Spazmo
Erudite
ToEE did a lot of stuff right and a fair amount of stuff wrong. It also did some new stuff. Case in point, the opening vignettes. We all agree that it's a good idea that could stand to be better implemented. So let's discuss how to do this.
One of the main problems with the vignettes, I think, is that they're linked to alignment regardless of what's inside them. For instance, the chaotic good vignette has you recieving a mission from an elven nation to rescue elven nobles from the Temple (or Moathouse, can't remember). But what if your chaotic good party is composed of dwarves? Why should a bunch of dwarves care about some stinky elf nobles? Granted, your dwarves might be all friendly with the elves, but nonetheless: more than alignment needs to be considered. I think racial vignettes are a must. Class-based ones, too. Outside of the D&D context, that means that all aspects of a character's background (race, class or character build, place of origin, etc.) should be considered when selecting an opening vignette. In ToEE's vignettes, you start as, for example, a party who comes across a caravan that's been attacked. You rush to its aid and get sent off to Hommlet afterwards. Well, okay, fine, but why was I going by that caravan in the first place? ToEE's vignettes just seem to set the "so... why am I here anyways?" question back one step. But if the game cared that my character was a dwarven priest of Moradin from (making something up) Hammerdown, then it could have him start in the Hammerdown Temple of Moradin when something gets him moving onto the main plot. It could be something as simple as the high priest telling me to bugger off to Hommlet and bust some bandit head.
"Fine," you say. "That's all well and good for our priest of Moradin, but what about the rest of the party? Where do they come from?" That's where it gets trickier. It's probable that ToEE's party-based nature is what made the vignettes come out as they did. And that's one reason why I dislike party based games versus games where you only create your own player character. Only focusing on one PC and having the others come along later allows for the specific focus and good vignette of which there is an example thereof.
So, thus far, we have two suggestions:
One of the main problems with the vignettes, I think, is that they're linked to alignment regardless of what's inside them. For instance, the chaotic good vignette has you recieving a mission from an elven nation to rescue elven nobles from the Temple (or Moathouse, can't remember). But what if your chaotic good party is composed of dwarves? Why should a bunch of dwarves care about some stinky elf nobles? Granted, your dwarves might be all friendly with the elves, but nonetheless: more than alignment needs to be considered. I think racial vignettes are a must. Class-based ones, too. Outside of the D&D context, that means that all aspects of a character's background (race, class or character build, place of origin, etc.) should be considered when selecting an opening vignette. In ToEE's vignettes, you start as, for example, a party who comes across a caravan that's been attacked. You rush to its aid and get sent off to Hommlet afterwards. Well, okay, fine, but why was I going by that caravan in the first place? ToEE's vignettes just seem to set the "so... why am I here anyways?" question back one step. But if the game cared that my character was a dwarven priest of Moradin from (making something up) Hammerdown, then it could have him start in the Hammerdown Temple of Moradin when something gets him moving onto the main plot. It could be something as simple as the high priest telling me to bugger off to Hommlet and bust some bandit head.
"Fine," you say. "That's all well and good for our priest of Moradin, but what about the rest of the party? Where do they come from?" That's where it gets trickier. It's probable that ToEE's party-based nature is what made the vignettes come out as they did. And that's one reason why I dislike party based games versus games where you only create your own player character. Only focusing on one PC and having the others come along later allows for the specific focus and good vignette of which there is an example thereof.
So, thus far, we have two suggestions:
- Consider all aspects of the character's background
- Focus on one character