Have you ever run a campaign that started out in the regular world, and then turned into something else?  What was it turned into? Did your players dig that kind of introduction?

I used to do that, but now I prefer to use flashbacks. AKA, if I run apocalypse stuff, I start the campaign IN the apocalypse, but flashback to the PC's lives before the shit hit the fan.

If I use "normal world" now, its the world is actually NOT normal, but the PCs thought it was (...but had an inkling of something) and now discovering the true state of reality.  AKA, there's a zombie outbreak, alien invasion, dimensional crossing, myths are real, etc.

It most often shows up in horror games for me. I've played in a couple "you are transported into D&D land" campaigns, but the genre doesn't resonate with me.

And I start clawing the player who keeps demanding that he remembers enough science from high school to engineer modern tech in a medieval setting.

I've found players enjoy this sort of thing, so long as it's not a bait-and-switch.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1054782I've found players enjoy this sort of thing, so long as it's not a bait-and-switch.

The two times I've been in such games as a player, they were b&s (and total BS!). I did not enjoy them, and I have never wanted to run such a game.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1054782I've found players enjoy this sort of thing, so long as it's not a bait-and-switch.

That's not my experience. I find it does not really work for long term play. What works is starting with PCs from mundane world, but already established in the non-mundane setting. So starting after the zombie apocalypse with PCs in a semi-safe base town is, in practice, much better for long term play than hitting mundane PCs with apocalypse. I find in those games it becomes simply "get to safety" and when the PCs finally reach safety the game feels done. Same for characters cast into the future/past/fantasy world.

I had players create characters that were through hiking the Appalachian Trail.  I told them to make regular people that they found interesting, but obviously something would happen during the hike.

Game started with them five months into the hike, nearing the end in Maine.  They ran into a crime scene (murder) from an escaped convict.   They thought the campaign was going to deal with that.  However, in digging around they found nearby there was an alien influence on an isolated human family over three generations that involved with prepping for the arrival of more.  Players stumbled onto that and tried to intervene.

Had a near TPK, but the players told me that enjoyed it.  Used a lighter version of WOC 3.0 modern as this was a few years ago.  I like running something that takes me out of my comfort zone.

Science fiction gaming often has a start that is pretty mundane. For example, the adventure opens with friends meeting at the local bar after work, which are typical modern equivalent occupations.  The characters have a certain amount of money from their careers, possibly family.  They often have some type of car-like transport.  The adventure may follow from some aspect of their day-to-day life taking them to the exotic, sexy, blackest black and beep-boop aliens, but at first it's often pretty normal.

Quote from: Kuroth;1054812Science fiction gaming often has a start that is pretty mundane. For example, the adventure opens with friends meeting at the local bar after work, which are typical modern equivalent occupations.  The characters have a certain amount of money from their careers, possibly family.  They often have some type of car-like transport.  The adventure may follow from some aspect of their day-to-day life taking them to the exotic, sexy, blackest black and beep-boop aliens, but at first it's often pretty normal.

This seems the exact same as dnd game starting at the inn.

The only genre switch I dont enjoy is when an adventure game turns into a merchant game.  But abrupt genre switches are probably my favorite kind of games. I like it when the characters arent purpose built to tackle one challenge thats spelled out for them in session zero.  I want my characters to have to deal with more than one situation, multiple tactics, multiple strategies, and panopolies of surreal challenge in both opponent and setting/environment.  Gettin rich is a fine goal, but having no other goal besides gettin rich gets fantastically boring to me.  From Dusk Till Dawn situations should just be another day at the office for the adventurin type.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1054482Have you ever run a campaign that started out in the regular world, and then turned into something else?  What was it turned into? Did your players dig that kind of introduction?

Yes, a big YES....

It was a 3rd edition GURPS campaign back in 1990 - I told the players to create a character typical for a big city in North America circa the summer of 1986. Then they also had to come with a reason why their character would be riding a commuter bus.

They all trusted me that it might be interesting.

During the first game session the bus they were on was traveling during a very turbulent rainstorm in the middle of July - then as it was crossing an overpass or viaduct a vibrant blue lightning bolt hit the bus and they were now in outer space heading toward a chunk of asteroid rock that had a piece of a road and a small building on it.
The bus driver got out to investigate the small building after they had 'landed' on the rock.  (Yes, somehow they were still breathing...)


Okay, sorry too much detail - by the end of the first game session they were on an alien planet that had two suns in the sky with nothing but desert terrain around them and their bus driver was dead...so were 50% of the passengers who had suffered strange effects from the Blue lightning beam.

- Ed C.


P.S. this was in the fall of 1990 - TWENTY years before "Doctor Who" dd a similar story with the long episode "Planet of the Dead".....

In mid-November 2017, four friends who had gone to the same college (UCLA) took off in a Gweduck amphibian from Santa Catalina island. Every year they would go somewhere together for a vacation. One was an airplane design engineer who was just about to get the certification on his first airplane design, one was a veterinarian, one was a ranger/ safari guide, and the last was a commercial bush pilot. They flew up to Seattle and landed at Seattle-Tacoma airport to refuel. They were headed to the Tongass National Forest on the Alaskan panhandle for a week of camping, fishing and hunting. They flew over the border into British Columbia, along the coast. They went into a cloud and...

Came out to find the ground rising to hit them from underneath! The coast mountains had broken free from the earth and were flying up into the air! The Gweduck's pilot, at this time the bush pilot, though the engineer was also a qualified pilot - it was his plane - made a side-slip and rolled inverted before pulling into a dive past the edge of the mountains! Chunks of earth the size of Los Angeles were breaking off and floating away, water was spurting out into the air and turning to mist, and birds the size of the Gweduck flew past with riders in saddles firing bows at each other from their backs!

The players knew this was coming. I didn't blindside them, they were prepared, but the characters weren't! This was the beginning of my current Tuesday night game.

Quote from: S'mon;1054813This seems the exact same as dnd game starting at the inn.

Exactly.  Most adventures start out very normal. It is just more obvious in science fiction.  So, that is why I made the example with it.

My current Lords of Olympus campaign started with the PCs all being ordinary mortals, which is I guess the equivalent to this. This way everyone was gradually introduced to the concepts in the game. Most of them (5/8) are actually still mortal, though not ordinary anymore.