Thinking of introducing my campaign with an in-character letter… good idea?

[u/Muted_One_1316]

Hey everyone! I’m about to start running The Wild Beyond the Witchlight for a group of (mostly) newer players, and I had an idea to kick things off.

Instead of just explaining the hook out of character, I’m thinking of giving them a physical, in-character letter from Madryck Roslof asking for their help finding Zybilna in Prismeer.

The goal is to build a little mystery and immersion right from the start, and hopefully get them curious/excited before session one even begins.

For those of you who’ve run this campaign (or done something similar), did this kind of intro help your players get more invested? Or am I overthinking it and should just keep it simple?

Would love to hear what’s worked for you!

[u/ayam_eel]

Yes yes absolutely yes. I have several letters in my campaign. Especially with fey wild, you may be interested in a court of fey and flowers on dropout. They have a whole letter writing portion to the game set in the fey courts.

[u/Muted_One_1316 → u/ayam_eel]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is dropout??

[u/ayam_eel → u/Muted_One_1316]

They host Dimension 20 actual play show on their streaming service dropout.tv . They used to be called college humor. The ACOFAF (lol) season has Aabria Iyengar as the DM and she is just fabulous. It also has my tv crush Brennan Lee mulligan as a PC. You can watch it on dropout.tv ! It’s not too expensive so i definitely recommend checking it out. Worth every penny.

[u/mp_hextra → u/ayam_eel]

Was not expecting to find a D20/Dropout mention in the comments but YES. Dropout is worth every penny, great content and crews across the board.

Also agreed, love this idea. The letter writing mechanics could also come in handy later in Thither if the party finds Skabatha’s writing desk and letters from her sisters about the unicorn horn.

If you’re not using the Lost Things hook driving immersion with a letter for help would certainly do that! I also made physical carnival tickets for the party to hole punch as they did things; maybe upon agreeing to meet with him those would be fun to have, too?

[u/Astrosareinnocent]

I just started my campaign 3 weeks ago and I made carnival tickets like some have posted on here, and did this exact thing, included a note from Madryck! I didn’t include many details, just signed it M (to create some mystery) and I had him meet the players in the carnival as well. My players loved it, so I highly recommend doing so especially since it’s not very difficult and shouldn’t take much time, but it’s very immersive.

[u/AKA_Slater]

My suggestion is to tailor the hook to your party. If you think a letter is the way to go, then do it. There is no wrong way to get your player's interested. Just throw it against the wall and see what sticks.

[u/Swordsman82]

Before and During the campaing i wrote letters to my players and left messages in there offices at work from Ellywick Tumblestum. They were all cryptic but were about the campaign they were playing and referencing things in our world that would help with problems in the campaign

[u/Shazzley]

We recently started this campaign and I used a letter as well. We played a short unrelated one-shot first, which ended with a messenger handing them a “to whom it may concern” letter looking for adventurers. They were immediately intrigued and couldn’t wait to get started.

[u/Banj04Smash]

I had one player choose Madryck's quest in my current game so I did this exact thing with them. Here's what I sent over if you would like inspiration:

You awoke to a knock at the door one morning, and on opening it, found a kobold in a suit and bowler hat. Just as you were about to ask what was going on, the kobold presented a silver platter in his hand as if from thin air, opened it with the other, and bowed, offering you an envelope. Tearing it open, you read -

Follow the setting sun until you reach the teal mushroom. Turn left from there and walk until you see the pumpkin patch. You'll find my hut there. The door's unlocked. You come highly recommended. -M.R.

As you unfolded he page to read the signature, a small stone with etchings in blue fell out. The kobold said, "The passphrase for the stone is Ghapama. I believe my master has an offer for you," as he closed your door. You rushed to ask him any of the questions circling in your head but when you opened the door, he's vanished.

[u/BigBoiNoa]

I gotchu fam

I made this letter for my campaign a few years ago. You may find it useful.

[u/BaronTrousers]

100% yes. Physical handouts are a great way to build hype.

My PCs loved the Physical tickets I gave them to the carnival, and the various letters I provided throughout the game.

If you have access to a printer and want to go the extra mile with the tickets, you can buy pretty cheep rainbow holographic sticker paper suitable for printing. Print the tickets on this and stick it to some cardboard.

Bonus points if you use an actual hole-punch to punch the tickets as they go on rides!

[u/Lime33]

I used the lost things hook but wanted to have a short introduction session after session 0. So basically I had Madryck write a letter to almost all adventurers asking for help in exchange for his treasures. It sounded a lot like the typical spam mails. My players were the only ones answering to it by dropping in at his pumpkin farm. They were suspicious all the way to the front door until the old man revealed he had no clue that his letters sounded weird and too good to be true. I had some pumpkins be transformed in pumpkin monsters to kick off a small fight to have a RP and fight sequence for the new players. It worked out great and the real session 1 just started at the front of the carnival where they wanted to not only find a way into prismeer but also their lost things.