Monday, June 13, 2022

d100 - Introductions for Newly Minted PCs In Medias Res

Sometimes one finds oneself in a situation where there is an immediate need to Introduce a new PC to a Party whilst the adventure is currently in progress. Their character falls, and after the comforting clatter of dice, they have made a new one: But by what means do they get ushered into play?

Here is a table that might supply a skosh of inspiration or at least some “starting points” for these sticky situations where there’s need for a Sudden Entrance, Stage Left. Like most of my tables, it might need a bit of strategic tailoring to the specific situation and taste. Remember the Trick behind all those seemingly stray Capital Letters: Capitalized Words can always be freely substituted/specified/adjusted to fit.

I’m afraid that most of these might impinge on Player Agency a bit, but I’ve always felt that a player character’s Prologue was fairer game for such things, and it’s a small price to pay for being able to leap back into the action I suppose. I’ve tried to shy away from some of the ones I’ve seen used that put the Character or Player in some of the more uncomfortable spots, and leaning into a bit of mystery and unanswered questions to flesh out in play is never a bad thing in my book. One could even just have them roll (or even select!) an entry that strikes them as that final step of creating their new character. A bit of brief, hopefully actionable backstory never hurt anyone, and who knows where it could lead? 😊

Several of these entries are ones I’ve found myself having to use in the past, some even served as Session/Campaign Starters in their own right or Premises for One-Shot Games, so I’m sure there might be a bit of additional hidden utility in this table if one approaches it from other angles.

3 comments:

  1. Not sure where this is coming from, but I've been seeing a lot of misspellings regarding this phrase in the past few years in many, many RPG books and articles. The phrase is in medias res and NOT *in media res. Other than that, a pretty neat table :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why I tend to socialize these as Drafts! Seems that pesky spell checker and my cursory proofing wouldn't catch things like this. I've updated the titles and thank you for pointing this out :)

      Delete
  2. lmao I read that as "breaking bad with those strange sylvan creatures"

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