups are interesting.
I remember a one-shot where my Paladin was the governor of an occupied island and the Bard was the main agitator against the imperial rule (there was only two players).
But Kasper Brohus managed to find a common cause and we made a great, if somewhat drama prone, team =)
I’m just starting a new campaign world and I wan to start it big. Something like this would probably upset some of my players but I like the idea.
I think the important thing is that the GM started the player doing something that they very likely would have been doing anyway.
The player basically said he wants to play a good aligned necromancer. The GM was a fan of the character and used the players answer to put him in an interesting spot. We all found out what happened.
I don’t recommend starting your Paladin off with a knife in his hand at a sacrificial alter because that wouldn’t make you a fan of his character, but I think a lot of games (mostly mine) could benefit from taking some risks.
Good luck on your campaign buckaroopopcorn !
The entire story could have instead been that we just killed an evil queen that was keeping Oswald’s sister captive. So it wasn’t the opening, but more us as players that made it what it was. Also, I give Matt huge props to somehow managing to come up with a way to keep us all on the same team after that by saying it was essentially a necessary evil, aka her being possessed.
Great opening, absolutely.
I love asking my players how they feel about something another player did, but they’re all too sheepish to say anything interesting about it. Kudos to you for making it fun.
Matt Smith
I definitely couldn’t start the game with something so macabre but I’m not going to start in a tavern either. That’s the way (I’m embarrassed to say) that I always start campaigns off… [hangs head in shame]…
This time however everyone is going to be on an airship being attacked by weblings as it plummets to the ground in flames. I think that’ll get their attention.
That sounds awesome! Immediate danger has a good flavoring to it. Throw in a touch of ties to characters bonds and you have a recipe for a great story!
Thanks Matt, had a blast — looking forward to continuing the story too!
As GM I would be hesitant to force a player into an obviously evil character by having his character do something he as player may not have done. As player I would feel violated. She was posessed? What about going on a quest to find the most powerful artefact in the universe in order to save her life?
One of the mantras of this game is to respect the players agency…
But if it worked for you guys, good for you!
Wynand Louw — an excellent point! In this case, the mage who did the killing was aligned to the Abyss, so death and the like. He also revealed during character creation that he was a good-aligned death mage who specializes in helping people die well when its “their time”.
I tried to give him a situation I thought would be reasonable for him to be in given the background provided. In this case, he had just helped user Matt Smith’s sister into the afterlife after a long possession by a terrible fire lord. So, it was not as pigeon-holing as you might imagine. =)
If I were Oswald I would kill the evil bastard on the spot.
I GMd a game recently where PCs turned on each other. It was fun but made a follow up advenure impossible. Even if your evil mage would have done the deed the player of the brother character could feel pressed into a roll he may not have wanted, having to choose between that and derailing the session by going PVP.
All Im saying is be careful.
Guess it’s just a question of whether you trust your players to write a story that’s awesome, and not necessarily their knee-jerk reaction. Could it have gone south? Sure, any story can. But I think the payoff from it holding together was well worth it.
That is a pretty awesome set up and kudos to the crew for crafting a kick ass story out of it, rather than saying it wS off limits and missing the chance to build something cool.
I can see how it was a dangerous line to walk. Being there, I can say it was done with a great amount of tact.
It took balls, and it paid off.
Interesting setups are interesting.
I remember a one-shot where my Paladin was the governor of an occupied island and the Bard was the main agitator against the imperial rule (there was only two players).
But Kasper Brohus managed to find a common cause and we made a great, if somewhat drama prone, team =)
I’m just starting a new campaign world and I wan to start it big. Something like this would probably upset some of my players but I like the idea.
I think the important thing is that the GM started the player doing something that they very likely would have been doing anyway.
The player basically said he wants to play a good aligned necromancer. The GM was a fan of the character and used the players answer to put him in an interesting spot. We all found out what happened.
I don’t recommend starting your Paladin off with a knife in his hand at a sacrificial alter because that wouldn’t make you a fan of his character, but I think a lot of games (mostly mine) could benefit from taking some risks.
Good luck on your campaign buckaroopopcorn !
The entire story could have instead been that we just killed an evil queen that was keeping Oswald’s sister captive. So it wasn’t the opening, but more us as players that made it what it was. Also, I give Matt huge props to somehow managing to come up with a way to keep us all on the same team after that by saying it was essentially a necessary evil, aka her being possessed.
Great opening, absolutely.
I love asking my players how they feel about something another player did, but they’re all too sheepish to say anything interesting about it. Kudos to you for making it fun.
Matt Smith
I definitely couldn’t start the game with something so macabre but I’m not going to start in a tavern either. That’s the way (I’m embarrassed to say) that I always start campaigns off… [hangs head in shame]…
This time however everyone is going to be on an airship being attacked by weblings as it plummets to the ground in flames. I think that’ll get their attention.
That sounds awesome! Immediate danger has a good flavoring to it. Throw in a touch of ties to characters bonds and you have a recipe for a great story!