# Prologue Ideas



## Kneecleaver (Jan 15, 2010)

I'm oficially kicking off WotBS early next month for a group of 4 (using FG since we are all scattered across the US).  However myself and 2 players will be ready to do something next weekend.  Having read through The Scouring I've decided to start the party off at 2nd level when we oficially start.

What I'm fishing for is some prologue ideas for 2 players (one of which is going to be an Eladrin wizard, the other undecided at this point) of 1st level.  Ideally I'd like to run prologues for all of the characters to more fully tie them into the Resistance- but that may or may not happen.


----------



## Daern (Jan 16, 2010)

I did a two session prologue, although it wasn't tied to the resistance, I did manage to throw in a couple extra bits.  I think it worked well to start Scouring at 2nd level because it allowed me to cut out quite a few encounters which I felt built more momentum in the plot.
For the prologue I used the WOTC free dungeon "Kyber's Harvest".  I set it in Reagesia as a mission to rescue a merchant's nephew.   The fighter ended up with the Coat of Eyes which is connected to a trillith...  so I've been playing up apocalyptic visions and stuff for that character.
I liked that I introduced the idea of Ragesia as this massive Orc ruled empire and also the Gate Pass merchant as their patron right away.  
Oh, I also established that "Gate Pass" was also a nexus for interplanar gates, which explained the presence of all the weird PC races... of course these were shut off by fire upon their return to the city...

Anyways, that's my story.


----------



## Kneecleaver (Jan 17, 2010)

Thanks- that might be the way to go- do something that is only related to the resistance or Gate Pass in an ancillary fashion.  I'm still thinking about it.  I'd almost do something where they aren't playing the characters that they will be- the characters they initially play will die getting some intelligence to the resistance or some such (these players would be fine with that).  Still up in the air about how I want to handle this.


----------



## Daern (Jan 17, 2010)

Let 'em do a simple dungeon.  They won't get many in this campaign.


----------



## Kneecleaver (Jan 18, 2010)

If there's one thing my players don't much care for, it's a simple dungeon


----------



## Daern (Jan 18, 2010)

Well, then your playing the right module...  how 'bout some free-form narrative vignette stuff?


----------



## samursus (Jan 18, 2010)

Durn said:


> Well, then your playing the right module...  how 'bout some free-form narrative vignette stuff?




I'll echo Durn's sentiment, the vignette stuff worked like gangbusters with my group.  I used a kind of story arc throwing a few skill checks in here and there with no combats.  We ended up playing for about 5 hours using this method, AND I was able to impart much of the Player's Guide info to the players in a way that was organic and effortless on their part ( I had 2 players who seem to have an aversion to reading material )

This Prologue also allowed mt to coax the 2 new players into the RP'ing aspect of the game, as we roleplayed backgrounds and such.


----------



## Kneecleaver (Jan 20, 2010)

The more I read of the modules I have (1 - 3), the more I am impressed.  I rarely run modules.  Of the games I've run over the past 20+ years only a handful have been modules and never in that time have I actually been stoked to run a module, until now.  This is some freakin' inspired work.

That said, on to the prologues.  I believe I'm going to handle it by running solo (perhaps duo) prologues with each of the players to enmesh them not only into the setting but also into the specific events that happen during the first module.  For example, one of the characters will have some meaningful personal/business contact with Mirabel that shows up in Quest 2 of Scene 3 Act 1.  Just little things like that to tie them in on a personal level to the myriad events that unfold in Gate pass.


----------



## Kneecleaver (Jan 23, 2010)

Forewarning, if you are any of my players (which I doubt) read no further on pain of death.

Ok I have two firm characters thus far.

The first is an Eladrin Wizard.  Background wise I'm going to tie him into Shalosha in a friend/spy role (His father is a Castellan for her father in Calanis).  Will his ties/allegiances to Shalosha cause *major* problems further into the campaign?

The second is a Halfling (of all things) Barbarian.  He is part of an almost sub-species of Halflings that were geographically isolated in the Mountains of Kelaquois.  They have evolved socially quite different than the bulk of the halfling race.  The population of the tribes there is fairly small and their mobility and agility are keys to their continued survival in those harsh lands.  At any rate I'm looking for ideas to provide a strong impetus for him to be involved with the main plot.  I've a feeling that it might be good to have is tribe have been displaced by the Rags and the Scourge Prison and his people have sent him south in search of something or some way to rid themselves of that blight.  I've not gotten further than that and since I only have the first two three modules I'm unsure of how to fully flesh this out.


----------



## RangerWickett (Jan 24, 2010)

Shalosha is one of those "can we trust her" sort of characters. She works for what could be an enemy side, or she could be your ally, but you have to work at it to win her trust. Having a bit of pre-established relationship could help make that storyline even more interesting. Still, the PCs won't see her for two whole adventures, so if you want the player to remember her, make the prologue have a strong impression. 

Like, I dunno, ten years earlier, the PC is at a party, and Shalosha -- who probably by rights _shouldn't_ be mingling with non-nobles, but who has the classic "chafes under her father's restrictions" princess schtick -- is showing him around, pointing out Coaltongue and her father from a distance, making disapproving noises about her father's advisor Aurana (



Spoiler



dark haired sorceress, secretly a vampire, mentioned in adventure 7, shows up in adventure 9


), complaining about the fact that her swordfighting instructor is taking things easy on her because she's a woman and because her father will kill him if he hurts her.

Then someone tries to assassinate Shalosha, and maybe the PC spots the assassin's blade, takes a hit for her -- or keeps his mouth shut because he already hates her and hopes she dies. 



As for halflings near the prison, maybe the PC could know some halfling mage/shaman/etc. In the prologue, a few weeks before the campaign begins, you could have a scene where that NPC expresses worry that the inquisitors are looking for mages, and he wants his friend (the PC) to escort him south to Seaquen. He received a sending from Seaquen, telling him to meet a contact in Gate Pass, who can get him out of Ragesia.

But then the day that the PC and NPC are set to head out, the NPC never shows up, and another person comes to the PC and tells him that an inquisitor and his bodyguards came and took the NPC away, and they're looking for the PC too. The PC's a dead man if he stays behind, and the closest thing he knows to a safe place is Gate Pass.


Just some ideas.


----------



## Burchard (Jan 24, 2010)

I'm working up a sort of prologue right now, using ideas from Samursus. I've got two vignettes ready, one for the human sorcerer and one for the dwarf and eladrin fighters. I've put them up on our Obsidian Portal page, so feel free to check them out! They tie the PC's into story elements as well as give them a chance to meet one another.

Vignette One

Vignette Two

What doesn't appear on the Obsidian Portal pages are the GM notes where I have some skill challenges, combat stats and a potential disease (Frostbite).


----------



## Kneecleaver (Jan 24, 2010)

Burchard said:


> I'm working up a sort of prologue right now, using ideas from Samursus. I've got two vignettes ready, one for the human sorcerer and one for the dwarf and eladrin fighters. I've put them up on our Obsidian Portal page, so feel free to check them out!




Nice work on those!  I won't have time to do a site like that, however Obsidian Portal is pretty cool.


----------



## Kneecleaver (Jan 24, 2010)

RangerWickett said:


> Like, I dunno, ten years earlier, the PC is at a party, and Shalosha -- who probably by rights _shouldn't_ be mingling with non-nobles, but who has the classic "chafes under her father's restrictions" princess schtick -- is showing him around, pointing out Coaltongue and her father from a distance, making disapproving noises about her father's advisor Aurana (
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Thanks for that info, I'll put it to good use.  I'm especially happy for the heads up on Aurana, that's the kind of stuff you like to throw in (at least mention of) early in a campaign so when it becomes a factor later the PC has context and it doesn't look like a character thrown in for plot convenience. 




RangerWickett said:


> As for halflings near the prison, maybe the PC could know some halfling mage/shaman/etc. In the prologue, a few weeks before the campaign begins, you could have a scene where that NPC expresses worry that the inquisitors are looking for mages, and he wants his friend (the PC) to escort him south to Seaquen. He received a sending from Seaquen, telling him to meet a contact in Gate Pass, who can get him out of Ragesia.




This would work, but I'm still thinking on it.  These halflings are turning out to be very pict-like conceptually, so I'm trying to come up with an _early_ Elf-Quest kind of feel to the whole thing for this player.  I might go down the Vision Quest route, granted with the aid of halluciongens, half symbolic half literal in its meaning.

Even though I'm running this 4e, I'm wondering if I shouldn't get a couple of the 3.5 pdfs.  It sounds like I need to have a look at #8 and #9 so I can have some background info to use now.

This campaign would be a great transition for my group from d20 to Reign (using DragonReign), but it would be too much all at once.  Fantasy Grounds is new to two of these players (one of which I want to become intimately famiar with so he can run d20 using FG, the other I want to become familar with both FG and Reign because the latter suits his style of GMing much better) and I don't have my ORE stuff ready for FG yet.  The company rules in Reign would work extremely well for this type of campaign.  WotBS in Reign, however, would diverge from the modules fairly rapidly I think, but who knows.  The modules I've read thus far allow for some variance in party action.

EDIT: Wickett I just realized that you had stuff up on Shalosha in the interlude of the serial you're posting here, thanks!  I only read the interlude thus far (it was good), I'll get to the others when I get a chance.


----------

