Question on Favorite way to start a game?

[roguesquad]

I always like to start my games in the middle of action. Like the characters have known each other for a length of time, (however short), and they are smack dab in a fight. Meaning they have an intro that consists of them being shot at, wanting to defend themselves, or prevent something, all the while they have still litttle actual experience as players with each other.

I am not a big fan of characters who meet in a bar for the first time, and just talk things out, (hopefully, anyway


What techniques do you use to grab players attention at the beginning of a game?
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[Sabre]

I'll usually start a game out by describing some background information to the entire group, sort of an 'opening scroll' preamble. Sometimes it'll be pieces of a character's written background to introduce the character to the group, or sometimes I'll make up extra background for a character and introduce an NPC as 'this is a person you've known for x years, you met doing this, since then you've done that' and so on. Grimace introduced me to an interesting 'bonus background information' thing that I'll probably use from now on to avoid having to make up additional background on my own. It's sort of a questionaire he uses. Anyway, usually NPCs introduced in this way will die horribly as part of the campaign setup.

Sometimes I'll start games with a 'cut scene' involving few or none of the players and NPCs who will never (or not until vert later) appear in the game, participating in some sort of action that sets the stage of events for the game to come. Then I'll introduce each player and relate their experiences to how this event comes to affect them.

Similar to the previous one, sometimes I'll start a campaign just describing events that have taken palce recently in the galaxy (or the part where the players happen to all be in). Then I'll relate how this event affects everyone's character and eventually bring them all to the same place where they end up working together (or if not together, at least on the same goal).

I've also taken the book's suggestion and started the game in the middle of action. One online campaign I did that ran weekly for about five years started this way. It's a good way to start and hooks the players' attention right off, as well as giving them a chance to show off their new characters, their style and their abilities.

I try to avoid bars in my games. Bars and Tattooine.

[garhkal]

It depends. Some of my modules, start with the rebel group receiving a briefing, others are thrust into it.
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[Allst Beamem]

Im with you roguesquad 9x out of 10 I start the game off in media res! in the middle of action. just like all the movies

[Jamfke]

Dittomundo on the action beginnings! It gives everyone something to do immediately and ties them together quicker!
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[entropy]

I think my best campaign beginning was a raid on a weapons research facility where some of the PCs worked there, and the rest happened to find out about the raid a few minutes in advance and were trying to get them out. I don't think I've ever used a bar for the starting scene in Star Wars, but I have used them in D&D. I guess it all depends on the character backgrounds.

If the characters have no way to know each other, starting in a bar (sorry K, "Pub-style eatery") makes sense. I do have a campaign plot I've started writing where the characters start on a prisoner transport that gets attacked by a group trying to break another NPC out. The PCs will be abandoned on the disabled transport and have to limp to safety. I haven't actually run it yet, but it should be fun (for me anyway).

[Jedi Skyler]

I must agree with the action beginnings. For a long while I was part of a group where all our characters were part of an Alliance SpecOps unit. Most of the time we were out on the Rim, completely autonomous from Rebel HQ or command of any kind. We operated much like Wraith Squadron did in the X-wing series, although years before the books came out. We raided a lot of Imperial convoys and depots, appropriating ships, munitions and the like for our war effort. By the time we were done running in those circles we had quite the little fleet going- a modified stock light freighter and a couple beefed up bulk transports mostly. We had the transports converted into carriers, and rigged ion emissions to disguise the nature of the fighters in the cargo holds. It took close scrutiny to detect what we had, usually long enough to let us get the jump on the Imps...

[Trusty]

In this campaign I am running now, Our campaign started with the characters meeting in Rehab, and they decided to break out.
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[Boomer]

I tend to start games off a bit slow, than right smack out of nowhere, action shows up. Much like The Empire Strikes Back began.

But I have always loved the more action Packed beginnings, much the way A New Hope began.
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[Jedi Skyler]

Started in Rehab?!? I like that! Hilarious!!!

[Argamoth]

For beginning PCs, I like to have them doing jobs, or working on some kind of buisness. Have them start on a 'normal' life, and then throw the plot at them.

Now they have to figure out how to make a living.

[Jedi Skyler]

Plus, if you start them out already having a job, then you have an excuse to give them credits- perhaps more than the usual starting credits. This can be attributed to any number of things: fiscal frugality, some nest egg stashed away, or perhaps they were simply drug dealers who make a lot off of a few scores. However you work it, you can tailor it to give them enough credits to start out with a fighting chance... as long as you have a good reason for doing so. Otherwise, they need to be more resourceful on their own.

[Volar the Healer]

Because it seems I always have new players, I always start out slow. My current "free trader" campaign (anyone old enough to recognise the reference?) began with the captain hiring the crew and taking his new ship out on it's maiden voyage - a cargo hauling run where nothing exciting happens. It's just a chance for the players to learn their roles. The captain is an experienced PC, the others much less so. The first game was just an explanation and exercise of what a pilot, astrogator, engineer, and loadmaster do.

I intend to ramp up the action slowly. The captain is beginning to understand free traders operate on a very small profit margin. The engineer keeps finding little thing to maintain and the loadmaster is discovering the importance of the droid programming skill (which she doesn't have). I prefer a lot of realism. The captain has remarked twice he's never seen a game with such detail. He'll eventually figure out there are a lot of things happening around him he's unaware of. But since he also is on this board, I'll leave it at that.

Sometimes the characters are more "real" if the players also have some work to do and skills to learn. This gives the players something to work with. The engineer is coming along perfectly. In the last game I heard her say" Captain, while I was performing routine manitenance, I discovered..." The PCs are beginning to realize there are roleplaying hooks all around them. They are beginning a journey which will grow with depth and options. There is an eventual "save the galaxy" story line, but it hasn't even been hinted at, yet.
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[Jedi Skyler]

Plus, Volar's approach will give his players some time to actively pursue the improvement of certain skills. If they're just puttering around space at the moment, and if they're smart, the engineer will tell him that she's reading through a tech manual, the astrogator will be studying star charts, the gunner will be maintaining and practicing with the weapons, etc. They should be using this "down" time to be beefing up some skills, or adding some new ones. It'll help them down the road when the action picks up the pace and they're not sitting at their stations saying, "Man, I wish my gunnery skill was higher so I could vape some of these fraggers!"

[garhkal]