This is the story of the best "Intro" I've ever written for DMing/Storytelling. Edition: 5thed Dungeons&Dragons ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You are all sitting around, collectively going about your lives. Perhaps you're at work, maybe even sitting around a table such as this. But, something feels off. A woozy feeling takes over, not nausea, more like an out of body otherworldly feeling. The edges of your vision fade, sparkling flecks of light dancing at your peripheral. You hear a low chanting. A tugging sensation hits you, as if something is pulling your very essence from your body. You feel as if your spirit is leaving being transported somewhere else. 'This doesn't feel like death' you recall as your final thought before you slip into some form of unknown void. Stone. The first thought to enter your mind, without reason. The chanting is still there, louder, more enthusiastic. You feel frozen in place, unable to move. You feel incredibly stiff, like you've been asleep in the same position for a month? a year? an age? but the chanting continues, somehow bolstering you to move, to act. Your eyes feel encased in something crumbly, hard, rocklike, crusted over substance. The chanting continues to propel you to shake, move, to open your eyes. Tiny bits of rock crumble from the corners of your eyes as they slowly open, the outer surface layer of your body having the sensation of cracking, breaking open. Pieces of stone fall from your shoulders and necks as you begin moving your head side to side, shaking large pieces of rubble off. Directly ahead is a group of men with long white beards with long brown cloaks, encircling a campfire. Their voices are chanting in unison, their eyes wide with anticipation. They see you peering at them and continue to raise their voices to a fever pitch of ritual. You look down, noticing your body breaking through the encased stone you are inside of. A large piece of stone lay on the ground, resembling only what you suspect is the shape of your face. But your face seems different now...or does it? Have you always looked like this? You can't shake the feeling of being recently transported, but the memory is hard to grasp with everything going on.
You look around to see a few more people slowly emerging from their statue-like cocoon to the hymnal of the old men. (gesture to the entire party) and their faces appear just as perplexed as you suppose yours does. An elder of the group of long bearded men walks forward with tears in his eyes, exclaiming "The ritual is working! Faster! We haven't much time! The Lycans are descending upon us with much haste!" while the group around the fire bring their pitch to new heights. You feel achy, your bones and joints crackling as you arch your back, shake the stone off of your hands. You noticed entombed with you appeared to be weapons, bringing back vivid feelings of martial prowess, magical ability and divine power. In the distance you hear a single blood curdling howl followed by a chorus of similar hellish cries from what you suspect are the Lycan the old men are speaking of. "Quickly! You must trust us! You know not of who you are now, but you're heroism has been passed down through generations! We've called you back in our time of greatest peril!" You struggle noticing your feet still entrapped within a fair bit of stone. The howls grow dangerously close. Do a strength check to break your feet free, but hurry, you sense danger quickly approaches. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I really enjoyed writing this intro as it accomplishes quite a few things right from the get-go.
Establishing Character Relations: They players don't know how, but they know they must somehow be related with eachother's stories somehow. They were all seemingly statues at the same location, the elders told them of past heroism, so somehow there is a relation to be hand between the players, but it leaves that relation to be developed instead of a paragraph on a backstory. Doesn't rely on PC backstory, but could use them regardless: One of my players hated coming up with things like backstory, so it wasn't needed. One of my players had a pretty elaborate backstory written out, and as a DM it is my job to incorporate that. So I built his backstory into the mythos and lore of the character he was playing, while the other's backstory was an enigmatic mystery. Establish a direct presence of a threat, and an immediate reason to band together: Instead of the trope of meeting in an inn and becoming super best buds for no real reason to do adventures, I transplanted my PCs into a situation that required immediate reaction, work together now to not get slaughtered by werewolves, figure out eachother later. Which itsself is a team building moment. Ambiance and Aesthetics: I just thought it was kinda cool, much different than meeting at a tavern and going off, the atmosphere was night time, dark, mysterious, and dangerous. Thanks for reading. If you like this kind of comment, drop a like or comment below. I have DMed for years, and enjoy coming up with interesting plot and narrative that works the players imagination. I have many stories like these from past groups, and will be writing some of the funner, more imaginative and interesting stories I've developed with my players. Also, check out my music here! Thanks.