Here are some useful opening scenario stuff that I've used in the past.
(By publishing it here, where the members of my current party can see it,
I'll be encouraged not to reuse it.)
"You wake up. It's dark, and VERY cramped and stuffy, and there's somebody's
elbow in your back and a knee in your face. Feeling about with your free hand,
you confirm--YES! You and your party are inside a shipping crate!"
"The sun in your eyes is glaringly bright. You feel like you've been kicked
through a wall. There's a salty taste in your mouth, and you're covered with
sand and seaweed. You dimly hear the crash of nearby waves. All you can recall
is this horrible dream about a really ROUGH water landing...."
"There's blood on your hands and mouth, you have no idea where the hell you
are, and in the distance you hear a crowd of angry voices screaming, "FIND
THE MONSTER! KILL IT! BURN IT!" (OK, that wasn't Traveller... it was an opener
for an obnoxious teenager in an old fantasy campaign who "wanted to run a
lycanthrope oh please please pleeeeeeze...." So I rolled up a perfectly normal
character. "But what about being a Lycnathrope?" "Oh, you mean your weird
fainting spells on nights when there's a full moon?" |-> )
On a somewhat more staid note:
"The flash in the sky is horrible in its stark whiteness. Moments later, there
is a wailing siren across the Starport. People begin to run every which way;
there's been an accident of some kind at the High Port, and they may need help
up there! What do you do?"
"The dancer wheels closer and closer to you as the song builds to a climax.
She is writhing, undulating, her flimsy gown soaked in sweat... a lovely
sight, it it weren't for that ceremonial sword she keeps waving around...."
And then there are these opening lines:
"Here's another one that's still alive, Pa! Better bring the axe!"
"Pardon me, would you please hold this? Thanks!" (a smoking grenade)
"Engine room reporting. We seem to, er, have a problem."
"Have you heard the Word, Brother?"
or the ever-useful
"Man, what a party that was last night--hey, WHO are YOU?!"
|->
metlay