A Different Start

[You can read Sunday's post on The Higher Path here]
[You can read today's post on Authentic Adventures Inc. here]


Recently I've been considering ways to break the usual script of the first game session: namely, the players gather themselves together at a tavern, strike a bargain with a stranger and head off for an adventure.  Suppose I asked a group of players to approach the opening game differently.

There are three or four of you, brothers or first cousins, your education paid by a great uncle.  This uncle has done this out of his concern for your fathers and mothers ... and he has sent you back home with a few coppers in your pocket, two days provisions and the shirts on your backs.  You haven't a decent pair of boots, you haven't weapons or armor; the mage in the party is proud he has a spellbook.  And so, with no where else to go, you've come home to the little group of farms that make up your childhood.  There isn't even a village nearby; the nearest one is ten miles away.

And so, for food, for lodging, for the love of your parents, for a month you've accepted this lot in life and you've been working hard to help plant the spring crops.  There's much more to do ... and you recognize that your fathers seem a lot less able and healthy than they were ten years ago when you left.  In fact, there's a good chance that one of them isn't going to make it through the next winter.

Now, I know that most players won't accept that kind of responsibility from a game, but I ask the reader to consider how a game like this might be run.  Suppose you were to accept responsibility for your family: not just your parents, but your sisters and cousins too.  And suppose you found yourself with a little more to handle than a farmer usually would: the unexpected arrival of some large creature, for instance, chasing your little sister along the road as she fled back to the house.  You have nothing but a rake to fight it off.  You shout at your sister to hurry and get cousin Abram, while you back away from the creature and play for time.  Abram has a great spell for this.  Then again, Victor comes out of the woods where he's been picking mushrooms and sees you ... only there's a whole field between you and Victor ... and he hasn't even got a rake.

There are a nest of these creatures, as it turns out.  So you make clubs and prepare as best you can, warning your mother to keep the little ones inside for a few days.  Your father hands you a gourd of mead he made last fall and tells you he's proud of you.  "Come back safe, son," he says, then turns away so you won't see him break down.

If only there could be some sort of treasure, you think.  Then you could hire some men, so your father could stop working and live years longer; and Abram's mother could get the medicine she needs; and maybe cousin Grace could be introduced to a husband, since you could provide her with a dowry.  It's a pity these creatures seem somewhat dense.  But perhaps there is some bigger thing in the wood to be fought off.

You and your friends tighten their belts, pick up their make-shift shields and start off. 

D&D can start anywhere.