...NOT!

Roll for initiative!

Has anyone here kicked off a campaign with those words? I mean right after everyone creates characters, you throw a combat encounter at them. Context is for chumps! Figure out the context as you fight.

The wisdom in fiction (novels, film) is open with action. Does it work in an RPG?

If you tried it, how did it go?

The sample adventure in Star Wars basically does this. The players read a script to set the tone and are immediately placed in a situation where they have to steal some Y-wing fighters and escape. It glosses over all the usual bullshit that typically happens in modern tavern scenarios (oh yeah, my character is a loner and has no reason to do some mission with these other rubes), just gets right to the point. I ran it before for a new campaign, worked great. We were playing SW instantly, not bumbling around in Mos Eisley trying to hire a freighter pilot.

I ran a MERP campaign that was mostly dwavres and a Beorning who lived next to the Lonely Mountain so we just started in Moria and said he came with them for fun as they went looking for mithril.  Not exactly combat, but they were already "in an adventure".

Generally I think the meeting in a tavern thing is fine, but getting on with it and hand waving a lot of the raison d'etre for the characters creates more investment.

Quote from: rytrasmi on October 19, 2023, 01:38:21 PM
I mean right after everyone creates characters, you throw a combat encounter at them. Context is for chumps! Figure out the context as you fight.

Sounds fun!

Not combat, but I have done similar, starting a campaign with the characters being teleported into a "you-have-10-rounds-before-you-freeze-to-death" scenario -- figure out the context (and the solution) as you go.

I guess that's literally a "cold open" 

The players loved it, were instantly engaged, and the campaign was awesome.

Quote from: rytrasmi on October 19, 2023, 01:38:21 PM
Roll for initiative!

Has anyone here kicked off a campaign with those words? I mean right after everyone creates characters, you throw a combat encounter at them. Context is for chumps! Figure out the context as you fight.

The wisdom in fiction (novels, film) is open with action. Does it work in an RPG?

If you tried it, how did it go?

I haven't done this in a while, but in my James Bond 007 campaign, I would always start off each adventure with a teaser opening in the middle of the action - the climax of some other mission.

The obvious downside is that this can feel kind of railroady, but the teaser was short. We would then cut to a regular mission.

I should consider that for other games, as it can be fun.

Quote from: rytrasmi on October 19, 2023, 01:38:21 PM
...NOT!

Roll for initiative!

Has anyone here kicked off a campaign with those words? I mean right after everyone creates characters, you throw a combat encounter at them. Context is for chumps! Figure out the context as you fight.

The wisdom in fiction (novels, film) is open with action. Does it work in an RPG?

If you tried it, how did it go?

I'm kinda meh on it.

There was an old Red Sonja module for AD&D that began that way. It was cool to read. I stole the idea instantly. Less cool in actual play. Tastes of course vary, but to me the point of this is for the players to be excited right off the bat, not confused.

Figure out the context as you go works fine for a movie or a novel. The audience figuring out the context is going to be true in any story. The character's figuring out the context, well that's fine, too, but the characters at least know what they know or don't know. Players in an RPG trying to figure it out don't know what their characters know or don't know. It just doesn't produce the same effect.

There are ways to salvage the technique, though. Like if the game or world has clearly defined bad guys. If we're playing Star Wars and you open up the campaign with a firefight with some storm troopers, I think that would work. Players don't know what the stormtroopers are up to or how their characters landed in this hot water, but they also know stormtroopers are kind of dicks so it almost doesn't need a reason.

Another thing is to act like we're just doing a trial run, like to test out the combat system or how the characters work as a group, we're just going to go through this mock combat, and then at the end of the battle you drop, "Oh, by the way, the campaign's already begun," and now players can scramble to start piecing together what's going on.

Quote from: rytrasmi on October 19, 2023, 01:38:21 PM
...NOT!

Roll for initiative!

Has anyone here kicked off a campaign with those words? I mean right after everyone creates characters, you throw a combat encounter at them. Context is for chumps! Figure out the context as you fight.

The wisdom in fiction (novels, film) is open with action. Does it work in an RPG?

If you tried it, how did it go?

The opening for A Little Knowledge in the Dark Sun starter adventure: The party is all slaves (make up your own reason for why your character wound up so) being transported to a city for sale. The caravan is attacked by elven raiders. The elves are not interested in slaves, and so they leave them to their fate. The adventure starts with the party forced to work together to survive the desert, scavenging whatever they can find, and running into various encounters. It's so easy it's criminal, and I use it for every new Dark Sun campaign.

I almost always open a new campaign with a scene where a boss or patron is giving the party a job.  Sometimes, it's in a bar.  I always give players a quick railroad adventure from the get go just to get their feet wet before I turn them loose on the world. I use this starter adventure to introduce them to NPCs, world lore, and offer up some mysteries that might entice them to explore. 

I've said this before on this forum but I always make session 0 a time where we roll up PCs (you do not get to roll one up at home and bring it), establish the relationship between the party members, and answer any questions the player has prior to starting the game.  When the curtain rises on the game, all the PC already have an established relationship; I think it's dumb to RP out how they all meet.  I think introducing some mundane elements to a game like shopping, relationship building, and in game hobbies and side projects can add a lot to world building and immersion if done in moderation.  However, some things are best dealt with by GM fiat like saying "you guys are all former military from the same unit."

I started my first D&D 3E campaign with the characters in a small town square as it was attacked by creatures streaming out of the sewers. They characters weren't even a party yet.  The guidelines for character creation had specified they needed a reason to be in the town, and gave them several options.  The kick off was a few sentences of describing the the scene to orient them, then action. 

In my case, I think this worked well because there was no one at the session who hadn't played in a game with me before. Given some newcomers, I'd have probably not done it.  Plus, since this was our first 3E game, I used the battle as a way to introduce everyone to the rules. 

I started one campaign with a chase. The party had just come out of a taven, the old Hook & Hatchet in Threshold. There was a massive barfight that the party had no part in, but they were just running out to escape the chaos when a large squad of guards spotted them and an npc thief whispered "quick this way" and led them through the streets evading the guards, across the bridge to Fogor Isle where they could catch their breath. The guards don't cross the Fogor bridge at night so they could relax and spend the night "safely" in the most cutthroat part of town. Everyone introduced themselves and a party was formed. They found a place to hole up together and started exchanging rumors that they had already gathered.

On of my Artesia games started in medias res on a large battlefield.

Quote from: Trond on October 20, 2023, 12:08:05 AM
On of my Artesia games started in medias res on a large battlefield.

This is what I came to say, as what the OP is describing is basically in media res.

Back in the days when there was often only a tenuous reason for players to stay together "in the adventuring party", in media res was a common way of attempting to develop bonds between characters outside of Session 0 (something that could annoy those that preferred defining a character through play rather than in Session 0).