New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

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Captain_K
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New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

Post by Captain_K »

My 27-year-old son who has played from time to time but finds the game too slow (video has killed children's patience I think), has asked me to run a game for him.

His board game group of friends all want me to start a game of CnC for them. About 6 with only a few who have played at all.

Going to start them in their hometown pub, Kingston, S-SW of London on Halloween Eve, their job was to stay home and watch all the kids and some teens who do not go to London for the big festival and Market.

I need to set it up and move fast. So, I was thinking roll up their stats, pick their race and class and get just the basics in hand. NO shopping, no money, I have cards to random what they are wearing and have in their pockets.

The bar and stables will have a few obvious weapons and tools (decorated with old shields, swords, and the stables has a small working smithy).

Their quiet night at the pub ends just before midnight, all the kids asleep, a blood curdling screen, noticed by only those who can hear. Start right in on how to use stat ability checks and such.

Up the hill from the place is the town graveyard, and old country place, but one with unusually high stone wall, stacked thanks to the custom that each burial requires, by custom, to stack more stones on the wall to keep your relatives in the grounds. Anyway, two teens are trapped on the wall top (teens alone in a barn near midnight cannot be trusted to stay in bed while you drink in the bar), their ladder down and skeletons attacking from within the wall. locked gate for the thief, easy climb for the thief and possibly a ranger or other with scale. Small character might squeeze through the gate. turn undead for the cleric. Night vision outside. eventually leading to a crypt and a short underground.

Ideas for how to start fast and give them things to do and learn as they are putting pieces together on their PCs. Also, what are key new things for total noobs to learn in CnC / RPGs... flash back, just saw a plate "U NOOB" yesterday. Where did that term ever start?
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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

Post by serleran »

One of my favorite ideas was that all characters begin with no equipment except a staff, maybe the head of an axe, some rope, a crowbar... the sort of stuff that a miner might have in a slave situation. Every character also begins with nearly complete amnesia. As they progress through their escape, they come across stuff that might trigger memories but in an Amber sort of way -- that is, the players auction off who gets first dibs on what so there's no debate over who gets to be wizard and whatnot. This has to be more carefully decided by the Castle Keeper but it can be done with a priority system or some other means -- when I did it, I accepted $ but I'm a jerk.

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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

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Treating that like a 1-shot, here you go on a trick that I stumbled onto that has worked great form my 1 shots. I have all the pre-gens rolled up, and a folder with the character sheet, a full background, secret and hooks etc for it. I also have a small index card sized picture and summery of the character (no mechanics class level stuff, just a few sentences like "Captain Albert E Booker: An Army Academy Graduate, served most of the war in of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force), Europe. Recently moved over to Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) field operations. You are the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the team and excited to finally get your first field command" (yes that is a character summer from my CoC Halloween one off from this year. Of course some characters will have hidden secrets - good Captian Booker, was not a skilled fighter and though not a coward, he had NO combat experience. Anther character was (or had been) a German spy at HQ, etc.

I usually make at least 1 / 3 more characters than players, but if it is a horror game where death will be more likely than a normal game I might have at least 2 characters per player, but that is just for horror - deadly games.

Each players rolls off and highest roll gets to pick first and then after everyone picks they get the full character sheet and all the juicy secrets etc.

Oh yeah I have a folder for every player that has quick reference on key mechanics - skill checks, saves, combat actions, how to roll initiative etc.

Each character has whatever equipment they start with on their character sheet - but with CoC, and its focus on hand outs - I have printed out cards with all pertinant stats/game mechanics on them for any equipment they can find. That way when they do a search roll I just hand them what ever they find and they don't have to worry about writing it in their character sheet etc (real fun when the younger daughter drops her card for her 45 under the table and then when she goes to shoot the rats chasing them in the pyramid burial tunnel and can't find it, I smile and say "I guess you must have dropped it, a good soldier knows to never lose their weapon!" She did find it under the table after that but wasted a round since she didn't have it, and boy she religiously kept track of ALL her gear after that!)

I haven't done the hand out thing in C&C but it might make it more interesting for the new players

I do like your idea on the scenario though - teen trapped on a wall that you have to save etc. I might have to use that ...

Serl, I like your idea for starting with amnesia too. Might have to give that a try
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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

Post by Go0gleplex »

I have a living perma-dungeon set up near the town I usually start stuff up in. Bandits and monsters move in get killed...new ones come...and so forth. So there is always a ready to go adventure for the players, be it to kill certain things or retrieve materials that grow in the dungeon environs...or just investigate reports of something unusual happening. I also have an adventurer's guild in town which can have quests posted on the board for players to choose from; these being shorter adventures typically such as escorting merchants, retrieving herbs, or killing off pesky critters hurting the farmers fields, etc. Between the two, even if I get caught short and unprepared with the campaign, I have something on hand to do.

For equipment, I have class packs set up as 'adventurer specials' in the local mercantile with all the costs, weights, etc. pre-totaled. With my Character Familiar spreadsheet, if needs be, I can generate characters within 3-10 minutes depending on level and all then print them out with notations on skills, abilities, etc.
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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

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Great ideas, thanks. They actually started last night. My son and 6 of his friends showed up at 6 pm and got right too it. Rolled stats, picked races and characters. HR would be happy, a very diverse non-human team (no humans or dwarves, but all else was included). Lots of fighter subclasses, one halfing cleric, no mage or illusionist. Fighting will be their thing I think. Halloween night, while watching over the town's youths while the seniors went to London to the big fall festival (pronounced Halloween party in the big city). They quickly realized two of the teen boys from the barn had dared each other to go to the walled off rich folks' graveyard on the hill. The team acted fast, they grab some stuff from the barn and off the walls of the bar locked up the kids in the bar under the watchful eye of the bar's pseudodragon and sprinted up the hill. Aside: Their starting equipment was gained by passing cards until each had simple cloths or an outfit (nothing more than a leather apron), simple small weapons at most, pocket money, and one odd small item.

20' tall stone walls, small graveyard, two crypts, portcullis entry with gate down (magical with counter rotating stones of the four elements and ARAWN in the central hub). Two teens huddled on the top of the wall over the gate, screaming for help while skeletons tried to get them from inside.

Fire is the defense rune / trap, they learned not to touch, the earth seems to lower the gate, they are not sure about the others or how it works.

The ranger and the bard slowly forced up the portcullis with three teamed STR checks (dead lift, jerk, overhead press style) ending on a 20 to fling the spike bars up and locked in place. While doing that the monk charged, slid under the barely open gate, setting off one fire trap, burning his butt and blinding those holding the gate. The held, continued to lift while shaking off the blindness as others got under the gate. The brave little halfling turned the skeletons to fled to the back of the yard cowering at the back wall. The nimble little gnome thief could not lift the fallen 30' ladder, the others went after the cowering skeletons, so the thief just climbed the wall to calm the kids. Finally, some of them got the ladder up, the kids down, all while destroying the three skeletons, beheading the one zombie (natural 20 with battle axe and two 8s on the roll), realizing the two crypt door guards were zombies protecting the doors, and that shooting an arrow past your three comrades to the skeleton could have serious issues when one rolls a 3.

In the end, the kids were saved, scared but unharmed, they all learned what stat checks were, saves, combat, natural 20s, etc. I think they had fun, but some mysteries remain. Why were there skeletons and zombies there? The next day they found a small tunned behind the back of the yard AND all the bodies had been removed. Where the heck is the ladder, or any of our stuff we left behind, and how did the old horse we took get such a nasty bug bite?
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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

Post by Lurker »

Nice sounds like a good intro game. Hope some of them are new hooked on our favorite game !
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Captain_K
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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

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They all voted to keep the story going. You always loose some, we shall see. One guy is a 5e convert, one is a 20 year ago gamer. He seemed interested. Many are total first timers. The group is also VERY ethically diverse (yes ethics). Ex."My elf fighter is chaotic neutral, so f this, my PC is out, save the kids yourself!" The paladin reminded them, we have to save the kids we were watching them! The husband-and-wife team after working together to lift the gate went to kill the last zombie and the husband's quote was, "I said we should kill it, but by we I meant you." and fled.

Next up two clever goblin herders... what do goblins "herd" why Stirges of course. Smoke them like bees and milk them like cows of semi-digested blood... perfectly repulsive, fit for two smart old goblins hiding under the crypt. If they do not slaughter them outright, they will learn about the rich mage who dragged the girl in that night, created the walking bones and rotting meat guards and left without the girl. Where are the bodies and ladder and such, "We cleaned all that up for you. By the way, want to buy some jerky and bread, fresh baked, white as bone!"
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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

Post by Lurker »

Captain_K wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 1:05 am
They all voted to keep the story going. You always loose some, we shall see. One guy is a 5e convert, one is a 20 year ago gamer. He seemed interested. Many are total first timers. The group is also VERY ethically diverse (yes ethics). Ex."My elf fighter is chaotic neutral, so f this, my PC is out, save the kids yourself!" The paladin reminded them, we have to save the kids we were watching them! The husband-and-wife team after working together to lift the gate went to kill the last zombie and the husband's quote was, "I said we should kill it, but by we I meant you." and fled.

Next up two clever goblin herders... what do goblins "herd" why Stirges of course. Smoke them like bees and milk them like cows of semi-digested blood... perfectly repulsive, fit for two smart old goblins hiding under the crypt. If they do not slaughter them outright, they will learn about the rich mage who dragged the girl in that night, created the walking bones and rotting meat guards and left without the girl. Where are the bodies and ladder and such, "We cleaned all that up for you. By the way, want to buy some jerky and bread, fresh baked, white as bone!"

Blink blink, well that ethics thing could be a problem .... Hope it works itself out before the wheels come off !

Goblin herders ..... I LOVE IT . That WILL make an appearance in the face to face game I have with my girls (if we are able to get it going again - soccer and them house problems and now holidays, isn't real life annoying like that). They have already met goblins bribing an ogre to be their extra muscle and a giant spider that guarded the 'back door' to a goblin complex. However, goblins farming stringes for a fast and ready haggis, perfect !
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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Captain_K
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Re: New Game, New Players, Need Fast start ideas

Post by Captain_K »

Yep, it went well, they did not kill the goblins, they learned a great deal, but now they are learning about how 8 PCs with one magic weapon cannot beat the clay golem guarding the treasure room.
Wow, Another Natural One! You guys are a sink hole for luck. Stay away from my dice.

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