Here's an open question for you guys. When you're starting new PCs in a campaign, especially for a fantasy/sci-fi setting with a different geography than the earth, do you prefer to have the PCs be native to the campaign starting area, or travelers from somewhere else? What do you see as the ups or downs of either approach?

Generally I prefer to have the PCs be new to the area so that they learn about their environs along with the players; other side of the coin is it asks some questions about the other parts of the world where the PCs come from, which can be a good opportunity or extra work depending on how you look at it.

I'm cool either way.  Although, I would prefer at least one PC to come from the starting geographical area as a way of mouth-piecing information about the local area; i.e., when the characters decide to speak to the old hermit outside the village, I can say to the native PC, "your character knows that old man Banger is a loony as a bat's penis."

I guess it makes more sense to make starting characters newcomers, to be able to discover the area from your character's eyes, though I do fancy playing people who are natives once I get familiar with the setting and want to play other characters and/or my original PC dies in the course of the game.

Quote from: Drohem;458445"your character knows that old man Banger is a loony as a bat's penis."

Wait til the specialist shows up to inspect said bat penis. Hey, Ron! How's it going, man? How's the brain damage doing these days?

Quote from: Drohem;458445I'm cool either way.  Although, I would prefer at least one PC to come from the starting geographical area as a way of mouth-piecing information about the local area; i.e., when the characters decide to speak to the old hermit outside the village, I can say to the native PC, "your character knows that old man Banger is a loony as a bat's penis."

Hm. But might it not be more fun to have the players discover information like that as a surprise?

Quote from: Cole;458468Hm. But might it not be more fun to have the players discover information like that as a surprise?

Sure, that was just an example.

I guess what I am getting at is that I would like there to be at least one element of the group that is tied to, and somewhat familiar, with the starting area, cultural norms, and people.

Quote from: Drohem;458470I guess what I am getting at is that I would like there to be at least one element of the group that is tied to, and somewhat familiar, with the starting area, cultural norms, and people.

Here's another question for you guys - does your preference change depending on how exotic the setting is?

Quote from: Cole;458473Here's another question for you guys - does your preference change depending on how exotic the setting is?

Not really, no. Or ... maybe the reverse? I mean, if we're talking truly exotic settings like Tékumel or Talislanta or whatnot, then it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to play a native character right off the bat and reading some stuff about the setting to at least have an idea what you're doing, because pretty much everyone at the game table will have no idea what's going on anyways. See what I mean?

Depends partially on the campaign.

When I ran Forgotten Realms, for instance, I had one player who was a fan of the setting...so he was all about Cormyr, King Azoun, etc. (he was a Paladin in service to Azoun)...everyone else? I basically fed them relevant information as they needed it and they took the rest in stride.

I've done them both, in the same setting even. When AD&D was around, I did Ravenloft in the way it seemed it was set up to do - by yanking the characters in for a good scary time, then flinging them back across the Mists to where their girlfriend was yelling about them missing her birthday.  Then when Third Edition came out I did what that one focused on, having characters from Ravenloft adventuring in Ravenloft.  It was a little bit more claustrophobic, since they had no expectation that when the adventure was over they would be going home.  Also I was able to make their brother into a zombie and have their best friend secretly be a cannibal harpy (in addition to humans she ate other harpies). Very memorable. Natives can be tied to the setting in ways that visitors can't be.  But visitors feel free-r to experiment and explore around, and to upend the apple cart, since they don't have to worry about the long term consequences.

It depends on how well the PCs know the setting. In the Moragne game starting next week, the PCs are native to Moragne, but not to the area the campaign starts in, so I put together a primer for them on Moragne that covers the basics but they start off with minimal info about the actual location.

Primer's is here so you can see what I mean.

Quote from: JDCorley;458511I've done them both, in the same setting even. When AD&D was around, I did Ravenloft in the way it seemed it was set up to do - by yanking the characters in for a good scary time, then flinging them back across the Mists to where their girlfriend was yelling about them missing her birthday.  Then when Third Edition came out I did what that one focused on, having characters from Ravenloft adventuring in Ravenloft.  It was a little bit more claustrophobic, since they had no expectation that when the adventure was over they would be going home.  Also I was able to make their brother into a zombie and have their best friend secretly be a cannibal harpy (in addition to humans she ate other harpies). Very memorable. Natives can be tied to the setting in ways that visitors can't be.  But visitors feel free-r to experiment and explore around, and to upend the apple cart, since they don't have to worry about the long term consequences.

That's yet another factor - whether they are native to the setting as a whole or just the locale. The last thing I ran something comparable to Ravenloft, all of the PCs came from quite disparate worlds.

For a couple years now I've been giving some thought to running the PCs as sort of psychic/dream visitors to an otherwise straightforward fantasy setting ala the Dreamlands or (loosely) Worm Ouroboros. I thought it might be interesting if instead of being from the modern world though, if they were basically historical knights and monks and so on in their "real" lives.

If the setting is really weird and the players don't know it, the best way to start the campaign is with them as visitors. If everyone is familiar with the setting, I think starting as natives makes more sense, since they won't have players knowing stuff that a visitor wouldn't know.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;458512It depends on how well the PCs know the setting. In the Moragne game starting next week, the PCs are native to Moragne, but not to the area the campaign starts in, so I put together a primer for them on Moragne that covers the basics but they start off with minimal info about the actual location.

Primer's is here so you can see what I mean.

How long would the PCs have been in the campaign area at start? Long enough to start finding their place or fresh off the boat, as it were?

Quote from: Cole;458518How long would the PCs have been in the campaign area at start? Long enough to start finding their place or fresh off the boat, as it were?

I'm getting detailed backgrounds from them this week, so I'll make the judgment then, but my inclination is FOB since they're wandering knights. I've got hooks for them starting from day 1 they're in town.