| SonOfSteel |
Hi, I'm just about to start an adventure with a group of people (My first time GM'ing for them) and I was thinking of doing something a bit different from the normal 'you meet in a tavern' introduction.
I was thinking I might have them all hired by a noble to form a group tasked to go around and deal with problems around the kingdom (and the noble is secretly trying to take over the kingdom but thats beside the point) and I want to make up scrolls that I print out and physically hand to the players when a messenger delivers it in game inviting them to the nobles house and I am struggling with the wording.
This is what I have so far (p.s we are starting at 4th level)
Greetings “Insert Name”
Your skills have been noticed
I am interested in hiring you for special group I am
putting together and require your attendance at my
manor 3 days hence at the hour of noon
Signed Lord secret bad guy
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make that sound better? Has anyone done anything similar?
| The Sideromancer |
A few things to note:
Firstly, your prospective employer may not be looking for all classes (As likely LE, he probably won't hire a Paladin).
Secondly, they would probably select a more conventional party over a less conventional one.
Thirdly, many NPCs might react to them based on their employer.
You should probably mention what the PCs skills of interest are.
| RuyanVe |
I created something similar for my Kingmaker game, but I'm away from books, unfortunately...
I would write it in a more flamboyant way:
His greatness, Lord "Whateverbehisname III" sends you his greetings, "hero"!
Apperantly, thou are blessed with exceptionell skills at "hero's speciality" which have been brought to our attendance.
Therefore, it is His utmost pleasure to invite you to "Castle Falkenstein" where thou willst meet other individuals complementing your capabilities in a favorable fashion.
Your attendance is required three days hence at the hour of noon.
Signature
Maybe even more so using dost's, thous's, willst's etc.
Ruyan.
| The Sideromancer |
I created something similar for my Kingmaker game, but I'm away from books, unfortunately...
I would write it in a more flamboyant way:
His greatness, Lord "Whateverbehisname III" sends you his greetings, "hero"!
Apperantly, thou are blessed with exceptionell skills at "hero's speciality" which have been brought to our attendance.
Therefore, it is His utmost pleasure to invite you to "Castle Falkenstein" where thou willst meet other individuals complementing your capabilities in a favorable fashion.
Your attendance is required three days hence at the hour of noon.
Signature
Maybe even more so using dost's, thous's, willst's etc.
Ruyan.
As a language nerd, I'd avoid "thou" as its equivalents are replaced by those of "you" when being formal.
| Fuzzy-Wuzzy |
Not that you asked about this, but make sure all their characters' motivations include something to get them to probably take the invitation to go and the further invitation to be on the troubleshooting team. Needing or just wanting large sums of money typically suffices, or they could be loyal to the kingdom (hence want to solve its problems), or whatever. You want to avoid having any of the players decide that what their character would do is decline the invitations, or you'll wish you'd used the tavern.
| Derklord |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Maybe even more so using dost's, thous's, willst's etc.
Using those forms means that the Lord wants to convey that he sees the hero as below him. While that was basically the norm for lords to address others, I don't think that's intended in this case. Thou et al. are the informal forms. Every time you'd addresssomeone with "sir", "mister" or something similar, you must use the formal form (i.e. "you").
| JulianW |
I would recommend getting the players to each describe what they did that would have been noticed by the lord or otherwise got onto his list of invitees.
Something that would make them noteworthy but only in comparsion to other low level types
e.g.
1) the young swashbuckler new in town and keen to make a rep got into a duel with and beat a more famous local duelist.
2) farmboy who got famous for his part in defending his village from orc raiders (perhaps the local militia were called up to fight next to a few of the lord's troops)
3) a cleric or monk selected by your abbot when the lord asked him to recommend a promising acolyte. Maybe you are genuinely a bright student, maybe just your abbot wants to get rid of you
4) newly knighted offspring of a different noble family, included as a favour to them. (Secretly the lord both gets to suck up to them by supposedly 'honouring' their progney while at the same time not care if they get killed off.)
5) You aren't famous at all really, but you are a drinking buddy of the guard captain, who may have embellished stories about how handy you were in a bar brawl to help you land a job.
6) You are famous for killing the ferocious beast that stalked the woods around your village. Actually it was more a lot more luck than skill, maybe a lucky crit when firing an arrow in blind panic. But now you're loving all the attention & free drinks that come with being a hero.
I'd actively encourage some of the party to go for ones that make them a bit of a fraud to start with, but that they are hoping to fake it until they make it - they will be busy trying not to be found out themselves and it has a lovely symmetry with the big plot.