Few weeks ago we played an UW one-shot and it was awesome. So now we are going to start a campaign and, as the Jump Point provided in the book worked so well, I’m going to prepare my own Jump Point (or snatch one already made Jump Point if I can find one)
I have an idea, but I’m unsure if it will be good enough. If you please can help me with suggestions and more prompting I would appreciate.
The Heist.
This story starts when an infiltration to recover something from a restricted access place goes the hard way. (My first idea was to start with the preparation of the infiltration, but if we need to start with a blast, this will be a better moment. What do you think?)
Prompting:
To the hacker/technical guy: You are monitoring the system that you gained full access into. You notice someone trying to gain access. Which part of the system is this guy trying to access? What do you do?
To the least combat/infiltration character (maybe the medic, or the bureaucrat..): You are inside the most restricted area, quite close to where your goal is guarded. Only one last known challenge ahead and you will reach your goal. What is between you and your goal that prevents you from reaching it and that made vital for you to be here, as you are the only one that can go through?
To the driver: You are in the vehicle, waiting outside of the place with your sight on the exit door. What does this place looks like? Which faction symbol is on the walls. what about the surroundings?
again to the driver: A vehicle approaches the place, stops close to the entrance and the doors open. Which unexpected and important person comes down of the vehicle? You and this person know each other very well, what is your past with this person? What are your feelings for this person? What do you do?
With this unexpected visit, plus the seed for a complication planted with the interface access above, I expect things to go hard, to raise an alarm or something like that that makes the going out difficult.
Prompting that still needs to find a place:
Who or what is what you came here to recover?
How did you discover this place?
And still need more prompting for what comes after.
Definitely start with the action, not the planning.
To help starting in media res, make a ‘when you describe a flashback to the heist planning’ move that decides how well the plan works out. Use the combat moves as an example.
If for some reason you don’t want to start with the action, at least start with the escape or the aftermath. Starting campaigns works much better if it starts with a “Yuri punches you in the face… Why?” rather than “You see a man you know, named Yuri, sitting at a table. What do you do?”
I really like the Yuri punches you in the face, explain why!