start it off with a bang! (your coolest campaign beginnings)

[Edrac]

I'm planning a game for my FLGS and I want to start it with a bang so to speak. So I was wondering, what are your coolest Dresden game beginnings?

[Mr. Death]

Our first campaign began on the night

(click to show/hide)

that the Red Court went extinct. While the players were investigating (and had just started a fight in) a major Red Court location in L.A.

Suffice to say, the session quickly had everyone covered in blood and trying to figure out what the hell happened.

[Taran]

I had the Bear shifter wake up in a public park naked and covered in blood lying beside a half-eaten dog, that was obviously someones family pet.

He quickly gathered his friends to figure out what the hell was going on...once he found a way to get home without any clothes, money or phone...

[Mrmdubois]

Our first campaign began on the night

(click to show/hide)

that the Red Court went extinct. While the players were investigating (and had just started a fight in) a major Red Court location in L.A.

Suffice to say, the session quickly had everyone covered in blood and trying to figure out what the hell happened.

Literal bang then.  That sounds awesome.

[Lavecki121]

We almost imediatly had one of our PC's house blow up. Then a gunfight ensued. Causing half of the PC's who were not clued in to almost immediatly become clued in.

[ways and means]

We had our pc's literally dragged into a killer dream, and spent the first couple of weeks of the campaign in an environment that could be altered by successful discipline rolls. 

[Mr. Ghostbuster]

We had our pc's literally dragged into a killer dream, and spent the first couple of weeks of the campaign in an environment that could be altered by successful discipline rolls.

Oooooh, that sounds interesting.

[YPU]

I have a building I am itching to throw my players of, however this will go hand in hand with a big reveal I want to hold back on for a while. So I hope somebody here comes up with a nice bang start I can use.

[Lavecki121]

I think it really depends on what your PC's are doing and who they are. You arent going to have a bunch of homeless people with the one I said. It all depends on the setting and stuff. Especially since most of the people and locations are made by the group.

[Addicted2aa]

I have a building I am itching to throw my players of, however this will go hand in hand with a big reveal I want to hold back on for a while. So I hope somebody here comes up with a nice bang start I can use.

You want to throw them off a building? Are you using the following rules as written? Cause that's pretty harsh.

[YPU]

You want to throw them off a building? Are you using the following rules as written? Cause that's pretty harsh.

Nah, its going to be a big reveal and shock moment but I'll make sure everybody is stocked up on fate points. I'll be allowing any reasonable explanation as to how they save themselves. Also the building is surrounded by water so should somebody for some reason fail miserably (and a smart GM keeps that in mind, right?) I can still have the actual damage taken be harsh but not lethal.

Actually assuming everybody sticks to their current character concepts I'm sure they will manage. We have a were-cat freerunner princes. We have a wizard with a focus on air, we have a changeling like character who is itching to be able to take wings and a red court infected build to be as damage resistant as he can be. (sound cheesy i know, the player made a cliché combat oriented character then told me he wanted to do backstabbing politics and double agendas, nobody expect that from this kinda guy)

EDIT: scrap that, I kind of am doing it with the rules as written. Just the part that says that falling damage from an attack is part of the attack, not bonus added on top.

[Addicted2aa]

Nah, its going to be a big reveal and shock moment but I'll make sure everybody is stocked up on fate points. I'll be allowing any reasonable explanation as to how they save themselves. Also the building is surrounded by water so should somebody for some reason fail miserably (and a smart GM keeps that in mind, right?) I can still have the actual damage taken be harsh but not lethal.

Actually assuming everybody sticks to their current character concepts I'm sure they will manage. We have a were-cat freerunner princes. We have a wizard with a focus on air, we have a changeling like character who is itching to be able to take wings and a red court infected build to be as damage resistant as he can be. (sound cheesy i know, the player made a cliché combat oriented character then told me he wanted to do backstabbing politics and double agendas, nobody expect that from this kinda guy)

EDIT: scrap that, I kind of am doing it with the rules as written. Just the part that says that falling damage from an attack is part of the attack, not bonus added on top.

Sounds like you got it covered. Tale of woe from my end though, I was running a Song of Ice and Fire RPG session and one of my players took a poison that killed him almost instantly. I wasn't worried, because the game has a benny system that lets you avoid certain death if you want to spend a benny. So I'm waiting for him to describe how he survives and he's just like "Nah f it. Good time for him to die."
It was the highlight of the game, but still threw all my plans to shreds and really slowed the next few sessions down, and ground the game to a halt. Anyway, post the report on how it goes. That sounds like a really cool scene

[YPU]

Sounds like you got it covered. Tale of woe from my end though, I was running a Song of Ice and Fire RPG session and one of my players took a poison that killed him almost instantly. I wasn't worried, because the game has a benny system that lets you avoid certain death if you want to spend a benny. So I'm waiting for him to describe how he survives and he's just like "Nah f it. Good time for him to die."
It was the highlight of the game, but still threw all my plans to shreds and really slowed the next few sessions down, and ground the game to a halt. Anyway, post the report on how it goes. That sounds like a really cool scene

To be honest I see one particular player of my group pulling something like that, but as things stand he wont be joining in for a while yet so perhaps I should have this scene pop up before he comes around. As to your story, actually that sounds like something that would happen in a song of ice and fire, but I can see how something like that would completely screw with your plans. Anyhow I have been discussing city creation for a long time now with my players and this weekend we will finally get around to putting it all down. I might very well write a report of it here as well as discus my plans for the future.

[fantazero]

You start off Robbing a Bank

[Wyrdrune]

our second campaign started with the autumn court (in our game world a fae court centered around the lady of the lake from arthurian legend) claiming a young boy as new champion/knight. knowing this might be a cruel life for the kid the characters intervened. end the end - after some trials - they struck a bargain - the boy will be their champion when he has reached adulthood and one of the player characters will prepare him.

one of the trials was to present the court with a "sword for a hero". (in the first campaign the group has gotten hold of the fourth sword of the cross (there are pictures with jesus nailed to it with four nails, I used that to get a sword free of harry's story). they had lying it around, waiting for a sign who would be a new wielder for the sword, but nothing happened. so they took this as a sign and so they handed it to them and the lady of the court - i think you would have guessed it - stuck it into a stone.)

for them it was pretty awesome and an interesting start into the campaign because they were at the heart of a fae court for the first time and it was something completely different from what we did in the first campagin.

but the nice thing is, later it came all full circle in the end of the campaign. during the progress of the stories a close friend (NPC) was transformed into a hellish killer monster, and the group went any length to find a cure (they even got to the library on the icy wastes of leng, where they learned that that only a weapon like the sword of the cross can kill that creature, no cure possible). just the night before they planned to travel to avalon - the seat of the autumn court - another character, a wizard of the white council, was betrayed and abducted by his teacher who wanted to sacrifice the char to an outsider in exchange for immortality (he had planned this for years since he noticed that his apprentice's blood has certain properties). so the group broke into the castle ruin where the ritual was taking place and tried to safe their friend. they burned his mentor to ashes, but the character was as good as dead, bled out. just as they left, they noticed a barge in the water trench around the castle. in it was the lady of the autumn court, saying that avalon "desperately needs heroes". the island was under siege of the thuata de danann (who are possibly the spring court in my game world) and a new bargain was struck - the life of the young wizard and the sword and they will help in the defence of the island. from all present persons only the least likely - a crossroads demon from hell - was able to pull the sword out of the stone. they managed to end the siege by tricking the attackers into a contract that made the war into a sports event. in the last story the demon uses the sword to bring salvation to their friend an act that will ultimately make her the new knight of the sword.

the whole campaign is here (sorry, it's in German, but this is the language of my RPG-group): http://www.worldofmagic.at/wiki/index.php?title=Wizard_for_Hire_Season_2