Preludes are essentially a short session dedicated to roleplaying out the backstory of a character prior to the beginning of the official game. It is primarily used White Wolf games where the Game Master (GM) or Storyteller runs through several scenes for each character to determine how they got to the current point. But you might use it in any game where the characters' have some backstory. It gives the players a chance to get use to their characters and the rules before there is any threat of permanent harm to the character.
I find it to be a useful tool for getting into the mind of each character, learning their personality and inclinations, as well as fleshing out their past. The other aspect I like is there is an explicit lack of risk involved. Your character can't die before the game so you are free to check out the haunted house on your own, chase that mysterious wolf, or jump across roof tops to escape vampires. This also makes it handy for explaining the combat rules.
In planning the preludes, I saw I had a large cast of characters and the potential for some bored players. These were important factors in determine what scene we would focus on and how to handle them. I now had 5 players with diverse characters:
I find it to be a useful tool for getting into the mind of each character, learning their personality and inclinations, as well as fleshing out their past. The other aspect I like is there is an explicit lack of risk involved. Your character can't die before the game so you are free to check out the haunted house on your own, chase that mysterious wolf, or jump across roof tops to escape vampires. This also makes it handy for explaining the combat rules.
In planning the preludes, I saw I had a large cast of characters and the potential for some bored players. These were important factors in determine what scene we would focus on and how to handle them. I now had 5 players with diverse characters:
- Lillian Shaw, an ex-police officer turned famous detective
- Robert Mill, a jack of all trades and former office assistant, turned detective
- Vito, an ex-Seal sniper who saw too much on a mission gone bad
- Dr. Trevor Sorenson, a psychiatrist trying to take down the evil corporation
- and a last minute addition whose character might be a former crime scene investigator
I needed to highlight each one’s past while at the same time keeping everyone entertained. Balancing these would require some work, even ignoring the issue that one of the players hadn't even given me his character sheet yet.
Looking over the information I did have, there were several key scenes I needed to include:
Job Interviews: Vito, Robert, and possibly the new character were employees of the firm (now named One of a Kind Investigations). As such I wanted to run through the job interviews to remind them of this. In particular I wanted to have Shaw do some of the interviews to reinforce the fact that she owns the company.
Frank: I also wanted to do a scene where we saw Frank, the company's founder, prior to the incident that claimed his sanity and memory. This would serve to highlight what was lost and motivate the group to pursue the supernatural forces behind this. In actual play we ran low on time and I had to cut this, but I hope to run several flashbacks to cover this aspect of the chronicle.
Turning Points: There were also several tent pole events that changed the course of each character's life. There was the psychiatrist finding out about the inhuman experiments his company, Verdant Technologies, was up to; the last mission where Vito saw his team torn apart by monsters, Shaw's rescue of a kidnapped child that propelled her to fame, as well as the firm's first brush with supernatural.
The Message: One final scene I wanted to include was the introduction of a mystery informant, a Deep Throat, who passed along clues to the greater mystery of the chronicle. This character would send them cryptic messages that would lead them to strange phenomena. Identifying who or what this informant is will be an important part of the chronicle.
Lastly I had a few other concerns I wanted to address. I had several players who were new to the new World of Darkness and I wanted to make sure they knew the rules.
My solution to this issue and the concern about spending time on other characters was to expand the scenes with Vito in Afghanistan. The other players were given simplified character sheets for other characters on his squad, the ones who either died or went insane. This allowed all of us to participate as well as experiment with the system and the new madness rules.
I also allowed players to jump in and play minor characters in other character's preludes. This happened quite a bit in Trevor's prelude as he interacted with his colleagues at work and had a run in with a security guard.
In practice this worked very well. The players were able to become comfortable with the rules as well learn the house rules on madness. Everyone had a lot of fun. We learned how the character's came together and how they interacted. Playing with the madness rules and seeing what experiences they had also gave us the ability to gauge how Hardened the characters were to different stresses.
All in all, the prelude session was a great success.
Looking over the information I did have, there were several key scenes I needed to include:
Job Interviews: Vito, Robert, and possibly the new character were employees of the firm (now named One of a Kind Investigations). As such I wanted to run through the job interviews to remind them of this. In particular I wanted to have Shaw do some of the interviews to reinforce the fact that she owns the company.
Frank: I also wanted to do a scene where we saw Frank, the company's founder, prior to the incident that claimed his sanity and memory. This would serve to highlight what was lost and motivate the group to pursue the supernatural forces behind this. In actual play we ran low on time and I had to cut this, but I hope to run several flashbacks to cover this aspect of the chronicle.
The Message: One final scene I wanted to include was the introduction of a mystery informant, a Deep Throat, who passed along clues to the greater mystery of the chronicle. This character would send them cryptic messages that would lead them to strange phenomena. Identifying who or what this informant is will be an important part of the chronicle.
My solution to this issue and the concern about spending time on other characters was to expand the scenes with Vito in Afghanistan. The other players were given simplified character sheets for other characters on his squad, the ones who either died or went insane. This allowed all of us to participate as well as experiment with the system and the new madness rules.
I also allowed players to jump in and play minor characters in other character's preludes. This happened quite a bit in Trevor's prelude as he interacted with his colleagues at work and had a run in with a security guard.
In practice this worked very well. The players were able to become comfortable with the rules as well learn the house rules on madness. Everyone had a lot of fun. We learned how the character's came together and how they interacted. Playing with the madness rules and seeing what experiences they had also gave us the ability to gauge how Hardened the characters were to different stresses.
All in all, the prelude session was a great success.
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