Hi, I need a bit of help. I'm stuck on how to make a sort of start of campaign monologue. Like setting the scene, but I'm having trouble coming up with something short that includes everything it needs to. Any tips?
One that seems to work decently, is to start describing the larger campaign world, at a very high-level of detail. Then "zero in" on the Party's starting location, describing progressively smaller areas, with higher levels of detail, until you're describing the exact place that the Party starts in.
In all cases, I'd use just enough detail to paint the important concepts for that level of the campaign world, for the Party, at that point; no need to detail 2 paragraphs of the inter-family rivalries of the aristocracy when your initial adventure is going to take place in the slum area of the port city.
Editing to keep it the details to the bare minimal needed, is the way to go to keep from losing your Players' attention.
For an example of this style, see the opening scene to Critical Role, Episode #1, starting at 16:38
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Do you mean like the crawl of text at the beginning of Star Wars? Without knowing what you need to include, I can't write it for you, but I think that's probably a good template. Let's look at it:
"It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy…."
Doesn't seem like much, does it? No mention of the Jedi, or the Sith or the Force. No mention of the clones or the names of any planets. No mention of wookies or droids. First two sentences give the briefest background, second two sentences give you just enough to understand what you're watching in the first scene.. Some plans were stolen and this girl is trying to keep the baddies from getting the plans back. From there the movie shows, rather than tells.
tldr; what the opening actually "needs to include" is a lot less than you might think. Tolkien put that stuff in the back of the book, in the appendices, not at the front, for a reason.
Depends on what you want. I would focus in on a sensation: an evokative image: like a camp fire. I would focus on something you wouldn't really think about, the feeling of the air on your neck as you hunch forward entranced by the dancing flame. The motes of the flame that dance off into the darkness. I would then start describing why someone might be starring into the fire, it's been a tough year since the last war. All kinds of folks need to hold on to every scraps they can get. And then maybe go back to the imagery. Then go deeper into whatever events are preoccupying this person's mind. Make it like a window into the mind of someone who lives there and worries about the state of their country/world.
Or start telling a story that's very vague, but already passed. Great things can have humble beginnings. It all began in the days before the world looked this way, or atleast before it looked this way to me.
Or maybe make it like a history text. The intro could be like someone presenting this idea that maybe history isn't exactly as it is told and some of the figures are very different than the records we keep.
What I am getting at is make sure the monologue is being told by -- for want of a better word-- a character. Not necessarily a character in the events of the campaign, but a person with a goal and clear intention. Once you know who is telling the story, as a monologue surely is, then the rest almost falls into place by itself.
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Hi, I need a bit of help. I'm stuck on how to make a sort of start of campaign monologue. Like setting the scene, but I'm having trouble coming up with something short that includes everything it needs to. Any tips?
There are likely a million techniques.
One that seems to work decently, is to start describing the larger campaign world, at a very high-level of detail. Then "zero in" on the Party's starting location, describing progressively smaller areas, with higher levels of detail, until you're describing the exact place that the Party starts in.
In all cases, I'd use just enough detail to paint the important concepts for that level of the campaign world, for the Party, at that point; no need to detail 2 paragraphs of the inter-family rivalries of the aristocracy when your initial adventure is going to take place in the slum area of the port city.
Editing to keep it the details to the bare minimal needed, is the way to go to keep from losing your Players' attention.
For an example of this style, see the opening scene to Critical Role, Episode #1, starting at 16:38
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Do you mean like the crawl of text at the beginning of Star Wars? Without knowing what you need to include, I can't write it for you, but I think that's probably a good template. Let's look at it:
Depends on what you want. I would focus in on a sensation: an evokative image: like a camp fire. I would focus on something you wouldn't really think about, the feeling of the air on your neck as you hunch forward entranced by the dancing flame. The motes of the flame that dance off into the darkness. I would then start describing why someone might be starring into the fire, it's been a tough year since the last war. All kinds of folks need to hold on to every scraps they can get. And then maybe go back to the imagery. Then go deeper into whatever events are preoccupying this person's mind. Make it like a window into the mind of someone who lives there and worries about the state of their country/world.
Or start telling a story that's very vague, but already passed. Great things can have humble beginnings. It all began in the days before the world looked this way, or atleast before it looked this way to me.
Or maybe make it like a history text. The intro could be like someone presenting this idea that maybe history isn't exactly as it is told and some of the figures are very different than the records we keep.
What I am getting at is make sure the monologue is being told by -- for want of a better word-- a character. Not necessarily a character in the events of the campaign, but a person with a goal and clear intention. Once you know who is telling the story, as a monologue surely is, then the rest almost falls into place by itself.