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How We Created The BBEG In Our First Session
Hi everyone.
All Things DnD is back with another story.
Teaching new players the ropes can always
be a challenge but this DM did it in a brilliant
way.
Tell us how you teach new players after listening
to this:
We were playing a campaign with a large number
of players, eight at the start, eleven at
the end.
Quite a few of the players were new.
The DM wanted the game to be as noob friendly
as possible, so he told us not to worry about
even creating our characters and we would
get it figured out in session zero.
Since not everyone in the group knew each
other, the DM asked everyone to say a little
about themselves and what they'd be doing
if it weren't for the game scheduled for that
Sunday afternoon.
After that, I expected him to start discussing
house rules or basic commonly misunderstood
concepts, but he didn't.
He started narrating right away.
"As you were doing whatever you just told
me, your vision begins to fade and you pass
out.
You wake up on a cold stone floor with some
runes inscribed into the stone tile beneath
you.
The room is illuminated by blue flames flickering
from torches.
A man in red robes watches you as he scribbles
something down on a sheet of paper."
"Hey what about our character sheets?
What class are we?”
I asked.
"None.
You're commoners.
10 for each attribute, 4 hp.
Proficiencies will be awarded if you convince
me you have them in real life."
He answered.
Things just got a lot more interesting.
It turns out we were summoned from another
world, contemporary earth by the wizard standing
in front of us.
It was for his graduation project.
He said he would keep us captive until then
and left for groceries.
Before leaving, he told us that we could wander
all around the castle as long as we didn't
open any closed doors.
As the wizard npc leaves, I ask the DM for
a detailed description of what kind of furniture
is around the room, which is basically a table
with a few things on it: among them, some
blue crystals, which I took for myself and
a jar with a hand inside that I would have
completely ignore if it hadn't started communicating
with me telepathically.
The hand helped us find the arsenal and arm
ourselves up with all sorts of basic equipment
and, in return, asked us to kill a hostile
creature in a nearby room.
To show gratitude, some of us agreed to his
request and killed a zombie that was guarding
a fountain.
The water in the fountain was a little thicker
than usual and it was illuminated by moonlight
shining through an opening in the ceiling.
For his last request, the hand asked us to
throw it inside the fountain, and so I did.
The hand went in and an entire person came
out.
He kept asking us favors and offering rewards
and we kept going along with it.
At some point, we opened a door despite the
wizard's warning and unleashed a crazed oathbreaker
paladin that attacked everyone in sight with
some multi target lightning spell.
Maybe it was a homebrew ability, I didn't
look for the spell afterwards.
Since we all had 4hp, everyone died.
It was intended to happen some way or another
though, since multiple things could do damage
in that castle and we were just SO squishy.
Our souls were then guided to the realm of
the Sun God, which offered us a new life and
a new power in exchange for devoting our lives
to save the First Flame which was about to
fade (yeah, souls references).
The brilliant part in this noob friendly campaign
started with the 'you are your own character'
thing so nobody would ever think 'am I doing
this right?' when trying to roleplay but the
best part was this: Before us, statues resembling
each class archetype appeared with a brief
description of its general concept and usual
role.
Upon choosing one, that player would do a
mini solo adventure with character sheets
provided by the DM like he was experiencing
the world through that character's eyes but
knowing they are not actually him.
A voice in your mind would tell you whenever
a class feature or a specific skill would
come in handy, so the first time players wouldn't
be too lost in the actual campaign.
Those were really short and went by in minutes,
then the Sun god asked us to travel to the
Gold Coast.
We all agreed and were transported back to
the castle where we had just died, but this
time with level 1 character sheets.
Our murderer was being held off by the hand-dude
that later on introduced himself as Mao.
Which is a bad linguistic pun in Portuguese.
"Mão" means "hand”.
We then fought our wizard captor and defeated
him.
Now we could focus on the task at hand: get
to the gold coast.
Mao conjured provisions for us and gave us
a sentient ship, the Storm Reaper, which knew
how to get to the Gold Coast.
Upon reaching our destination, we started
interacting with NPCs and getting to know
the world when a massive raid broke out in
the First Crown.
The Gold Coast was the junction of thirteen
Crowns, which were like provinces.
We fought our way to the port and managed
to get to the next Crown along with other
refugees we gave a lift to on the Storm Reaper.
There, we met Mao once again and the first
thing he said to us was "Oh, you have survived
then."
The players obviously got suspicious at that,
but we let it slide.
Whenever we faced a challenge that seemed
related to the main plot, we would always
meet Mao right afterwards and get his sinister
"oh, you survived then" greeting.
It was so suspicious that it almost seemed
like a joke, but we never decided to confront
him.
In fact, we would often ask him for advice
as we uncovered clues about what we had to
do.
He would always provide valuable information
and sometimes even the means to accomplish
our goals in exchange for some seemingly small
favor related to the place we had to visit.
Just like in the castle.
At some point, we ended up meeting in a dungeon
during one of our missions and he was getting
between us and our goal.
After seven months, it was finally time to
confirm that we had actually helped create
the BBEG in the first session.
"Oh, you survived then.
I was glad to assist you when our interests
aligned, but at this point I cannot allow
you to go ahead, let alone help you.
Since I really care for you, I'll give you
guys a choice though."
He said, gesturing toward a few people accompanying
him, all with lifeless eyes and stiff movement
as if they didn't have a mind of their own.
"You can either join me or I can kill you
right here."
We declined, and he overpowered us.
It wasn't a BBEG fight.
It wasn't even a fight.
The gap in strength was so big that the DM
didn't even ask for an initiative roll.
Upon our choice, he decided to narrate a scene
describing how each one of us met our end.
But it wasn't the end, and the DM continued
his narration:
"After dying, you all snap back to your world
as if you were just daydreaming."
And he starts pointing out what we said we'd
be doing on the Sunday afternoon of the first
session, had the campaign not taken place.
"You keep doing your hobbies, attending your
classes and working as usual, but the thought
that what you've seen might not have been
a dream never really leaves your head.
It was so vivid and so intense that, despite
being unbelievable, you somehow still believe
it was true.
Seven months go by and nothing changes, you're
just living your lives.
Then, you start losing your sight and pass
out once again.
Session is over, we're rolling up new characters
next week, but you'll still be yourselves."
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This was pretty brilliant for a tutorial campaign
to ease new players into it.
Will you try something like this?
Please let us know what you think and comment
below!
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All Things DnD.
Our next video will be posted in 3 days, so
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