Your First Session ~or~ Character Introductions

The guys from my previous campaign are already well aware of this, so I thought I'd give fair warning to those who are new to me as a DM. The first time you play your character I'm going to ask you to introduce yourself to the other people at the 'table'. Since you never know who is going to be there from one session to the next I will probably ask for this the first two or three times you play. I'm giving fair warning so nobody is surprised by the pop quiz spotlight. Here is a short list of the things I'll ask you. 1) What does your character look like? I'm asking for physical description - what do the other characters see when they look at you? Don't include things like bonds or flaws - those will come out through roleplaying. 2) I will ask for specifics. Eye color, hair color, armor type, visible weapons. 3) Do you have any obvious religious symbols? /soapbox There is no such thing as atheism or agnosticism in Dungeons & Dragons because proof of the gods' existence is all around and happens every time a cleric casts a spell. Therefore religion is not limited to clerics. In fact non-divine based characters probably pay homage to a variety of deities depending on what they're asking for. Think Roman/Greek Pantheon. /soapbox 4) When you make eye contact with another PC, intentional or not, what do you do? Head nod, chin jut 'sup, pageant wave, etc. 5) If you're a snowflake race (something besides human, elf, dwarf) I will ask more questions. For goliaths I will want to know the pattern of your striations. Tiefling horns come in a variety of shapes, etc. I will also zoom in the full-size picture you uploaded to your bio. If you have more pictures than that I can make handouts and show them at the same time. Remember, this story is about who your character is, not their class or attack bonus. So this is the first step in establishing that persona.

Speaking of introductions, can we get some hints as to what hooks will be used to meet each other? Do we meet at a tavern? Or our factions just sending us on the same missions?

It's not set in stone yet, but I have an idea that forces everybody together at least for the short term. What you do from there is up to your characters, but yes the factions will be in heavy use. That being said, there is no requirement that you drag your entire team with you to talk to your faction contact(s). I'm hoping to focus more on the characters with this one. However, it does mean heavy use of the 'I Believe' button to prevent metagaming. Maybe I should expound on that as it comes from all the way back to my 4E campaign. Since I'm trying to focus the camera less on the adventure and more on the characters I will require some patience as the spotlight will be constantly shifting focus. This also means that some people will have secrets they want kept. Instead of sitting quietly and swapping whispers with one another I am going to continue with the flow of the game. Here is where the 'I Believe' button comes into play. Recall any movie where it shows what the badguys are up to. Darth Vader at the board room meeting. Sarumon communing with the Dark Lord Sauron via the Palantir. The protagonists of the story have no idea what's going on, but it's important for the story as a whole. Therefore there may be times where certain characters will break off from the group for various reasons. We will continue in the capacity that the players can hear and see what's going on, but the characters who are not involved will have to feign ignorance of everything they see and hear as players . Hence the 'I Believe' button. Anytime you feel conflicted between player knowledge and character knowledge just push the big red button and say, "I Believe" and everything will be okay.

I BELIEVE!