Counting Down to the Action

A while back, I was playing a Goblin Rogue in a friends 4e campaign nick-named “Kick” (his actual name on paper was Kitzzk). He was a blast to play and was one of my favorite D&D characters of them all.

At some point during the campaign, I worked out a story idea with the DM that would require Kick to go away for a while. I was changing his class from Rogue to Assassin (which had just been released) and I thought it would be cool for me to play a different character for a few games until he could be brought back. The plan was I would write up a story that covered his time away – this would be for the other players to read should they want to but it was simply a background story covering how he became an assassin.

As the story arrived at his disappearance, I decided to count down to the moment to build suspense and leave everyone hanging. This is that portion of the story…

He climbed a small private dock as the sun began to rise, and with a few swift darts he was quickly ducking into a nearby alley. As he passed through, he dragged his hand casually along the wall, passing an area where he and two others ambushed a wealthy merchant a few years back. The man, his fifth victim, cried and plead for his life before Kick and the others took it from him. He shook his head before stepping out the back of the alley and into another.

Two hours later Kick would watch from another alley as the man named Draag, followed by his former companions, passed the home of the mayor of Rivertown.

One hour after that he would pay for a room at a small, easy to miss Inn hidden in the Northern District.

10 minutes later he would step into his room, closing the door.

A second later a bag would be forced over his head and drawn tight.

Moments later, the world was rid of a goblin… an insect of a creature who would be missed by no one.

So, recently I decided I would use a similar method to get my players right to the action of their first game in the Paragon Tier. When they ended the Heroic Tier, we took a break during which we discussed their plans for the next Tier. Among them was the idea to go get an airship they had discovered earlier in the campaign deep within a mountain top cave.

The plan was that when we began the Paragon Tier, the ship would be in their possession – that I would hand-wave the acquiring of it and they would simply start with it. However, as we got closer to the first game of the Tier, I decided I would instead play out some of the action of retrieving the airship. So as the players sat down and we prepared to begin, I simply read them the following…

4 Days Ago, you arrived at the Strald family barony and began your ascent up the mountain.

3 Days Ago, you entered the underground lab to find no one in sight and a massive hole beneath the location where the ship once rested.

2 Days Ago, after some exploring, you discovered the ship hovering some 200 feet straight down the hole. A shaft that appeared to continue endlessly down.

Yesterday, your pilot was killed as you boarded the ship while under attack from giant skeletal bats.

Moments Ago, the ship lost most of it’s power when the engineer attempted to make an adjustment at the control box and something exploded.

…he lies motionless on the deck.

…the ships descent, initially slow, seems to be picking up.

…the clicking wings of the skeletal bats signal they are moving in for the kill.

This was very effective at setting the mood and getting the players right into the action. I thought this would work very well to get players into the action for a one-off as well. Obviously you have to have players that are willing to give a little control over to their DM for story purposes (my players rock with this), but if you do, this is a very fun and engaging way to introduce action right at the start.