Misdirected Mark Forums

A while ago we talked about introductions. I’m curious as to some of your best or worst introductions to a game, story, book, manga, anime, whatever.

I quite enjoyed my Airy Peaks intro playing Dungeon World with Phil and Bob. I started them in a cavern just outside a place called the high halls dealing with giant things and a giant to fight.

So what about yours?

For Fantasy, I like how early Pathfinder APs and Modules had Introductions set up. I still steal them from time to time.

:The party met on the road heading to the nearby religious festival
:The party are all tied to one minor villain
:The heroes are all ex-criminals trying to do right.
:The party are in town looking for the same person


What I do like to do is have a quick roleplaying encounter followed by a short, easy to win combat scene. This gives everyone a chance to try out the new characters and see what they can do.

I played in a Deadlands Noir game where the GM handed out characters and then told us :"You are all running up a hill through the city graveyard towards the strange music. The zombies chasing you have almost caught up. What do you do?" After one turn of combat, he stopped the game and then told us : OK now, flashback to 2 days ago....

This did a few things: it pushed us towards being a party, it showed us that we were going to stay in the city (so for this adventure, ignore any leads that took us out of the city), and that in two days time, we needed to get to one of the city graveyards...For a one-shot, this did a great job of keeping us on track and it was a lot of fun.

I enjoyed a dungeon world game I started with the PCs inside an ancient ruined city fleeing from a giant werewolf.

Some of these favourite introductions seem to be starting _en media res_. Is that a consistent theme?