Pitch Session

I don't want to share too many details regarding the "event" that the game will center around, but I do have something that I want to run by you.  The first session will be about character building, and to make it a little more interesting I want to borrow a character creation exercise from another role playing game and use it for our game.

I can't recall the game that I am borrowing this from but it went something like this.  The game is set during World War II, and it begins on the beaches during the D-Day invasion.  Each player starts with a blank character sheet as the landing craft doors drop and their company of soldiers hits the beach.  The GM barrages the character with enemy fire and the players scramble to find cover and advance up the beach.  As they trudge through the surf they watch their comrades get cut down and blown apart.  The GM stops the action occasionally when someone near them is killed spectacularly, or if the players get pinned down, or shot, or get smashed with waves to give the player an opportunity to narrate a 'flashback.'

Each flashback relates to what is happening around the player, maybe the flashback is about a memory they had of someone they are watching die, or maybe the player is shot and they begin to remember their family or a loved one back home.  The flashbacks shape the character and help to define skills they have, or the aspects they have.  The players knows that their character will survive the initial invasion, but the action makes for an gut wrenching opening sequence, and inspires them to really get into character.

Our game will not be set in World War II, nor will you be soldiers in a war, but I have always wanted to use this character creation mechanic to kick off a game.  I think it would be cool to have your characters pulled from their normal day and thrown into this assassination plot head-on.  I want this game to begin with a shock.  I want to create an atmosphere like that of what people felt the afternoon they learned JFK was shot and killed, or like the morning the national woke up to watch the twin towers fall on 911.  Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when these events happened.  I want to work with that dynamic, I want your characters to be jarred at the onset of this news.

Your characters will be called to serve the nation immediately.  They won't be prepared for the task (just like the men who hit the beaches on D-Day).  Your character will need to drop everything, follow instructions, and report for duty.  You will need to get to the nearest airport, and get on a plane.  Along the way you will get snippets of what has occurred through radio, television, people, and your mobile devices.   Security at the airport will be a problem, and you can expect to be detained and questioned.  You will need to explain yourself to the TSA.  The questioning by the TSA will mirror storming the beaches on D-Day.  They are going to ask who you are, and where you are headed.  They aren't going to believe you due to the recent events surrounding your intended destination, and the recent events.  It is my hope that you can build your characters through the interrogation process.  You can use flashbacks, you can use details from your character life, you can use official documents, you can name-drop your superiors names and agency affiliations to help you get through and get on the plane before it leaves you behind.

Just like the D-Day invasion, you know that your character will make their flight, but your character doesn't know that.  It will be difficult to get through, you will need to provide a clear description of who you are and what your orders are to successfully get past security.  Remember you are FBI agents, and you work on a secret program that you are not at liberty to discuss.  At the same time you need to explain yourself and get past the security check.  The TSA is going to be hard on you, they aren't going to believe you, they will identify you as a threat, you job will be explain your way out of the situation.


The goal of this conflict will be to introduce your character to me.  It won't be about your skill set, it will be more about your identity.  It will be an exercise that will get you into character and back into the swing of role playing.

Continue to think about skills and aspects, but also focus on making your character a real person with a past.

You might think that this is difficult to deal with since I haven't told you any of the particulars about where you are headed or what exactly has happened yet, but that's sort of the point.  I want you and your character to be on the same playing field when we start this game.  I want to surprise and confuse you.  I want to take your character through the transition from being a civilian who gets their information from the news media and hear-say, to a government agent who is working intimately with classified and sensitive information.  If I can do that, I think the game will have much more power and impact.

I want this game to be about what happens behind the scenes with our government.  I don't want it to be a conspiracy (unless you want it to become one),  I want to explore the roles of the people who know more than 99% of Americans, and I want to explore how difficult it really must be to know the whole frightening truth.  One of the roles of the government is to protect its citizens and it's not an easy job.  You will be one those protectors - I want to see how far our public servants can go to protect the American people.